2009-04-05: Plague of Darkness Begins

This date marks the modern relay of the Plague of Darkness.

Note: There is an assumption in the placement of this date that the Plague of Locusts, the previous date, in effect finishes the prophetic day. This plague, of Darkness, implicitly starts when prophetic nightfall should hit, so this is back on the 30 day/day system that the entire series generally follows.

This is an unusual transition, and the fulfillment headlines may indicate why the structure of this transition is different than normal.

This date marks the start of a 3 month interval cover the first half of this plague.

There is an attendant Psalm 38 that contains matched themes.

The following is the date and text for this Plague.

Theoretical Time:

• 13000/3/15 1:1:1 AA
• 2009-04-05 18:00:00 TMMT
• 2009-04-05 15:39:06 GMT
• 2009-04-05 11:39:06 EDT
• 4742085 AAN

Notes on the Text

Many of the Plague Dates have best been understood by checking the original language terms used in the plague narrative. In this case there are 2 terms that carry the most weight and reveal the intent of the original author.

Term: Darkness, HET,SHEEN,KAFF

The plague itself is a plague of "darkness." The Hebrew spelling of this word, HET, SHEEN, KAFF, has a specific word-picture:

• Fence
• Receive
• Growth

The 3rd term in this expression has a minor meaning, which is the light that fuels the general concept of growth. So the English world "darkness" is roughly right, but the core concept is not light per-se, but growth in the general sense.

The full word-picture thus becomes to "fence-the-receiving-of-light" or more generally, to "block-receiving-growth."

In an economic sense the plague means that growth in the economy is to be fenced or blocked.

Term: Thick or Felt: MEM, SHEEN

The other key term in this plague description is commonly translated "felt," but sometimes translated "thick." This is a 4 letter Hebrew word, VAV-YOD-MEM-SHEEN. The first 2 letters are Hebrew Grammar, meaning "AND-HE." The obvious "he" in this verse is a reference to Pharaoh, so whatever it is that "MEM-SHEEN" means it is Pharaoh who will be doing it.

The Hebrew letter MEM eventually became the English letter M and the SHEEN became S or SH. This word is spoken like the English word "MaSH." It turns out to have similar meaning.

The Hebrew term "MaSH" is used in a few other key locations in scripture. The first interesting case is when Jacob fears his father Isaac will "MaSH" his skin and discover that he is not Esau. Indeed, his father does "MaSH" him when he attempts to figure out why it is Jacob's voice asking for Easu's blessing. Of course Isaac does not detected the ruse. What is it that Isaac is doing? Poking around on Jacob, feeling him, pressing on him in order to detect who it is.

Another key use of the Hebrew term "MaSH" is when Laban "MaSHs" Jacob's luggage while Laban is searching for the lost household idols. Again, Laban is pressing in with his fingers.

Yet another use is in Job 12:25, where the same Hebrew root, "MaSH" is paired with the same word for darkness, and together they are commonly translated as "grope in darkness."

The best English for this term is 'Grope' as the term explains Isaac groping Jacob, Laban groping the luggage, and it explains what is happening in this plague. The "He" in the verse is Pharaoh, and what Pharaoh will do is "Grope in Darkness" just as described in Job 12.

This also suggests the original meaning for the modern English word "mash" has its origin in the concept of groping, or to push on or probe.

The word-picture meaning rests on the meanings of the two letters:

• Truth
• Receive

The sense here is to seek out truth, as Isaac, Laban and Pharaoh all do when this word is used. Curiously, in all these cases they fail to find what they seek. A secondary meaning of SHEEN is to consume, and in these cases at least truth is consumed.

Term: SHEEN-MEM-YOD-MEM

There is a word play going on with this Plague of Darkness description. Moses lifts his hands towards heaven (technically the sky) and that term is SHEEN-MEM-YOD-MEM. Note that this term shares 3 letters with the word that Pharaoh will do while in darkness, but in reverse: VAV-YOD-MEM-SHEEN.

This appears to be intentional word-play and contrasts the actions of the 2 men. Moses lifts his hands to heaven, to the God of Heaven, and Pharaoh gropes around in the darkness. The Plague narrative will make the point that God's people will not suffer the Plague of Darkness while Pharaoh's people will. The difference, and reason why, can be easily seen in this specific word-play.

Second Term: ALEP-LAMED-PEY-HET

The English translators bring symmetry to the structure of the text for this plague. They suggest there would be thick darkness, and that there was then thick darkness. The problem is the second modifier on darkness, in vs. 22, is not even the same term. The second term, ALEPH-LAMED-PEY-HET, is transliterated APLE.

This term modifies the term for darkness, but it is not in the same concept space as MaSH. The word-picture meaning is along the lines of "Strong-Language-To-Pattern." Or perhaps "Strong-Language-To-Conform." This word does not appear to have a reasonable English match which, which is what caused the translators to reuse thick. An English word in this idea-space might be "to-harken" as a watchman might do in the darkness of night. Another possible word is "propaganize." Strong language meant to cause others to conform. In any case the text means there will be some sort of strong language in the darkness for 3 days.

Note the difference in meaning when the symmetry is removed. The text says there will be groping in darkness and that there was strong language when it did finally happen. This is the pattern being seen in the news, more on that below.

