Category: Expert Opinions

Hebrew Without Vowels or Accents

The text of Genesis 2: 10 to 15 appears as follows:

Samaritan Targum Interlinear Translation

Here’s the interlinear translation of Genesis 2:10 to 15 from tanakh.info:

Facts About Hebrew

We can add the following to our facts about Hebrew:

89. The Hebrew Bible is a compilation of books which have been divided into chapters, paragraphs and sentences.  We previously learned that sentences end with a colon, that when followed by the Hebrew letter pe פ marks the end of a petuhah, like a paragraph in English (fact #8).  Similarly, the samekh ס indicates the end of a subsection.  In many cases, verses other than the first sentence of the chapter begin with the conjunction waw ו (see fact #9) representing its connection with the preceding verse.  The absence of a waw ו at the beginning of a sentence may indicate either the beginning of a new subsection, paragraph or chapter, or the continuance of a message from the previous verse,  or an interpolation.  Considering the inter-relationship between sentences that begin with waw ו and the pe and samekh markings, can help us spot improper chapter divisions and interpolations.

 Analysis of Gen. 1 – 3 reveals the following:

• In Gen. 1:1 – 2:3, all verses other than the first being with waw ו, indicating they are part of one chapter.   In Genesis 1, the pe פ paragraph marks occur at the end of each creation day, presenting each day as separate from the others, culminating with the seventh day in Gen. 2:3.

• Gen. 2:4 doesn’t begin with a waw ו, evidence that it is the first verse of the chapter.

• In Gen 2, verses 11 & 24 do not begin with waw ו, indicating they are either a continuation from the previous verse or an interpolation.  Gen. 2:11 is discussed in this article below, and Gen. 2:24 when we come to it in our study.

• After Gen 2:3, there are no pe פ marks until Gen 3:21, and Gen. 3:1 begins with a waw ו indicating it’s connection to the previous verse, and that Gen 2:4 – 3:21 are one paragraph.  Gen. 3:22 – 24 begin with a waw indicating they are connected to Gen. 3:21 and each other.  Gen. 3:24 ends with a samekh ס indicating the end of a subsection. 

90. The noun nahar נהר (Strong’s 5103 & 5104 15 & 119 occurrences) means ‘a stream, flood, river’ (including the sea), the same form as the verb nahar נהר (Strong’s 5102 6 occurrences) means ‘to flow, stream, be lightened’, figuratively ‘be cheerful’, translated in Psalm 34:5 & Isaiah 60:5 as ‘be radiant’, which may be evidence of mistranslations or interpolations.  For example, Isaiah 60 contains a prophesy for a glorified Zion, and in verse 5 “you will see and be radiant (nahar), and your heart will swell and rejoice because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you, the wealth of the nations will come to you”, which isn’t the hope of God’s people but Satan’s because the sea represents people under Satan’s influence.

Nahar is from the noun noah נה (Strong’s 5089 1 occurrence in Ezek. 7:11) that means ‘eminency, distinction’ as it is translated in NAS, but I believe ‘prosperity’ is more accurate, and the resh suffix on nahar incorporates an element of headship to eminency, distinction (see fact #91).  Although Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance states that noah means ‘wailing’ as it is translated in King James, this doesn’t fit with the context of Ezek. 7:11 “. . . none of them will remain, none of their multitude, none of their wealth, and none of their prosperity”. 

Other words based on noah are also said to mean ‘wail, lament’.  The verb nahah נהה (Strong’s 5091 3 occurrences), which is noah with the he suffix that means ‘toward’ (see fact #54 d) should result in the meaning ‘toward eminence’, Strong’s indicates the meaning to be ‘to wail, lament’.  Similarly, the noun nehi נהי (Strong’s 5092 7 occurrences), noah with a yod suffix changes the noun to the construct form ‘of’, which Strong’s indicates means ‘a wailing, a lamentation’.  The noun qinah קינה (Strong’s 7015 18 occurrences) (is this noah with a qoph and yod prefix?) that means ‘lamentation’, is said to be from qayin קינו (Strong’s 7013 1 occurrence) that means ‘a spear’, but perhaps they meant  qonen קון (Strong’s 6969 8 occurrences) that means ‘lament’ which is found in similar form יקנן, and in Ezek. 32:16 in the same form as qinah קינה .

Changes in the meaning of words may be evidence of different authorship, possibly at a different point in time.  In Genesis 23:2 Abraham mourned ספד (Strong’s 5594 32 occurrences) and wept/lamented בכה  and commonly in בך form (Strong’s 1058 116 occurrences) Sarah’s death.  These words keep the same meaning throughout the Hebrew Bible, but the meaning of noah, and words constructed from it, changed in isolated occurrences in 1 Sam. 7:2, 2 Sam. 1:17 (x2), 3:33, 21:16, 2 Chr. 35:25 (x3), Jer. 7:29, 9:10 (x2), 17, 18, 19, 20 (x2), 31:15 Ezek. 2:10, 19:1, 14 (x2), 26:17, 27:2, 32 (x2), 28:12, 32:2, 16 (x4), 18, Amos 5:1, 16, 8:10, Micah 2:4 (x2), many of which are attributed by scholars as Deuteronomistic, or scribal interpolations. 

Consider the following evidence against verses where noah means lamentation:

• In the book 1 & 2 Samuel by Robert P. Gordon he states, “Noth regarded 1 Samuel 7:2 – 8:22 and 12: 1 – 25 as thoroughly Deuteronomistic compositions” p.18.

• In his article David’s Lament and the Poetics of Grief in 2 Samuel, author Steven Weitzman  compares the mourning scenes in 2 Sam 1: 17 – 17 and 2 Sam 3: 33 – 34 “which attribute to David a ‘poetic’ lament and underscores the propriety of the king’s grief by reporting that David’s expression of it was well received by those who witnessed it.  This similarity is probably not a coincidence but reflects the similar rhetorical objective of these scenes.  Since David had connections with those directly involved in the deaths of Saul, Jonathan, and Abner (the Philistines and Joab) and had obviously benefited politically from their demise, he may very well have been a ‘suspect’ in the deaths of his political foes, as observed by J. Vanderkam among others.”

• In the book The Deuteronomistic History Hypothesis: A Reassessment, author Mark O’Brien states “while the evidence is not conclusive either way, my preference is to regard 2 Samuel 21 – 24 as a later addition (with McCarter, p. 17, cf. also Noth, The Deuteronomistic History, 124-25, n. 3).”

• In the book The Encyclopedia of Christianity Vol 3 it states that 2 Chr. 34 – 35 is a parallel account of 2 kings 22 – 23, “material strongly shaped by Deuteronomistic redaction” p.78.

• In the book By the Irrigation Canals of Babylon: Approaches to the Study of the Exile, the author states that Jer. 31: 15 – 22 is the sixth poem of the Book of Consolation recontextualized to describe the Babylonian Exile.  Rachel’s lament in v.15 is a pre-existing literary unit, one of the poem’s oldest strands p. 109.  This verse is found in Matthew 2:18, part of the redaction in Matthew 1:18 – 2:23, where it is said to be fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophecy in Herod’s slaughter of all male children in Bethlehem two years old and under in v. 16 – 17.

• In the book Literary Precursors to the Book of the Twelve, author James Nogalski presents Bosshard’s observations on a series of inclusions that fashion Amos 1:1 – 9:6, which includes the occurrences of qinah in Amos 5:1 and 8:10 p. 78 – 79.

• In the book Judgement and Salvation: The Composition and Redaction of Micah 2 – 5, author Jan Wagenaar states “A Deuteronomistic revision of Micah 2 – 3 has been assumed by a considerable number of scholars.”, confirming that Renaud, Wolff and Otto attribute the revision of 2: 3 -4 to the Deuteronomistic editor p. 254.

• Verses  in Jer. 9 and Ezek. where noah mean ‘lament’ need to be investigated as possible interpolations.

91.  The letter resh ר in ancient Hebrew is pictorially represented by a man’s head.   Today, resh as an abbreviation can stand for Rabbi, may be found on a gravestone to indicate that a person had been a Rabbi, and is a generic term for a teacher or spiritual guide. 

• As a prefix, resh indicates the origin, beginning, starting point, for example the word bereshith ראשית (Strong’s 7225) that means ‘beginning, chief’ is from rosh ראש (Strong’s 7218) that means ‘head’.  There are 365 words that begin with resh, many of which contain elements of ‘beginning’ and/or ‘head’, such as rab/rob רב (Strong’s 7227, 7229, & 7230) that means ‘chief, great (many)’.  The word ra רע (Strong’s 7451) that means ‘evil’ begins with resh, found in Gen. 2:9 with towb טוב (Strong’s 2896) that means ‘good’, which was the beginning of evil, but since God is good it pre-existed evil.

• As a suffix, resh modifies the word noah נה that means ‘prosperity’, adding to it the element of ‘headship’, resulting in the meaning ‘eminence’.  For example, the ‘river’ נהר in the garden of Eden that represents ‘eminence’ that led mankind to sin.  In the word yatsar יצר (see fact #67) translated as ‘formed’, the resh suffix contains an element of a potter making an earthen vessel which is perishable, and is also translated as ‘distressed’.  Also, shagar/sheqer שקר (Strong’s 8266 & 8267) that mean ‘to deal falsely’ and ‘deception, falsehood’ respectively, from saq  שק (Strong’s 8242) that means ‘sackcloth’ which is worn in mourning and humiliation.

92.  The verb parad פרד (Strong’s 6504 26 occurrences) means ‘to divide, disperse, be out of joint, scatter abroad, separate/sever self’, from a primitive root that means ‘to break through, i.e. spread or separate (oneself)’.  The noun pered פרד (Strong’s 6505 14 occurrences), which is the same as parad except for the vowel points added by scribes, means ‘a mule’ (figuratively stubborn).  The noun pirdah פרדה (Strong’s 6506 3 occurrences) said to mean ‘a female mule’, but only occurs in 1 Kings 1: 32 to 40, text which shows evidence of being a Zadokite interpolation (see fact #86).  Parad with the he suffix indicates movement toward separation (see fact #54 d), which is the meaning in modern Hebrew.

