Today’s Word
Set in Stone
I shall delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word. Psalm 119:16 NASB Statutes – The vocabulary of God’s torah wouldn’t be complete without one other word, ḥōq. Why? Because this word represents the ancient practice of permanence. It is the word that means to engrave something on stone. If you want to be sure…
Look Again
I will meditate on Your precepts and [f]regard Your ways. Psalm 119:15 NASB Regard – If you didn’t read it in Hebrew, you might expect that the translated word is šāmaʿ (shama). “Hear, O Israel,” is the equivalent of “Do, O Israel” as šāmaʿ means both “to hear” and “to do.” But surprising alternatives are often the tradecraft…
The Politics of God
I will meditate on Your precepts and [f]regard Your ways. Psalm 119:15 NASB Precepts – This Hebrew word is a derivative of the root pāqad. That means we may have some difficulties understanding what this means. “It has been said of this verb, which occurs more than three hundred times in the ot; ‘There is probably no other…
The Silent Majority
I will meditate on Your precepts and [f]regard Your ways. Psalm 119:15 NASB Meditate – I think we’ve thoroughly modernized this one. Even Alter writes, “Let me dwell on Your decrees.” Both terms (meditate and dwell) move the thought from verbalization to contemplation. Both ignore the oral culture of the 10th Century B.C.E. Notice Cohen’s remark about the…
What’s It Worth
I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches. Psalm 119:14 Testimonies – The bet section of this extended acrostic gives us four terms for God’s instructions in addition to the general category torah. They are: ḥōq (statute), mišpāṭ (ordinance), miṣwâ (commandment), and ʿēdût (testimony). The root of “testimony) is…
Pay It Forward
With my lips I have told of all the ordinances of Your mouth. Psalm 119:13 NASB I have told – Oral transmission. How often we forget that Israel’s ancient cultural was oral. Yes, of course, the fundamentals were written on those stone tablets, but the transmission of the message, the training in righteousness, the legacy and history…
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