Tents and Cities
Tents and Cities
It was Cain[1] who built[2] the first city.[3]
When the Bible says Cain builded a city the word translated built[2] is the word banah (בָּנָה) which is similar to the Hebrew word for son which is Ben (בֵּן)[4] for the heads of these city-states were the Fathers of the citizens under the civil law.
Some of these descendants lived in tents.[5]
Abram and Lot lived[6] in tents[7] but Lot moved to the city of Sodom.
It seems that it was often difficult to find righteous people living in cities.[8]
When the Pharaoh would gather grain for the seven good years he gathered that food in the structure of a city type system.[9] And when the people came to eat his free bread they were removed to those cities.[10]
Which allowed the Pharaoh to build his treasure cities[11] which often become cities of blood.
Nimrod also built the city of Babylon just like Sumer and other city-states like Sodom which all had systems of of social welfare that was a snare and weakens the masses through a process of degeneration.
Living in tents
Abraham and Jacob were plain or mild[12] men who dwelt in tents[7] .[13] A word for tents in Hebrew is oleh (אֹהֶל)AlefHeyLamed which is identical to the word ‘ahal 0166 AlefHeyLamed (אָהַל) meaning "to be clear".
The word we see translated plain or mild is also translated blameless and given the Strong's number 08535[12] and spelled TavMem (תָּם) tam and is said to be from tamam (TavMemMem)[14] and often translated consume but defined complete or finish.
The word given the Strong's number 08537 but also spelled TavMem (תֹּם) tom[14] is said to mean integrity and translated upright.
- ת Tav is a Seal of a Higher kingdom or realm through faith. The paradigm keter–malchut “The Crown of Sovereignty” from the Tree of Life spiritually linking worlds through an unseen doorway of faith. The Aleph & Tav are the first and last letters. [door sign cross seal] (Numeric value: 400)
- מ ם Mem Fountain of water, a flow, a fountain of the Divine Wisdom [massive, overpower chaos] (Numeric value: 40)
Faith or force
The letter combination of TavMem is often appears not translated or referenced in the text. People who did not live under the jurisdiction of the city-states where their welfare tables under the benefactors who exercise authority bound the people as human resources did not live by the "flow of faith" which creates the social bonds of the Kingdom of God, which is an intentional community that operated through the perfect law of liberty.
Besides living in tents rather than cities they also built altars of Clay and Stone. Those altars were not merely piles of stones on which sacrifice were burnt up in a macabre ritual of superstition but were the alternative to the welfare systems or tables of rulers who offered dainties of free bread along with other benefits to snare the people under the civil law or in systems of corvee that make the people merchandise.
Cities like Sumer had a system that provided a Social safety net which would bind the people through the civil law like we see in Sodom, Nimrod's Babylon, or Pharaoh's Bondage of Egypt. This is also why Jesus condemned the Corban of the Pharisees set up by Herod.
Those systems of social welfare not only degenerate the masses and curse children they empower the rulers which tempts them to become tyrants while snaring the people as human resources again in the bondage of Egypt where they curse children.
Distinction
Where do we see a distinction in the use of the terms tents and cities?
In Genesis Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched [his] tent toward Sodom.[15] Even pitching the door of your tent toward Sodom suggest a subjectivity and subserviency toward the king of Sodom who had an ownership of the people.
In verse one of Ezra 2 the captivity in Babylon was like the bondage of Egypt which was a system of Corvee.
When the people are going to their cities or going to their tents they are often talking about status in one of two different systems.[16]
In 1 Samuel 8 there were times when the people went back to their cities[17] and other times the went back to their tents. Also in Exodus the people had to worship from their tents. See Tents and Cities
In 1 Kings 11 we see at the end of the life of King Solomon had this same sin and was warned by the Prophet Ahijah that as punishment for imposing a corvee upon the people the Kingdom would be split losing rulership over most of the Tribes of Israel. They would be taken away from his descendants (1 Kings 11: 11-13) when they would go back to their own tents.
Footnotes
- ↑ Genesis 4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 01129 ^הנב^ banah \@baw-naw’\@ a primitive root BeitNunHey; v; AV-build 340, build up 14, builder 10, made 3, built again + 08735 2, repair 2, set up 2, have children + 08735 1, obtain children + 08735 1, surely 1 (inf. for emphasis); 376
- 1) to build, rebuild, establish, cause to continue
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1a1) to build, rebuild
- 1a2) to build a house (ie, establish a family)
- 1b) (Niphal)
- 1b1) to be built
- 1b2) to be rebuilt
- 1b3) established (of restored exiles) (fig.)
- 1b4) established (made permanent)
- 1b5) to be built up (of childless wife becoming the mother of a family through the children of a concubine)
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1) to build, rebuild, establish, cause to continue
- ↑ 05892 ^ריע^ ‘iyr \@eer\@ AyinYodReish or (in the plural) ^רע^ ‘ar \@awr\@ or ^ריע^ ‘ayar (#Jud 10:4) \@aw-yar’\@ a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post); from 05782 spelled AyinVavReish עוּר ‘uwr [oor] a primitive root [identical to 05783 עוּר to be exposed, translated "Naked" through the idea of opening the eyes]; v; [BDB-734b] [{See TWOT on 1 587 }] AV-(stir, lift … .) up 40, awake 25, wake 6, raise 6, arise 1, master 1, raised out 1, variant 1; 81
- 1) to rouse oneself, awake, ; n m; {See TWOT on 1587 @@ "1587a"} {See TWOT on 1615} AV-city 1074, town 7, every one 2, variant 6; 1089
- 1) excitement, anguish
- 1a) of terror
- 2) city, town (a place of waking, guarded)
- 2a) city, town
- ↑ 01121 בֵּן ben [bane] from 01129 build; n m; [BDB-119b, BDB-122a] [{See TWOT on 254 }] AV-son 2978, children 1568, old 135, first 51, man 20, young 18, young + 01241 17, child 10, stranger 10, people 5, misc 92; 4906
- 1) son, grandson, child, member of a group
- 1a) son, male child
- 1b) grandson
- 1c) children (pl. — male and female)
- 1d) youth, young men (pl.)
