Language Studies

hâghâh "meditate" (Strong's #1897, x25) means to "to moan, mutter, muse, meditate, or mourn" neatly alliterating to 5 'm' words in English but can also extend to "groaning and growling" as of a lion over its prey (Isaiah 31:4). It occurs only in books of prophecy or poetry, despite its initial occurrence being in Joshua 1:8. Firstly, Joshua…

chêphets "delight" (Strong's #2656, x39) comes from a root verb châphêts "to bend, curve, incline, desire, be favourable, delight in" (Strong's #2654) that is used, for example, of Behemoth's "bended" or "wagging" tail in Job 40:17. At its simplest the verb can mean just "to want", as when Solomon "gave the queen of Sheba all she…

The frequently occurring root verb yâshabh (Strong's #3427, x1090) generally means to "dwell, remain, abide, sit" and thus is broader in application than a mere "sitting down" to supper. Metaphorically it is used for dwelling and inhabitation, God formed the earth to be "inhabited" (Isaiah 45:18). Where one "sits" is where one "lives". It can also…

In our modern world of political and theological correctness there has been a tendency to try and soften this word's meaning toward something more agricultural or constructive. Most of these attempts fail since the word does indeed seem to imply a level of coercion, force and oftentimes violence. All this is even before the Fall given…

môwshâbh (Strong's #4186) comes from the commonly occuring (over a 1000 times) root yâshabh (Strong's #3427) meaning to "dwell, remain, abide, sit". Prefixing an 'm-' to make a noun from a verb is common in Hebrew as evidenced by the 1030+ dictionary entries under the letter 'm', nearly 1/8 of the lexicon total. Essentially, the noun…

The word tôrâh (Strong's #08451) means more than just 'law', its usual simplistic translation (always 'law' in the KJV 219x). It derives from yrh yârâh (Strong's #03384) meaning 'to shoot out the hand as pointing, to show, indicate', 'to teach, instruct', 'to lay foundations', 'to sprinkle, to water', 'to shoot…

The word nâqâm (Strong's #5359, x17) is almost universally translated as "vengeance" in the NAS apart from the odd "quarrel" or "avenge" in the KJV. It is nice to have such a consistently translatable word, but does the Hebrew fully correspond to the not so nice English word "vengeance". The English word comes from the 13th century Old French…

lûwts (preferred by Gesenius, Fuerst, Strong, Davidson, Leopold, Davies) or lîyts (preferred by the more recent BDB, HALOT, Holladay) (Strong's #3887) is a an interesting verb with two or three supposed spellings and possibly two supposed root meanings. Since the middle consonant is a weak letter and often drops out in verbal forms it is supplied almost by conjecture, of its 27 occurrences we find 9 occasions with 'y', 1 with 'w', and 17 with the 2nd root consonant absent…

‘âmadh (Strong's #5975) "to stand" can be used in many ways just as in English. It could mean stand as in "to stand for election", "identify with", "take a stand", and often carries the sense of "enduring", as with the counsel of the Lord which "stands forever" (Psalm 33:11). Its first use is in Genesis 18:8 when the three divine men come and visit…

lô’ (Strong's #3808) is l⒠(Strong's #3808, x67) in Aramaic and l⒠in Arabic, as in ’ilâha ill⒠’allâh "there is no God but Allah" (Sûrah Muhammad 47:19), which may feel awkward to Jews and Christians but which literally means "there is no deity if-not God" (a translation accepted even by some muslims such as Muhammad Asad, for Allah is merely…

The word chay "life" (Strong's #2416, x501), often seen suspended from a chain around the neck of many modern Jews, is first used in the Creation narrative when God commands, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures" (Genesis 1:20, NKJV). The AV renders this "moving creatures that hath life", both miss the literal…

râsh①(Strong's #7563) "wicked" or criminal or guilty, often in opposition to God. This word occurs 263 times most frequently in the Psalms (82x), Proverbs (78x), Ezekiel (28x) and Job (26x). It is used in parallel with almost every Hebrew word for sin, evil, and iniquity. It describes the person more as an adjective whilst the noun…

The word shittîym is actually the plural of shittâh (Strong's #7848, x28) and is left untranslated in the KJV as shittim, and translated as "acacia" in later bible versions. The singular only occurs once in Isaiah 41:19, "I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the shittah tree". The remaining occurrences refer to the wood rather…

The word miz'bêach (Strong's #4196, x402) is always translated as "altar" in the KJV and does not at first sight jump off the page as worthy of a full word study, however, a Jewish use of the word as an acrostic base from which to teach certain tenets of salvation makes it interesting. The Talmud (Tanchuma Tzab 14) cites the following…