Oh that my ways may be established to keep Your statutes! Psalm 119:5 NASB 1995 Oh that – Pay attention to the first word in this aleph sequence: ʾaḥlâ אַחלָה It’s an emotional outburst. “Ah that!” is the TWOT rendering. Alter renders the verse: “Would that my ways be firm to observe Your statutes!” But notice the…
Abandoned among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You no longer remember, and they are cut off from Your hand. Psalm 88:5 NASB Abandoned – What an interesting choice of words! Sometimes translated “forsaken,” the Hebrew root is the verb ḥāpaš. Here it is ḥopšî, an adjective. What’s interesting is the basic…
And hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in straits. Hurry, answer me. Psalm 69:18 [Hebrew Bible] Robert Alter Hurry – First we need to clear up an English rendering of צָרַר tsarar. Alter’s choice doesn’t fit the topography of Israel. The English “strait” is usually associated with a narrow body of…
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. Genesis 3:6 N ASB Desirable – “Watchfulness is…
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Matthew 6:25 NASB Do not be worried – We often read Yeshua’s words in…
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. Genesis 3:6 N ASB Desirable – “It is…
Then God said, “Let Us make man in in Our image, according to Our likeness;” Genesis 1:26a NASB Make – The striking difference between Christian and Jewish thought begins right here, with the creation of human beings. You might think that the two great religions share a common view of what it means to be human, but…
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and…
The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from [a]joy over it he goes and sells everything that he has, and buys that field. Matthew 13:44 NASB Hidden in a field – Stop reading this parable as if it were about some ethereal spiritual realm far removed from…
For I am ready to fall, and my sorrow is continually before me. For I admit my guilt; I am full of anxiety because of my sin. Psalm 38:17-18 NASB Anxiety – At last we come to the real problem. “I’m afraid.” The Hebrew word is dĕʾāgâ. “The root dāʾag signifies anxiety, with a shading toward the meaning of fear…
