Ancient History Reconsidered

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English Words Derived from Hebrew

Believe it or not, it is estimated that there are around twenty two thousand words in the English language which are derived from the Hebrew.¹ These range in complexity from such words as sack, shelf, lad, camel, cinnamon etc to some which are not so obvious. As early as the sixth century ce, William Tyndal, who was the first translator of the Hebrew Bible and Greek Testament into English purportedly said “The Greek agree-eth more with the Englyshe than the Latyne; and the properties of the Hebrew tongue agree-eth a thousand times more with the Englyshe than the Latyne.”² In 1852, Rev. Francis Crawford, in his discourse On Hebræo-Celtic Affinities, which appeared in Volume 22 of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, likewise identified a great number of Celtic words which are derived from the Hebrew.³ However, most people do not want to accept the truth, hence these days, such associations are heavily frowned upon by academics. Anyone who even suggests such a relationship is immediately classed as ‘British Israelite’ even if, like me, they have no association whatsoever with that organisation. It should be pointed out that, long before British Israel even came into existence, the great Jewish commentator Nachmanides (also known as Ramban) who lived at the beginning of the 13^th century ce in his Sefer HaGe’ulah (Book of Redemption) recorded that the Ten Tribes were in his day still in exile and had not returned to the land of their inheritance.⁴ The same writer also informs us that only a handful of Jews returned to Jerusalem from Babylon during the Persian Period and that many from the first exile ended up in Spain. He furthermore informs us that the Ten Tribes (who likewise have not returned) were in his day to be found in Zarephath (France) and the northernmost regions of the world.⁵ An ortheodox Jew by the name of Yair Davidiy, who lives in Israel, is doing a lot of valuable work, attempting to awaken the Ten Tribes to their true identity. Whilst he makes quite a number of basic mistakes, his work is nevertheless invaluable for providing an insight into where the Ten Tribes have disappeared to.⁶

When the inhabitants of the northern kingdom of Israel were taken into captivity, they adopted the language of their Assyrian overlords. As they passed through the various nations, they slowly lost their identity. Much of their original language was lost, but (as can be expected) they continued to use some of the more common Hebrew words. It should therefore not come as a surprise to find those words still in use today, albeit in an unrecognisable form. Not only did their language itself undergo changes, but regional pronunciations also played a big part in how words were to be shaped. We have only to draw on the differences between, say, the way people from northern England speak from southerners. People from the north pronounce bath with a short ‘a’ as in lad, whilst those from southern England draw out the ‘a’ almost turning it into baarth. Another example is the way Londoners turn their t’s into glottal stops. The word matter, for example, becomes ma’er, butter becomes bu’er, and so on.

If we were to look for more extreme examples, we need only compare the English language with the French. Many English words which are derived from the French are sometimes far removed from their original form. The French word beau (pronounced bo) is the root of our word beautiful, but our word is pronounced bew-tiful rather than bo-tiful. The French word for school is école. In this instance, the first syllable has been removed in the English and the letter ‘s’ dropped in the French. (The Hebrew is קהל kahal from which the Greek word εκκλησία Ekklesia is derived.) The study of phonetics and linguistics is complex and a full technical explanation of the transitional processes involved in how words are formed would take a long time to explain.

A good deal of work has already recently been done by Isaac Mozeson to identify not only Hebrew words in the English language, but in many of the world languages including Japanese, Chinese and Russian. His books E-Word: Edenics Digital Dictionary and The Origin of Speeches can be obtained online at http://www.edenics.org/. These works go into more technical details, explaining how the nasals, fricatives, bilabials, dentals etc. of letters/sounds are formed and how they are interchanged. He also provides an invaluable insight into how our languages have developed and how words evolve over time.

