My soul weeps because of grief; strengthen me according to Your word. Psalm 119:28 NASB Weeps – The psalmist likes unusual words. That’s stock and trade for poetry. It makes the reader pay attention. So, here he uses dālap, found in only two other places (Job 16:20 and Ecclesiastes 10:18). The context tells us that once it…
Leave off from man, who has breath in his nostrils. For of what account is he? Isaiah 2:22 Robert Alter Of what – כִּֽי־בַמֶּ֥ה ki-va me(h). Stringing together ki (for, but, thus, because, when, . . .), ba (in, at, with, away from, among, upon . . .), and me(h) (what, which, that, how), the…
Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. Genesis 32:24 NASB Wrestled with him – In my book Crossing: The Struggle for Identity I show that this very unusual story has a deep psychological element. No explanation of who this strange opponent is really satisfies until we recognize that Jacob is…
“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19 NASB Dust – Remember this: The Hebrew word dakkāʾ means both “crushed” and “contrite.” However, it has a second root spelling exactly the…
Surely Your servants take pleasure in her stones, and feel pity for her dust. Psalm 102:14 NASB Take pleasure/ feel pity – Taken out of the context of metonym, this verse doesn’t make much sense. Consider its surface meaning. When you walk through the City of David (Zion), would you find favor in the stones…
For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with weeping. Psalm 102:9 NASB Ashes – “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Ominous words from Genesis 3:19. We don’t like to think about them, but we know they’re true for every one of us. The psalmist uses a little word…
For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. Psalm 103:14 NASB Frame – God knows we are dust, but I wonder if we do. We read the words. We know the story from Genesis 2, but I don’t think we’ve let the truth sink in. Well, maybe you have. Maybe you’ve really come…
“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Job 19:25 NASB At the last – When H. W. Wolff suggested that ‘aharit, the Hebrew word for “after part” or “back part” or “behind,” is like the view of a man in a row…
Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 NASB From the ground – Why does the text use the word ha-adamah (the ground)? Once more we are confronted with the first occurrence of a word. …
Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 NASB Dust – Now we come to the remarkable phrase, “dust of the ground.” The Hebrew is apar min ha’adamah. Apar is the common noun for dust,…
