Genesis in Joshua

He commanded them, saying, “See, you are going to ambush the city from behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. Joshua 8:4 NASB

Going to ambush – How do you know what a word means?  You might respond, “Look in the dictionary,” but a dictionary is just the summary of what the word means as it is used by native speakers.  In other words ( 🙂 ), the meaning of a word is found in speech.  If I want to know what a particular word means, I have to listen to the speech of native speakers and determine the meaning from that.  In biblical contexts, this means that understanding the meaning of a word requires me to investigate how that word is used throughout the text.  As an example, look at Genesis 9:3:

“Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.”

What does the word ʾoklâ (food) mean?  Most Christian commentators assume that the meaning of ʾoklâ in the Hebrew text is the same as the way we use the word “food.”  But this ignores the culture of the original speaking audience.  ʾoklâin Hebrew means “what the Torah calls clean.”  It does not mean anything that can be digested.

Now that we understand this principle, let’s examine two verses.  The first is Joshua 8:4.  Here is the Hebrew text with the critical word highlighted:

וַיְצַ֨ו אֹתָ֜ם לֵאמֹ֗ר רְא֠וּ אַתֶּ֞ם אֹֽרְבִ֚ים לָעִיר֙ מֵאַֽחֲרֵ֣י הָעִ֔יר אַל־תַּרְחִ֥יקוּ מִן־הָעִ֖יר מְאֹ֑ד וִֽהְיִיתֶ֥ם כֻּלְּכֶ֖ם נְכֹנִֽים

The verb is ārab, “to lie in wait, to ambush.”  Notice the consonants: aleph-resh-bet.  Now notice the diacritical marks, those marks under the consonants that provide the vowels for pronunciation.  Remove them.  What do you have left?  Only the consonants.  Since the vowel markings were added to the text thousands of years after the text was written, we might want to see where this combination of consonants appears in other places to decide what the word means.  So we look at the other verses in Joshua 8 and discover that this word is consistently used to describe some kind of ambush, whether it’s the men who perform the act of the act itself.  Then we realize that this combination of consonants is also found is a very important verse in Genesis.  Here it is:

To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children; yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16 NASB 1995).

Now look at the Hebrew text:

אֶל־הָֽאִשָּׁ֣ה אָמַ֗ר הַרְבָּ֤ה אַרְבֶּה֙ עִצְּבוֹנֵ֣ךְ וְהֵֽרֹנֵ֔ךְ בְּעֶ֖צֶב תֵּֽלְדִ֣י בָנִ֑ים וְאֶל־אִישֵׁךְ֙ תְּשׁ֣וּקָתֵ֔ךְ וְה֖וּא יִמְשָׁל־בָּֽךְ

Can you find the same combination of consonants in this verse?  It might be a little difficult because the Hebrew grammar adds a hey at the end of the word.  I’ve highlighted it.  What’s the difference between this consonant combination in Genesis and the same combination in Joshua?  The difference is found in the diacritical marking.  According to the tradition of the pointing, the word in Genesis breaks the syllables after the resh, so the word is ar-be, rather than a-rab.  But this occurs only because of the sheva (the : under the resh).  Without this syllable mark, the word would be the same as the one used in Joshua, namely, a word about “ambush,” not about childbirth pain.  This is an enormous discovery (I didn’t make it).  It means that when the woman says, “I was deceived,” God concurs.  She was ambushed.  God does not say He will increase her pain in childbirth.  In fact, the word doesn’t mean child-birth.  It could mean child-rearing, but even that seems unlikely since children are considered a divine blessing in the Jewish culture.  What God says is that the serpent did ambush you but that doesn’t mean you are absolved of your guilt.  It means that as a result of your choice, your relationships are damaged—with your children and with your husband.  You are still designed to be the ezer-kenegdo.  That doesn’t change.  What changes is that the objective of your purpose will now fight against you.  Your husband will resist your direction.  Frustration (thistles and thorns) will become your world.

Just imagine the damage that has been created by not paying attention to the Hebrew grammar!  Traditional Jewish and Christian thought marched hand-in-hand down the road laid out by the Masoretes.  Paul was converted to a misogynist.  Women were treated as second-class humans.  And God became a punisher.

Topical Index: ārab, ambush, Joshua 8:4, Genesis 3:16, ezer kenegdo