A lot of words are metatheses of the original. A metathesis is where two or more sounds (usually consonants) have been transposed. Metatheses were far more common in ancient languages than most academics seem prepared to acknowledge. We often use words which have undergone a process of metathesis in our everyday language without really thinking about their origins. Consider, for example, the English words form and morph. Both mean exactly the same thing, ‘to form, mould, shape, train or educate’, but the characters which produce the ‘f’ and ‘m’ sounds have swapped places. Notice also how the people of Glasgow are known as Glaswegians rather than Glasgowians. In the Hebrew Bible, we find that Hushim (חֻשִׁים) son of Dan (Gen. 46:23) is elsewhere called Shuham (שׁוּחָם) (Num. 26:42), Ard (אַרְדְּ) son of Benjamin (Num. 26:40) is also called Addar (אַדָּר) (1 Chron. 8:3) and Solomon’s mother is called both daughter of Eliam (אֱלִיעָם) (2 Sam. 11:3) and daughter of Ammiel (עַמִּיאֵל) (1 Chron. 3:5).

The following list, taken from my own research experience, is only a small sample of the many words which can be traced back to their Hebrew roots.

English	Hebrew	Pronunciation	Meaning/Notes
Antique	עתיק	atiq	*Old or ancient.* The addition of a nasal ‘n’ in words is well-attested.
Apart	פרד	parad	See the entry below for Part.
Arrow	ירה	yarah	*To throw, shoot or cast stones etc.* A moreh (מורה) is an archer. It is interesting to note that there is a specific word in Hebrew for arrow, this being חֵצִי (Chetsi) pl. חִצִּים (Chitsim), but the English have adopted the more generic term for the shooting of arrows. “Then Elisha said, Shoot [יְרֵה (yereh)]. And he shot [יּוֹר (yor)]. And he said, The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them.” (2 Kings 13:17.)
Attack	תָּקַף	takaf	*To overwhelm, assail or attack.* The addition or dropping of the initial syllable is well attested. Consider, for example, the name Ramesses. It should be noted that the king who we know as Ramesses II Meri-Amun was called Armesses (Greek Ἁρμέσσης Miamoun by Josephus. (Against Apion 1.97 [1.15 in Whiston’s translation].) Josephus likewise called Ramath-Gilead the Geladene city of Arametha. (Antiq. 8.398.) Note the additional syllable on the beginning of the word Ramath to produce the reading of Arametha. He also called the Edomite duke Zibeon (צִבְעוֹן Gen. 36:2 & 24) Eusebeon (Greek Ἐυσεβεῶνος Antiq. 1.265) and Dumah (דוּמָה) son of Ishmael Idumas (Ἰδουμᾶς). Consider also that Yeconiah (AV Jeconiah – e.g. Jer. 24:1) was also called simply Coniah (e.g. Jer. 22:28), both forms the name being used interchageably. When we pronounce the word takaf as attackaf or even as attacketh, it is not difficult to see how the word has morphed into the modern form of attack.
Babble	בבל	baval or Babel	This is the name of the city of Babylon – the city of many religions – the city of religious confusion. It is also where the Lord confused the languages of the people so that they could not understand what each other was saying. When we speak of babbling, we talk of speaking in a way which no one can understand.
Burn	בער	ba'ar	*To burn, be on fire or be consumed by fire.* The addition of the letter ‘n’ was commonplace. Compare, for example, the city of Megiddo mentioned in Josh. 12:21 & 17:11, Judg. 1:27 & 5:19 etc with the spelling of Megiddon in Zech. 12:11. The word fire is most probably also from the same root, the letter ‘b’ becoming an ‘f’ in transliteration.
Cable	חִבֵּל	chibel	*Rope or cable.* The Hebrew letter chet* (ח) is a gutteral and is pronounced in the same way as the ch of the Scottish word loch is pronounced.*
Camel	גמל	gamal	We have possibly inherited the word from the Greek καμήλα (kamela), which in turn is ultimately from the Hebrew. The interchange of the letters ‘g’ and ‘k’ in ancient languages was commonplace and is well-attested both in the Assyrian and the Egyptian records as well as in the Welsh language. It was a regular occurrence particularly in the Tell el-Amarna Letters discovered in Egypt. A number of examples of this interchange are encountered in my book Ancient History Reconsidered.
