I think I've become more sympathetic to there being an historical core to Esther of late, esp. after hearing from critical conservative (if you can imagine such a thing!) colleagues why they think it possible.
total book royalties of $3.66
I think W&S need a different word than "grand" when they give you your total for the year
"Seeing What Qohelet Saw" yet to crack the NYT best seller list
Headline from the AFR "Time to end welfare for the wealthy, says big business"
You mean the superannuation tax breaks? No?
You mean the CGT discount? No?
You mean the fossil fuel subsidies? No?
You mean the free gas for multinationals? No?
You mean the failure of the PRRT? No?
You mean the tax dodging trusts? No?
You mean the lack of a wealth tax? No?
No you mean the NDIS FFS
Funny enough, also the noise I make when I get a splinter
Zechariah 3 this week. Some thoughts I've been thinking about what's going on there before I get to any commentaries. If you too have thoughts on Zechariah, please share!
duck5.blogspot.com/2026/04/note...
This is how I waved to the adoring crowd this morning at parkrun with my blistering 23:05
where Pss 114+115 are read as a single psalm in Aleppo codex
Aleppo Codex has 149 psalms, as do many medieval psalters (although they range from 143-170). The most common segmentation reads Pss 114+115 as a single composition (what we call 115 begins at לא לנו יהוה לא לנו in the middle of this picture).
שיר is ironically most prolific in Psalm 137 (5x), where the exiles cannot possibly sing a song. But Psalm 138 is wonderfully placed immediately following, where all the kings of the earth can sing the ways of Yhwh.
שיר does turn up ten more times towards the end of the Psalter:
In 144: God, a new song I will sing for you.
and then in 149: Sing to Yhwh a new song!
Perhaps this is something of a bracket for the final six, if you don't include 150 - there's enough of a din there without a שיר (it's all הלל).
Just looking at the occurrences of שיר (to sing) in the Psalms. It's pretty popular from 96-108 (11x), which contains almost as many occurrences as all psalms prior.
Oddly it's never in the Psalms of Ascent (120-134) except for the headings. It's weird to say these are songs but to never sing.
“For he hath done marvellous things” all as one word in Psalm 98
ForHehathdonemarvellousthings;
Love the commitment to the formatting
I'd love to see a cross-over of The Martian with the Red/Blue/Green Mars series into a movie franchise:
Red Mars begins with this old bloke who is a veteran astronaut, the first person to step foot on Mars. In my reconstruction, clearly that's the Martian guy.
And the series takes off from there.
Zechariah 2 this week. I remembered yesterday that I actually have a guest preacher so just some quick thoughts from me.
But two blog posts in a row - just like it's the noughties again!
duck5.blogspot.com/2026/04/note...
Zechariah 2 this week. I remembered yesterday that I actually have a guest preacher so just some quick thoughts from me.
But two blog posts in a row - just like it's the noughties again!
duck5.blogspot.com/2026/04/note...
Italy not making the last three world cups is payback for that dive in the 2006 final against Australia.
Sometimes Midrash Tehillim does my head in.
Those suggesting "bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits" (Ps 103:2) is about how babies don't fall out of their mother's downward-facing mouth, while a man with a coin is his mouth invariably drops it, really need to show some working.
ha yeah I don't think I'm going to that place anytime soon.
not even sure it will get renewed after this season
Awesome! Come hear from my Doktorbruder at ISBL. Maybe we can get him to do a live performance of the Septuagint song.
I know it's just ISBL but still excited to go to my first SBL this July in Adelaide.
I have two papers accepted - one on an extra Psalms verse (in the DSS unit) and another on the Medieval Hebrew Psalms manuscripts I've been looking at (in the Judaica unit).
Hit me up if you'll be there! 🪔
had a long drive today but saw the latest Bible for Normal People was starring @andytobo.bsky.social and his research on the myth of the twelve tribes of Israel
great episode, but far less discussion of backyard hoops than one might expect from his feed
thebiblefornormalpeople.com/episodes/epi...
Super weird how “winning” and “victory” can describe a state of affairs that are anything but.
To me it sounds like everything is far worse for everyone than 6 weeks ago in every possible respect.
Structurally then Zechariah 1 looks like:
1-6 return
שוב
ואשוב
שובו נא
7-11 the land
התהלך באץ
התהלכנו בארץ
והנה הארץ
12-17 mercy, goodness, compassion - I have returned! - mercy, goodness, compassion
?לא־תרחם
דורים טובים דברים נחמים
שבתי
ברחמים
עוד ... מטוב
ונחם ה׳ עוד
Some more on this:
It's interesting that שוב (return) is thrice in the first part of Zech 1.
In the second part of Zech 1 הארץ (the land) is also thrice.
Then in the last part there is a trio of רחם, טוב ונחם (mercy, goodness, compassion) which occurs twice, with שוב in between.
pretty wild looking at the moon on my run this morning, thinking about how there are people out there right now almost close enough to touch it
Some quick Easter Monday thoughts on Zechariah 1 from this morning = GMT+10
Notes on Zechariah 1. First blog this year. Had to wrap it up because we need to go out for our delayed Chinese new year celebrations!
HCNY to all who celebrate, and happy Zechariah to the rest of you. 🪔
duck5.blogspot.com/2026/04/note...
Zimmerli's commentary on Ecclesiastes, although written in Fraktur, was brilliant and his articles drew attention to things which were so obvious but no one else mentioned.
And Zenger on the Psalms is top notch. This current article is saying all the things I've been looking for.
I realise I have a soft spot for German biblical scholars whose names start with Z.
Zenger and Zimmerli have to say something pretty crazy for me to disagree, otherwise I'm usually on board.
Any other Zs I should check out?
I’m especially enjoying thinking about the Revelation imagery of Crown Him with many Crowns. There aren’t a lot of songs based on the final book in the NT but this one does a good job of wrangling it into a meaningful hymn.
For this Easter we ran a Tenebrae service essentially doing a table read of Luke 22-23, blowing out a candle after each section.
Tomorrow I’m going to preach in response to the hymn When I Survey and then on Sunday Crown Him with many Crowns.
I’m carrying on from Advent where I looked at carols