Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

dâbhar - דָּבַר (Strong's #1696)
Speak, lead, pronounce

dâbhar "speak, lead, pronounce" דָּבַר (Strong's #1696)

"And God spake..." (Genesis 8:15, KJV)

The root verb דָּבַר dâbhar "to speak" (Strong's #1696, x1143) gives rise to דָּבָר dâbhâr "word" (Strong's #1697, x1441) which means both the 'word' itself and its accompanying creative 'act' and takes some 85 different English words in the KJV to translate its range of meaning including 'power', 'purpose', 'book', 'provision', 'reason', 'work', 'matter', 'thing', 'cause' or 'commandment' (e.g., the 10 commandments or 10 words, Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13; 10:4), it could be a written report, single utterance, whole book, or prophetic message.

The first use of דָּבָר dâbhâr, the noun, is in Genesis 11:1 describing the world before the confusion of Babel when everyone had the same דָּבָר dâbhâr or 'speech, dialect'.

The root verb, on the other hand, first occurs in Genesis 8:15, when God spoke to Noah, but not for the first time, as 6:13 records God speaking to Noah, using a different more common verb אָמַר ’âmar "to utter, say" (Strong's #559, x5308). Should we read anything into the difference?

Genesis 8:15, "And God spoke unto Noah, saying..." וַיְדַבֵּר אלהים vay^edhabbêr ’elôhiym uses דָּבַר dâbhar, whilst Genesis 6:13; 9:8 etc, "And God spoke unto Noah..." uses the more common וַיּאמַר אלהים vayyô’mer ’elôhiym using אָמַר ’âmar. These are clearly stylistic variations and not to be distinguished in meaning. Nearly 800x Elohim speaks or says, of which probably 80% use אָמַר ’âmar over דָּבַר dâbhar, when paired with YHVH in nearly 2200 instances, again אָמַר ’âmar is used nearly 4x as often as דָּבַר dâbhar.

It is used in Jeremiah twice as often as Isaiah, in the two books of Kings nearly three times as often as in the books of Chronicles. Numbers uses it most in the Pentateuch, and it is frequent in Job and Psalms but not Proverbs or Ecclesiastes. Daniel and Zechariah use it most among the minor prophets.

Perhaps דָּבַר dâbhar is ever so slightly to be distinguished as more formal or emphatic, but not absolutely so. The root verb has a range of meanings and many consider the primary sense to be that of "ordering, arranging" something, implying something that is more structured and ordered, as in a thought out sentence or speech, not just random words, but comprehensible words put in order.

Indeed, the verb is used emphatically, in a way typical of Hebrew, by doubling up the word, as in Exodus 4:14, "Is there not Aaron thy brother the Levite? I know that he can speak well." Nearly all versions translate דַבֵּר יְדַבֵּר dhabbêr yedhabbêr as "speak well", just the NASB prefers "speak fluently", as if Moses had a stutter rather than a lack of confidence in public speaking. The Hebrew uses the Piel intensive mood of the verb followed by an infinitive Piel to modify it further to imply some kind of heightened deliberation and perfection of speech.

Both verb and noun occur in places like Deuteronomy 18:22 "when a prophet speaks (verb) in the name of the LORD, if the word/prediction (noun) does not happen or come to pass, that is the word/prediction (noun) which the LORD has not spoken (verb)...".

A second meaning is that of "leading, guiding, ruling", especially of sheep to pasture, or even of bees. In the Arabic a 'swarm' of bees uses the same root word and Hebrew has the derived noun דְּבוֹרָה debhôrâh "bee" (Strong's #1682, x4) and the proper name of the same meaning, Deborah (Strong's #1683, x10).

Another intensive Piel use seems to come in 2 Chronicles 22:10 "when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal seed of the house of Judah." The translation "destroyed" is from דָּבַר dâbhar but in the parallel verse in 2 Kings 11:1 it uses אָבַד ’âbhadh "to destroy, perish, be lost" (Strong's #6, x184). The Hebrew sense here seems to be that of plotting, setting in order a scheme to bring about death and destruction, or of passing sentence, pronouncing judgement.

Some regard the use of דָּבַר dâbhar in 2 Chronicles 22:10 as an error in the Hebrew text, but since another derived noun from דָּבַר dâbhar is, in fact, דֶּבֶר debher "pestilence" (Strong's #1698, x49) which signifies plague and destruction, 90% of the time when sent by God as a promise (curse) or prophecy, it would seem a plausible use, albeit hard to translate without its parallel in 2 Kings.

Psalm 47:3 [Heb.v4] "He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet" unusually translates the causative Hiphil form of the verb as "subdue" in the sense of being led or forced away. Psalm 18:47 [Heb.v48] uses it similarly.

Hence, it can be seen that דָּבַר dâbhar "to speak (in order)" has almost as wide a range of meaning as דָּבָר dâbhâr "word".

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