Genesis 12:1:  “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:”

The focus and most of my attention to my Hebraic study is dealing with words, their origins, their variety of usages, their emotional considerations and possible English equivalents.  As I spend many hours every day researching ancient Hebrew words through various resources at home and in the libraries of Universities and colleges, it is a sure bet that I don’t just look up a word in the back of Strong’s Concordance, some Hebrew dictionary or Lexicon and give the meaning listed there. Anyone can do that do that much. These resources, as good as they are, are not the final word (pun intended).  They can, however, give you a starting point to begin drilling down into the very heart and soul of a Hebrew word and then from there decided which English word best fits the passage you are studying.  Once you reach that point of searching for the best English word you are being dependent upon the Holy Spirit to guide you to the English word that God will use to speak to your heart.  No translator can do that for you, besides you have just as much of the Holy Spirit as any Bible translator or any Chaim Bentorah has.

Occasionally I will have people write to me, especially on Chaim Bentorah’s Face book page where I post memes about Hebrew words and they will say, “That word does not mean that.”  They give no documentation for their understanding of a particular word.  Did their pastor tell them what the word means?   Did they hear some sermon or teaching on that word?  Did they just look it up in the back of Strong’s Concordance or in a Lexicon?  Judging from their rendering of a certain word, I strongly suspect they just did a quick fact check going to their Strong’s Concordance and not finding the English word I used they  quickly concluded I just made up the rendering of a Hebrew word to wow my audience, where they did their homework and checked it out.  Then went on line to declare: “Busted.”

To be fair, Facebook does not lend itself to an academic word study where I can list my resources.  However, I assure you I have my resources and many are from the Jewish sages and rabbis throughout the last 3,000 years.  My English rendering for the word today is one such word as you will not find my rendering in the back of Strong’s or a Lexicon.  I had to search through the works of the Jewish masters to come up with this, but I assure you I did not pull this out of the air, this has been taught long before there was a Hebrew Lexicon.

The Hebrew rabbis or masters teach that in Genesis 12:1 the word land eretz is etymologically related to the word ratzon or will. These Hebrew masters spent their lives studying words, tracing words to their Semitic origins, closely examining word plays, word relationships and all the twist and turns of the ancient Hebrew language that you will not get in a Bible College or Seminary. For someone to say: “I did not find your rendering of that word in the back of Strong’s Concordance therefore you are wrong to render it the way you do”  is like saying, “Your chili does not taste like my grandma’s chili, you did not use her receipt therefore your chili is not real chili. It may smell like my grandma’s chili, it may look like my grandma’s chili, it may be the same color, but it does not taste like my grandma’s chili so it is not chili.  Of course the response would be: “Who says your grandma’s chili is the real deal? How do you know some other chili coming down the pike is not the real chili, or a chili made in Chile itself is not the real chili?”  The point is, there may be many different tastes to chili but they are all made of the same root ingredients with some variation as to the amounts of the ingredients and other ingredients that are entered.

I remember years ago I was attending a missionary conference where there was a panel of missionaries and they were all asked to share how they knew God called them to a certain field. One missionary to Morocco told how his missionary board asked if he would be interested in going to Morocco. He told how he really struggled with the request, not sure if was God’s will. Then one night on his knees pleading to God for some direction, he finally said; “God, I am going to pick up this Bible and open it and if you want me to go to Morocco you show me in this book I have in my hands that I am to go to Morocco.  As he opened it up his eyes fell on a little gold inscription on the inside cover of his Bible saying: “Moroccan leather.”  You know, God will get His message to you one way or the other, you just have to be open to thinking outside the box.  That is true when reading His Word.

So why is it important to see the many different ingredients to a Hebrew word?  By doing so we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to the specific message God has for our hearts.  So I read the passage in Genesis 12:1: “Get thee out of thy country…” and of course that is meaningless to me.  Ok, probably some people hear that as a command after Trump winning the election, but most of us do not hear that.  So, for most of us that phrase has no spiritual meaning at all.  But the Jewish sages found a real spiritual lesson that is applicable to us today.  Rather than say: “Get thee out of thy country…” you could read it as “Get thee out of thy will…”   The sages teach that the will is the emotional and behavior self which is the product of you environment.   This rendering increases the way the Spirit of God can instruct us.  Perhaps  your present employment environment, social environment, recreational environment or even you church environment is causing your will to be the authority in your life dictating  your behavior and emotional wellbeing.   I was in a church one time where God called me to leave, not that there was anything wrong with the church but that I was going to that church filled with pride. The people were very nice filling me with praise over my knowledge of Scripture and I discovered that I was going to that church for no other reason than to have my ego feed rather than soul. God said: “Get thee out of eratz or ratzon (your will).

Commercial break: Order my books on Amazon, (just type in Hebrew Word Study or Chaim Bentorah): Hebrew Word Study Revealing the Heart of God and Beyond the Lexicon (would make great Christmas presents) to discover the wide range of usages for various Hebrew Words. You will find usages by both Christians and the guardians of the Old Testament and Hebrew language– the Jews.