Isaiah’s woe against the greedy uses liturgically charged terminology. “Woe to those who touch house to house” uses the verb naga’ , which is used some 28 times in Leviticus, far more than anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible. “[Woe to those] who join field to field” uses the hiphil of qarav , with the meaning “cause to come near” or “bring near.” That verb is used over 90 times in Leviticus, over 50 in Numbers, and is the normal word for “offering” a sacrifice. The ironic result of “bringing near” field to field is that the offerer stands alone in the midst ( qerev , an adjective form of the same root) of his piles of wealth.
Acquisition is the liturgy of the greedy, their form of sacrifice and their rule of purity.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Restoring Man at Notre Dame
It is fascinating to be an outsider on the inside of an institution going through times of…
Deliver Us from Evil
In a recent New York Times article entitled “Freedom With a Side of Guilt: How Food Delivery…
Natural Law Needs Revelation
Natural law theory teaches that God embedded a teleological moral order in the world, such that things…