93.   Esh אש (Strong’s 784 377 occurrences) means Yahweh’s fire, not literal fire as it is used in Ezek. 39: 9 & 10, evidence against the text being inspired.  In Ezek. 28:14, 16 & 18, the cherub who overshadows (cakak) become in heart of stones fire (esh), sinned and was cast from mountain of gods and destroyed from heart (tavek) stones (eben) fiery (esh), God brought fire (esh) from heart (tavek) that devoured and turned to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all.  In Ezek. 38: 19 & 22 Yahweh  will in jealousy, in fire (esh) of wrath declare in day be earthquake great in the land of Israel, and judgment, in pestilence and bloodshed and rain flooding and stones, hail, fire (esh) and brimstone rain down on him and his troops and on peoples, many lords with him.  Yahweh is a consuming fire, and those with impurities cannot stand before him without being turned to ashes, the mighty army who attacked Israel on the day of Yahweh Joel 2:5.

The resh ר prefix indicates ‘origin, beginning, starting point’, in conjunction with Yahweh’s fire אש (esh), forms  rosh ראש (Strong’s 7218 599 occurrences) that allegedly means ‘band, captain, company’, often translated as ‘head’ (385/599) or ‘top’ (69/599), or rosh ראש (Strong’s 7219 12 occurrences) ‘poison, venom’.  In Ezek. 38: 2 & 3 Gog (which means ‘burial’) is the prince (nasiy’) of rosh, translated as ‘heads, headwaters, rivers, or branches’ in Gen. 2:10, that means ‘head’ in the sense of ‘leaders, masters, or captains’, from an unused root that means ‘to shake’ whether literal or figurative.   In a larger sense, rosh are those whose heart (leb see fact #95) is lifted up, believing they are gods (el see fact #99) sitting in the dwelling place (moshab) of gods (elohim), but they are a man (adam) and not a God (el) Ezek. 28:2. 

The noun rishah ראשה  (Strong’s 7221 1 occurrence) allegedly means ‘beginning time, early time’, is found in Ezek. 36:11 with the taw suffix ראשת , verses which show signs of being an interpolation.   Similar to reshith  ראשית (Strong’s 7225 51 occurrences) that means ‘beginning, chief’, which indicates the beginning of Satan’s rebellion, the reason why the earth was ‘confusion and waste’ in Gen. 1:2.  The noun roshah  ראשה (Strong’s 7222 1 occurrence) means ‘top’, but occurs only in Zech. 4:7 where it means ‘headstone’, Zech. 4: 6 – 10 is thought to be a ‘temple’ interpolation. 

94. The noun shem,שמ singular and שם plural (Strong’s 8034 864 occurrences) means ‘a name’.  According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (SEC) it means ‘base, infamous, renown’, evidencing a ‘name’ results from actions, “a primitive word (perhaps rather from sum/sim through the idea of definite and conspicuous position; compare shamayim)”, which is found in the same singular form as shem (Shamayim  שמ  Strong’s 8064 421 occurrences) but means ‘heaven, sky’, that SEC states is “from an unused root meaning to be lofty”, evidencing the ‘conspicuous position’ is likely above others.  The verb sum or sim שום (Strong’s 7760 583 occurrences) that means ‘appoint, call a name, change’ is often found in the same form as shem (see fact #75). 

The aleph prefix indicates 1^st person, singular, future tense, that with shem/sham forms the verb/noun/adjective asham/ashem  אשם (Strong’s 816, 817 & 818 with 35, 46 & 3 occurrences), changing it from plural to singular meaning ‘he/she becomes guilty/do wrong’ as translated in Lev. 4:22.  The plural form אשמו (in Lev. 4:13), according to R’ Yaakov Tzvi Meklenburg, in his commentary Hak’sav V’hakabbala, “the מו form is actually a contraction of the plural (with מ) and singular (with ו) third person.”  The מת suffix changes it to 2^nd person, for example אשמת in Ezek. 22:4 that means ‘you become guilty’.  This also supports that shem/sham are associated with actions, doing wrong in particular.

The adverb sham שם (Strong’s 8033 833 occurrences) is the same as shem, and sum/sim , allegedly means ‘there, where’ (see fact #76).  Looking again at Gen. 2:8 where both of these words are found, we see that, although sum/sim  וישם is translated as ‘put’ or ‘placed’ in most Bible’s, the prefix yod indicates third person, future tense, and in this occurrence is plural, meaning ‘they/them’, so ‘appointed them’ best captures the meaning.  In addition, although sham שם is often translated as ‘there’, it is referring specifically to the garden in Eden where God ‘appointed them’, so ‘appointed place’ best captures the meaning. 

95.  Laban לבן (Strong’s 3835 & 3836 8 and 29 occurrences) mean ‘to make white’ and ‘white’.  Where it is translated as ‘make/making brick’ in Gen. 11:3 and Exodus 5:14, are likely interpolations.  The root leb לב (Strong’s 3820 593 occurrences) means ‘heart’, as does libbah לבה (Strong’s 3826 8 occurrences).  Also, lebab לבב (Strong’s 3824 252 occurrences) means ‘heart, inner man, mind, will’.

Laban is the root of  Lebanon לבנון (Strong’s 3844 71 occurrences), that in many cases, has a he prefix, which is translated as ‘of Lebanon’ or a beth prefix which is translated as ‘in Lebanon’.   Lebanon is often found in conjunction with trees, cedar in particular, another name for the garden of Eden in Ezekiel 31: 3, 15 & 16, the place where mankind are refined and made white.

Laban with a he suffix forms labanah לבנה (Strong’s 3843 11 occurrences) that should mean movement toward whiteness, but allegedly means ‘brick, tile’ as it is translated in all 11 occurrences.  Most occurrences are used of literal brick, likely interpolations, but in Isa. 9:10 it is leban in plural form לבנים not labanah;  “And will know the people all Ephraim and inhabitants Samaria in pride and arrogance of heart to say ‘To make white stones (laban) fall , and hewn stone establish, sycamore (shiqmah שקמ Strong’s 8256 7 occurrences) cut down and cedar replace (chalaph Strong’s 2498)’ and raised up Yahweh adversaries firm upon him and his enemies cover”.   Laban contains an element of stone as indicated by the contrast with hewn stone, making ‘white stones’ an appropriate choice in this verse.

Lebonah לבונה (Strong’s 3828 21 occurrences) means  ‘frankincense, incense’, often found in the same form as labanah לבנה likely evidence of uninspired text.

96.  The noun pishon פישון (Strong’s 6376 1 occurrence) from the verb puwsh פשו (Strong’s 6335 4 occurrences) that probably means ‘to spring about’, from a primitive root (similar to pasah פשה Strong’s 6581 22 occurrences in Leviticus that means ‘to spread’ used of an infection) that means ‘to spread, grow up, be grown fat, spread selves, be scattered’, or  figuratively ‘act proudly’.  Perhaps a form of pashach פשח (Strong’s 6582) that means ‘pull/tear in pieces’ indicating spreading in a violent way.

Yet none of these words has a yod in the middle, begging the question how does the yod modify the meaning of the word?  As a prefix yod indicates third person, future tense, ‘they will’, and as a suffix indicates first person, singular, possessive.  One example is esh אש (Strong’s 784) that means fire/existence (there), with a yod in the middle becomes ish איש (Strong’s 376) that means ‘mighty one’ (see fact #56 – an ish is not a godly person but a fallen one).  Another example is el אל (Strong’s 410) that means god/power, with a yod in the middle becomes ayil איל (Strong’s 352) that means ‘a ram, mighty man, oak, tree’.  If this theory is correct, pishon indicates a corrupt way of spreading out, perhaps like an infection similar to how pasah is used above.

97.  The noun chavilah חוילה (Strong’s 2341 7 occurrences) is the name of a son of Cush, also Joktan, also land of uncertain whereabouts, but the evidence is weak, appearing in the same list of names in Gen. 10:29 and 1 Chr. 1:23, and Gen. 10:7 and 1 Chr. 1:9, with only Gen. 25:18 “Ishmael’s descendants settled from Havilah to Shur, which is near the border of Egypt as you go toward Ashur” and 1 Sam. 15:7 “Saul struck down the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt”, to substantiate Havilah and Shur as places. 

According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance chavilah is ‘probably from chuwl’ חול Strong’s 2342 60 occurrences that means ‘bear (painfully in the sense of a woman in labor), drive away, fall grievously/writhe with pain’.  In the same form chol חול (Strong’s 2344 23 occurrences) means ‘sand’ but often in the sense of numerous/great/abundance “as the sands upon the sea” Gen. 22:17, 32:12, 41:49, Joshua 11:4, Judges 7:12, 1 Sam. 13:5, 2 Sam. 17:11, 1 Kings 4:20 & 29, Isaiah 10:22, 48:19, Jer. 15:8, 33:22, Hosea 1:10  & Hab. 1:9.

As we discovered in fact #96, the yod in the middle may indicate a corruption in bearing offspring, or becoming numerous/great/abundant.  Today, in the form חויל means ‘mobilize’, found in Gen. 2:11 with a he prefix can function as a definite article, or indicate a question (see fact #53 d), and a he suffix indicating movement toward, modifying the meaning to ‘the mobilization’.  

98.  The noun saq שק (Strong’s 8242 48 occurrences) means ‘sack, sackcloth’ often worn in mourning or humiliation, from the verb shaqaq שקק (Strong’s 8264 6 occurrences) meaning ‘to have appetite, long, range, run to and fro’, from a primitive root that means ‘to course (like a beast of prey); by implication, to seek greedily – have appetite’.   Saq שק is the root of shaqah שקה (Strong’s 8248 see fact #66) that literally means ‘cause to drink/irrigate’, and figuratively ‘toward mourning/humiliation’, tied together when used of getting someone drunk/causing to drink which leads to humiliation.    

In Gen 2:10 shaqah השקות  is saq שק with a he prefix indicating ‘the’ definite object (see fact #53 d), and the suffix final nun and taw indicating plural, the same form found in Ezek 17:7 translated as ‘that he might water’.  The use of shaqah in a positive context, such as Isaiah 27:3 & 43:20 (see Fact #124) and Joel 3:18 (see fact #85), is evidence of an interpolation. 

