Lifting parables

The Hebrew word for parable/proverb/allegory ( mashal ) is first used Numbers 23-24 for the “parables” of Balaam. The word is used seven times in that passage, and the verb associated with it in every case is nasa , “lift up” or “carry.” A proverb is a burden borne; a parable is a banner run up the pole. A parable brings secret things into full public view.

nasa mashal is the combination in Isaiah 14:4: “lift up this parable against the king of Babel.” The poem that follows is the public disclosure of the secret of Babel’s fall.

And that is also the point of the entire sequence of oracles in Isaiah 13-24. They are all massa , lifted-up words, burdens borne by the prophet, public disclosures of the secrets of political life.