- 1e) young (of animals)
- 1f) sons (as characterisation, i.e. sons of injustice [for unrighteous men] or sons of God [for angels]
- 1g) people (of a nation) (pl.)
- 1h) of lifeless things, i.e. sparks, stars, arrows (fig.)
- 1i) a member of a guild, order, class
- ↑ Genesis 4:20 And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and [of such as have] cattle.
- ↑ Genesis 13:5 And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 0168 אֹהֶל ‘ohel [o’-hel] AlefHeyLamed from 0166 AlefHeyLamed to be clear; n m; [BDB-13b] [{See TWOT on 32 @@ "32a" }]
AV-tabernacle(s) 198, tent(s) 141, dwelling 2, place(s) 2, covering 1, home 1; 345
- 1) tent
- 1a) nomad’s tent, and thus symbolic of wilderness life, transience
- 1b) dwelling, home, habitation
- 1c) the sacred tent of Jehovah (the tabernacle)
- see also 04908
- 1) tent
- ↑ Genesis 18:28 Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for [lack of] five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy [it].
- ↑ Genesis 41:48 And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which [was] round about every city, laid he up in the same.
- ↑ Genesis 47:21 And as for the people, he removed them to cities from [one] end of the borders of Egypt even to the [other] end thereof.
- ↑ Exodus 1:11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 08535 ^םת^ tam \@tawm\@ from 08552 completed; adj; {See TWOT on 2522 @@ "2522c"} AV-perfect 9, undefiled 2, plain 1, upright 1; 13
- 1) perfect, complete
- 1a) complete, perfect
- 1a1) one who lacks nothing in physical strength, beauty, etc
- 1b) sound, wholesome
- : 1b1) an ordinary, quiet sort of person
- 1c) complete, morally innocent, having integrity
- 1c1) one who is morally and ethically pure
- 1a) complete, perfect
- 1) perfect, complete
- ↑ Genesis 25:27 And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob [was] a plain man, dwelling in tents.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 08552 ^םמת^ tamam \@taw-mam’\@ a primitive root; v; {See TWOT on 2522} AV-consume 26, end 9, finished 4, clean 3, upright 3, spent 3, perfect 2, done 2, failed 2, accomplish 2, misc 8; 64
- 1) to be complete, be finished, be at an end
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1a1) to be finished, be completed
- 1a1a) completely, wholly, entirely (as auxiliary with verb)
- 1a2) to be finished, come to an end, cease
- 1a3) to be complete (of number)
- 1a4) to be consumed, be exhausted, be spent
- 1a5) to be finished, be consumed, be destroyed
- 1a6) to be complete, be sound, be unimpaired, be upright (ethically)
- 1a7) to complete, finish
- 1a8) to be completely crossed over
- 1a1) to be finished, be completed
- 1b) (Niphal) to be consumed
- 1c) (Hiphil)
- 1c1) to finish, complete, perfect
- 1c2) to finish, cease doing, leave off doing
- 1c3) to complete, sum up, make whole
- 1c4) to destroy (uncleanness)
- 1c5) to make sound
- 1d) (Hithpael) to deal in integrity, act uprightly
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1) to be complete, be finished, be at an end
- ↑ Genesis 13:12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched [his] tent toward Sodom.
- ↑ Every man to his tents
- 2 Samuel 20:1 And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name [was] Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.
- 2 Chronicles 7:10 "And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the LORD had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people."
- 2 Chronicles 31:2 "And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the tents of the LORD."
- 1 Samuel 8:5 "And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.... 22 And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city."
- Exodus 33:10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand [at] the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man [in] his tent door."
- Rehoboam 1 Kings 12:4 "Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee... 14 And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father [also] chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions... 16 ¶ So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither [have we] inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents."
- ↑ 05892 ^ריע^ ‘iyr \@eer\@ AyinYodReish or (in the plural) ^רע^ ‘ar \@awr\@ or ^ריע^ ‘ayar (#Jud 10:4) \@aw-yar’\@ a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post); from 05782 spelled AyinVavReish עוּר ‘uwr [oor] a primitive root [identical to 05783 עוּר to be exposed, translated "Naked" through the idea of opening the eyes]; v; [BDB-734b] [{See TWOT on 1 587 }] AV-(stir, lift … .) up 40, awake 25, wake 6, raise 6, arise 1, master 1, raised out 1, variant 1; 81
- 1) to rouse oneself, awake, ; n m; {See TWOT on 1587 @@ "1587a"} {See TWOT on 1615} AV-city 1074, town 7, every one 2, variant 6; 1089
- 1) excitement, anguish
- 1a) of terror
- 2) city, town (a place of waking, guarded)
- 2a) city, town