99.  The preposition/conjunction al על (Strong’s 5920, 5921, & 5922 occurring 4, 5778, and 94 times respectively) means ‘above, according to, after, as against (always with a downward aspect), among’, often translated as ‘against’ or ‘over’.  It is an error to translate al as ‘Most High’, presenting it as a proper name for Yahweh, as is done in Hosea 7:16 & 11:7 of the King James, NIV, NLT and Berean Study Bibles, or as ‘Baal’ as is done in the NET Bible.  Al is the same as the noun ol על (Strong’s 5923 40 occurrences) that allegedly means ‘a yoke’, but appears only in questionable text.

Al is the root of the verb alah עלה (Strong’s 5927 888 occurrences) that means ‘arise up, cause to ascend up, cause to burn’, the noun olah עלה (Strong’s 5930  289 occurrences and 5928 1 occurrence in Ezra) means ‘burnt offering’.   The he suffix on al means ‘toward’ (see fact #54 d), so alah means ‘toward  rising up/burning’, not seeking God, but wanting to be God which is why it means ‘arise up’ in the sense of an uprising, hence ‘cause to ascend up, cause to burn’.  In the same form the noun aleh עלה  (Strong’s 5929 18 occurrences) allegedly means ‘leaf, leafage’, likely uninspired text even Gen. 3:7 which also changes the meaning of naked and covering from figurative to literal.

Joel 1 prophesies “a people rising up (alah) upon (al) my land, numerous not few,  v. 6, destroying Yahweh’s vine and stripping Yahweh’s fig trees leaving them bare v. 7, and Israel  ‘wails like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for, mourns because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of ‘your God’ v. 13, when the day of Yahweh comes as destruction from the Almighty v. 15.

The noun t’alah תעלה (Strong’s 8585 11 occurrences) alleged to mean ‘watercourse, trench’ is alah/olah/aleh with the prefix taw ת that indicates either third person, singular, future tense (he/she/you/they will), or second person future tense (you will), or in biblical Hebrew, third person, plural, future tense (they will) (see fact #53 e), so ‘you will ascend/rise up’ or ‘they will ascend/rise up’.   In Genesis 2:6, the ‘vapour arose t’alah from the earth’ is associated with fire, given that t’alah is from alah that means ‘cause to burn’.  In Ezek 31:4 Assyria the cedar ‘rivulets/uprising/burning t’alah put forth to all the trees of the field’, but in Isaiah 7:3 & 36:2 where it is translated as ‘conduit’ is evidence against the text.

Similar to al על, el אל (Strong’s 410 248 occurrences) relates to being ‘high, over, above’ but the aleph prefix modifies nouns to 1^st person, singular, future tense, personifying lamed ל to mean ‘mighty one, idol’, which is used of any deity including Yahweh, from ayil איל (Strong’s 352 183 occurrences) that means ‘mighty man, oak, tree, ram’.  With the he suffix (see fact #54d) should mean ‘toward might/power’, but alah אלה (Strong’s 422 & 423 6 & 36 occurrences) is said to mean ‘curse, swear, oath’, or as a verb (Strong’s 421 1 occurrence) ‘wail, lament’. 

The pronoun el אל (Strong’s 411 & 412 9 & 1 occurrences) said to mean ‘these, those’, and preposition el (Strong’s 413 5504 occurrences) said to mean ‘to, into, towards’ that we questioned the meaning of in fact #18, must contain some element of might/strength also.  The prefix lamed ל is attached to many words, for example in Gen 1:5, light לאור, darkness לחשך, night לילה, where it simply means ‘to’.  In Gen. 1:9 we find the first occurrence of el, lamed with the aleph prefix, “And said gods gather together the waters under the heavens into [el] place alone/separate”, thus by God’s power.  In Gen 2:22 “. . . woman and go to [el] the man (adam)”, by the woman’s power.   Then in Gen. 3:1 – 3:4 el is used of the serpent saying to (el)  the woman, then the woman saying to [el] the serpent and vise versa, possibly indicating the attempt to exert power over each other.

The verb alah אלה (Strong’s 422 & 423 6 & 36 occurrences) means an imprecation, a spoken ‘swear, oath, curse’.  The he prefix (see fact #54d) should modify el to future tense, normally ‘toward’ but in this case perhaps a future promise in the form of an oath or covenant that contains an element of might or power.   For example, Dan. 9:11 refers to “the oath [alah]  . . . written in the Law”, an imprecation of God, or in Ezek. 17:12 & 13 “the king of Babylon . . . took one of the royal family and made a covenant [alah] with him”, an imprecation of the king of Babylon.  Similar to el, the exercise of power can be God’s or someone else, but it is an imprecation of might/power.

Baal בעל (Strong’s 1166 15 occurrences, and 1167 84 occurrences) mean ‘rule over’ and ‘owner, lord’ respectively.  Baal is used to describe males rule over females in marriage in Gen 20:3, Exodus 21:3 & 22, Deut. 22:22 & 24:1 & 4, Proverbs 30:23, Isaiah 54:1 & 5, the ‘owner’ of an ox in Exodus 21: 28 & 29, and Isaiah 1:3, and the ‘lords’ of the nations in Isa. 16:8.  Baal is mistranslated in Isa. 41:15, the context is Yahweh declaring “I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with (baal) many teeth, you thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff”, evidence against the text being inspired, and in Isa. 50:8 many words are mistranslated, turning the meaning of the sentence up side down, also evidence of uninspired text.  Text where Yahweh is referred to as baal, as Israel’s ‘master’ (baal) in Jer. 3:14 & 31:32, and as the ‘owner/lord’ (baal) of Israel’s youth in Joel 1:8, show evidence of being interpolations.    There are other Hebrew words mistranslated within these verses, which we will look in a separate article. 

100. The verb mul מול  (Strong’s 4135 36 occurrences) allegedly means ‘circumcise’ is often found in the form מל which is the root of melek/malak.  The verb namal  נמל (Strong’s 5243 5 occurrences – 4 in מל  form) allegedly means ‘be cut down, circumcise’.  In Deut. 10:6 & 30:6, and Jer. 4:4, mul is found in the phrase  ‘circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer’ Deut. 10:6, “circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love Yahweh your god with all your heart and with all your soul so that you may live” Deut. 30:6, and “circumcise yourselves to Yahweh and remove the foreskins of your heart” in Jer. 4:4, evidencing the meaning is ‘haughty, arrogant’ or ruling over others, and a ‘cutting down’ Psalm 58:7, 90:6, & 118:10, 11 & 12 is necessary . 

Text that refers to a literal circumcision are suspected to be uninspired, in Gen. 17 Yahweh appeared to Abraham which is not possible, in Gen. 34 the tale of Dinah and Shechem,  the language of Joshua is difficult – jumping from circumcising ‘the sons’ of Israel v3, to explaining why only those born in the wilderness had not been circumcised v5, the sons (ben translated as ‘children’), to circumcising ‘all the nation’ v8, and Job is ‘strange text’ that shows no evidence of being inspired.  Other text is suspect as well, the circumcision of John ‘the Baptist’ in Luke 1:59, the ‘covenant of circumcision’ in Acts 7:8, and Paul circumcising his assistant in Acts 16:3 when the opposite is stated in Acts 21:21.

Location	# occ	מול   form	מל  form	נמל  form
Genesis 17	11	6 – v. 10, 12, 13 x 2, 14, & 26	4 – v. 23, 24, 25 & 27	1 – v. 11
Genesis 21	1		1 – v. 4
Genesis 34	5	2 – v. 17, 22	3 – v. 15, 22, & 24
Exodus 12	2	1 – v. 48	1 – v. 44
Leviticus 12	1	1 – v. 3
Deut 10 & 30 ‘circumcise your heart’	2		2 – 10:6, 30:6
Joshua 5	8	1 – v. 8	7 – v. 2, 3, 4, 5 x 2, 7 x 2
Job 14:2, 18:16, 24:24 ‘cut down’	3		3 – 14:2, 18:16, 24:24
Psalm 37 ‘cut down’	1		1 – v. 2
Psalm 58 ‘shafts’	1		1 – v. 7
Psalm 90 ‘cut down’	1	1 – v. 6
Psalm 118 ‘cut them off’	3		3 – 10, 11, 12
Jer 4:4 & 9:25 ‘foreskins of your heart’	2	1 – 9:25	1 – 4:4

The noun melek מלך (Strong’s 4428 2523 occurrences), the kap ך suffix being pronominal, second person, possessive , adds ‘your’, thus ‘your king’, when found in the form מלכ singular or מלכים plural, is translated as ‘king(s)’ generally.  The same as the verb malak מלך (Strong’s 4427 348 occurrences) allegedly means ‘king, reign, rule’, and molek מלך (Strong’s 4432 9 occurrences) that means ‘foreign god’.  The root mul supports the meaning ‘rule over’, that when used of a person, a king or foreign god, indicates they ‘haughty, arrogant’ and need to be ‘cut down’, whose followers are worshipping another god as a result.  The reign of Yahweh or His Annointed One are the only legitimate authority, supported by the fact that when Israel demanded a king, Yahweh said to Samuel “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they have say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from reigning (malak) over them” 1 Sam. 8:7.

The words mala/mela/male/melo מלא (Strong’s 4390, 4391, 4392, & 4393 253, 2, 55 & 38 occurrences) that mean ‘to be full, to fill, fullness’, mul with the aleph suffix forms indicates 1^st person, singular, future tense, pointing to a time in the future when the earth is ‘full’ of Yahweh’s glory because he is ruling Isa. 6:3.  In the Genesis creation account, on the fifth day (armed for battle) god said “fill (male) the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth” in Gen. 1:20 – 23, and on the sixth day (make white) “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 air . . .” in Gen. 1:26 – 31, moving towards the day when Yahweh rules over all the creation.

Mala/mela/male/melo with the kap ך suffix (pronominal, second person, possessive) forms malak  מלאך (Strong’s 4397 213 occurrences) alleged to mean ‘messenger’ translated as ‘angel’, must mean ‘your fullness’, and with a kap yod suffix  מלאכי means ‘my fullness’, in respect of the message they deliver being of the ‘fullness’ of time, completion, the wrapping up of temporal things.  Like in Zech. 3: 1 – 7, Joshua the high priest stood before the angel (malak) of Yahweh and Satan at his right hand to accuse him, and Yahweh said to Satan “Yahweh rebuke you Satan!  Indeed Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire (esh)?”  Joshua was clothed with  filthy garments and standing before the angel (malak).  He spoke and said to those standing before him, saying “Remove the filthy garments from him”, again he said to him “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes”.  Then I said “Let them put a clean turban on his head”, so they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel (malak) of Yahweh was standing by.  And the angel (malak) of Yahweh admonished Joshua, saying “Thus says Yahweh of armies ‘If you will walk in my ways and if you will perform my service then you will also govern my house and also have charge of my courts and I will grant you free access among these who take a stand”.

