ARAMAIC WORD STUDY –  MADE, DISAPPEAR  ‘AVEDI, ‘AVEDI   עבדי. אבדי  

Jeremiah 10:11: “Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, [even] they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.”

I was reading Jeremiah 10 in my Hebrew Bible today and was shocked when I reached verse 11. There was this dramatic change in the language.  I mean I was no longer reading Hebrew but I was reading Aramaic.  Why does Jeremiah suddenly jump from Hebrew to Aramaic?  Obviously, I am not the first one to see this, so I went to the internet and the commentaries.  

True, most the commentators recognized this verse was written in Aramaic, but they had no real definitive reason why Jeremiah wrote this in Aramaic. Some said this was poetry and he was making a play on words that could not be made in Hebrew.   

The word made ‘avedi in “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth”  Is a play on the word perish ‘avedi which sounds identical but the word made is spelled with an Ayin and the word for perish is spelled with an Aleph.  Some commentators believe Jeremiah was mocking the gods with the wordplay, that they did not make the heavens and the earth yet they have not appeared.  I don’t get it.

Other say Jeremiah was instructing those in captivity what to say to their captives in their own Aramaic language so there would be no dispute as to their position.  Others say that Jeremiah was speaking to the elite.  Hebrew was just at this point transitioning from the spoken mother language to the Aramaic language and becoming a ceremonial language. 

There are some good scholarly reasons why Jeremiah might have written this passage in Aramaic but that is not my concern. You see my role as Chaim Bentorah is to show you that the Word of God is living and not just an academic exercise or a book of history as many Biblical scholars view this book.  To them, they see no spiritual value in this passage being written in Aramaic, just a curious oddity that needs an explanation.   

In all my years of studying the Bible in Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew, three to four hours a day this is the first time I ran across this verse in the original text.  I am sure many of my professors in Bible College and Seminary knew this verse was written in Aramaic, but they never shared this fact in class or with me. I can only surmise they did not feel it had any value.  I never heard any pastor preach on this verse or even mention it was written in Aramaic, for they probably saw no spiritual value in it. 

So you have the reason for Chaim Bentorah’s existence.  I believe every verse, every word of Scripture has spiritual value.  Yes, even all the begats and the dimensions of the temple have spiritual value for us today and it is my goal in the remaining days of my life on this earth to encourage Christians to seek these spiritual values for themselves.  

So why did God give us this verse written Aramaic?  What does that mean for us today?  Think about it, meditate on it let the Spirit of God guided you to a message.  For me personally,  I believe the answer is in the wordplay. “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth” in Aramaic also sounds exactly like “The gods have not disappeared from the heavens and the earth. (But they will perish from under the earth and heavens.)”  

You see the people have been taken from their land where God was the center of their existence and thrown into a world of pagan idols.  Jeremiah was warning those who worshiped and served God faithfully to beware of a real danger.   He was telling them that they were now living in a land of paganism and idolatry and that these pagan beliefs could very easily infiltrate their true faith without their realization.  

You see we live in a land, although a Christian nation, we are still a nation filled with much idolatry and paganism.  This idolatry and paganism can easily creep into our faith without realizing it. Today our idols are flesh and blood, rock stars, movie stars, politicians, teachers, and pastors etc.   I attended a church where the people really loved their pastor, which is good, but I sensed something else.  They worshipped him.  They honored him on his birthday and had a special program of honor and gifts for him. They also honored him on Pastor Appreciation Day, and on his Anniversary in coming to the church.  I would talk to the people in the church and “Oh, our pastor, such a godly man.”   Single women were encouraged to treat the pastor like a surrogate husband and father.  They could not even purchase a car without getting his approval. Everyone they dated had to be approved by their pastor.  Do I need to go on?  They “idolized” their pastor and the pastor did absolutely nothing to discourage it, he even encouraged it. A pastor can be seen, God you cannot see, people want someone they can see. The danger is that they would never question their pastor, never disagree with him. They would not search the Word of God out for themselves but would go to their pastor to reveal the Word to them.

I think Jeremiah’s message is just as important today as it was back in his day.  Beware when living in a pagan land which the chief idols are flesh and blood. You will be tempted to worship an idol of flesh and blood.  It could be rock stars, movie stars, boyfriends or girlfriends, teachers, pastors, politicians or even Chaim Bentorah.  To show how subtle the danger is Jeremiah even put his warning into a pagan language.