The Final Choice

A perverse heart shall depart from me;
 I will know no evil.  Psalm 101:4  NASB I will know – End of the Roman calendar year.  Most people are making some sort of resolution.  Usually these last but a short time and the ordinary routine returns.  Most resolutions are statements of positive self-improvement.  I have a few. …

The Return of Reason

“But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
 And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.”  Daniel 4:34  NASB Returned – Nebuchadnezzar…

Phonetic Confusion

He that conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.  Proverbs 28:13  NASB Confesses –  “Yada, yada, yada,” is a common Hebrew phrase that has made its way into English.  We are familiar with its idiomatic meaning – “and more like that” or something similar.  You know…

God’s Rival

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever -“  Genesis 3:22  NASB Knowing – What does it mean to know good and evil as…

The Lesson of Nebuchadnezzar

I was foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before you.  Psalm 73:22  Hebrew World translation Beast – In Hebrew Man is never classified with the animals.  Let’s say that again.  No place in Scripture can you find any reference at all that justifies calling Man one of the animals.  Hebrew makes a clear…

Absentee Landlord

And they say, “How could God know, and is there knowledge with the Most High?”  Psalm 73:11  (Robert Alter translation) Know – Put this verse into the ancient near-Eastern world.  Is there any doubt that God knows?  Of course not.  God knows everything that happens.  But in the ancient near-East, God (and the gods) doesn’t…

Ruth Redux

“Now there is our kinsman Boaz, whose girls you were close to.  He will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor tonight.  So, bathe, anoint yourself, dress up and go to the threshing floor  . . .”   Ruth 3:2-3 NJPS Kinsman – Once again English fails us.  If you thought that Naomi spoke of Boaz…

Seventy-seven Times

 Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.  2 Chronicles 33:13  NASB Knew – How many times will you commit the same offense before God turns His back? How terrible must your sins be before God will not forgive?  Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai suggested that God might have ordained the terrible sins of David and…

Pillow Talk

and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you.” Joshua 2:9  NASB I know – How did Rahab know?  How did  she know that these men…