101. In Amos 5:26 the name of their heathen god (molek see fact #100) was Sikkuth סכות (Strong’s 5522 1 occurrence) referred to in Acts 7:43 as “the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship.”  Likely connected to sukkah סכה, often found in the form סכת (Strong’s 5521 31 occurrences) that means ‘thicket, booth’, strangely used of a feast in Lev. 23:34, Deut. 16:13, 16 31: 10, 2 Chr. 8:13, & Ezra 3:4.  From cakak סכך (Strong’s 5526 24 occurrences) that means ‘to overshadow, screen cover’ in the sense of ‘guarding, protecting’, the kap ך suffix being pronominal, second person, possessive , adds ‘your’, translated as ‘guardian’ by ESV, NLT & NIV in Ezek. 28: 14 & 16 of the cherub who was in Eden but sinned and was cast from the mountain of gods.  In Nahum 2:5 of the nobles ‘protective shield, defense’, used of God in Lam 3: 43 & 44 may be evidence these verses are not inspired.

102. The verb sabab סבב (Strong’s 5437 157 occurrences) means ‘to turn about, go around, surround’ from a primitive root used in a variety of ways, figuratively ‘bring, cast, fetch, lead, make, walk, be about on every side, besiege, etc.’.  The root of the noun sabib/sebibah  סביב (Strong’s 5439 335 occurrences) that means ‘place, round about, circuit, compass, on every side’.  When found in its basic form, for example in Ezek. 42:19 it is translated as ‘turning’, or in 2 Sam. 14:20 ‘to change’.  In Gen 2:11, sabab, הסבב  has a he prefix, which is either a definite article that indicates a specific person, place or thing is being referred to, or interrogative indicating a question (see fact #53 d), meaning ‘he/she/it surrounds’. 

In Gen 2:13 a different form of sabab הסובב is found with the he prefix, and a waw ו in the middle, similar in form to the occurrences in Ps. 55:10 and Ps. 59: 6 & 14 which is translated ‘go around’ in the context of an invasion, and Jer. 31:22 where it is translated as ‘encompass’ which is possible but in the sense of an invasion.  The dictionary on Morfix indicates the colloquial meaning is “to wrap, to bind’, or ‘to twist (words)’ https://www.morfix.co.il/en/%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%91%D7%91

103. The noun zahab זהב (Strong’s 2091 389 occurrences) means ‘gold’, used of the precious metal gold, often found in conjunction with silver (keseph  כסף  Strong’s 3701 403 occurrences).   For example, in Ezek. 28:4, “In your wisdom, in your understanding, make to yourself riches/wealth, make gold (zahab) and silver (keseph) in your treasuries”, and in Isa. 30:22, “and defile covering molded images silver (keseph) and ephod molded images your gold (zahab) cast away like unwell , ‘get away’, say to them”.  In inspired text, ‘gold’ is a perishable thing coveted by mankind, used in creating idols they worship.

Possibly from the same root, to the noun zohar זהר (Strong’s 2096 2 occurrences) means ‘brightness, the resh suffix indicating an element of headship to the ‘brightness’, from the verb zahar זהר  (Strong’s 2094 22 occurrences), 8 in Ezek. 3: 17 – 21 and 8 in Ezek. 33: 3 – 9 where it is translated as ‘warn’ appear to be interpolations.  Both are found in Dan. 12:3 “those who are wise shall shine (zahar) like the brightness (zohar) of the firmament . . . “.  The authority these wise people have is described in Rev. 20: 4 “I saw thrones and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them.  And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Yahshua and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with the Messiah for a thousand years.”

Zeh זה (Strong’s 2088 & 2090 1177 & 12 occurrences) are often translated as ‘this’, but in Zech 3:2 Yahweh “ . . . the elect Jerusalem is not this (zeh) firebrand delivered from fire”, could contain an element of ‘bright’, in reference to the ‘elect’.  The same form זה (Strong’s 2089) means ‘lamb’, thought to be a typographical error for seh שה (Strong’s 7716 47 occurrences), although ‘lamb’ and ‘brightness’ are connected by righteousness.  In plural form zaham זהם (Strong’s 2092 1 occurrence) is a verb that means ‘to be foul, loathsome’, or a proper name (Strong’s 2093 1 occurrences) that means ‘loathing’, neither well supported. 

104. The noun bedolach בדלח (Strong’s 916 2 occurrences) is badal בדל (Strong’s 914 & 915 42 & 1 occurrence) that means ‘to be divided, separate’ or ‘a piece, severed piece’, in Gen 1:4 God ‘separated’ (יבדל badal) between the light and between the darkness.  With a yod in the middle form bedil  (Strong’s 913 6 occurrences) that means ‘alloy, tin, dross’, the yod indicating a damaged piece, so in the form badal may be the opposite ‘gold’.  (The heth suffix throws a kink into it because there is no mention of it being a suffix so the effect is unknown.)

105. The noun ben בן singular, בנים plural (Strong’s 1121 & 1123 4932 & 11 occurrences) means ‘afflicted, appointed one, arrow’ although predominantly translated as ‘son(s)’, with the he suffix forms banah בנה (Strong’s 1129 375 occurrences) that means ‘build, obtain children, make, repair, set up’.  Many occurrences of banah are in the form ben but translated as ‘build, built’ not ‘child, children’.  For example in Gen. 2:22 ben is translated as ‘fashioned’, to cover up the fact that the woman was God’s ‘appointed one’.  The ‘building’ of banah  בנה (Strong’s 1129 375 occurrences) may be connect to the ‘white, brick’ of laban (see fact #95).

Ben בנ with the prefix aleph forms the noun eben אבנ (also occurs in singular form אבן) (Strong’s 68 & 69 273 & 8 occurrences) that means ‘to build, a stone, diverse weights’ and is mostly translated as ‘a stone(s)’, but  ‘he/she/it will be a stone(s)’  better captures the 1^st person, future tense of the aleph prefix.  In Gen. 2:12 eben is in singular form אבן, and means ‘she will be a stone’, connected to the ‘woman [ishshah]’ Yahweh built in Gen. 2:22.

Ben is often translated as ‘son(s)’, and it’s counterpart, the noun bath בת (Strong’s 1323 589 occurrences) means ‘apple of the eye, branch, company, daughter, first, old, owl, town’ but is almost always translated as ‘daughter’, to make it appear Yahweh prefers males more than females.  Bath with the he suffix forms bathah בתה (Strong’s 1326 & 1327 1 & 1 occurrence) that mean ‘waste, end, destruction’ in Isaiah 5:6 and ‘desolate’ in Isaiah 7:19 respectively.

Having rejected the genderization alleged to exist in Hebrew (see fact #13), I believe that ben includes females and bath has something to do with destruction, and desolation.  For example, in Gen. 17:17 הבת is translated as “who is old” (consider that old represents decaying, wasting away, or being worn out) in reference to Sarah being 90, beyond the age of childbearing. 

Many occurrences of bath הב are in the form of ben בנות with a waw taw suffix, indicates plural construct, translated ‘daughters’.   Looking at the occurrences of this form of ben, which is already in plural form בנ, the taw suffix adds ‘of’ to the noun (see fact #54 g), and the waw suffix indicates third person, possessive meaning ‘his/hers, they/them, its’ (see fact #54 d).  Looking at the first occurrence in Gen. 5:4 “Seth eight hundred years and begat sons and of them sons”, and this translation applies to all the genealogical verses in Gen. 5:4 – 6:4 (12 occurrences), Gen. 11: 11 – 29 (9 occurrences), and Gen. 19: 8 – 36 ( 8 occurrences).   

Outside of Genesis, the context that bath and ben with the waw taw suffix are used in support translation as ‘desolate’ and ‘son of sons’ respectively.  Where the context supports  bath meaning ‘daughter’, or ben with the waw taw suffix meaning ‘daughters’  is evidence of an interpolation.  For example:

• In Gen. 20:12 where Abraham is explaining that Sarah is his sister, the daughter of his father, not the daughter of his mother, added to support intermarriage from Abraham’s generation.
• Text was added in Gen. 24: 15 – 67, & 25:19 – 24 to provide Isaac’s wife  Rebekah’s lineage, and in Gen. 29: 6 – 30:43 Jacob’s wife’s Leah and Rachel’s lineage, which link with the interpolation in Gen. 11: 27 – 32, and in Gen 26:34 – 35, & 28:9 to provide Esau’s marriage to outsiders as an example why intermarriage was necessary.  
• Judah marrying the daughter of a Canaanite in Gen 38:2 – 12, the account of Joseph marrying the daughter of Potiphea, priest of On in Gen. 41:45 – 50, and the account of Dinah, Jacob’s daughter by Leah was interpolated into Genesis 30:21, 34: 1 – 26, & 46:15 (See fact #87).
• In Joel 2:28 the prophecy should read “and prophecy your sons [ben בניכם] and your son’s sons [ben  בנותיכם ], your elders dream dreams, your young visions see”, not ‘your sons and your daughters’ which makes it appear ben refers to male offspring when it is gender neutral.  This prophecy is also misquoted in Acts 2:17.

The Talmud takes the genderization of ben as male and uses it as the foundation to prohibit woman from learning or teaching scripture!  In Kiddusin 29b of the Talmud it states “The baraita teaches that a father is obligated to teach his son Torah”, since a woman is not obligated to learn Torah, she is likewise not obligated to teach it”, “‘And you shall teach them to your sons’ (Deuteronomy 11:19), which emphasizes: Your sons and not your daughters.”  All Bible versions translate ben as ‘children’ in Deut. 11:19.

106. The noun shoham שהם (Strong’s 7718 11 occurrences) they guess probably means ‘onyx’, maybe from an unused root that means ‘to blanch’.  The same form as seh שה (Strong’s 7716 47 occurrences) that means ‘one of a flock, a sheep’, in plural form as it is found in Gen. 2:12 means ‘the flock’.

