57.8
The Book of Isaiah 57.8 · Behind the door you set your memorial57.8Behind the door you set your memorial
The charge reaches the home: the memorial placed in the doorway, and a bed opened wide to others. This is the harshest verse of the passage.
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וְאַחַר1
wə-ʾaḥar
And behindand after
הַדֶּלֶת2
ha-ddeleṯ
the door
וְהַמְּזוּזָה3
wə-ha-mməzûzâ
and the doorpost
שַׂמְתְּ4
śamt
you setyou placed
זִכְרוֹנֵךְ5
zikrônēḵ
your memorialyour remembrance
. כִּי6
kî
For
מֵאִתִּי7
mē-ʾittî
away from mefrom with me
גִּלִּית8
gillîṯ
you uncoveredyou laid bare
yourself
וַתַּעֲלִי9
wa-ttaʿălî
and you went up
; הִרְחַבְתְּ10
hirḥaḇt
you widenedyou broadened
מִשְׁכָּבֵךְ11
miškāḇēḵ
your bed
וַתִּכְרָת־12
wa-ttiḵrōṯ-
and you made a bargainand you cut
לָךְ13
lāḵ
for yourselfto you
מֵהֶם14
mēhem
with themfrom them
. אָהַבְתְּ15
ʾāhaḇt
You loved
מִשְׁכָּבָם16
miškāḇām
their bed
; חָזִית׃17
ḥāzîṯ
you sawyou beheld
יָד18
yād
a hand
. Behind the door and the doorpost you set your memorial. For away from me you uncovered yourself and went up; you widened your bed and made a bargain for yourself with them. You loved their bed; you saw a hand.
Behind the door and the doorpost you set your memorial. For away from me you uncovered yourself and went up; you widened your bed and made a bargain for yourself with them. You loved their bed; you saw a hand.
Behind the door they set a zikkārôn, “a memorial”. Deuteronomy 6:9 told Israel to write God’s words on the doorposts; here something else stands behind the door. What it was is not said.
The last two words, yāḏ ḥāzît, are literally “you gazed on a hand”. Yād, “hand”, can mean a monument (Absalom’s pillar in 2 Samuel 18:18 is his yād), and many readers think that here, in a verse about beds and lovers, it stands for a phallic image. That reading is common but debated. The Greek translators left the phrase out.