Is that ALL?
Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. Exodus 3:16 NASB
Indeed concerned– Frankly, this translation is pathetic. I don’t mean it is bad; I mean it lacks all the emotion and power necessary to understand what God says. This is, after all, God’s announcement that He is going to redeem Israel from Egypt. Is the amazing force of such a declaration captured in “indeed concerned”? It’s sounds like a line from a British movie.
Listen. I can be concerned about the traffic on I-95. I can be concerned about the news that there is a tornado in Nebraska. But that doesn’t make much difference to me, or to anything I can do about it. To be “concerned” is to discuss, examine, study, analyze, take notice of, worry about, be disturbed. But this isn’t how God feels about what is happening to His people in Egypt. The Hebrew is pakod pakadti (or paqod paqadtiy, if you prefer). You will notice that it is the same root doubled. The root is pāqad, “to number (count), reckon, visit (cf. Exodus 34:7), punish” and “appoint.”
“The basic meaning is to exercise oversight over a subordinate, either in the form of inspecting or of taking action to cause a considerable change in the circumstances of the subordinate, either for the better or for the worse.”[1]
This is definitely not passing “concern.” And, of course, not knowing what to do with the doubled root, the translators supply “indeed” rather than putting in an exclamation point or underlining or shouting from the rooftops or blowing the shofar. Pathetic!
Ah, what we are about to learn here will definitely help you solve the enigma of the “generational curse” so commonly derived from Exodus 34:7 (the “iniquity of the fathers” sort of baloney). So pay attention! [My gosh, did I really write this? It’s so confrontational. Not like me at all].
pakod pakadti is “the secret of redemption,” to use a phrase from Zornberg. It is a “technical, coded form” for saying that God’s mouth is engaged here. The letter Pey is the proto-Hebrew picture of mouth and expressing the sounds of the mouth. The one who comes uttering words reinvents the future because words redefine meaning in the mouth of the speaker. That is, “in the simplest sense, the meaning of redemption”[2]is to create and nurture life—to change the future for something good. The entire point of this passage is the God sees! He sees the condition of His people. He agonizes with them. He identifies with them. He knows their suffering. And He determines to deliver. He does precisely what Heschel suggests is incumbent upon every one of us who wish God’s involvement when we pray. To come to God’s attention. To become a concern of the Creator.
Did we imagine that “indeed concerned” was momentary glance, a cognitive pause, perhaps a review of the past like a kind of heavenly traffic pattern analysis? Heschel reminds us that this is not the kind of God who loves Israel:
“God revealed Himself to the prophets in a specific state, in an emotional or passionate relationship to Israel. He not only demanded obedience but He was personally concerned and even stirred by the conduct of His people. Their actions aroused His joy, grief, or disappointment. His attitude was not objective but subjective.”[3]
If we are going to find redemption, then it must begin with being a concern of the Maker. It must begin with God taking notice (pakod pakadti). And when He does take notice, something always happens.
Now go look at Exodus 34:7, and remember the code.
Topical Index: Exodus 3:16, Exodus 34:7, pakod pakadti, paqad, redemption
[1]Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., Jr., & Waltke, B. K. (Eds.). (1999). Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 731). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2]Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus(Schocken Books, New York: 2001), p. 57.
[3]Abraham Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, p. 182.