107. The noun gichon גיחון (Strong’s 1521 6 occurrences) is a proper name that means ‘a bursting forth’ from the verb giach  גיח (Strong’s 1518 6 occurrences) that means ‘break forth, labor to bring forth, come forth, draw up, take out’ from a primitive root that means ‘to gush forth’.  Similar to giach in the form גיחן (Strong’s 1519 1 occurrence) that is translated as ‘stirring’ the sea in Dan. 7:2.  In Ezek 32:2 Pharaoh is likened to a monster in sea and ‘bursting forth’ (giach גיח Strong’s 1518), which in Gen 2:13 is the river ‘Gihon’ (gichon גיחון Strong’s 1521).  The yod in the middle indicates a negative form of ‘bringing forth’, perhaps explaining the word ‘gushing’ conjuring images of an overwhelming flood.

108. The noun kuwsh כוש (Strong’s 3568 30 occurrences) a proper name ‘Cush’, a son of Ham who was ‘mighty’ (gibbor) became the father of Nimrod the founder of Babylon Gen 10: 8 & 9.  According to Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, in Genesis 10:8 = 1 Chronicles 1:10 כוש is error for כש = Babylonian Kassu, according to Schr^COT on Genesis 10:6, Dl^{Pa 51 ff. 72 f.} and most Assyriologists; so perhaps also Genesis 2:13. 

The verb kasah כשה (Strong’s 3780 1 occurrence) that means ‘to be sated or gorged (with food) is found in the form כשית in Deut 32:15, from a primitive root that means ‘grow fat’ (i.e. be covered with flesh) – be covered.

109. The noun Chiddeqel חדקל (Strong’s 2313 2 occurrences), the name of a river, translated as Tigris in NASB and Hiddekel in the King James.  In Genesis 2:14 the Samaritan Targum contains ‘Qiplusah’ קפלוסהinstead of ‘Hiddegel’ חדקל, and the Targum Onkelos contains ‘Digelat’ דִּיגְלָת perhaps evidence of this name being a later addition. 

The second occurrence of Chiddeqel is found in Dan. 10:4 which also has inconsistencies in the river name, the LXX translates Hiddekel by its Greek name Tigris, but in the Peshitta it is Euphrates which makes sense since the setting of Daniel is in Babylon which is on the Euphrates river.  Other evidence against Daniel 10:4 is ‘the four and twentieth day of the month’ is the Passover feast which Daniel would have partaken in, being a devout man (see the Pulpit Commentary on these verses), yet he is indicated to be fasting. 

This is evidence that both occurrences of Chiddeqel are likely interpolations from the same source, perhaps the P, R, or D redactor (see fact #89).

110. The verb halak הלך (Strong’s 1980 1549 occurrences) means ‘to go, come, walk’ also translated as went 309 times.  In Gen 2:14 halak is prefixed with he, being either a definite article (either ‘the’, or in reference to something known or spoken of previously) or indicating interrogative (see fact #53 d), and the suffix kap ך indicates pronominal possessive, translated in Gen 13:5 as ‘who went’, and in Deut 20:4 as ‘the one who goes’. 

111. The noun ashshuwr אשור (Strong’s 804 151 occurrences) translated as the proper name Assyria, possibly a name based on the noun shor שור (Strong’s 7794) that means ‘bullock, cow, or ox’ with the prefix aleph indicating 1^st person future tense.  Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance states the proper name Ashshuwr  is “apparently from ashar (in the sense of successful)” but there is little support for ashar meaning ‘happy’ (see fact #119), since Assyria is described in Ezekiel 31 as a haughty (rum), wicked (resha) overlord.

112. The pronoun hu or hi  הוא  (Strong’s 1931 1877 occurrences) means ‘he, she, it’, translated as ‘that’ in Gen 2:12. 

113. The noun qidmah קדמת (Strong’s 6926 4 occurrences) is alleged to be the feminine of qedem/qodam קדם (Strong’s 6924/5 – 87/42 occurrences)  (see fact #74) similarly meaning ‘front, east’.  Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon indicates the occurrences in Gen 2:14 and 4:16 mean ‘in front of, over against’.  Other possible meanings of qadam קדם include ‘flee before, disappoint, prevent’.

114. The noun perath פרת (Strong’s 6578 19 occurrences) is translated as ‘Euphrates’ in most Bible versions, as it is in the Septuagint, and translated as ‘Pherat’ in the Masoretic and Targum’s.  Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance indicates it is from an unused root meaning to break forth; rushing but there is no evidence to support this claim.

There are a few possible meaning of perath:

• It may be par פר (Strong’s 6499 133 occurrences) that means ‘bull, ox’, with the taw suffix which adds ‘of’ to a noun, resulting in the meaning ‘ox of’ which doesn’t fit with the context of being the proper name of a river name.
• It could be the verb parah פנה (Strong’s 6509 29 occurrences found in a variety of forms) that means ‘bear, bring forth fruit, grow, increase’ with a taw ת suffix instead of he ה which changes the noun to the construct form ‘of’ meaning ‘fruit of’ which doesn’t fit with it being the proper name of a river.
• It could be the noun parah פרה (Strong’s 6510) that means ‘cow’, that in the singular construct state means ‘cow of’, which doesn’t fit with it being the proper name of a river.
• It may be a form of parach פרח  (Strong’s 6524 36 occurrences) , or perach פרח (Strong’s 6525 17 occurrences) that mean ‘blossom, bud, grow’, but why this variant?

Close inspection of the 19 occurrences reveals they may have been added to the text by the same redactor.  The first occurrence in Gen. 2:14 perath appears to be included only to complete the list of four rivers, 10 occurrences are in Deuteronomy 1:7 & 11:24, Jer. 13: 4, 5, 6, & 7, Jer. 46: 2, 6, & 10, & 51:63 which many scholars believe have the same author, or group of authors because of the similarity in words and phrases, and Joshua 1:4 contains the same phrase “the great river, the river Euphrates” as found in Gen 15:18 and Deut 1:7.  In 2 Sam. 8:3 perath is in brackets indicating it wasn’t in the original text, and  2 Kings 23:29 & 24:7  are the same account found in Jer. 46:2.  This is likely the work of the Deuteronomist who added names throughout the Hebrew Bible to solidify his version of events.

What’s more, Euphrates has been added to the English translation of 10 verses with or instead of ‘river’ (see fact #90) in many Bible versions except the King James.  Euphrates was added to Isaiah 7:20, 8:7 and 27:12, and Micah 7:12 leaving no valid occurrences in Isaiah or Micah.  Euphrates has been added to the English translation found in Gen. 31:21 & 36:37, and Exodus 23:31.  There clearly has been an attempt to make it appear that the Euphrates was a river in Eden, and that it was part of Abraham and Israel’s promised land.

115. The verb laqach לקח (Strong’s 3947 965 occurrences) allegedly means ‘accept, bring, buy, carry away, drawn, fetch, get, infold’ but more likely ‘take, snatch, take away’, from a primitive root that also means ‘seize, take (away)’, the same as the noun leqach לקח (Strong’s 3948 9 occurrences) that means ‘instruction, learning, teaching’, which Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance indicates is the meaning of laqach also.

116. The verb yanach ינח (Strong’s 3240 75 occurrences) means ‘bestow, cast down, up, leave off, let alone, pacify, place’, from a primitive root used in a variety of applications, literal and figurative, causative (to dwell, stay, let fall, place, let alone, withdraw, etc.), found often with a yod in the middle instead of the start.  Both Strong’s Exhaustive and NAS Exhaustive Concordance indicate yanach is the same as nuach נוח (Strong’s 5117 67 occurrences) but that seems unlikely given the different form and the meaning, ‘cease, be confederate, lay, let down, be quiet, remain, cause to, be at’.

Yanach is similar to the verb yanah ינה (Strong’s 3238 19 occurrences) which has a he ה instead of a heth ח suffix, and means ‘destroy, thrust out by oppressing proud, vex, do violence’, from a primitive root that means ‘to rage, be violent, to suppress, to maltreat – destroy, (thrust out by) oppress (ing, ion, or), proud, vex, do violence’.  The claim that yanah is the source of the noun naveh נוה (Strong’s 5116 35 occurrences) seems unlikely given the different form and meaning, ‘comely, dwelling place, fold, habitation, pleasant place’, from the verb navah (Strong’s 5115 2 occurrences) that means ‘kept at home, prepare a habitation’.

117. The noun Ebed עבד (Strong’s 5650 800 occurrences) means ‘bondage, bondservant’, is the same as the verb abad עבד (Strong’s 5647 289 occurrences) means ‘servitude’ (see fact #64). 

Like ben, ebed refers to males AND females, and like bath, shiphchah is translated to present it as referring only to females to mislead us into believing ebed refers to males only (see fact #105).

According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, the noun shiphchah  שפחה (Strong’s 8198 63 occurrences) means ‘handmaiden, bondwoman, woman-servant’,  and is “from an ‘unused’ root meaning to spread out (as a family; see mishpachah)”, and  the noun mishpachah משפחת (Strong’s 4940 303 occurrences) means ‘family, kindred’, and is “from shaphah (compare shiphchah); a family, i.e. Circle of relatives; figuratively, a class (of persons), a species (of animals) or sort (of things); by extens. A tribe or people”.  Clearly shiphchah and mishpachah are from the same verb, an ‘unused’ root, in the form שפח that means ‘to spread out (as a family), a meaning which is modified by their prefix and/or suffix(es).

Mishpachah has a mem מ prefix that converts the verb to participle or noun form  (see fact #53 a) resulting in the meaning ‘family’.  The taw suffix  ת adds ‘of’ to a noun (see fact #54 g).  For example, in Gen. 12:3 mishpachah  is translated as ‘families’ and the ‘of’ is appended onto the following word ‘the earth’, and in Zech. 12: 12 – 14 there are 5 occurrences of mishpachah in the form משפחת and 3 with the suffix ות indicating plural, translated as ‘family’ and ‘every family’ respectively, and the ‘of’ is appended onto the following word in a few cases such as ‘of David’, ‘of the house’ (x2), ‘of Shimei’, and rather than ‘by itself’ perhaps ‘of itself’ works.

