Generational Trust

BySkip Moen, Ph.D.

Blessed be the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord becomes his trust.  Jeremiah 17:7  Robert Alter

Trusts/ trust – The NASB translates Jeremiah’s words from YHVH with pretty much the same idea, but notice that the syntax (the word order) changes.  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord” (NASB).  Is there any real difference?

Maybe.

First we need to remember that Hebrew doesn’t use the present tense copula (like “is”).  So the Hebrew is, “Blessed the man who trusts in the Lord and hāyâ the Lord his trust.”  Notice that in Hebrew the second part of the sentence uses the same verbal root (bāṭaḥ) as a noun (mibṭaḥ).  Also notice that I have included the actual Hebrew verb in the second part.  It is hāyâ, the verb for “to be, become, exist, happen.”  In English we might translate this as “is,” but Alter’s version is better.  The action (verb) is converted to a condition (noun).  Trusting engenders trust.  This is typical Hebraic thought.  I do in order to become. 

Alter’s translation captures this subtlety when he writes, “the Lord becomes his trust.”  If I act with confidence based on God’s character, it rubs off, and I discover that He becomes my source of security.  Alternatively, if I don’t act with the confidence that God is faithful, then I won’t find the security I desire.  Perhaps this is why Jeremiah begins this short pericope with the verse (17:5), “Cursed be the man who trusts in humans, and makes mortal flesh his strong arm.”  There is an equal but opposite reaction here.

So what does trust look like in Hebrew?  bāṭaḥ is the quintessential verb of relationship.  Positively, it almost always expressed the desired relationship between men and God.  Negatively, it almost always expressed the deceptive and faulty relationship between men and men.  In only one human context is it positive; the context of a husband and wife.  bāṭaḥ is crucial for understanding our relationship to God.  bāṭaḥ is about hope.  But, “the cause for hope is not in one’s merit with God or in some sort of ‘tit-for-tat’ arrangement, but only because of God’s ḥesed (q.v.), his unswerving loyalty, his gracious kindness.”[1]

“This hope in God is not a sort of querulous wishing, but a confident expectation. Unlike the pagan religions where unremitted anxiety was the rule, the Hebrew religion knew a God whose chief characteristic was faithfulness and trustworthiness.”[2]

“Perhaps the place where the central issues revolving around bāṭaḥ are seen most clearly in a brief compass is II Kgs 18 and 19 where the Assyrian Rabshakeh challenges the worth of Hezekiah’s trust in God and where that trust is fully vindicated.”[3]

Go read the story and see.

Topical Index:  trust, bāṭaḥ, Jeremiah 17:5,7

[1] Oswalt, J. N. (1999). 233 בָּטַח. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 102). Chicago: Moody Press.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.