Cope	כף	Kaph	*Cupped hand or spoon.* The English word means ‘manage’ or ‘*handle*’.
Crow	עֹרֵב	Orev, or Gorev or Korev	The Hebrew word means ‘raven’, but a crow and a raven are genetically similar, being from the same original kind. Note that the Hebrew letter ע (ayyin) can be transliterated a number of different ways. The name Omri (Hebrew עָמְרִי), this being the name of one of the kings of Israel, appears in the Assyrian records as Khumri but as Ambri (Greek ᾿Αμβρὶ) in the Septuagint. In Hebrew, this name Omri is written with the self-same Hebrew characters as Gomorrah (Hebrew עֲמֹרָה) apart from the very last character, which is a yod (י) in Omri and a hay (ה) in Gomorrah. It should be noted that the city of Gaza (עַזָּה) is also written with this Hebrew letter ayyin (ע), but this same name is three times transliterated in the King James Bible as Azzah. (Deut. 2:23, 1 Kings 4:24 & Jer. 25:20.) The name Aroer (עֲרֹעֵר), this being the name of a city to the east of the Dead Sea, is written with two ayyins. It should be noted that Ptolemy (Geog. 5.15.9) called this city Kallirhoe (Greek Καλλιῤῥόη), where the first occurrence of this letter ayyin has been transliterated as a kappa (Greek κ). This Hebrew word orev (עֹרֵב) can therefore be transliterated as Korev and with the dumbing down of the beth (ב), we arrive at the word ‘crow’. It should also be pointed out that the English word raven also comes from the same root. With the dropping of the initial syllable and the addition of the letter n on the end of the word, this being a typical Celtic practice, we arrive at [o]rev-en – hence raven. (See also the entry for raven below.)
Earth	אָרֶץ	Aretz	*Earth or land.* The Hebrew letter צ tsadi in this instance has been transliterated as ‘th’. The Latin word Terra is a metathesis of the same word.
Fire	בער	ba'ar	See comments above under entry for burn.
Furrow	דרך	derekh	*Path, way or road.* The word through is also from this same Hebrew root.
Grave	קבר	kever	*Grave or tomb.* The ‘r’ and the ‘v’ (represented by the Hebrew letter beth) have swapped places in what is known as a metathesis and the ‘k’, which is represented by the Hebrew letter kof, has been transliterated as a ‘g’. The interchange of the letters ‘g’ and ‘k’ in ancient languages is well-attested. The English word grave is purportedly from the Proto-German graban, High German grab, and Old English grafan, which supposedly means ‘to dig’. There is here clearly a confusion between the Hebrew word kever, meaning grave, and the similar sounding Hebrew word chefer (חָפָר) meaning ‘to dig’.
Green	ירק	yerek	*Green.* From Germanic and Old English grēne and German grün, but ultimately from the Hebrew. This also is a metathesis. The work yerek when reversed becomes Kree. With the addition of the ‘n’, this then becomes kree-n. The ‘k’ then becomes a ‘g’ in the spoken language. Examples of the interchange of these last two letters can be found in the El Amarna correspondence, dating to the time of Amenhotep III and his son Akhenaten, as well as in the Assyrian and Babylonian records.
Groan	גרון	garon	*Throat or voice.* A groan is produced at the back of the throat. The words heron and crane (names of birds) are also from the same root – so named because of the deep throaty sound that they make. Although not so obvious, the word growl is also from the same root. In this instance the Hebrew letter נ nun (which becomes ן when at the end of a word) having become an ‘l’ in transliteration. The interchange of the letters ‘n’ and ‘l’ in ancient languages is well-attested and we encounter a number of examples of this change in the main works.
Growl	גרון	garon	See comments above under entry for groan.