In its basic form, shiphchah has a he suffix that indicates movement towards (see fact #54 d), resulting in the meaning ‘towards spreading out (as a family)’, but is commonly found in other forms.  Analysis of the 63 occurrences reveals the following:

• 11 of the 63 occurrences of shiphchah have the he suffix, which in most cases is translated as ‘a maidservant’ (in Gen. 16:1, 29:24, 29, 1 Sam. 25:41, 2 Sam. 17:17, Psalm 123:2, Prov. 30:23, Isaiah 24:2), except in Gen. 32:5 where it is found with ebed and translated as ‘maidservants’, in Exodus 11:5 with a he suffix that is translated as ‘of the maidservant’, and in Lev. 19:20 is translated as ‘a concubine’. 
• taw (36/63) adding ‘of’, for example in Gen. 16:8, 25:12, 30:7, 10, 12, 35:25, 26 the ‘of’ is added to the preceding word, but when it is found in conjunction with ebed, it translates as ‘maidservant’, for example in Gen. 12:16, 20:14, & 24:35.  With a yod becomes ‘my’ in Gen. 16:2, 5, & 30:18.
• taw waw ות (13/63) that changes the noun to plural, for example in Gen. 30:43, 33:1, 2, 6, 1 Sam. 8:16, 2 Kings 5:26, 2 Chr. 28:10, Esther 7:4, Eccl. 2:7, Isaiah 14:2, Jer. 34:16 x 2, & Joel 2:29.
• taw he תה adding ‘her’ (3/63) in Gen. 16:3, 30:4 & 9.

The ‘concubine’ translation draws attention to the fact that shiphchah is only used in reference to female servants used to bear offspring (to spread out as a family), never wives, evidencing the meaning to be similar to a concubine, a woman who lives and has sex with a man she is not married to and has a lower status than his wife or wives.  For example, Sarah’s ‘maid’ Hagar is called a shiphchah in Gen. 16: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, & 25:12, and a ‘concubine’ (pilegesh Strong’s 6370 37 occurrences) in Gen. 25:6, and Leah and Rachel’s ‘maids’ are called a shiphchah in Gen 29:24, 29, 30: 4 – 12, & 18, 32:22, 33:1, 2, 6, 35:25 & 26, then Rachel’s ‘maid’ Bilhah was called a ‘concubine’ in Gen. 35:22.  Starting in Gen. 22:24 ‘concubine’ is used of female sex slaves, whether or not they bear offspring (Gideon’s concubine in Judges 8:30 – 31, A Levite’s concubine who is brutally murdered in Judges 19: 1 – 20:6, Saul’s concubine in 2 Sam. 3:7, David’s concubines in 2 Sam. 5:13, 15:16, 16:21 & 22, 19:5, 20:3 & 21:11).

Where shiphchah is used within a context that doesn’t fit making offspring, and where we find ebed and shiphchah together, translated as ‘male and female servants’, is evidence of a mistranslation or interpolation.   For example:

• In Gen. 12:16 & 20:14 where the phrase ‘male [ebed] and female servants [shiphchah]’ are found, are duplicate accounts of Abraham allowing Sarah to be held captive by a ruler, having stated she is his sister.  This storyline is repeated again with Isaac and Rebekah in Gen. 26: 7 – 11 evidencing all three accounts may be interpolations.

• In Gen. 24:35, 30:43 & 32:5 ‘family (shiphchah)’ is on the list of Abraham and Jacob’s possessions, along with flocks, servants [ebed], and camels and donkeys.  Similarly, in 1 Sam. 8:16, Yahweh warns Israel that a king will take their ‘servants [ebed] and family members [shiphchah] . . . and put to his work’.

• There are six occurrences in Jer. 34: 9, 10, 11, & 16 (x2) where ebed is translated as ‘his male’ and mishpachah as ‘female slave’, but v 8 – 22 show evidence of being connected to Deut. 15:12 – 18 (M.D. Terblache’s article The Author of Jeremiah 34: 8 – 22 (LXX 41: 8 – 22) Spokesperson For The Judean Debt Slaves), and may be writings of the Deuteronomist.  Also, ish is translated as ‘every man’ (see fact #56) to align with the ‘brother ethics’ Terblanche refers to in his article.

• ‘Male [ebed] and female slaves [shiphchah]’ in Deut. 28:68 authored by the ‘Deuteronomist’ suspected of being uninspired text.

• Kings and Chronicles are largely historic accounts heavily redacted over time, so where ‘male [ebed] and female slaves [shiphchah]’ is found in 2 Kings 5:26, & 2 Chr. 28:10, is likely uninspired text.

• Esther is not a Canonical book, so where ‘male [ebed] and female slaves [shiphchah]’ is found in  Esther 7:4, is uninspired text.

• Ecclesiastes is not inspired yet is canonical for the Jews,  so where ‘male [ebed] and female slaves [shiphchah]’ is found in Eccl. 2:7, is uninspired text.

• The prophecy in Isaiah 14 appears to point to the ‘day of the Lord’, when Israel is settled in their own land and strangers joined with them v1, but then indicates the strangers, ‘the people’ will be possessed by the house of Israel in the land of Yahweh for ‘male [ebed] and female slaves [shiphchah]’, taken captive and ruled over v2.  This is the opposite of more certain ‘day of the Lord prophesies’ like Joel 1 and Dan. 9: 24 – 27 where it is the nation of Israel who are judged, the earthly Jerusalem destroyed, evidencing it to be uninspired text. 

• The prophecy Joel and the quote in Acts  2: 17 – 21 should read “and prophecy your sons [ben בניכם] and your son’s sons [ben  בנותיכם ], your elders dream dreams, your young visions see, and also upon my slaves and family”.

118. The verb shamar שמר (Strong’s 8104 469 occurrences) means ‘beware, be circumspect, take heed to self, keeper, self, mark, watch’ from a primitive root ‘to hedge about (as with thorns)’.  The same as shemer שמר (Strong’s 8105 5 occurrences) has a similar meaning, for example in Zeph 1:12 “Become in time that search Jerusalem with lamps (ner) and punish upon the men stagnant (qapha) upon watching (shemer) who say in their heart not do good Yahweh nor evil.”

119.  The verb ashar אשר (Strong’s 833 16 occurrences) allegedly means ‘call, be blessed, happy, in the sense of successful, go, guide, lead, relieve’.  Ashar is the noun sar שר (Strong’s 8269 421 occurrences) that means ‘chief captain, general, governor, keeper, lord, taskmaster, principal’, with the aleph prefix that indicates 1^st person, singular, future tense. 

Many of the 16 occurrences of ashar, the context fits ‘guide, lead’.  For example, Isaiah 3:12 “Those who lead you [ashar] cause you to error and the way of your paths destroy”, Isaiah 9:16 “and come to be that leaders [ashar] the people will cause them to err and led by them [ashar] are destroyed”, Proverbs 4:14 “The way of the wicked not enter and not guide [ashar] journey evil”, Proverbs 9:6 “Forsake foolishness and live and guide [ashar] way of understanding”, Proverbs 23:19 “Obey you my son and be wise and guide [ashar] in the way your heart”.  ’  Where the context supports ‘blessed, happy’ is evidence of uninspired text (Gen. 30:13, Job 29:11, Psalm 41:2, 72:17, Prov. 3:18, 31:28, Songs 6:9, Isaiah 1:17, Malachi 3:12 & 15).

The conjunction asher אשר (Strong’s 834 5502 occurrences – see fact #77) found in the same form as ashar alleged to mean ‘who, which, that, what’ or ‘after, alike, as soon as, because, every, for, for-as-much, from whence (where)’, must contain the broader meaning of ‘lead, guide, keeper, lord’.  It seems simple, meaningless words are easily substituted for words with a specific meaning, and it is very difficult to see until probing the deeper meaning of the text.  For example, if we substitute ‘lords’ in place of the ‘which, whose, with, that’ that asher is translated in Gen. 2:8 “Yahweh gods  . . . put appointed place the man lord [ashar] they formed” which aligns with Psalm 82:6 where God said “you are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High” which Yahshua quoted in John 10:34.

Looking back at Genesis 1, the waters ‘lords’ below are mankind on the ‘day of sleep’ v. 7 – 8, the trees ‘lords’ seed/offspring are in it (bow) and ‘lords’ bearing seed after their kind on the ‘day of captains’ v. 11 & 13, the living souls, ‘lords’ swarming the waters on the ‘day armed for battle’  v. 21 – 23, and put every green yielding seed ‘lords’ upon (al) the face of all the earth and every tree ‘lord’ in it (bow – see note below) fruit tree yielding see to you become food, and all alive the earth and to every bird of the air and to all creepers upon (al) the earth ‘lords’ in it (bow – see note below) soul living all green herb to food and be so, and saw gods all ‘lords’ made immensely (meod) good, on day make white  v. 29 – 31.

Looking at Gen. 2: 2 – 3 it becomes apparent how easy it is to substitute a non-descript word like ‘which’ for one that has a specific meaning like ‘lord’.  Having translated asher as ‘which’ rather than ‘lord’, forced translators to add pronouns to asah so the sentence will flow.  For example, in Gen. 2:2 “and ended gods in day seventh their work lords (asher) made (asah translated as ‘he had made) and rested . . .”, repeated at the end of the sentence.  Similarly, in Gen. 2:3 the noun gods is moved in front of bara so the sentence will flow “in it (bow – see note below) rested from all work lords (asher) fed to grow and refine (bara translated as ‘God had created’ – see The Real Meaning of Numbers 1 to 7 under heading Five or Armed for Battle for analysis of bara) gods they accomplished”. 

Note: the Hebrew בו bow in Gen. 1:11, 12, 29 & 30 is not assigned a Strong’s #, making it difficult to investigate the meaning.  Today it has quite disparate possible meanings ‘used for’, ‘trust’, ‘down’, ‘proud’, ‘right’, ‘stolen’, or ‘in him/it’ as seen below.  At this time, I’ve used ‘in it’ which is how it is commonly translated in the Genesis creation account, but leave it open to future review if new evidence presents itself revealing a different meaning.

Where asher is translated as ‘such as’, as it is in Exodus 34:10 may be evidence of uninspired text, since ‘lead, guide, keeper, lord’ doesn’t work in the context of the sentence because it isn’t about a living entity.  Evidence to support of this theory is found in Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges observations about this verse:

• The connexion between Exodus 34:9-10 is also imperfect: it is surprising in v. 9 to find Jehovah entreated to go with the people, when He has already in Exodus 33:14-16 promised to do so; and it is also surprising that Exodus 34:10 is no direct answer to the entreaty of v. 9.
• The covenant of Exodus 34:10-27 is described as if it were one made for the first time; neither v. 10 nor v. 27 suggests that it is a second, or new, covenant. The laws in Exodus 34:10-26 are mostly identical verbally with a particular section of those contained in chs. 21–23’: what is the relation subsisting between the two recensions, and how is the repetition to be explained? It must be evident that all these difficulties and inconsistencies are due simply to the amalgamation—and sometimes the imperfect amalgamation—of different sources: they are lessened, though they can hardly be said to disappear, when these sources are recognized and disengaged from one another.

