For tomorrow's 10 am bible study on creation sabbath spirituality, being held in the community kitchengardenorchard miracle among the ruins park we are creating at 6005 N. Johnstown Ave., I am going to be using this translation from Everett Fox of Genesis 1-2:4a, otherwise known as the first creation story but the last genesis one composed, and of Exodus chapter 16; what do creation and sabbath have in common, and how are they ways we focus on living justly, in liberation solidarity with those most vulnerable, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God? feel free to stop by and join in and for our communion in the garden and our common meal.
Here is the Fox translation of these passages from The First Five Books of Moses. Fox is a Hebrew bible scholar; I like his poetic scholarly approach.
Genesis
Chapter 1
Genesis 1:1 At the beginning of God's creating of the heavens and the earth,
Genesis 1:2 when the earth was wild and waste, darkness over the face of Ocean, rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters-
Genesis 1:3 God said: Let there be light! And there was light.
Genesis 1:4 God saw the light: that it was good. God separated the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:5 God called the light: Day! and the darkness he called: Night! There was setting, there was dawning: one day.
Genesis 1:6 God said: Let there be a dome amid the waters, and let it separate waters from waters!
Genesis 1:7 God made the dome and separated the waters that were below the dome from the waters that were above the dome. It was so.
Genesis 1:8 God called the dome: Heaven! There was setting, there was dawning: second day.
Genesis 1:9 God said: Let the waters under the heavens be gathered to one place, and let the dry land be seen! It was so.
Genesis 1:10 God called the dry land: Earth! and the gathering of the waters he called: Seas! God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:11 God said: Let the earth sprout forth with sprouting-growth, plants that seed forth seeds, fruit trees that yield fruit, after their kind, (and) in which is their seed, upon the earth! It was so.
Genesis 1:12 The earth brought forth sprouting-growth, plants that seed forth seeds, after their kind, trees that yield fruit, in which is their seed, after their kind. God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:13 There was setting, there was dawning: third day.
Genesis 1:14 God said: Let there be lights in the dome of the heavens, to separate the day from the night, that they may be for signs-for set-times, for days and years,
Genesis 1:15 and let them be for lights in the dome of the heavens, to provide light upon the earth! It was so.
Genesis 1:16 God made the two great lights, the greater light for ruling the day and the smaller light for ruling the night, and the stars.
Genesis 1:17 God placed them in the dome of the heavens
Genesis 1:18 to provide light upon the earth, to rule the day and the night, to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:19 There was setting, there was dawning: fourth day.
Genesis 1:20 God said: Let the waters swarm with a swarm of living beings, and let fowl fly above the earth, across the dome of the heavens!
Genesis 1:21 God created the great sea-serpents and all living beings that crawl about, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and all winged fowl after their kind. God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:22 And God blessed them, saying: Bear fruit and be many and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl be many on earth!
Genesis 1:23 There was setting, there was dawning: fifth day.
Genesis 1:24 God said: Let the earth bring forth living beings after their kind, herd-animals, crawling things, and the wildlife of the earth after their kind! It was so.
Genesis 1:25 God made the wildlife of the earth after their kind, and the herd-animals after their kind, and all crawling things of the soil after their kind. God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:26 God said: Let us make humankind, in our image, according to our likeness! Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the heavens, animals, all the earth, and all crawling things that crawl about upon the earth!
Genesis 1:27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God did he create it, male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:28 God blessed them, God said to them: Bear fruit and be many and fill the earth and subdue it! Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the heavens, and all living things that crawl about upon the earth!
Genesis 1:29 God said: Here, I give you all plants that bear seeds that are upon the face of all the earth, and all trees in which there is tree fruit that bears seeds, for you shall they be, for eating;
Genesis 1:30 and also for all the living things of the earth, for all the fowl of the heavens, for all that crawls about upon the earth in which there is living being- all green plants for eating. It was so.
Genesis 1:31 Now God saw all that he had made, and here: it was exceedingly good! There was setting, there was dawning: the sixth day.
Chapter 2
Genesis 2:1 Thus were finished the heavens and the earth, with all of their array.
Genesis 2:2 God had finished, on the seventh day, his work that he had made, and then he ceased, on the seventh day, from all his work that he had made.
Genesis 2:3 God gave the seventh day his blessing, and he hallowed it, for on it he ceased from all his work, that by creating, God had made.
Genesis 2:4 These are the begettings of the heavens and the earth: their being created.
They moved on from Elim, and they came, the entire community of the Children of Israel, to the Wilderness of Syn, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day after the second New-moon after their going-out from the land of Egypt.
Exodus 16:2 And they grumbled, the entire community of the Children of Israel, against Moshe and against Aharon in the wilderness.
Exodus 16:3 The Children of Israel said to them: Would that we had died by the hand of YHVH in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, when we ate bread till (we were) satisfied! For you have brought us into this wilderness to bring death to this whole assembly by starvation!
