Happy 2nd day (Monday)! Today is called in Hebrew Yom Sheni, or "second day." This morning I was in my comfortable chair in my room, having a devotional time and preparing to start my day. I use an online devotional, Daily Light (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/daily.light), each morning. It is comprised of Bible verses arranged topically into morning and evening readings for every day of the year. Regularly one or more verses seem to jump out and catch my attention, leading sometimes to prayer, or quiet meditation, or stimulating me to do some digging, looking up words in order to find more of the "flavor" of the context.
The topic of this morning's reading was God's guidance and teaching. One verse which stood out was Psalm 48:14,
... this is God, our God forever and ever.
He will guide us forever. (ESV)
In the past year the message of God guiding my life and footsteps has taken on greater meaning for me. There has always been a conceptual undercurrent in my life, the idea that I was responsible for the outcomes of situations in my day-to-day existence; when I was growing up, I was keenly aware of any real or perceived disappointment in my performance from parents, teachers and other authority figures. Although it is still there to some degree, that notion was seriously weakened last summer when I spent two weeks in the hospital Intensive Care Unit in a coma. Upon waking, I found I couldn't move my arms or legs; I couldn't even lift my hands or head off the hospital bed. Others had to do everything for me. I was no longer in control. But I learned something from that experience: God was there, and He was in charge, guiding every process and decision for my benefit. He still is, even though I don't always acknowledge it and have to be reminded from time to time. Now I am getting my strength back, little by little, and I'm learning that any amount of strength I have is a gift from אֵל עֶלְיֹֽון (El Elyon), the Most High God (Deuteronomy 8:11-18, Isaiah 41:10, 1 Corinthians 1:25).
So when I read Psalm 48:14 this morning and saw the declaration that He will guide us forever, I wanted to do some digging. -- Find out what the original language says. Here, then, is the Hebrew text of the verse, followed by my transliteration:
כִּי זֶה אֱלֹהִים אֱלֹהֵינוּ עֹולָם וָעֶד הוּא יְנַהֲגֵנוּ עַל־מֽוּת׃
Ki zeh Elohim Eloheynu olam va'ed hu y'nahageynu al-mut.
Ki zeh is translated "for this". Elohim Eloheynu means "God our God".
Olam va'ed is "forever and ever". Hu means "he".
Y'nahageynu is translated "[he] will guide us".
What caught my attention was the phrase at the end of the verse, al-mut (pronounced "ahl-MOOT"), which is translated as "forever" in the English Standard Version Bible. In the King James translation it is "[even] unto death". The Jewish Publication Society Bible renders it "eternally", and so does the Schottenstein Edition of Tehillim (Psalms), both of them Jewish translations.
The Hebrew word עַל (al) is a preposition meaning, in general, "to" or "upon". מוּת (Mut) is "death". The KJV has a more literal translation of al-mut, "unto death".
But what does it mean that God will guide us "even unto death"? Perhaps the Hebrew translators have a handle on the figurative meaning of the phrase when they translate it as "eternally" - even after death - in the עֹולָם הַבָּא (Olam Haba) - the World to Come; just my thought.
Then I considered that preposition al.
In English, prepositions are usually small words which drop quickly from the tongue, or which the reader zooms through on his way to the more meaningful parts of the text. We memorized the list of them in elementary or middle school. Some examples of prepositional phrases: Up a tree, down the hall; in a pickle; over the river and through the woods, etc. I have highlighted the prepositions, but they aren't necessarily the words that jump out at us when we read or hear these phrases. They are there to transport the reader or the hearer to the endpoint, or focal point, the subject of the phrase (tree, hall, pickle, river, woods).
In studying Hebrew, I've learned that prepositions, as well as other words, can contain deeper connotations, due to the fact that every letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a name and a meaning. For instance, the letter pey means "mouth". And the letter shin means "tooth".
- The letters that make up the word al are ayin, which means "eye", and lamed, which represents an oxgoad. Its name comes from the root lamad, which means "to learn".
Which makes me think of another verse from the KJV that I memorized years ago:
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. ~Psalm 32:8
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