Today is a fast day, as historical national traumas embody our wars, worst fears and memories of persecution. The purpose of this fast day of the 17th of Tammuz is not just to remember but also to resolve to do better, to continue, again and again, a process of repair and reconciliation. What can the past teach us about responding with more wisdom and empathy as we face more challenges? Today’s fast begins the period known as the three weeks of lament, leading to the 9th of Av, on which both first and second temples were destroyed and Jerusalem ceased to be the home of the nation.
Once again the Jewish calendar meets our 929 journey below the bible belt in auspicious ways. The fast day of the 17th of Tammuz is associated, among other tragic events, with the first crack in the wall of Jerusalem before it fell to the Assyrians in the 6th century BCE.
And in today’s psalm, with clear and painful details, the struggles of Jerusalem to survive a siege and struggle with oppressive powers, is a rare occasion of specific political-historical details in poetic settings. We wouldn’t know this historical layer from the Hebrew text - but it’s the Greek translation of the Psalms that curiously contains the reference to the historical significance.
Psalm 76 opens with a familiar flourish that indicates the author, Asaph, and a musical notation:
לַמְנַצֵּ֥חַ בִּנְגִינֹ֑ת מִזְמ֖וֹר לְאָסָ֣ף שִֽׁיר׃
For the leader; with instrumental music.A psalm of Asaph, a song.
Ps. 76:1
But the Greek Septuagint translation adds an intriguing detail:
“A song concerning the Assyrians.”
And what they indicate is that the psalm contains reference to a famous moment in Judean history, mentioned in several biblical accounts and Assyrian historical records -- when the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrian king Sennacherib in 701 BCE was aborted - and the city was saved.
Psalm 76 makes no specific mention of this momentous event that was seen at the time as YHWH’s victorious hand in defeating the Assyrian empire. But there are a few hints that explain why the Greek translators chose to highlight this incident as the background for this chapter.
Jerusalem is mentioned several times throughout this poem - with multiple names, some of them quite quaint and ancient - like Shalem and Zion. The specific mention of the type of weapons used “fiery arrows of the bow, the shield and the sword” also echo the prophet Isaiah’s particular mention of the arms used by the Assurians during the siege.
It’s unclear why the author of this psalm- whoever this Asaph was and when he lived - focused on this moment as a gesture of salvation. Through Isaiah’s eyes and from historical records - it was indeed a halt in the siege - but it left Judea bleeding and led the way to the Babylonian destruction half a century later. Whoever wrote this poem chose to remember this moment as a miracle and not as a strategic mistake on behalf of the kings of Judea, with a bit of luck that gave them a few more years on the throne. History, retold, would become this psalm’s boast of victory, handed by God, nationalistic, proud, against the odds and in defiance of military and strategic wisdom. The way this event was retold and cherished may have influenced the way later generations would handle the fighting with the empire - and repeat the same mistakes with the Babylonian siege - that did not stop but ended up destroying the kingdom.
The fast day of 17 of Tammuz recalls that first crack in the walls of Jerusalem, as the Babylonians began to dismantle the city, brick by brick, wall by wall.
History hides inside the cracks of memories and lost translations, retold with agendas that sometimes help us get over past paradigms and sometimes play on repeat.
I will fast today to remember the crack in the wall, the stubborn attitudes of ancestors who chose war over peace, and with equally stubborn hope that we will somehow learn from past mistakes and aspirations to be better people, with walls when needed and open gates to welcome in much better days.
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