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Language Studies
Hebrew Thoughts
lâmadh - לָמַד (Strong's #1397)
Learn, teach
The Hebrew verb לָמַד lâmadh (Strong's #3925, x86) begins with the picture letter ל, pronounced לָמֶד lâmedh, of an ox-goad, used for disciplining and training an animal or soldiers. The shape of the Phoenician letter, like the Hebrew, also resembles an ox-goad. Hence, we get the once-used מַלְמָד mal'mâdh an "ox-goad" (Strong's #4451), in Judges 3:31, of Shamgar who killed 600 Philistines with an ox-goad. Lesson: if your teacher has an ox-goad, always do your homework!
לָמַד lâmadh is paired with the verb יָסַר yâçar (Strong's #3256) to chastise in Psalm 94:10 and verse 12, "Blessed is the man whom You chastise, O LORD, And teach out of Your law". Compare the description of the untrained (לָמַד lâmadh) bull in Jeremiah 31:18 needing to be chastised (יָסַר yâçar) and the trained heifer in Hosea 10:11. At times our unlearned state is therefore likened to an untrained beast of burden.
Thus לָמַד lâmadh originally meant "to chastise, beat with a rod/ox-goad", and from this in primitive educational times of the stick used to keep soldiers or pupils in order whilst learning. It is used in the book of Chronicles, translated on both occasions by "skillful" in the KJV, equally for training in war and of teaching in music (1 Chronicles 5:18; 25:7). Even God "teaches hands to make war" (2 Samuel 22:35 // Psalm 18:34; cf. Judges 3:1-2), though during the millennial future peace they will no longer "learn" war (Micah 4:3), nor indeed will they "learn/teach" for they will all "know" the Lord (Jeremiah 31:34).
Its first use, however, is in the book of Deuteronomy 4:1,5,10,14 of Moses "causing" Israel "to learn", i.e., teaching (using the Hebrew Piel causative form of the verb), the statutes governing life in the new land. In this section of Deuteronomy Moses is told by God to "teach" the statutes (5:31), the people are to "learn" them (5:1), and in turn to "teach" their children (4:10; 11:19), all using the same verb alternating between the basic Qal form "to learn" and the Piel "to teach/cause to learn". Learning was not just a stick in the classroom, though, for it was to be "when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up" (11:19).
The awesome fear or perhaps, better, respect of the Lord is something that can be taught, learned and caught according to Deuteronomy 4:10; 14:23; 17:19 and 31:12-13, "that they may learn to fear me"; cf. Psalm 34:11.
Learning is about imitation and copying and these were things they were told to be wary of lest they learned from the abominable practices of other nations (Deuteronomy 18:9; 20:18; Psalm 106:35). The aspect of imitation is what leads to the use of this word for discipleship. תַּלְמִיד tal'mîydh (Strong's #8527) "student" is used only in 1 Chronicles 25:8 in the Bible but more commonly in the period after. The similarly derived word, תַּלְמוּד tal'mûwdh, is used for the Talmud, or "learning", comprising the learned thoughts of centuries of rabbis on the Torah Law and Mishnah oral law.
Whilst לָמַד lâmadh may appear to be more disciplinarian and militaristic than the parallel term יָרָה yârâh (Strong's #3384) meaning "to shoot out the hand as pointing, to show, indicate", "to teach, instruct", "to lay foundations", "to sprinkle, to water" from which we derive the word תּוֹרָה tôwrâh (Strong's #8451) "law, instruction". Nonetheless, יָרָה yârâh can also mean "to shoot, as an arrow" and the back of the hand can be just as punitive as a goad held in the hand. Indeed, לָמַד lâmadh is also paralleled in Psalm 25:4-5 with יָדַה yâdhah (Strong's #3045) "know, show by sight or experience" and דָרַך dârakh (Strong's #1869) "to tread a path, or be led along the way", both gentler forms of instruction.
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