Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

Mâyîm - מָיִם (Strong's #4325)
Water(s)

The word מָיִם mâyîm (Strong's #4325, x582) first appears in the Creation narrative of Genesis:

"And the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God hovered upon the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2)

The earth existed and water existed but land and light had not yet appeared. Water is considered one of the primaeval elements and the letter 'M' in many ancient alphabets (e.g., Phoenician, Greek) represented water. Ancient Ugaritic used mym and Egyptian my whilst many modern languages' words for "water" or "sea" begin with 'm' and still carry its influence: mar (Spanish), mer (French), meer (German), mare (Latin), m⒠(Arabic), mai (Ethiopic).

The Hebrew word מָיִם mâyîm is a plural of מַי may but which never occurs in the singular perhaps because water could not be thought of as singular or because of its ability to flow and fill any space to the full; at best, only a raindrop could be considered to be one "water" as opposed to many "waters".

As the Creation narrative continues we find God organising and naming the waters, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters" (Genesis 1:6) and "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry appear ... the gathering together of the waters He called Seas" (Genesis 1:9-10).

In Hebrew the word for "heaven" is shâmmayîm (Strong's #8064, x420) of an unknown origin possibly meaning lofty. As shâmmayîm contains the word מָיִם mâyîm with simply a ש sh- prefix, which is a letter often meaning "two of" or "a doubling", it could be that shâmmayîm simply means "second waters" as the waters below were divided from the waters above. Other ancient peoples used to believe that the sky was water because of rain and as on the horizon the sea and sky met and the sun used to descend into the sea each evening to reemerge the next day, apparently out of the sea. Psalm 148:4 speaks of waters above the heavens and Jeremiah 10:13 of "a multitude of waters in the heavens". So "heaven" and "water" may be related words.

Furthermore, in Hebrew the word for "sea" is יָם yâm (Strong's #3220, x396) a simple letter reversal of the singular word for water מַי may. At the Red Sea God re-ordered the waters and sea again (Exodus 14:21) causing dry land to appear and the waters to divide.

In the Middle East, even today, water is as prized a commodity as oil, one cannot drink gasoline and a camel will keep running on even the meagerest supply of water. "Water has been so strongly related to the national interest through agriculture, security, and ideology that the former prime minister Moshe Sharett declared: “Water to us is life itself.”". (Mostafa Dolatyar, The Middle Eastern Environment: Selected Papers of the 1995 Conference of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, ed. Eric Watkins, 1995). "Many of the wars of this [20th] century were about oil", World Bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin once observed, "but the wars of the next century will be about water". "Water is taking over from oil as the likeliest cause of conflict in the Middle East" (http://www.mideastnews.com/WaterWars.htm).

Hence water as a precious commodity is often used as a metaphor for bounty, provision, revival and blessing. Whilst its overflowing could be used in judgement (The Flood, Genesis 7:17-20), its withholding was also considered a curse on the disobedient (Leviticus 26:19; Deuteronomy 28:23; Amos 4:7; 1 Kings 18:18). A truly arid desert (as opposed to a semi-arid wilderness) was a place without blessing, without trees or water, without shade or refreshment. Curiously, of all the nations in the Middle East Israel has the least problem with water and through both God-given climate and man-made agricultural engineering has brought waters to a dry land.

Power and control over water was deemed a divine function. God demonstrated his mastery at the Red Sea deliverance (Exodus 14:21-29; 15:1-18), Israel's crossing of the Jordan River (Joshua 3:16; 4:18), and Elijah's crossing of the Jordan (2 Kings 2:8). Similarly God was able to bring water from a rock (Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:1-13; Psalm 78:16,20, Isaiah 48:21) and will bring water to the desert (Isaiah 35:6-7; 43:20). Indeed an ancient Egyptian symbol of divinity was a man walking on water as the Egyptian god Horus was meant to have done and as Jesus in the gospels.

Finally, íéî mâyîm could also be used euphemistically or metaphorically. In 2 Kings 18:27 // Isaiah 36:12 the invading king of Assyria's spokesman refers to the people of Israel on the walls as those that "drink their own piss [waters] with you?" (KJV).

Isaiah 48:1 refers to the house of Jacob that "have come forth from the waters of Judah", some translations render this "wellsprings" (NKJV) or "fountains" (JPS) but others see it as referring euphemistically to seminal fluid, the NIV avoids it completely by calling it "the line of Judah".

Ezekiel 7:17 has what has almost become a common idiom "Every hand will be feeble, And every knee will be as weak as water" and literally reads "all knees will walk waters", perhaps meaning that the knees will become like jelly and will flow and wobble.

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