Ancient
Hebrew Research Center
Biblical
Hebrew E-Magazine
November, 2005 Issue #021
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Issue Index
Biblical Word of the Month – Prayer (1)
Name of the Month – Solomon
Question of the Month – Best Translation?
Verse of the Month – Genesis 18:23
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Biblical Word of the Month – Prayer (1)
By: Kathy Nichols
One of the words meaning to
pray is Palal from the parent root PL
which literally means “Speak to Authority”.
The parent root letters being the picture of a mouth 
and the picture of a staff 
. The mouth, in this case, representing
speaking, and the staff meaning authority- (hence modern day monarchs holding a
sceptre or bishops a crozier.)
In our modern culture,
prayer means mainly communication between man and God. This definition certainly does apply to some
passages of scripture but it is not the full Hebraic meaning. The parent root pal has the meaning “fall”. Palal literally means to “fall down to
the ground in the presence of one in authority to plead a cause.” A good example of this in Scripture is Isaiah
45:14 (the Sabeans fall down and make supplication to Cyrus). It is a coming to one in authority to
intercede or plead on one’s own behalf or for another.
Recently, a good friend of
mine was visiting a town 10 km from ours and happened to notice an African lady
on her knees pleading to another local lady for a lift as she had been left
completely stranded. As an asylum seeker from
This word Palal also means
judgment. In Old Testament times the
major judicial decisions were made at the gates and entrance to the city. One reason being it was a broad area and easy
for people to gather there. If anyone
had a grievance they would go and “speak to authority” to obtain the justice
they were looking for. The ancient
Hebrew concept of a “judge” is one who restores life. The goal of one that judges or rules is to
bring a pleasant and righteous life to the people. We can now picture the people of the day
hastening to the gates and when their turn comes, falling down and earnestly
asking for intervention in their situation of injustice. The judgement is then what is determined out
of the pleading. The people in Bible
times had amazing concrete examples of pleading in their daily lives as the
courts convened and they saw the daily pleading of those carrying grievances
desperately looking for just answers.
This picture also reminds us of the persevering widow and the unjust
judge in Luke 18:6,7 “Notice what the
corrupt judge says. Now won’t God grant
justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Is he delaying long over them? I tell you
that he will judge in their favour, and quickly! But when the Son of Man comes,
will he find this trust on the earth at all?”
In Psalm 106:30 we read that
Phineas stood up and wrought judgement so
the plague was stopped. The word
judgement here is also Palal. In other words he intervened with zealous
action and protected more people from dying by the plague. His action of intervention was counted to him
as righteousness, to all generations forever.
By honouring the Lord in such a way, Phineas is still being honoured
today. Often during prayer we become
enlightened on how to act or how to bring about God’s justice into a
situation. A key aspect is that prayer
and action can and ought to be closely related because prayer and justice are
linked in God’s mind and in His language.
Palal is also used of Samuel
in 1 Sam 12:23 “.. far be it from me to sin against Adonai
by ceasing to pray (palal) for you!
Rather I will continue instructing you in the good and the right way.” Samuel’s role was to pray, but also to give
instruction which together brought about righteousness and justice. Remembering
that Samuel was a judge meant he understood his responsibility in prayer for
the people. Here again we can see prayer
and action clearly linked. In Hebrew
often when the word “and/or but” is used it is not joining two separate
sentences like in English, but two ideas which are linked. In our western culture we have been trained
to separate things into definite categories, thus sometimes giving a different
meaning to the one originally intended by the Biblical author. Some other words from the PL root are Paliyl and Peliylah which mean a magistrate and justice respectively. The magistrate renders the judgement, which
we saw are “what is determined out of the pleading”.
In Ecc 4:17-5:1 we are
reminded to guard our feet when we go to the house of God and be ready to
listen and not be quick to speak. This is perfect advice for prayer if we truly
desire to “magistrate” or “judge” situations as God wants us to because we need
to hear from Him how to pray for something before actually praying. After all, a magistrate or judge would hardly
give a verdict without hearing the case first.
In the same way I think the Lord is surprised when we assume how to pray
without discerning what He wants to do and thus what we should ask for.
The most common noun for prayer in scripture is t’phillah –
which also has the same PL root and in fact comes from the word palal. In Hebrew it is common for verbs to be formed
into nouns as the language is very much action-based. This is very different to our modern western
languages and culture which consider what we think or believe more valuable and
separated from what we do.
Previously we have seen that the original meaning of to pray is to fall
down and plead. This in turn brings
about a judgment. Because we serve a God
who is full of loving-kindness, He desires to bring about a positive
judgment. This brings us to the next
point.
Another word from the PL root is pala. Added to this root is
the letter aleph 
which in its original picture form is an ox
head meaning “strength”. This word means “perform” i.e. a great work (performed) as an act of
intercession (out of a judgement). It is
translated wonder, marvellous, and extraordinary. Pala
is used primarily with God as its subject, expressing actions that “.. and in our eyes it is amazing!” Psalm
118:23. Interestingly the first use of
this word is in Gen 18:14 “Is any thing
too hard (pala) for Adonai?” Yet, on the other hand God does not require
anything of us that is too difficult (pala).
Deut 30:11. This certainly lifts
our faith to new heights of trust in God for awesome things when we pray. In prayer for our own neighbourhoods, towns,
counties God is waiting to do great miracles out of the pleadings of His
people, because in His heart prayer and miracles are very much related. Miracles are the judgement God wants to bring
about. To our 21st century
minds this positive understanding of judgement can seem foreign, but is in fact
soundly Biblical.