Heifer	פרה	parah	*Young cow or heifer* – the same as in English. Note the metathesis. (The Hebrew letter hay has been moved to the front of the word.) The Greek word πόρις (poris) or variant πόρτις (portis), from which we allegedly obtain the word heifer, is also certainly derived from the Hebrew.
Horn	קרן	keren	*Horn* – the same meaning as the English. In other languages, the name for horn is corne (French) or korna (Greek κόρνα).
Kid	גדי	gedi	*Kid goat.* The interchange of the letters ‘g’ and ‘k’ in ancient languages is well-attested. There is, for example, a certain person who appears in the El Amarna Letters whose name is variously written Etakkama, Aiṭugama, Edaqama, Itaqkama etc. (The Tell El Amarna Tablets – 2 Vols, Samuel A. B. Mercer, The MacMillan Company of Canada Ltd., Toronto 1939.) The name kid was clearly originally used for a young goat, but has been adapted in the English language to also apply to a young boy.
Lad	ילד	yeled	The meaning is the same as the English. The adding or dropping of the initial syllable was common in ancient times. Duke Tsibeon (AV Zibeon) was, for example, called Esebeon (Ευ̉σεβεῶνος) by Josephus. (Antiquities of the Jews Book 1, §.265). He also called Ramath-Gilead, the Geladene city of Arametha (Γαλαδηνῇ πόλιν Ἀραμαθὰν – Ibid. Book 8, §.398). Many similar examples could be cited including examples from the Egyptian, Assyrian and Babylonian records. The city of Adana (in northern Israel), for example, appears as Danuna in the Egyptian records. (NB: The two n’s should be read as one character to produce [A]danna.)
Market	מכר	machar	*Things for sale, merchandise, ware, price or value.* The English is formed from what is known as a metathesis – where two consonants (the kaph and the resh) have been transposed. The words merchant and merchandise are from the same root.
Merchant & Merchandise	מכר	machar	See the entry above for Market.
Over	עבר	avar	*Over, beyond or similar.* It is argued that the word is from the Germanic über. The Old English is ofer, Dutch is over, Greek huper, Latin super etc. All of these forms are derived from the Hebrew.
Part	פרד	parad	*Part, divide, separate or spread.* The English words part, apart, separate, separation and spread are all derived from this same Hebrew root. According to the Greek legend, Cronus castrated his father and threw his genitals into the sea. From the foam emerged the goddess Aphrodite. The name Aphrodite means literally ‘she who was separated’. In my book The Forgotten Tribe of Naphtali & the Phoenicians, I demonstrate that Cronus is the Greek transliteration of the name Hiram and that Aphrodite was an Edomite tribe uprooted by Israelites from their native land and resettled on the island of Crete where they were trained as an elite fighting force, and were used initially to help keep law and order.
Raven	ערב	orev	*Raven.* The dropping of the initial syllable is well-attested, as is the addition of a final letter ‘n’. (Compare with entry above under burn.) See also the entry for crow above. The words crow and raven are from this same root word orev. Genetically, crows and ravens are from the same original kind. They have simply adapted in different ways. Evolutionists would call this evolution, but it is simply adaptation. They are still the same kind. They are still birds. The Collins Dictionary gives other meanings of the word ‘raven’ as “1. to seize or to seek (plunder, prey etc), 2. to eat (something) voraciously or greedily; be ravenous in eating”, from old English hræfn. (Note that this old English form is not far removed from the ‘kraven’ form of this name.) The word ‘ravenous’ seems to be derived from the same root, though the Collins Dictionary tells us that this latter word is derived from the French raviner, which means to furrow or make a gulley. It is clearly derived from the word ‘ravine’, which in both English and French has the same meaning. In my opinion, this connection is rather weak. I would suggest that even the word ravine is derived from the word raven, a bird which generally (though not exclusively) likes to dwell in rocky or mountainous districts. Knowing that the ayyin of the Hebrew word orev can become a ‘k’, it is not difficult to see that the word English crave, which means “To have a strong desire for”, from old English crafian, is from the same root. (NB: I cannot see any obvious phonetic relationship with the the word craven, which means cowardly, though there may be some connection with the way the bird flies away when approached.) It should be borne in mind that crows and ravens are scavengers – hence the association with eating ravenously. By demonstrating the relationship between the words crow and raven, we can more clearly see how these words are philologically connected. Most philologists, however, refuse to acknowledge any association between our European languages and Hebrew. Having demonstrated in The Forgotten Tribe of Naphtali & the Phoenicians that most of the western European nations are of Israelite descent, these connections with our Hebrew roots can no longer be ignored.