With over 5500 occurrences of asher in the Hebrew Bible, it is impossible to test every verse, but this evidence looks quite promising.

120. The noun geber גבר  (Strong’s 1397 65 occurrences) means ‘mighty one’ from the verb gabar  גבר (Strong’s 1396 25 occurrences) that means ‘be great, be mighty, prevail’, from a primitive root that means ‘to be strong, and by implication, to prevail, act insolently’.  Brown-Driver-Briggs state that geber can mean ‘every one, man’, and gabar can mean ‘man as strong, distinguished from women, children, and non-combatants whom he is to defend’, both are translated often as ‘man/men’ making it indistinguishable from mankind [adam]. 

The verb gabahh  גבה (Strong’s 1361 34 occurrences) means ‘exalt, be haughty, be made higher, lift up, be proud, raise up great height’, the same as gabah  (Strong’s 1362 4 occurrences).  The root is gob/geb גב (Strong’s 1358 10 occurrences & Strong’s 1356 4 occurrences) that mean ‘ditch, pit’, and the he suffix means ‘toward’ (see fact 54 d), so gabahh/gabah means figuratively ‘toward a ditch’.  The nouns gab (Strong’s 1354 13 occurrences & 1355 1 occurrence in Dan 7:6 translated as ‘back’) mean ‘the top or rim, a boss, a vault’.  Gabahh is found in Ezek 31:5 with an aleph א suffix, translated as ‘exalted’ and the context supports elevation of ones self above ‘all’, including God.

The adjective/noun gibbor גבור (Strong’s 1368 159 occurrences) means ‘strong, mighty’, as Brown-Driver Briggs states “one who magnifies himself, behaves proudly, a tyrant, who is bold, audacious”, or ‘strong, valiant man’.  Gibbor is used of angels who are ‘mighty’ in a positive sense, in Isaiah 9:6 the Messiah is named god [el/al] mighty [gibbor] and in Dan. 8:16 & 9:21 the angel Gabriel’s name is found which means mighty [gerber] god [el/al], but where gerber/garbar/gibbor are used generally of mankind, or in a positive way, is evidence of either a mistranslation, misinterpretation, interpolation, or combination thereof. 

For example, Joel 2 is a prophecy for the ‘day of the Lord [Yhvh]’ v1.  A people [am] many [rab] and strong [atsum] the likes of which will never be again v2 (because the nation of Israel are judged and destroyed), before them is land like the garden of Eden with a consuming fire and behind them a desolate wilderness with blazing flames (of judgement see fact #125) v3, representing the two choices before Israel – return to Eden to be tested by Yahweh’s fire, or be judged and destroyed by the Roman army.

The Roman army are described in v4 – 8;  they appear swift, their appearance  like war horses so they run v4, a noise like chariots over [al] tops the mountains consume the stubble, like a people [am] strong [atsum] arranged for war, before them the people [am] are in anguish, all faces turn pale v5 – 6, like mighty ones [gibbor] they run like mighty men [ish see fact #56] of war they climb the wall and mighty men [ish] in formation march and not they deviate path, and mighty men [ish] each other not push mighty one [gerber] in highway and march, and by means of weapons [shelach see fact #123] fall/die [naphal see fact #126] not stop v7 – 8.

We see in Joel 2, the similar translation of ish (see fact #56), adam, and gibbor makes them indistinguishable from each other.  Brown-Driver-Briggs sees the Romans as ‘strong, valiant man’, they were certainly fearless and bold, but not noble or gallant, so valiant is a poor choice of word to describe the Roman invaders, any more than the men of Babylon would be called such.  Since violence appears to be an overarching feature of these mighty ones, ‘warriors’ is a better translation for gibbor  when used of men.

Another example is found in Zechariah 13:7 where problems with the text and the translation make it appear to be a prophecy of the Messiah’s incarnation.  The first problem is in the translation of the verb roi רעי (Strong’s 7471 or 7473) as ‘My shepherd’ when it means either ‘pasture’ or ‘shepherd’, that in Zechariah 11:17 is used of a worthless shepherd.  The second problem is a “textual difference  .  .  . between the MT and the Hebrew text that served as the basis for the Targum: the latter read עמיתו instead of עמיתי , ‘his association’ instead of ‘my association’, a reading that finds support in the LXX and in Theodotion’s translation (and in a very few Hebrew MSS)“  which author Maarten Menken states “significantly impact the interpretation of this verse” in his article Striking the Shepherd.  Early Christian Versions and Interpretations of Zechariah 13,7,.

Menken notes “The Targum remains relatively close to the MT, except that ‘real’ persons and acts are substituted for ‘metaphorical’ ones”.  The Targum reads “O sword, be revealed against the king and against the prince his companion who is his equal, who is like him, says the Lord of hosts; slay the king and the princes shall be scattered and I will bring back a mighty stroke upon the underlings”. Instead of ‘shepherd’ we find ‘king’, and instead of ‘man’ (geber which means ‘mighty one’) we find ‘prince’, roles  which are similar to those in Ezek. 28 where the leader of Tyre is ‘a man [adam]’ v2, and the king of Tyre is the anointed cherub who sinned in Eden and was cast from the mountain of God, from the midst of the ‘stones אבני of fire אש‘  (note: eben אבן, Strong’s 68 is found in Gen. 2:12) v12 – 16. 

In Micah 2:1 – 2 , “who plan wickedness and perform evil upon for it is to mighty [el] their hand and covet field and plunder them, and dwellings and seize, and oppress them [עשקו see Isaiah 52:4] mighty one [gerber] and their house and mighty man [ish] and their inheritance”.  It is the mighty ones [gerber] and mighty men [ish] who oppress ‘them’!  This is supported by Isaiah 5:14 & 15 “therefore has enlarged Sheol  soul and opens its mouth beyond measure, and shall descend their glory and their multitude and their pomp and jubilant into it, and humble self man [adam], and brought down mighty man [ish], and eyes mighty [gaboah] shall be brought down.”

121. The verb rabah/rebah  רבה (Strong’s 7235 & 7236 230 & 6 occurrences) mean ‘bring in abundance’ and ‘to grow great’ respectively, the basic form is rab/rob רב, and the he suffix indicating movement toward (see fact #54 d), found in the form ירב  in Gen 1:22 and ורבו  in Gen 1:22 & 28 where it is translated as ‘[and] multiply’. 

The adjective rab רב (Strong’s 7227 462 occurrences and Strong’s 7229 15 occurrences – all in Daniel and Ezra) can also mean great in the sense of ‘captain, champion, chief’, the noun rab (Strong’s 7228) are translated as ‘an archer, arrows’ but the context supports ‘captains’.  The noun rob רב (Strong’s 7230 147 occurrences) means ‘abundance, all, common sort, excellent, greatly huge, be increased’, from the verb rabab רבב (Strong’s 7231 13 occurrences) that also means ‘increase, multiply’ with most occurrences in the form רבו , the same as the verb רבב (Strong’s 7232 2 occurrences) that means ‘to shoot (an arrow)’ but only found in the forms רבו and רב, likely uninspired text. The noun rebu רבו (Strong’s 7238 5 occurrences all in Daniel) means ‘greatness, majesty’, and the noun ribbo רבו  (Strong’s 7239 11 occurrences & 7240 2 occurrences in Daniel) means “ten thousand, myriad’ but ‘abundance’ also fits the context. 

The noun rebibim רביב (Strong’s 7241 6 occurrences) means ‘abundant showers’, only occurring in plural form which according to Brown-Driver-Briggs refers to showers causing fertility, but the evidence is weak to support this alternate meaning.

122. The noun ramah רמה (Strong’s 7413 5 occurrences) means ‘high place’, the same as rimmah  (Strong’s 7415) that means ‘a worm, maggot’ in the sense of breeding (compare ruwm Strong’s 7411) a maggot (as rapidly bred), literally or figuratively, from ramam  (Strong’s 7426 7 occurrences) that means ‘exalt, lift up self’.  An active participle of rum רום also found in רמה form, רממת in Ezek. 31:4 (Strong’s 7311 189 occurrences) that means ‘a height (as a seat of idolatry).  Similar to bamah  במת (Strong’s 1116 102 occurrences) that means ‘high places’ where Israel worshipped other gods, their idols, burning their sons and daughters in the fire Jer. 7:31, 19:5 & 32:35, that Yahweh promised would be destroyed in Lev 26:30, Numbers 21:28, 33:52, Ezek 6: 3, 6, 16:16.

123.  The noun shelach שלח (Strong’s 7973 8 occurrences) means ‘dart, plant, put off, sword, weapon’, from shalach שלח (Strong’s 7971 847 occurrences) translated as ‘cast away, forsake, shoot forth, spread’, in a violent sense like a ‘missile of attach, i.e. spear, or sword (see Joel 2:8)’, or figuratively ‘a shoot of growth, i.e. branch’. 

124.  Few scholars believe Isaiah to be the author of the entire 66 chapters of the book of Isaiah.  Isaiah is grouped into three divisions, proto (Isaiah 1 – 39 dated before 587 in Jerusalem), deutero (Isaiah 40 – 55 thought to be before 538 in Babylon) and trito (Isaiah 56 – 66 is dates after 539 in Jerusalem), based on the date the writing is thought to have taken place, but the authorship of verses and chapters in the first division are challenged, even outside the ‘Isaiah Apocalypse’ in Isaiah 24 – 27 and Isaiah 36 – 39 a historical narrative edited into the book from 2 Kings 18:13 – 20:19.  Even verses where Isaiah is mentioned by name, Isaiah 1:1, 2:1, 7:3, 13:1, 20:2 & 3, 37: 2, 5, 6 & 21, 38: 1, 4, 21, 39: 2, 5, & 9, are challenged as not being authored by Isaiah. 

