George Orwell was against the world speaking one language - English or German or whatever. He considered it a Totalitarian threat and evoked the memory of the Tower of Babel. He was not alone in recognizing the power of words to build or destroy the world.
In 1889, Eliezer-Ben-Yehuda, a Russian-Jewish linguist, journalist, and the main motivator for the revival of the Hebrew language, founded a new organization in Jerusalem, intended to foster unity among the divergent Jewish communities, each with its own customs and vernacular. The organization’s name was Safa B’rura -- ‘Pure Speech’ - a term borrowed from today’s chapter of the prophet Zephaniah, written in poetic biblical Hebrew that Ben Yehuda dreamed of reviving. Against the odds - and there were many of those -- Ben Yehuda succeeded over time in making the religious language into the modern secular vocabulary of the Zionist dream.
Several decades later, the organization’s name was changed to ‘The Academy of the Hebrew Language’ - still operating today.
Across the generations, two Jerusalem prophets proclaim the power of language but there is a big difference between their two visions.
Zephaniah concludes his prophetic visions today with an aspiration for the future times in which YHWH’s wrath will take care of the haters and celebrate the victory of good over evil. Like other prophets, including the ones living at the same time, including Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Zephaniah goes apocalyptic on the end of the days, complete with retribution for the corrupt civic and religious leaders of Israel and the rest of the world. The prophet promises the people that it’s worth waiting for the days of justice, even if they’ll be far ahead:
לָכֵ֤ן חַכּוּ־לִי֙ נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֔ה לְי֖וֹם קוּמִ֣י לְעַ֑ד כִּ֣י מִשְׁפָּטִי֩ לֶאֱסֹ֨ף גּוֹיִ֜ם לְקׇבְצִ֣י מַמְלָכ֗וֹת לִשְׁפֹּ֨ךְ עֲלֵיהֶ֤ם זַעְמִי֙ כֹּ֚ל חֲר֣וֹן אַפִּ֔י כִּ֚י בְּאֵ֣שׁ קִנְאָתִ֔י תֵּאָכֵ֖ל כׇּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
Therefore wait for Me—says YHWH —
For the day when I arise as an accuser;
When I decide to gather nations,
To bring kingdoms together,
To pour out My indignation on them,
All My blazing anger.
Indeed, by the fire of My passion
All the earth shall be consumed.
Zephaniah 3:8
The vision that includes all the world’s nations coming together to bow before the Hebrew Deity in Jerusalem is not unique to Zephaniah. It must reflect the wish of a small, local cult to be the center of the world. But what he does innovate is the idea that would also capture Ben Yehuda’s imagination two thousand years later -- a unified language that will bring about a new global chapter and a new religious reality:
כִּֽי־אָ֛ז אֶהְפֹּ֥ךְ אֶל־עַמִּ֖ים שָׂפָ֣ה בְרוּרָ֑ה לִקְרֹ֤א כֻלָּם֙ בְּשֵׁ֣ם יְהֹוָ֔ה לְעׇבְד֖וֹ שְׁכֶ֥ם אֶחָֽד׃
"For then I will make the peoples pure of speech,
So that they all invoke YHWH by name
And render service with one accord.”
Zephaniah 3:10
‘Pure of speech’ is understood here to mean - of one language, a concept of unity that transcends divisions and gets the people on the same page, with less of so much that’s lost in translation, and more to bring about a better world.
Robert Alter comments on this verse:
“This is an interesting idea - perverse or harmful behavior comes with a corruption of language--a notion George Orwell would develop in a celebrated essay written during World War II about how Nazi totalitarianism had subverted the German language. Thus, the gift of a pure language is necessary so that the people can truly call to God.”
Zephaniah, who already spoke about the importance of words and language in his first chapter, doesn’t specify here which will be the ‘pure language’ of the future - and whether it is the same language for all or just the clarity of purpose that unites the people at the end of history as we know it.
But his idea seems to echo an earlier biblical story - one of the earliest ones, in which one language is exactly what YHWH did not want: The Tower of Babel.
Is Zephaniah offering an inversion of that original story, at a time in which the Babylonians are about to invade Jerusalem? Is he mocking the Babylonians and offering an anti-empire protest that defies the human hubris of controlling the world?
Dr. Devora Steinmetz explores this idea further:
“This vision is a reversal of the Tower of Babel story. There, all of the peoples of the earth “were of one language and one speech.” (Genesis 11:1) They gather together and make a plan to build a city and a tower whose top would reach the heavens. They hope to make for themselves “a name, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:4) Seeing this plan coming to fruition, God comes down and confuses their speech, scattering them, just as they had feared, over the face of all the earth. The place where they had gathered received the name Babel, memorializing the confusion (b-l-l) of language that took place there (Genesis 11:5-9).
Zephaniah imagines a time when this primeval story will be inverted. God will gather the people together (3:8; note “my scattered ones” in 3:10) and make them pure of speech – the word “pure” (b-r-r) echoes the word “confused” (b-l-l) in the Babel story. The people will no longer unite for their own aggrandizement, but rather will serve God “with one accord.” Instead of aspiring to make a name for themselves, they will call upon “the name of God.”
In Zephaniah’s vision of the future, humanity comes together to recognize God’s dominion. The prophet continues by turning to Israel, again inverting the story of the tower builders: “For then I will remove the proud and exultant within you, and you will be haughty (literally, “high”) no more on my holy mountain.” (3:11) In place of those who try to build themselves up and make themselves a name, God will leave “a poor and humble people, and they shall find refuge in the name of God.” (3:12) And this people will have a new kind of speech: “The remnant of Israel shall not do wrong and shall not speak falsehood.” (3:13)
Recognition of God’s dominion, then, means speaking truth and acting justly. Zephaniah offers us a vision of uniting in common purpose, knowing that we live in God’s world and humbly seeking to glorify God through our speech and our actions.”
When Ben Yehudah founded his pioneering organization he met vehement opposition by the religious Jewish community that did not want to turn the language of the bible and the prayer book into a common language of commerce and politics. Perhaps they were right but history proved them wrong. Hebrew is today a live language, complete with biblical references and hybrids of all sorts. But what about the people’s unity, humility, and working together for the greater good?
Perhaps, as Zephaniah already taught us, this is where more patience, hope and some sort of surrender to the greater story of the world comes in, no matter what words we use? Whether what he meant was anti-empire, or totalitarian, he leaves us with an aspiration for understanding each other better, working together for the greater good, eye to eye, hand in hand, beyond babble, and beyond words.
Below the Bible Belt: 929 chapters, 42 months, daily reflections.
Become a free or paid subscriber and join Rabbi Amichai’s 3+ years interactive online quest to question, queer + re-read between the lines of the entire Hebrew Bible. Enjoy daily posts, weekly videos and monthly learning sessions. 2022-2025.
#Zephaniah #Zephaniah3 #ProphetZephaniah #הנביאצפניה
#צפניה #BookofZephaniah #תריעשר #treiasar #minorprophets #Prophets #Neviim #Hebrewbible #Tanach #929 #labshul #belowthebiblebelt929 #TowerofBabel #GeorgeOrwell #fighttheempire #dayofwrath #EliezerBenYehudah #Hebrewlanguage #humanunity #endthewar #stoptheviolence #peace #prayforpeace #nomorewar #hope