Sack	שק	sack	*Sack or sack cloth.* “Then Joseph commanded to fill their vessels with corn, and to restore every man’s money into his sack [שַׂקּ], and to give them provision for the way; and thus was it done unto them.” (Gen. 42:25.) Translated as ‘sack cloth’ in Gen. 37:34.
School	שָֹכַל	sachal	*To pay attention to, to have insight, intelligence or understanding, to act prudently, to have success and/or to teach.* Compare with the French école and the Welsh ysgol, also meaning school, and the Yiddish word for synagogue, shul. It is usually argued that the word is derived via the Latin from the Greek σχολείο skholē meaning ‘leisure, philosophy or lecture place’. All of these meanings agree in principle with the Hebrew meanings.
Separate and Separation	פרד	parad	See the entry above for Part.
Set	שִׁית or יָשֶׁת	shet or yashet	*Set, place, lay, put, establish or appoint.*
Shelf	שלב	shalav	*Shelf or ledge.* (As in 1 Kings 7:28-29 & 7:35-36.)
Shield	שלט	shelet	*Shield.* The interchange of the letters ‘t’ and ‘d’ in ancient languages is well-attested.
Sparrow	צפור	tsippor	*The generic Hebrew word for bird, but in Psalm 84:3 (84:4 in the Hebrew bible) and Psalm 102:7 (102:8 in the Hebrew bible) it is translated as sparrow. The initial Hebrew character צ tsadi* can be transliterated as an ‘s’, ‘z’, ‘t’, ‘st’ or even (in Greek) as ‘psi’ – hence Sidon becomes Poseidon.
Spread	פרד	parad	See the entry above for Part.
Stick	עץ	ghetz	*Tree, piece of wood or stick.* The Hebrew letter צ tsadi can be transliterated a number of ways: as an ‘s’, a ‘t’, a ‘z’ or as ‘st’. The Hebrew letter ע ayyin likewise can be transliterated as a ‘g’ or as a ‘k’. When metathesised, the Hebrew can therefore become steg or steck. The progression to stick then becomes a natural one. Old English sticca, German stecken, Dutch stek. The word twig is also from the same root.
Swear	השבעה	hishava	*Swear* (imperative form). The noun is שבוע shavua, meaning ‘oath, swearing or cursing’. The addition of the letter ‘r’ (Greek rho) is said to be a Dorian practice. In The Forgotten Tribe of Naphtali & the Phoenicians, we demonstrate that the Dorians came from the city of Dor in northern Israel. Archaeologists are finding that artefacts uncovered in excavations at the city of Dor exhibit strong Greek influences long before the Greeks supposedly arrived in Israel. (See Dor – Hellenization of the East http://dor.huji.ac.il/HL_east.html.) Josephus likewise points out that king Solomon’s palace was of ‘Corinthian’ (i.e. Doric) design. (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 8, §.133.)
