So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Exodus 2:24 NASB Covenant – I suppose the first thing we need to address in this verse is the possibility that God forgot about His covenant and it took the groaning of the people to remind Him. At least, that’s what this translation might suggest. When we use the word “remember,”…
But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you are living [b]within our land; how then are we to make a covenant with you?” Joshua 9:7 NASB Men of Israel – What seems like a fairly straightforward verse and translation is anything but. This verse is really complicated. Let me explain why. First, let’s look at…
It’s Sunday. Just enjoy the color. The man of biblical faith “looks for the image of God not in the mathematical formula or the natural relational law but in every beam of light, in every bud and blossom, in the morning breeze and the stillness of a starlit night. In a word, Adam the second…
“You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Leviticus 19:2b JPS Be holy – Levine’s excursus in the JPS commentary on Leviticus provides an important qualification about the term qādôš (holy): The biblical term for holiness is kodesh. Though the noun is abstract, it is likely that the perception of holiness was not thoroughly abstract. In fact, kodesh had several meanings,…
“You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Leviticus 19:2b JPS Be holy – The English translation doesn’t quite capture the force of this command. Baruch Levine translates it as “You must be holy!” He adds: “The verse is distinctive in that it provides a rationale for a commandment: Israel must…
You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may certainly rebuke your neighbor, but you are not to incur sin because of him. Leviticus 19:17 NASB Not to incur sin – How can you rebuke someone but not sin doing so? If “rebuke” means “to judge, prove, reprove, and correct,” then what approach should…
When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil way, then God relented of the disaster which He had declared He would bring on them. So He did not do it. Jonah 3:10 NASB They turned – “The repentance of the Ninevites, from a psychological standpoint, is less plausible than the physical possibility of the miracles…
“Should I not also have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 people, who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left, as well as many animals?” Jonah 4:11 NASB The great city – Uriel Simon makes an amazing point in his introduction of the JPS commentary on the book of Jonah. “Ninevah merits its Creator’s…
But Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship that was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and boarded it to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord. Jonah 1:3 NASB To flee – Apparently Jonah hadn’t taken courses in theology, especially not in the…
One of my favorite sign of the change in season is wisteria. Here are a few from the local neighborhood. So beautiful, delicate, and aromatic Topical Index: photo, wisteria
