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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Isaiah 65:11 - 65:11
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The prophecy now turns again to those already indicated and threatened in Isa 65:1-7. “And ye, who are enemies to Jehovah, O ye that are unmindful of my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and fill up mixed drink for the goddess of destiny - I have destined you to the sword, and ye will all bow down to the slaughter, because I have called and ye have not replied, I have spoken and ye have not heard; and ye did evil in mine eyes, and ye chose that which I did not like.” It may be taken for granted as a thing generally admitted, that Isa 65:11 refers to two deities, and to the lectisternia (meals of the gods, cf., Jer 7:18; Jer 51:44) held in their honour. שֻׁלְחָן עָרַךְ is the other side of the lectum sternere, i.e., the spreading of the cushions upon which the images of the gods were placed during such meals of the gods as these. In the passage before us, at any rate, the lectus answering to the shulchân (like the sella used in the case of the goddesses) is to be taken as a couch for eating, not for sleeping on. In the second clause, therefore, מִמְסָךְ לַמְנִי וְהַמְמַלְאיִם (which is falsely accentuated in our editions with tifchah mercha silluk, instead of mercha tifchah silluk), ממסך מִלֵּאֵ signifies to fill with mixed drink, i.e., with wine mixed with spices, probably oil of spikenard. מִלֵּא may be connected not only with the accusative of the vessel filled, but also with that of the thing with which it is filled (e.g., Exo 28:17). Both names have the article, like הַבַּעַל. הַגַּד is perfectly clear; if used as an appellative, it would mean “good fortune.” The word has this meaning in all the three leading Semitic dialects, and it also occurs in this sense in Gen 30:11, where the chethib is to be read בְּגָד (lxx ἐν τύχῃ). The Aramaean definitive is גַּדָּא (not גָּדָא), as the Arabic 'gadd evidently shows. The primary word is גָּדַד (Arab. 'gadda), to cut off, to apportion; so that Arab. jaddun, like the synonymous ḥaḍḍun, signifies that which is appointed, more especially the good fortune appointed. There can be no doubt, therefore, that Gad, the god of good fortune, more especially if the name of the place Baal-Gad is to be explained in the same way as Baal-hammân, is Baal (Bel) as the god of good fortune. Gecatilia (Mose ha-Cohen) observes, that this is the deified planet Jupiter. This star is called by the Arabs “the greater luck” as being the star of good fortune; and in all probability it is also the rabb-el-bacht (lord of good fortune) worshipped by the Ssabians (Chwolsohn, ii. 30, 32). It is true that it is only from the passage before us that we learn that it was worshipped by the Babylonians; for although H. Rawlinson once thought that he had found the names Gad and Menni in certain Babylonian inscriptions (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, xii. p. 478), the Babylonian Pantheon in G. Rawlinson's Monarchies contains neither of these names. With this want of corroborative testimony, the fact is worthy of notice, that a Rabbi named 'Ulla, who sprang from Babylon, explains the דרגשׁ of the Mishna by דגדא ערסא (a sofa dedicated to the god of prosperity, and often left unused) (b. Nedarim 56a; cf., Sanhedrin 20a).
(Note: The foreign formula of incantation given in b. Sabbath 67a, ובושכי עושדי לֵ וסינוק ידג דג (according to the glosses, “O Fortune, give good fortune, and be not tardy day and night”), also belongs here; whereas the name of a place not far from Siloah, called Gad-yavan (Gad of Greece), contains some allusion to the mythology of Greece, which we are unable to trace. In the later usage of the language Gad appears to have acquired the general meaning of numen (e.g., b. Chullin 40a; דהר גדֵ, the mountain-spirit); and this helps to explain the fact that in Pehlewi גדמן signifies majesty in a royal, titular sense (see Vuller's Lex.; and Spiegel in the Indische Studien, 3, 412).)
But if Gad is Jupiter, nothing is more probable than that Meni is Venus; for the planet Venus is also regarded as a star of prosperity, and is called by the Arabs “the lesser luck.” The name Meni in itself, indeed, does not necessarily point to a female deity; for meni from mânâh, if taken as a passive participial noun (like גְּרִי בִּרְיָה, a creature), signifies “that which is apportioned;” or if taken as a modification of the primary form many, like גְּדִי, טְלִי, צְבִי, and many others, allotment, destination, fate. We have synonyms in the Arabic mana-n and meniye, and the Persian bacht (adopted into the Arabic), which signify the general fate, and from which bago-bacht is distinguished as signifying that which is exceptionally allotted by the gods. The existence of a deity of this name meni is also probably confirmed by the occurrence of the personal name עבדמני on certain Aramaeo-Persian coins of the Achaemenides,
(Note: See Rödiger in the concluding part of the thes. p. 97.)