Tap (drum)	Sing. תף pl. תפים	taf or pl. tuppim	*Small drum or hand-held drum.* In olden times, when beer was served ‘on tap’, a device was literally ‘tapped’ into the wooden keg to provide a means of controlling the flow of beer. When plumbing was introduced into homes, a device therefore already existed which controlled the flow of liquids, hence it was only natural to use that name for what has nowadays become commonly known as a tap. Whilst the first use of taps can be found in Greece and were made of bronze, and whilst the Romans used valves or valvulae, these were water cock tabs, where the rotation of a perforated cylinder allowed or prevented the passage of water. The first screw tap was invented in the 19^th century ce by a British merchant by the name of Thomas Grill. (See http://www.italiabellissima.it/water-taps-history/.)
Through	דרך	derekh	*Path, way or road.* The words furrow, track and trek are also from the same Hebrew root, the word trek allegedly being derived from the Dutch word trek.
Tomorrow	מחר	machar	*The next day.* Note the addition of the letter ‘t’ on the beginning of the word. Compare also with the old English morrow.
Track	דרך	derekh	*Path, way or road.* See the comments above under the word through.
Trump	שופר	shofar	This is an unusual one. In Hebrew, a shofar is specifically a ram’s horn trumpet, but when translated into Egyptian, becomes Thupar, meaning a horn or trumpet. (See An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary Vol. 2, p.853, Sir Edgar A. Wallis Budge, Dover Publications, New York 1978.) The Hebrew letter ש (shin), when transliterated into another language, can become a ‘t’ or a ‘d’. Josephus, for example, called the region of Bashan in northern Israel both Βαταναίαν (Batanaian) or Βατανίδι (Batanidi). (See Antiquities of the Jews Book 4, §.173 and Book 9, §.159). The word thuppar then undergoes a metathesis and an additional letter ‘m’ is introduced when translated into English. Note that the word trumpet means a small trump. This is in the same way that a cornet is a small horn. (See the entry above under horn for the derivation of this word from the Hebrew keren.) In Hebrew there is another word specifically for trumpet. This is sing. חֲצֹצְרָה (Chatsotsrah) or pl. חֲצוֹצְרֹת (Chatsotsroth): “Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps.” (Num. 10:2.) The blowing of the trumpets as well as the blowing of the shofar (ram’s horn) were both used as an alarm call. In the book of Joshua, however, the word shofar needed to be clarified with the words, “trumpets of rams’ horns” (Josh. 6:4.) This confusion is perhaps explained by the prophecy given by the prophet Hoshea: “Blow ye the shofar in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven, after thee, O Benjamin.” (Hos. 5:8.) Gibeah belonged to the House of Judah whilst Ramah belonged to the House of Israel. Whilst the shofar was used as a warning by Jews, the trumpet was seemingly used by the northern tribes, which possibly helps to explain the confusion. It is, however, the Hebrew word shofar which has been adopted in this instance to produce the English word trump or trumpet.
Twig	עץ	ghetz	See comments above under entry for stick. Old English twigge, German zweig, Dutch twijg.

^1.	http://www.edenics.org/about/what-is-edenics/. [Return]
^2.	History, the True Key to Prophecy p.50, Rev. W.H. Poole, Brooklyn 1880. [Return]
^3.	On Hebræo-Celtic Affinities pp.371-403, Rev. Francis Crawford, A.B., Original Member of the London Philological Society. Article dated 23 Feb 1852 from the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. 22. (To avoid the technical points, it is probably best to start at page 385.) [Return]
^4.	“And of the Babylonian Exile it is said that he who escapes the sword will be taken to Babylon, and that he and his sons will be slaves until the first year of Cyrus king of Persia as recorded in the opening words of the book of Ezra where it teaches us that he put it in writing; and the place where it [the exile] finished is where he began his book, as this redemption and this genealogy are but the one book, and lo we have not changed on this, only to hear scattered passages, and whichever way we look at it, it is clear from what is said that only those alone who are mentioned have returned. The House of Ephraim and the ten tribes of Israel are in exile in Assyria unto this day, and of most of the tribes there is no sign and none have escaped in the redemption [return] which we have recorded.” Sefer HaGeulah – On the Subject of the Future Redemption p.14, copied by hand from a parchment discovered in the British Museum by Yaakov Lifshitz, London 1909. (NB: Translation is mine.) [Return]	ובגלות בבל נאמר ויגל השארית מן החרב אל בבל ויהיו לו ולבניו לעבדים עד מלוך מלכות פרס והתחיל ובשנת אחת לכורש כמו שהתחיל ספר עזרא וזה יורה כי הוא כתבו ובמקום אשר סיים התחיל בספרו כי הם כספר אחד בענין הגאלה ההיא והיחוס ההוא והנה לא חדשנו בזה רק להזמין פסוקים מפוזרים ומכל פנים נתבאר מדברינו שלא שבו בגאלת בבל זולתי הנקראים בית אפרים או בית ישראל עשרת השבטים הנם בגלות אשור עד היום הזה ורוב שבטיהם לא גם להם נס ולא נמלט להם פליט בגאלה ההיא כאשר הזכרנו.
