Language Studies

'elôhîym (Strong's #430, pronounced elow-heem) 'God[s]' occurs more than 2600 times. 'elôhîym is a plural noun (-îm). The plural is probably to be understood of power and majesty (cf. the monarch's "royal 'we'") or possibly of triunity, although this would more than likely be reading too much into what is more probably a Hebrew idiom…

The word pelegh (Strong's #6388, x10) seems to possibly indicate specific channels that have been cut or forged by way of division. It is not just another word for river or stream. In the cognate related semitic languages including Akkadian, Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopic and Ugaritic, the verb means to "split or divide" and the noun…

The verb Râ'âh (Strong's #07200) is used of normal sight, of seeing God and also, as in Isaiah 30:10, of the prophets 'seeing' a vision: "[those] which say to the seers, see not!", or in Samuel above of the seer as the "one who sees". Hence the derived words rô’eh (Strong's #7203) and mar'’eh (Strong's #4758) for visions. It differs from…

Despite carrying an apparent feminine suffix the Hebrew word lay'lâh (Strong's #3915, x242) is masculine, so no female night deity or demon (cf. Lillith, Isaiah 34:14) is intended here. In fact, of the two forms of this word lay'lâh probably carries an h suffix to intend the meaning "by night" or "towards night", but which later became…

Indeed "teaching" (yârâh) is linked to rain in 1 Kings 8:36 "then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants ... that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land...". and conversely the receipt of "early rain" (yârâh) is compared to finding the knowledge of God, "Let us know, Let us pursue…

The traditional Jehovah/Yahweh name of God is a confusion of Christian history. The earliest recorded pronunciation of ha-Shem 'the Name' as 'Jehovah' is 1520 A.D.. Early Greek transliterations of it are ’Iabe, where the 'b' represents a Hebrew 'v' and the 'I' a 'y' for the Greeks had no 'y,j,h,v', and are thus closest to Ya(h)ve(h). The unpointed…

In its first use in Genesis 3:1 the original King James Version rendered the word ‘ârûwm "subtil", like the French, Middle French soutil, Middle English sotil/sutil and Latin subtilis - literally sub + tela, referring to the cloth on a loom and having to do with weaving. So it involved craft in the sense of manufacture rather than craft in…

In the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) the concept of grace appears in the words cheçedh (Strong's #02617) and chên (Strong's #02580). chên is translated by 'grace' some 38 times in the King James Bible and has the additional meanings of 'favour', 'beauty' and 'loveliness'. In 40 of its 69 occurrences it is found in the…

Occurring some 164 times in the O.T., the root verb dârash (Strong's #1875) literally means to 'rub, beat, tread, trample, or thresh with the feet' and hence to 'frequent' a place or thing by regular visiting or enquiry. It appears to have little relevance to Moses going in diligent search of a goat! The pictoral image…

In Ezekiel's parable of the eagles and the vine in 17:5-10 the implied horticultural logic is that something "planted" by very definition will prosper, be fruitful and grow majestically so long as it has good soil and water. In a later simile Israel is likened to a fruitful vine "planted" beside the waters and then transposed to a wilderness…

The word `Êts (Strong's #6086, x328) is used of a tree or wood itself including everything from firewood to a gallows. It is first used for wood rather than a tree in the building of the ark when Noah is commanded (Genesis 6:14) to build an ark of ‘atsêy-gôpher a uniquely occuring term for a type of wood not absolutely known, possibly…

Hebrew words are almost universally derived from active verbs hence 'love' is not a noun or a state but an action such as 'he loved, he is loving'. Whilst Greek can say 'God is love', Hebrew says 'God loves' or 'God is a lover'. This root verb (Strong's #157) occurs over 300 times in the Old Testament Scriptures and can range…

The verb shâbhath (Strong's #7673, x73) has some affinities with the cognate verbs yâshabh (Strong's #3427) "to sit" and shâphath (Strong's #8239) "to set, place, put down". This latter verb is twice used of putting a pot on to boil (2 Kings 4:38; Ezekiel 24:3), of being lain to rest in death (Psalm 22:15), and of establishing peace…

One of the most important words and concepts in Scripture is that of 'the Word' itself. It forms the opening thought of John's Gospel in which he echoes the thought and structure of the opening passage of Genesis. Genesis opens with: "In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth . . ." (Genesis 1:1) Whilst John draws…