However, with our new
understanding of these various words let’s now look at 1 Chron 16:12 “Remember the wonders (pala) He has done,
His signs, and his spoken judgments.”
Hebrew is also a very concrete language.
In other words uses concepts that can be seen, touched, tasted, smelled
and heard.
Just on the fun side. In 2 Sam 17 when David’s friends brought
supplies and food, beans were included.
The word for bean is also from because of its bent shape as one bowing before
one in authority. So whenever you see
beans from now on, be reminded that our pleadings and prayers are making a
difference to the One in authority who will bring about justice!!
Sources:
- The New Strongs Concordance
- The Ancient Hebrew Language and Alphabet – Jeff
Benner
- The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon – Jeff Benner
- Food at
the time of the Bible – Miriam Feinberg Vamosh
- Complete Jewish Bible –
Translated by David H. Stern copyright 1998.
- www.blueletterbible.org
- www.ancient-hebrew.org
- www.mechon-mamre.org
- www.jerusalemperspective.org
Special thanks to my ongoing
Hebrew teacher Fr John Durkan and also Jeff Benner for his awesome research and
personal encouragement.
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Name of the Month - Solomon
By: Kathy Nichols
Solomon, the
son of David, the man who loved and earnestly sought after wisdom in his early
years. His name comes from shalam
meaning peace and completeness. The root
ShL “to draw out” enables us to understand Solomon’s name even more when we
remember the Lord appeared to him in a dream asking him what he wanted. (1 Kings 3).
The word used for “ask” sha'el is also from the ShL root. AHLB 1472D – Request/ask – to draw out
something that is not known. Solomon
pleased the Lord by asking for wisdom.
Wisdom was the means by which everything was created. Solomon by lifting his voice for wisdom and
seeking her foremost and above all else, was able to draw out the most precious
treasures of God’s greatness and apply them to governing the people in justice,
righteousness and with great prosperity and peace. (1 Kings 4:25) To prosper is
a drawing out of what is needed. (AHLB 1472K)
He also possessed great knowledge in understanding creation. All this in turn inspired the nations of the
earth to come to hear, seek and draw out the wisdom of the God of Israel for
themselves by coming to Solomon. (1 Kings 10:24)
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Question of the Month – Best Translation?
By: Jeff A. Benner
Q: Which version of the Bible is the best translated?
A: A: All modern translations
translate the Hebrew Bible from a modern western perspective and therefore do
not do the justice to actual meaning of Hebrew words. Therefore it is
imperative to understand the Hebrew language of the Bible from an ancient
Hebraic perspective. Each Hebrew word has a Hebraic meaning behind it that is
usually very different from the meaning of the English word used to translate
it. With that said, I have found the Revised Standard Version to be one of the
better translations for a literal rendering of the text. It is not perfect but it
is better than most in my opinion. I am currently working on a "Mechanical
Translation of the Hebrew Bible" which will translate each Hebrew word
exactly the same way each time and is also accompanied with a dictionary that
will define each word in its original Hebraic context. For more on this
translation see the "Mechanical
Translation" Website.
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Verse of the Month – Genesis 18:23
By: Jeff A. Benner
וַיִּגַּשׁ
אַבְרָהָם
וַיֹּאמַר
הַאַף תִּסְפֶּה
צַדִּיק
עִם־רָשָׁע׃
And Abraham drew
near, and said, Wilt thou consume the righteous with the wicked? (ASV)
וַיִּגַּשׁ (vay-yi-gash)
The base word is נגש (nagash) meaning "to draw near". The letter נ (n) is dropped from verbs beginning with this letter when conjugated. The prefix י (y) identifies the subject of the verb as third person, masculine, singular and imperfect tense and therefore means "he will draw near". The prefix ו (v) means "and" and when prefixed to a conjugated verb it reverses the tense, in this case, from imperfect tense to perfect tense. This word would then be translated as "and he drew near".
אַבְרָהָם (av-ra-ham)
This is the name Abraham which is composed of two words, av meaning father and raham meaning lifted. The name Abraham means "father lifted up".
וַיֹּאמַר (vay-yo-mer)
This is one of the most common Hebrew words in the Hebrew Bible. The base word is אמר (amar) meaning to speak or say. The prefixes to this verb are identical to the word above. This word means "and he said".
הַאַף (ha-aph)
The base word is אף (aph) meaning "moreover". The prefix ה (h) is usually used as the definite article (the) but is also commonly used to identify the following sentence as a question.
תִּסְפֶּה (tis-peh)
The base word ספה (saphah) means to consume or devour and is closely related to another word, ספה (saphah) meaning lips in the sense that the lips are used for eating. The prefix ת (t) identifies the subject of the verb as second person, masculine, singular, imperfect tense. This word therefore means "you will devour" but as the sentence is preceded by the ה (h) it would be "will you devour".
צַדִּיק (tsa-diyq)
A noun commonly translated as righteous but more Hebraicly means to be on the correct path.
עִם (iym)
A common Hebrew word meaning with.
רָשָׁע (ra-sha)
A noun commonly translated as wicked but more Hebraicly means to be lost from the correct path.
The following is a literal rendering of this verse from its Hebraic meaning.
And Abraham drew near and said,
"moreover, will you devour those who are on the correct path with those
who are lost from the correct path?"
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Copyright © 2005
Jeff A. Benner
Ancient Hebrew Research
Center
Please feel free to use, copy
or distribute any material within the "Biblical Hebrew E-Magazine"
for non-profit educational purposes only.
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