Backwards Joy
In each and every province and in each and every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree arrived, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many among the peoples of the land became Jews, for the dread of the Jews had fallen on them.Esther 8:17 NASB
Gladness/joy– Here we have an example of translation confusion. Typically the word śimḥâ is translated “joy,” but because there is a synonym in close proximity, śimḥâ in this verse is translated “gladness” so that śāśôn, the following expression of celebration, can be translated “joy.” Gary Cohen notes: “(śāśôn). Joy, gladness, rejoicing, mirth. This masculine noun makes twenty-two appearances in the ot, and almost universally it speaks of human happiness and abounding delight. Typically in Jer 25:10 God announces that he will use Nebuchadnezzar to take from sinful Judah ‘the voice of mirth (śāśôn);’ and in Jer 31:13 he will turn the mourning of repentant Israel in the last days ‘into joy (śāśôn).’ See the synonym, śimḥâ.”[1] Since it is related to political circumstances, the choice of this word in the book of Esther makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, the English translation obscures that fact that this is the synonym of śimḥâ. Perhaps the verse would have been better translated “there was joy and gladness,” reversing the order so that we would recognize that śimḥâ is the first word, and “gladness” (śāśôn) the second.
The root of śāśôn is śûś. The original context provides an interesting contrast buried within the usage of the term. śûś is a word about joy, rejoicing, and exultation. We expect that the use of this word will be associated with good things, as it is here in Esther with the defeat of Haman. But when Moses uses the word four times in close succession, we discover that śûś has a counterintuitive use as well:
The four usages of the verb śûś in the Mosaic writings occur in Deut 28:63 and 30:9, twice in each verse. Here, amid the Mosaic warnings of the blessings and cursings, three times the Lord is pictured as one rejoicing over Israel to bless them for obedience to his Law, and once as rejoicing over them to destroy them for disobedience! “As the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you” (Deut 28:63.) śûś here thus seems to convey the idea of God’s enthusiasm to bless the righteous and to punish the wicked. Fortunately, by God’s mercy, Deut 30:9 shows that when Israel at last turns back to him, that “the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good.” Likewise in the prophets Israel is the object of his joy (Isa 62:5; 65:19; Jer 32:41; Zeph 3:17.)[2]
If God can rejoice over the destruction of His people, we are challenged to acknowledge that the truest sense of rejoicing comes from God’s perspective, not ours. In fact, this might lead us to realize that biblical language is not anthropomorphic but rather theomorphic, that is, the real definition of terms comes from the divine context and is only derivatively applied to human circumstances. śāśôn and śûś point us toward a change in the way we understand the origin of language. If we are created as speaking beings, then the real foundation of our ability to communicate is found in the author of our speaking, and that means that language is first and foremost a divine attribute. This all sounds too academic until we apply the lesson to a word like “love.” If language begins in the divine, then “love” needs to be understood from the divine before we try to define it in human terms. Just as śûś must mean “rejoicing” from God’s point of view.
Topical Index: śāśôn, śûś, śimḥâ, Deuteronomy 28:63, Deuteronomy 30:9, Esther 8:17
[1]Cohen, G. G. (1999). 2246 שׂוּשׂ. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 873). Chicago: Moody Press.
To know God, to truly know Him in a deep and
transformational way, is a very joyous reality.
For in knowing Him, He’s informed you through
His Word that your relationship together centers
on Him and His will — and that changes you and
your will.
That’s a tough assignment for any human being,
but God knows upon the receipt of a new heart
from Him, the impossible becomes possible.
Skip, you’re right. Understanding God’s Word is to
know it’s a divine language. Yeshua said: “The words
I have spoken you are spirit and they are life.” Jn 6:63
To understand them, and put them in use, takes a new
heart and mind that are sensitive to the divine.
And that’s exactly what we receive when we receive
Him. Then, with Him, we work out our salvation.
Skip, you wrote, “(If) we are created as speaking beings, then the real foundation of our ability to communicate is found in the author of our speaking, and that means that language is first and foremost a divine attribute.” Excellent observation, but it begs the question. While language began with YHWH, in humans it devolved into a tool for evil and strife as James 3:6 says “Yes, the tongue is a fire, a world of wickedness. The tongue is so placed in our body that it defiles every part of it, setting ablaze the whole of our life; and it is set on fire by Gei-Hinnom itself.”
So when and where did language fall from being the instrument of the Divine image within human beings to the place we find ourselves today where our tongue (the instrument of speech) was “set on fire by Gei-Hinnom itself” and how do we extinguish this “hell fire” to regain the purity of the “real foundation of our ability to communicate” with YHWH and each other?
We humans seems to have a knack for taking God’s good gifts and turning them into something destructive. Only when we keep our eyes, our hearts, and our behavior focused on Him can we avoid these pitfalls…and even then, it’s a challenge.
From Laurita:
I suspect that, as we have to depend on other life to be able to live in our bodies and digest our food and run our brains, etc. that our “divine attributes” also require that we depend on other (god-like) life to get that job done, too. We think it is just ‘us’ who is lusting after whatever to eat or that it is is just a mental problem if we are experiencing depression because our lower gut colonies that produced the butyrate (short chain fatty acid foundational building block for neurotransmitters) needed to make the good stuff that keeps us from being depressed have been wiped out by some sort of antibiotic or other disaster. Think again! Other life is in on the action.
Ever notice that you can detect a ‘spirit’ behind speech? A spiritual driver, so to speak, that is providing the motive for the speech. Is the speech bitter or self-serving? Is it edifying or confusing? Does it have the effect of drawing and attracting, or do you feel like you just got dissed or rejected or judged? We feel this spiritual force: speakers say that they are responding to the collective audience: their spirits can detect the relative hostility or acceptance by the audience and it shapes the presentation, too. There is a collective, shared spirit in the audience, as well as individual ‘takes’. But I believe that the spiritual motivations that drive WHY we say something also shape what we say, as well as don’t say, and they determine what spirit it is spoken in, too. Ask any parent who tried to make their child apologize and got a surly, unapologetic “sorry” out of them. What does the parent say? “You did not mean what you said.” It was the right words spoken in the wrong spirit: the wrong motivation. It was not the spirit of repentance; therefore the (wrong) spirit negated the words. Speech that is motivated by love will bear different fruit than the exact same words spoken in fear or self serving or religious pride, even. And the hearer will know the difference in their spirit!
I suspect that all speech will either heal or kill: attract or repel: communicate or confuse, depending on the motivation behind the speaker (AND the listener, too). The listener causes the speaker to choose a spirit to speak in that positions them with the listener. In my experience, the listener has a huge effect on the motivational choice the speaker decides to employ. (Who wants an eager listener? Every speaker!)
I think if we want our tongues to quit scorching the landscape, we are going to have to choose new reasons to speak. That is going to necessitate a changing of the power source in the guardhouse of our tongues. It’s never alone in there: we are always keeping company with a spiritual motivation of some sort. It’s never just ‘our’ tongue: I have decided that we must be sharing the device with a driver – a power – a spiritual “elohim”, or, ruler – at any given point, and that not all of them are from heaven!