Exodus 16:4 YHVH said to Moshe: Here, I will make rain down upon you bread from the heavens, the people shall go out and glean, each day's amount in its day, in order that I may test them, whether they
will walk according to my Instruction or not.
Exodus 16:5 But it shall be on the sixth day: when they prepare what they have brought in, it shall be a double-portion compared to what they glean day after day.
Exodus 16:6 Moshe and Aharon said to all the Children of Israel: At sunset you will know that it is YHVH who brought you out of the land of Egypt;
Exodus 16:7 at daybreak you will see the Glory of YHVH: when he hearkens to your grumblings against YHVH- what are we, that you grumble against us?
Exodus 16:8 Moshe said: Since YHVH gives you flesh to eat at sunset, and at daybreak, bread to satisfy (yourselves); since YHVH hearkens to your grumblings which you grumble against him- what are we: not against us are your grumblings, but against YHVH!
Exodus 16:9 Moshe said to Aharon: Say to the entire community of the Children of Israel: Come-near, in the presence of YHVH, for he has hearkened to your grumblings!
Exodus 16:10 Now it was, when Aharon spoke to the entire community of the Children of Israel, they faced the wilderness, and here: the Glory of YHVH could be seen in the cloud.
Exodus 16:11 YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying:
Exodus 16:12 I have hearkened to the grumblings of the Children of Israel- speak to them, and say: Between the setting-times you shall eat flesh, and at daybreak you shall be satisfied with bread, and you shall know that I am YHVH your God.
Exodus 16:13 Now it was at sunset a horde-of-quail came up and covered the camp. And at daybreak there was a layer of dew around the camp;
Exodus 16:14 and when the layer of dew went up, here, upon the surface of the wilderness, something fine, scaly, fine as hoar-frost upon the land.
Exodus 16:15 When the Children of Israel saw it they said each-man to his brother: Mahn hu/what is it? For they did not know what it was. Moshe said to them: It is the bread that YHVH has given you for eating.
Exodus 16:16 This is the word that YHVH has commanded: Glean from it, each-man according to what he can eat, an omer per capita, according to the number of your persons, each-man, for those in his tent, you are to take.
Exodus 16:17 The Children of Israel did thus, they gleaned, the-one-more and the-one-less,
Exodus 16:18 but when they measured by the omer, no surplus had the-one-more, and the-one-less had no shortage; each-man had gleaned according to what he could eat.
Exodus 16:19 Moshe said to them: No man shall leave any of it until morning.
Exodus 16:20 But they did not hearken to Moshe, and (several) men left some of it until morning; it became wormy with maggots and reeked. And Moshe became furious with them.
Exodus 16:21 They gleaned it in the morning, (every) morning, each-man in accordance with what he could eat, but when the sun heated up, it melted.
Exodus 16:22 Now it was on the sixth day that they gleaned a double-portion of bread, two omers for (each) one. All the exalted-leaders of the community came and told it to Moshe.
Exodus 16:23 He said to them: It is what YHVH spoke about: tomorrow is a Sabbath/Ceasing, a Sabbath of Holiness for YHVH. Whatever you wish to bake-bake, and whatever you wish to boil-boil; and all the surplus, put aside for yourselves in safekeeping until morning.
Exodus 16:24 They put it aside until morning, as Moshe had commanded, and it did not reek, neither were there any maggots in it.
Exodus 16:25 Moshe said: Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath for YHVH, today you will not find it in the field.
Exodus 16:26 For six days you are to glean, but on the seventh day is Sabbath, there will not be (any) on it.
Exodus 16:27 But it was on the seventh day that some of the people went out to glean, and they did not find.
Exodus 16:28 YHVH said to Moshe: Until when will you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions?
Exodus 16:29 (You) see that YHVH has given you the Sabbath, therefore on the sixth day, he gives you
bread for two days. Stay, each-man, in his spot; no man shall go out from his place on the seventh day!
Exodus 16:30 So the people ceased on the seventh day.
Exodus 16:31 Now the House of Israel called its name: Mahn. -It is like coriander seed, whitish, and its taste is like (that of) a wafer with honey.-
Exodus 16:32 Moshe said: This is the word that YHVH has commanded: An omer of it for safekeeping throughout your generations, in order that they may see the bread that I had you eat in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Exodus 16:33 Moshe said to Aharon: Take a vat and put an omer of mahn in it, and put it aside in the presence of YHVH, in safekeeping throughout your generations.
Exodus 16:34 As YHVH had commanded Moshe, Aharon put it aside before the Testimony, in safekeeping.
Exodus 16:35 And the Children of Israel ate the mahn for the forty years, until they came to settled land, the mahn they ate, until they came to the edge of the land of Canaan.
Exodus 16:36 Now an omer-it is a tenth of an efa.
