He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave woman, from where have you come, and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” Genesis 16:8 NASB From the presence – How easy it is to forget that Hebrew is concrete! Removing the physical element by translating according to our social…
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord . . . Jonah 1:3a NASB To flee – Everyone know the Jonah story. Probably everyone knows, or thinks that they know, the Sampson story as well. We have those Sunday school memories of the whale (big fish) and the long hair of the…
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? Psalm 139:7 NASB Flee– “Basically bāraḥ means to go or pass through, and to flee or hurry. It occurs mostly in narratives, referring to flight from an enemy.”[1] But how can this be true in this psalm? Is God the enemy? Do we…
For the lead player, al-tashchet, a David michtam, when he fled from Saul into the cave. Psalm 57:1 (in the Hebrew text, translated by Robert Alter) Fled – Fight or flight – human behavior in the face of conflict hasn’t changed much in 10,000 years. What’s your default behavior? Do you find the hairs on…