^5.	“And behold, even the vision of Obadiah, who was one of those exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon, was compelled to write: ‘on the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem’ [Obad. 1:11], etc. And afterwards it is said that ‘the house of Jacob will be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau’ [Obad. 1:18], and they who say this happened to Hezekiah or to the second temple are mistaken because it is known that this expression house of Joseph appertains to the kingdom of Israel who are the ten tribes, and why should we shy away from this passage? For when were the house of Joseph to the house of Esau for stubble? They have already gone into exile and they are still there in exile in Zarephath (France) and Canaan and are at the farthest regions of the north. And the exiles of Jerusalem which have been placed in Spain by Titus and Vespasian after the destruction of the second temple have never returned and we have even been scattered there from the first exile. According to the words of the disillusioned priest: ‘When have they returned and when have these large exiled groups gathered together to inherit the cities of Ephraim and Samaria? And when did saviours arise on Mount Zion to judge Mount Esau? As we see, in the days of Ezra only a remnant returned, as it should be obvious to you, and these came from afar like doves to their dovecotes, and so it will be that the kingdom will be the Lord’s for then all will give praise in his kingdom in revealing the way and the Lord will be king over all the land. Even this is in the future....” Ibid. p.15. (NB: Translation is mine.) [Return]	והנה עוד חזון עובדיה מוכרח שהוא אחד גלות ירושלים לבבל כמו שכתוב ביום עמדך מנגד ביום שבות זרים חילו ונכרים באו שעריו ועל ירושלים ידו גורל וכל הענין ואחרי כן נאמר יהיה בית יעקב אש ובית יוסף להבה ובית עשו לקש ודלקו בהם ואכלום ולא יהיה שריד לבית עשו והאומרים שהוא על חזקיהו או על בית שני עם תועי לבב הם כי ידוע במקרא שזה השם רצוני לומר בית יוסף מיוחס למלכות ישראל שהם עשרת השבטים ולמה לא התביישו מן הכתוב הזה כי מתי היו בית יוסף על בית עשו לקש וכבר גלו להם ועודם הם שם והם גלות צרפת וכנען שהם בקצוי צפון וגלות ירושלים אשר בספרד על יד טיטוס ואספסינוס שהיה בחרבן בית שני לא מקודם ואלו נתפזרו שם מן הגלות הראשון כדברי הכהן המכזב מתי שבו שם ונתקבץ קבוץ הגליות הגדולות האלה לירש ערי אפרים ושמרון ומתי עלו מושיעים בהר ציון לשפות את הר עשו כי הנה בימי עזרא יסוד המעלה מבבל היה כאשר נתבאר לך ולא באו אלה הרחוקים כיונים אל ארובותיהם וכן והיתה לה' המלוכה כי אז יודו הכל במלכותו בגלוי כדרך והיה ה' למלך על כל הארץ שגם הוא לעתיד...
^6.	See http://britam.org/ and the sister site http://hebrewnations.com/ [Return]