Zechariah 14:15 (NRSV)And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses,the mules, the camels, the donkeys,and whatever animals may be in those camps.
And what is this plague like, you may ask? Well, for that you need context.
Zechariah 14:12 (NRSV)This shall be the plague with which the LORD will strikeall the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem:their flesh shall rot while they are still on their feet;their eyes shall rot in their sockets,and their tongues shall rot in their mouths.
That sounds unpleasant.
Let's try a little modern-day pesher interpretation.
It's interpretation concerns the oppressors of the Sacred Land who attacked in days of old with horse and camel and who in our time seek the destruction of the Sacred Land with the help of the Kittim who are stubborn as mules and stiff-necked as donkeys-yes, even they who take the donkey as their symbol of strength though they be stubborn and stupid.
In good pesher-like fashion, the interpretation itself requires interpretation.
Hard to call the point on this one, but it can be read as relevant as much obscure prophecy can.
Randomness 6, Relevance 2
only wisdom literature and Psalms are likely to be consistently relevant in single-verse random snippets
ReplyDeleteYou know those pocket NTs that have Psalms and Proverbs at the beginning? As I recall, those were the Bibles distributed to U.S. soldiers at one time. Also, I remember a devotional bookmark given me by a student: it listed "important Bible verses," and I had noticed that almost all of the OT verses were from Psalms and Proverbs.
Your observation that these books lend themselves to easy bibliomancy (context-free interpretation) is, I think, the best explanation for these phenomena!