with which Fürst associates the personal name Achiman (see his Lex.), combining מן with Μήν, and מני with Μήνη, as Movers (Phönizier, i. 650) and Knobel have also done. מן and מני would then be Semitic forms of these Indo-Germanic names of deities; for Μήν is Deus Lunus, the worship of which in Carrae (Charran) is mentioned by Spartian in chapter vi. of the Life of Caracalla, whilst Strabo (xii. 3, 31, 32) speaks of it as being worshipped in Pontus, Phrygia, and other places; and Μήνη is Dea Luna (cf., Γενείτη Μάνη in Plut. quaest. rom. 52, Genita Mana in Plin. h. n. 29, 4, and Dea Mena in Augustine, Civ. 4, 11), which was worshipped, according to Diodorus (iii. 56) and Nonnus (Dionys. v. 70 ss.), in Phoenicia and Africa. The rendering of the lxx may be quoted in favour of the identity of the latter with מני (ἑτοιμάζοντες τῷ δαιμονίῳ (another reading δαίμονι τράπεζαν καὶ πληροῦντες τῇ τύχῃ κέρασμα), especially if we compare with this what Macrobius says in Saturn. i. 19, viz., that “according to the Egyptians there are four of the gods which preside over the birth of men, Δαίμων Τύχη ̓́Ερωσ ̓Ανάγκη. Of these Daimōn is the sun, the author of spirit, of warmth, and of light. Tychē is the moon, as the goddess through whom all bodies below the moon grow and disappear, and whose ever changing course accompanies the multiform changes of this mortal life.”
(Note: See Ge. Zoega's Abhandlungen, edited by Welcker (1817), pp. 39, 40.)
In perfect harmony with this is the following passage of Vettius Valens, the astrologer of Antioch, which has been brought to light by Selden in his Syntagma de Diis Syris: Κλῆροι τῆς τύχης καὶ τοῦ δαίμονος σημαίνουσιν (viz., by the signs of nativity) ἣλιον τε καὶ σελήνην. Rosenmüller very properly traces back the Sept. rendering to this Egyptian view, according to which Gad is the sun-god, and Meni the lunar goddess as the power of fate. Now it is quite true that the passage before us refers to Babylonian deities, and not to Egyptian; at the same time there might be some relation between the two views, just as in other instances ancient Babylonia and Egypt coincide.
But there are many objections that may be offered to the combination of מְנִי (Meni) and Μήνη: (1.) The Babylonian moon-deity was either called Sı̄n, as among the ancient Shemites generally, or else by other names connected with יֶרַח (יָרֵחַ) and châmar. (2.) The moon is called mâs is Sanscrit, Zendic mâo, Neo-Pers. mâh (mah); but in the Arian languages we meet with no such names as could be traced to a root mân as the expansion of mâ (to measure), like μήν μήνη), Goth. mena; for the ancient proper names which Movers cites, viz., ̓Αριαμένησ ̓Αρταμένης, etc., are traceable rather to the Arian manas = μένος, mens, with which Minerva (Menerva, endowed with mind) is connected. (3.) If meni were the Semitic form of the name for the moon, we should expect a closer reciprocal relation in the meanings of the words. We therefore subscribe to the view propounded by Gesenius, who adopts the pairing of Jupiter and Venus common among the Arabs, as the two heavenly bodies that preside over the fortunes of men; and understands by Meni Venus, and by Gad Jupiter. There is nothing at variance with this in the fact that 'Ashtoreth (Ishtar, with 'Ashērâh) is the name of Venus (the morning star), as we have shown at Isa 14:12. Meni is her special name as the bestower of good fortune and the distributor of fate generally; probably identical with Manât, one of the three leading deities of the prae-Islamitish Arabs.
(Note: See Krehl, Religion der vorislamischen Araber, p. 78. Sprenger in his Life of Mohammad, 1862, compares the Arabic Manât with מני.)
The address proceeds with umânı̄thı̄ (and I have measured), which forms an apodosis and contains a play upon the name of Meni, Isa 65:11 being as it were a protasis indicating the principal reason of their approaching fate. Because they sued for the favour of the two gods of fortune (the Arabs call them es-sa'dâni, “the two fortunes”) and put Jehovah into the shade, Jehovah would assign them to the sword, and they would all have to bow down (כָּרַע as in Isa 10:4). Another reason is now assigned for this, the address thus completing the circle, viz., because when I called ye did not reply, when I spake ye did not hear (this is expressed in the same paratactic manner as in Isa 5:4; Isa 12:1; Isa 50:2), and ye have done, etc.: an explanatory clause, consisting of four members, which is repeated almost word for word in Isa 66:4 (cf., Isa 56:4).