You’re Disgusting!

I see the treacherous and loathe them, because they do not keep Your word.  Psalm 119:158  NASB

Loathe – “Loathe” is not a verb we use often.  That might be because it came into the English language only a few hundred years ago, or it might be because it has such an overpowering meaning that we shy away from it.  Whatever the reason, Hebrew does have this concept of intense disgust, so intense that it is repulsive and wants to make us get rid of the object.  In Hebrew, the verb is qûṭ.  It doesn’t occur often (only seven times), perhaps for the same reason that we don’t use it much in English.  The interesting fact about the word in Hebrew is that it describes God’s reaction to the sin of the Canaanites (Leviticus 20:23).  Since it is a very strong emotional word, it’s hard to see how later doctrine could claim God is impassible (without emotion).  There’s some underlying Greek philosophy going on in this doctrine.

The psalmist has no trouble expressing his intense repulsion.  We need only ask two things.  Who are these people who cause such emotion, and why are they so disgusting?  The answer to the first question is found in the word bāgad.  The meaning isn’t quite what we expect.  Bāgad is “one who does not honor an agreement.”^[1]  That is also the English definition; “a betrayal of trust,” but in the context of ancient Semitic tribes, this is much more serious.  Semitic tribes even today have a deeply ingrained code of honor, and trustworthiness is at the heart of the culture.  This is perfectly understandable when we recognize the oral nature of agreements in the ancient world.  No one went to a lawyer to draw up a legal document, notarized, and recorded in the public record.  The entire economic and social system functioned on the basis of keeping your word, and all that was needed to make a commitment was to say so, to swear an oath.  In fact, this pillar of society is exemplified in God’s oral commitment to Israel.  It is a personal promise that cannot be broken.  There is little wonder that the psalmist is disgusted and repulsed by those who fail to keep this code of honor.  They not only cause personal damage; they also undermine the very basis of society.  Perhaps we need to recover this foundation since we live in a time when “treachery” is so common.  We have substituted legal loopholes for personal promise-keeping.  I wonder if the movement from an oral culture to a written one hasn’t contributed to this disaster.  Now we argue about the meaning of the terms rather than the intent of the agreement.

The answer to the second question (why are they so disgusting?) is found in the second part of the verse.  It’s straightforward.  They don’t keep God’s ʾimrôt (plural—“words”).  Noting that the psalmist uses ʾimrâ rather than dābāris important.  He places the context of not honoring an agreement directly within God’s own spoken promises.  The foundation of the Semitic honor code is God’s own speech, spoken words that are utterly reliable.  To dishonor an agreement is to act inhumanely, to violate what God created when He said, “Let us make Man in our own image.”  No wonder the psalmist is so repulsed.

Topical Index: qûṭ, loathe, bāgad, treachery, ʾimrôt, words, honor, agreement, Psalm 119:158

^[1] Goldberg, L. (1999). 198 בָּגַד. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 90). Moody Press.