HEBREW WORD STUDY – PROPHESY
I Samuel 19:20: “And Saul sent messengers to take David; and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.”
Prophesy – Hebrew: Nevim – to prophesy, to announce, to predict.
Saul sends out his goons to take care of David, but before finding David they run into Samuel and his school of prophets who were standing around prophesying. All of a sudden Saul’s assassins started to prophesy themselves and came back to Saul prophesying. Saul sends out another group of cold, heartless hit men and they come back prophesying. He sends out a third group of killers and they too come back prophesying. So Saul goes himself and when he encounters Samuel he begins to prophesy, only he does one better and strips himself naked before Samuel falls on the ground and starts to roll around in the dust all day and night prophesying.
I am sure if they tried to make a movie of this some director is going to sit back, scratch his head and say: “How in the blazes do we portray this in a movie?” I agree, unless we really understand what that word “prophesy” means, we do not really get what is going on in this story.
The word for prophesy is “nevim.” which comes from the root word “navu.” If you look it up in your lexicon and/or Hebrew dictionary it will tell you that it means “prophesy.” Big help. It also means to announce or predict. Still no help.
In reviewing other Semitic languages I found in the Akkadian language the exact word, navu. It was used for a Babylonian god who was the God of writing and wisdom. It is said that he had the power to increase or diminish one’s life. He was so powerful that he would engrave each man’s destiny in a clay tablet. He was the son of Marduk who was the god of magic and judgment. Generally within the Semitic languages navu conveys the idea of someone who has deep spiritual insight into the destiny of men and nations and can call upon a superior power to control this destiny. That is pretty heady stuff if one fancies himself a prophet today.
The word “nevu” is spelled “Nun, Beth, Aleph. “ The first letter “Nun” expressed the idea of being swallowed or totally encompassed. The second letter is “Beth” which carries the idea of a house and combined with the Nun has the idea of being totally surrounded by it. The last letter is “Aleph” which represents God and when joined with the Nun and Beth carries the idea of opening oneself up to be completely encompassed with God’s joy. Thus when Saul and his group of assassins began to prophesy, what they did was open themselves up to be swallowed by the Spirit of God and to experience His joy. In other words their minds were so wrapped up in the ecstasy of God that they completely forgot about their mission to kill David.
It would seem that the word “nevim” has a broad range of use, but one thing is common among all its usages and that is there is the strong, tangible presence of God. Nehemiah 8:10 tells us the joy of the Lord is our strength. Perhaps that is the joy Saul felt under the “nevim.” Jesus said that He will give us His peace, not that the world gives (John 14:27).
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