Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Jeremiah 17:7: “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose trust is the Lord.”
This is a very difficult passage to translate. You have the word “trust” (betach) used two times. The word “betach” has a large range of use. There is also the use of the word “havah” just before the word Jehovah. This is very unusual. Most your translators will translate “havah” as “is.” This may be correct but such a translation ignores the remez. The phrase “havah Jehovah” is very poetic and powerful.
It could also be translated as Jehovah eternal. The word betach has the idea of clinging to or adhering to. A modern expression is to be welded to. Blessed is the “man.” Man here is “gavar,” a strong man, a hero. For a “gavar” to cling or weld himself to Jehovah is an act of humility. It is easy for a weak or poor person to weld himself to God. But someone who is strong, self sufficient, and/or wealthy, clinging to God does not always come to mind. But for such a man it is not only important to cling to God but God must also be his “trust.”
This is where that phrase: “havah Jehovah,” is really important. A strong, self sufficient and/or wealthy person is more apt to be earthly minded than a weak or helpless person. A strong person has the material world as his oyster. Yet the real blessing lies in “havah Jehovah.”
This passage can be rendered: “Blessed is the strong, self sufficient, and wealthy person who clings to the Lord and to who attaches to eternal values (not temporal values). In theology we learn that God is infinite, but we are eternal. Infinity has no beginning or end. Eternity has a beginning but no end. The natural has a beginning and has an end. This chapter in Jeremiah is trying to point out how wrong it is to trust in the natural, in temporal things. It is foolish to trust in things that will quickly come to an end, but true wisdom is to trust in those things that are eternal.
This is what it seems Jeremiah is trying to say: “Not only is a man blessed who loses his job and trust in God for a new job to meet his temporal needs, but who values really lie in eternal things.” In other words the truly blessed man is the one who is strong and self sufficient but puts his trust in God to provide for his temporal needs so he can concentrate on those things that offer eternal value. He is the man, like the three Hebrews, who can face the fiery furnace and say: “God can deliver me, but if He doesn’t I will not compromise because my mind is set on eternal things, not the temporal things of this world.” He is the man who can say: “For me to live is Christ, to die is to gain.”
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