Restating the Plague

Note the expression "darkness that could be felt" is an example of a pre-computerized translation-process mistake. The translators either did not care about an accurate rendering or had other motives. The best translation of the Plague description is along the lines of "and-he will grope in darkness," where the "he" term is referencing Pharaoh. The second term is loud or strong speech. A restatement becomes:

Then Yahvah said to Moses, Lift up your hand toward the skies that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, and Pharaoh will grope in darkness. So Moses lifted up his hand toward the skies; and there was dark propaganda in all the land of Egypt 3 days.

As always, this plague runs for 3 months, ending July 4, 2009, and we expect fulfillment at the start of the interval to mark the start of this plague.

Fulfillment: Barak Travels to Europe

Several days ahead of the expected theoretical date for this plague, United States President Barak Obama and his wife departed Washington DC aboard Air Force One bound for London. He remained out of the country through the Tuesday following the prophetic date on Sunday. His wife, though, returned to the United States on Sunday, the expected date, in order to be home when their kids returned to school on Monday.

Their traveling itinerary was never posted, and remained in a media blackout, so there was no specific list of locations where Obama intended to visit. This itself is a match to the Plague, though there was much more to come. Locations where this wandering, secular Waldo was eventually seen include:

• London for visits with the Queen, PM Brown, and the rest of the G-20 leaders for the G-20 Economic Summit.
• varios... across Europe
• Iraq Where he made a surprise visit to the troops.

The first stop after arriving London was a visit to see the Queen. She met privately with various G-20 leaders and and the Obama's were there.

The headline that came out of the meeting, which ended up as lead stories in many major media outlets was a simple gesture of Michelle touching the Queen. As Brian Williams of NBC made very clear at the top of his newscast EVERYONE knows you don't touch the queen.

The Hebrew term from the plague that we care about here is MaSH, as in Isaac MaSHing Jacob, or Laban mashing the luggage for an idol. To grope, press, mash or touch. This simple gesture would be nothing if Michelle had done it to anyone else. But, this time it was the Queen herself and everyone, except apparently the Obama's, knows you don't MaSH the Queen.

This was a nearly perfect match, but it got better.

Giving away iPods is something that Pharaoh's like to do. George Bush himself gave Pope Benedict an iPod filled with music. When Barak finally got to visit the Queen, he too gave away an iPod, filled with 40 show tunes.

The first issue with this gift is the legality of such a thing. Downloaded music cannot be given away because the licenses preclude such uses. So Barak was most likely breaking a flurry of American media laws, though you never know for sure with these until a judge decides. The Queen herself, if not for her specific Sovereign immunity would also be breaking various UK laws to receive such a gift. This is a minor footnote to the story, but an interesting one where leaders really are above the law.

The second issue with the iPod gift is the name of the manufacturer. Apple Computer was once known for stunning industrial engineering of its desktop computers. It's more recent fortunes have rested on iPods and iPhones.

Now, think back to the text of the plague. The second term, ALEPH-PEY-LAMED-HET, transliterated APLE, is what Barak gave the Queen.

Curiously, one of the ways Obama out-raced the other candidates for president was the way he used the Internet, and especially videos, to make his case to the voting public. Many have said his speech mesmerizes the crowds. In Hebrew we could say his speech APLE's the crowds. Strong-Language-to-Conform.

Barak's media crew basically uses Apples to produce those APLEs, the videos and stunning design of Obama's White House website. The gift was an amazing prophetic match.

It turns out Michelle did the groping and Barak did the Apple, a double match of a fulfillment and it was only the first day of the trip.

Fulfillment: G-20 Summit, London

Venues for fulfillment headlines usually focus on "top of the charts" headline events, especially involving heads of state and world leaders. The G-20 Summit in London, which concluded on April 3, 2009, is the type of summit.

The logo for the summit probably says it best. The view of the planet in the logo shows the word at night. There is a glimmer of light coming around the corner, but for the time of this summit the world is dark. This is an indication of the darkness of the summit.

There were various conclusions drawn by the summit-eers, one was to loan more money to 3rd world countries. This was is a strong continuation of the general theme of enslaving of the world. The money for the loans, as with most loan money, is created by western bankers out of thin air, but those who are foolish enough to borrow it must give a share of their daily work output back to the bankers. This was a typical expansion of Egypt style slavery as has been attempted financially across earlier dates in the series.

Fulfillment: Swine Flu

On April 4, 2009, the first victim to die of Swine Flu became seriously ill. She traveled to various doctors who were unable to diagnose her condition. She was admitted to an emergency room on April 11...

Fulfillment: North Korea Rocket

On Sunday, April 5, 2009, the North Korean government launched a communication satellite into orbit around the earth.

The action in the prophetic story that precedes this even is Moses "TETing" his hands over his head. The action is not simply lifting, but moving his hands in a full circle. This launch put a satellite in a full circle around the earth, just as Moses was commanded to do.

The United Nations eventually condemned the launch which in turn caused the North Koreans to restart its nuclear program.

Key Dates, from the BBC:

• April 5, 2009 North Korea launches rocket.
• April 14, 2009 North Korea ends talks, resumes nuclear program.
• April 29, 2009 North Korea threatens to conduct nuclear test.
• May 25, 2009 North Korea stages nuclear test.
• May 27, 2009 North Korea abandons Korean War Truce.

By Phil Stone
Revised 13000-05-07 (2009-05-28)