Punitive Damages

Add guilt upon their guilt, and let them have no part in Your bounty.  Psalm 69:28 [Hebrew Bible]  Robert Alter Guilt – In order to understand the ramifications of this Hebrew word—ʿāwōn—we need to read the explanation provided by Schultz: We note in the first place that the noun is a collective. Thus God says…

Generational Curse?

But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. Luke 11:46-47 NASB   Woe to you – I find no evidence that…

Setting Us Up

Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as the droplets on the fresh grass and as the showers on the herb. Deuteronomy 32:2 NASB Droplets – Moses final song begins with a gentle invocation. “Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak,” he says, as if the words are…

Truth, Justice and the American Way

Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart.  Proverbs 3:3  NASB Kindness and truth – The Hebrew phrase hesed ve’emet is critically important.  It describes the connection between the covenant relationship of God and community with the faithfulness and reliability of the…

Blame

And His disciples asked him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind.” John 9:2  NASB Who sinned – Someone has to be at fault!  Life doesn’t go the way we want it to.  Someone’s to blame!  “Lord, this isn’t fair.  I don’t deserve this.  Who made this…