In his recent speech at a joint session of (most of) Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referenced the Bible in a description of the Israel Defense Forces, even giving the Hebrew: “As the Bible says, “עם כלביא יקום” — they shall rise like lions. They’ve risen like lions, the lions of Judah, the lions of Israel.”
The quotation comes from Numbers 23:24, a part of one of the prophet Balaam’s oracles. Balaam was hired by the Moabite king Balak to curse the Israelites wandering through the region, but Balaam (inspired by God) can only bless Israel, not curse them.
The whole business doesn’t lead to great confidence in prophets and politicians, really. And the fact that it is poetic language makes matters even more dodgy.
Don Polaski
“The people will rise like a lion” (more probably lioness, see NRSV) invites us to make a comparison: What does it mean that the people (or the IDF) are rising like lions? A lion can mean lots of things. Rising like a lion could mean establishing just rule (think Mufasa, Sarabi, Simba and Nala in The Lion King or the description of the king’s throne area in 1 Kings 10:19-20). Bravery, courage and strength could be part of the picture (think the symbol of Gryffindor in Harry Potter or Judah being a lion’s whelp in Genesis 49:9). Or, for those who actually know something about how lions behave, a rising lion could be a lion taking a brief mid-nap stretch (think of a cat).
In other words, a comparison can go all sorts of ways. So sometimes a poet will clarify. “The Lord is my shepherd” is followed by “I shall not want,” heading off images of shearing, sale of wool and worries that the shepherd fancies mutton on occasion. And so it is here. Balaam narrows the field:
Look, a people rising up like a lioness,
and rousing itself like a lion!
It does not lie down until it has eaten the prey
and drunk the blood of the slain. (Numbers 23:24-25)
Here the prophet makes the connection clear: lions and lionesses are all about killing. They are persistently violent. They will not stop until they have killed the prey, eaten it and drunk its blood.
“There are no ‘most moral’ lions.”
The framing of the comparison in this way suggests all sorts of other possible meanings. Lions attack herds of prey, most often feasting on those who cannot get away: the young, the pregnant, the sick, the weak. They know no law; there are no rules that govern them. There are no “most moral” lions. They live to drink blood.
What does it mean to apply such a stark image to the people, as Balaam does? Or the IDF, as Netanyahu does? My guess is these are meanings Netanyahu probably doesn’t want us to hear, at least those of us in the United States, but the text emphasizes them.
So reading a text within its context is important. But Netanyahu also makes a greater error: using a biblical text as mere rhetorical prop. He wanted to make a point to the American Congress, so he used the Bible as a way to encourage agreement and Hebrew as a way to demonstrate his own mastery of the text and its meaning.
But, as I have just shown, he really doesn’t master the meaning of the text. He’s in some way counting on people to avoid looking at its context, replacing its context with the ideology he wants us to act on.
Texts are slippery things, especially biblical texts. As we face powerful people bearing texts, we need to keep this in mind, examining with care how they read.
Don Polaski serves as associate professor of religious studies at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., specializing in the Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism. He holds a Ph.D. from Duke University and a bachelor’s degree from Furman University. He is a square supervisor for the Shikhin Excavation Project (excavating a 2,000-year-old village in Galilee) and a member of Ginter Park Baptist Church (trying to follow a certain Galilean from 2,000 years ago).