Stand Up and Be Counted

I have sworn and I will confirm it, that I will keep Your righteous judgments.  Psalm 119:106  NASB

Sworn/confirm – Are you ready?  Ready to swear an oath to God’s governance of the world?  Ready to stand up, be marked, be despised and rejected by men?  Are you willing to put your life on the line?  Or would you rather stay below the radar, be a “secret” believer, get along in society?  Oh, I know, we will all proclaim the former.  But what happens when standing up involves real risk to life and limb?  Maybe we aren’t so quick to jump to our feet.  It’s that possibility that the psalmist addresses when he uses two words while one would do.

The first verb is šabaʿ.  While it is vocalized differently, you should recognize this word with the same spelling as the name of the numeral 7 ( שֶׁבַע ).  The numerical usage is fairly obvious.  What is of significance are the symbolic applications, not least of which is the connection between the 7^th day and swearing an oath.  Perhaps it begins with Abraham.

Thus we see Abraham sealing an oath (šābaʿ, q.v.) by Abimelech that a well of water is his, Abraham’s, by forcing upon Abimelech seven lambs (Gen 21:28, 30). So too in Gen 29:18 it is precisely seven years that Jacob must serve Laban for Rachel and for Leah. These instances seem to be examples of an ancient traditional respect for the number seven, the original basis of which is a matter of conjecture and debate.”^[1]  The significance of seven continues in the time of Moses.  “Hence in Ex 29:30 the garments of a new high priest were ordered by Moses speaking for the Lord to be consecrated for seven days. This was a ceremonial action and it could just as well have been accomplished in more or less days, yet the Lord prescribed exactly seven! In Ex 23:15 the unleavened bread was to be eaten seven days, and in Ex 25:37 the Menorah, or sacred lamp stand of the tabernacle, was to have one main stem with six lateral stems, making seven.^[2]

Harris notes:

It is apparent that šābaʿ “swear” is identical in its consonantal root to the word šebaʿ “seven.” It is identical, of course, to the feminine form of seven—the masculine adding a fourth letter, “he”—and it is in the feminine in which the Hebrew counts his cardinal numbers!  Not only is the Hebrew verb “to swear” identical in the ancient unpointed text to the number seven, but also a relationship is suggested by the 2000 b.c. incident of Gen 21:22–34. Here Abimelech desires Abraham to swear to deal uprightly, while Abraham in turn requires Abimelech to swear that the well of water belongs to him, Abraham. Abraham then seals the oath by giving exactly seven ewe lambs as a testimonial witness to Abimelech, and the well is called Beer-sheba, or Well-of-the-seven-oath! Thus BDB has defined šābaʿ by the pithy one-line paraphrase, “to … seven oneself, or bind oneself by seven things” (p. 989).^[3]

Clearly there is a sacred quality to swearing an oath.  “To swear in the Old Testament was to give one’s sacred unbreakable word in testimony that the one swearing would faithfully perform some promised deed, or that he would faithfully refrain from some evil act.”^[4]

If this is the case, why does the psalmist repeat the procedure with “confirm”?  What does this add that is not already part of the sacred commitment in šābaʿ?  This second verb is qûm, the ordinary verb for “rise up, stand, arise.”  Why does the psalmist add it?  Because his declaration demands public acknowledgement.  His oath is not done in secret.  It is not proclaimed in the prayer closet, or in the dark night of the soul.  It is on public display.  Do you want to know where he stands (an interesting idiom based on the same idea)?  Just look at the crowd.  He stands up.  He is, in Australian metaphors, the tall poppy.  You can see his commitment.  And that raises the salient point.

You’ve sworn an oath of obedience.  You’ve embraced God’s governance (mišpāṭ).  But have you shown it to the world?  You’ll need two verbs for that.

One last comment.  Here is the Chabad translation:

I swore and I fulfilled, to keep the judgments of Your righteousness.

You’ll notice it is in the past tense, whereas the NASB is all future.  This is a significant difference.  Is the poet claiming that he has already done these acts, or is he saying that he will do these acts?  The past tense is, in itself, a confirmation. The future leaves the possibility open.  Does the grammar help?  The first verb is perfect, that is, a finished action, so it can translated “I have sworn.”  That act is done.  But the second verb is a reflexive, vav-consecutive  imperfect.  You’ll remember this unusually important structure.  The imperfect tells us the action is not finished.  It continues.  The vav-consecutive tells us that the action was active in the past, is active now, and will be active in the future.  The NASB puts the emphasis on the future while the Chabad version emphasizes the past, completed act.  Neither seems to me to be correct.  The poet says that in the past he has sworn an oath, but the demonstration of his commitment continues.  He’s stood up for it in the past.  He’s standing up now.  And he will stand up for it in days to come.  This is much more powerful than a news report of a prior act and much more firm than a future intention to do something.  That’s why he needs both verbs.

Topical Index: swear, seven, šābaʿ, confirm, stand, qûm, public, Psalm 119:106

^[1] Cohen, G. G. (1999). 2318 שֶׁבַע. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 898). Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.

BDB Brown, Driver, Briggs, A Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1905

^[3] Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., Jr., & Waltke, B. K., eds. (1999). In Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., pp. 899–900). Moody Press.

^[4] Ibid.