The only way to properly assess the inspiredness of Isaiah is one word, verse, and chapter at time.  Since this is a formidable task, for now let’s consider the verses in Isaiah 27:3 and 43:20 where shaqah was used in a positive light of Yahweh watering, the opposite of the normal meaning (see fact #98), which is evidence against the text being inspired:

• Isaiah 24 – 27 prophesies the ‘day of the Lord’ when Yahweh punishes the host of heaven and the kings of the earth, then reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem Isaiah 24:21 – 23, that Judah will be protected by God, the dead will be raised, and the inhabitants of the earth punished for their iniquity Isaiah 26: 1 – 21.  This is the opposite of more certain ‘day of the Lord prophesies’ like Joel 1 and Dan. 9: 24 – 27 where it is the nation of Israel who are judged, the earthly Jerusalem destroyed, evidencing it to be uninspired text. 

• The proper translation of Isaiah 43:20 reveals it to be uninspired text.  The meaning of the following words is much different than found in any Bible translation:

#1 kabad/kabed כבד (Strong’s 3513 115 occurrences) means ‘abounding with, more grievously afflict, boast, be chargeable, be dim’, but is frequently translated as ‘honor, glorify, respect’, in Isa. 43:20 it is translated as ‘honor’ in the King James, ESV & NIV, ‘glorify’ in NASB, and ‘thank me’ in the NLT.

#2 chay (see fact #24) in its basic form חי means ‘alive, living’.  The taw suffix חית adds ‘of’ to a noun, which we would appropriately be translated ‘living of’, is translated as ‘beast’ in many cases, as it is in this verse.  Chay is found in this form in Gen. 1:25 and the ‘of’ added to the next word ‘the earth’. 

#3 tannin (see fact #25) means ‘monster, dragon’ but is translated as ‘the jackals’.

#4 bath בנות means ‘desolate’  (see fact #104) but is translated as ‘and’.

#5 yaanah יענה (Strong’s 3284 8 occurrences) means either ‘owl’ or ‘greed’ but is always translated as ‘ostrich’.  Yaanah may be anah ענה (Strong’s 6030 329 occurrences)without the yod prefix in Gen. 35:3, 41:16 where it is translated as ‘who answered’ and ‘an answer’ respectively, and in Hosea 2:21 with an aleph prefix where it is translated as ‘I will respond’.  The yod י prefix indicates the imperfect (future) tense, called the jussive that  expresses a desire that something should happen, normally used in the 3^rd person (he/she/it) but may be 2^nd person (you) (see Fact #53 f).

The sentence should read “honor/glorify/thank me living of the field, the monsters desolate they respond for I give in wilderness waters, rivers in the wasteland to irrigate my chosen people.” Regardless whether kabad carries a positive or negative meaning, the sentence says ‘monsters’ are Yahweh’s ‘chosen’ people, who will ‘honor/glorify/thank’ God for ‘irrigation/poison’.

125. The noun lahab להב (Strong’s 3851 12 occurrences) and lehabah/lehebeth להבה (Strong’s 3852 19 occurrences) mean ‘flame, blade’, but as indicated in Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, they more specifically represent judgement using the forces of nature (Isaiah 29:6, 30:30 & 66:15), a force that destroys like locusts (Joel 2:3), war (numbers 21:28), consuming chaff (Isaiah 5:24) and calamity (Isaiah 43:2).  The difference between lahab and lehabah is the he suffix indicates movement towards, so in Joel 2:3 being burnt by the ‘flame’ of judgment is a choice, and in Joel 2:5 it is too late.

126. The verb naphal/nephal נפל (Strong’s 5307 & 5308 435 & 11 occurrences) is commonly translated as ‘fall/fell’ which doesn’t capture the fact that it is often used of a violent death, and figuratively means ‘go to ruin, perish, experience calamity’ according to Brown-Driver-Briggs, weak evidence to support it meaning ‘fall prostrate’.  As a noun נפל (Strong’s 5309 3 occurrences) means ‘miscarriage, abortion’. 

127. The verb tsavah צוה (Strong’s 6680 493 occurrences) means ‘appoint, forbid, set in order’, the he suffix indicating movement toward, thus ‘set in order’ is an appropriate translation.  The root tsav צו (Strong’s 6673 9 occurrences) means ‘decree, order’.  

128. The verb akal אכל (Strong’s 398 810 occurrences) means literally or figuratively ‘burn up, consume, devour, eat’ often translated as ‘eat’, in plural forms okel אכלם (Strong’s 400 44 occurrences).  With a he suffix forms oklah אכלה (Strong’s 402 18 occurrences) that means ‘toward burning/consuming’, in Ezek. 29:5 And cast you off the wilderness you and all fish your stream (yeor) upon face the field cast down, not gather and not assemble to living the land and birds the heavens put you to devour (oklah).  In Gen. 1: 29 – 30 on the sixth day (the day make white) God gave those in image rule over every living thing on the earth, and all plants, trees to devour (oklah).

129.  The verb & noun muth מות (Strong’s 4191 & 4194 839 & 155 occurrences) mean ‘worthy of death, death, die’ often translated as ‘die/death’.

130.  The day of the Lord prophecy in Joel 2 has five parts; the destruction  in v 1 -17, and the salvation v 18 – 27, AFTER the gifts of the Spirit v 28 – 29, and BEFORE (panim/paneh Strong’s 6440 ‘faces’) wonders in the heavens before the coming of day of Yahweh v 30 – 31, and become all who call in appointed name of Yahweh will be saved, survivors Yahweh calls v32. 

v1 – 17 Begins with “Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in mountain holy, let tremble all inhabitants the land for is coming day of Yahweh” v1.  ‘Holy’ (Strong’s 6944) means ‘set apart’ and ‘mountain’ (Strong’s 2022) figuratively means power, that in this case represents Israel, God’s people upon who judgment is about to fall v2.  Before them consumes a fire, like the garden of Eden, and behind them burns a flame and a desolate wilderness nothing escapes v3.  Then the attack on the city is described that only those who return to Yahweh will be saved from when the bridegroom comes out of his room and the bride out of her chamber and the priests weep v 4 – 17.

v18 – 20 Yahweh is jealous for his land and has pity on his people v18, answers his people and sends grain, new wine, and oil and never again make them a reproach among the nations (goy) v19, and remove the northern (tsephoni) far away to a parched and desolate land with his face upon the sea eastern and his back upon the sea western and rise up stench and rise up foul odor because monstrous things made v20,

v21 – 25 God’s people not revere (yare) land be glad rejoice for abundance Yahweh to make, not revere (yare) the beasts of the field for spring up pastures from wilderness for tree and bear its fruit and fig (teenah) tree and vine put wall/fortress/army (chel) and sons (eben) Zion (tsiyyon) be glad and rejoice in Yahweh your god for given you the early rain (mowreh) to righteousness (tsedaqah), to you rain (geshem) early  and latter in beginning (rishon) and be full the threshing floor (goren) and abundance wine press new wine and oil, and peace to you the sleep time lord devour the locust (arbeh) the worms (yeleq) the caterpillar (chasil) the palmer worm (gazam) my wall/fortress/army (chel) lord sent among you v25.

V26 – 29 and you devour, devour and be sated and you shine (halal) appointed name Yahweh your God lord make with you (im) wonderful and not be ashamed my people everlasting (olam).

v30 – 32 After Yahweh’s spirit will be poured out on all flesh (basar), sons and sons of sons will prophesy, elders dream dreams, and young see visions, even on bondservants (ebed see fact #117) and family (shipchah see fact #117)  v28 – 29 quoted by Peter in Acts 2: 16 – 18 (ebed and shipchah are mistranslated in both).

131. The noun panim or paneh פני (Strong’s  6440 2128 occurrences) means ‘accept, anger, as long as, battle, because of, beseech, countenance’, often translated as ‘before’ 1006/2128, ‘face(s)’ (334/2128), less often as ‘presence’ (131/2128), ‘front’ (86/2128), ‘because’ (80/2128) or ‘surface’ (26/2128).  From panah (Strong’s 6437 135 occurrences) that means ‘appear, behold, cast out, come on, corner, dawning, empty’, often translated as ‘turn’. ‘Face (panim/paneh) against (el)’ indicates Ezekiel’s words against God’s adversaries, all the men upon (al) the face (panim/paneh) of the earth overthrown, the mountains cast down and the steep places and all wall to ground cast down Ezek. 38:2 & 20, and upon (al) face (panim/paneh) the field cast down Ezek. 39:5.

Constructing the Sentences

Let’s construct the sentences:

Gen 2:10  The subject is ‘river’ [figuratively ‘eminency’], verb ‘went forth’, and object ‘from Eden’, second verb ‘to irrigate’, and second object ‘the enclosure’.  The subject ‘appointed place’, compound verb ‘separated’ and ‘began to sprawl’, and object ‘overlords’.

Gen 2:11  The subject ‘appointed place the one apart’, verb ‘selfish pride’, second verb ‘surrounds’, and object ‘all land the circle’, and second object ‘lord appointed name the gold’.

Gen 2:12  The subject ‘and gold the land it good’, verb ‘appointed name’, and object ‘the piece gold and she will be a building stone the onyx/sheep’. 

Gen 2:13  The subject ‘appointed name the river [eminency] the sleeping’, verb ‘burst forth’, and second verb ‘surrounds’, and object ‘the whole land fat’.

Gen 2:14  The subject ‘appointed name the river [eminency] the captain’ ‘Hiddeqel/Tigris’, the pronoun hu/hi pointing back to the subject, followed by a second verb ‘who went’ and object ‘front/east/before Assyria’ or ‘northern kingdom’ as stated in the Samaritan Targum.  The subject ‘the river [eminency]’, adjective ‘fourth’ or verb ‘sprawling’, and object ‘Euphrates’, which I’ve stroked through as it is likely an interpolation. 

Gen. 2:15  The subject ‘Yahweh gods’, compound verbs ‘took’ and ‘cast down’, and object ‘the man in the garden of Eden’, and compound verbs ‘to serve and take heed to self’.

Translation

The paragraph translates as follows:

And river (eminency) went forth from Eden to irrigate/give drink the enclosure and from appointed place they separated and began to sprawl overlords.  Appointed place the one apart spread out, it surrounded the whole land, the mobilization, leading appointed place golden.  And gold the land it good appointed name severed piece gold and will be a building stone the onyx/sheep.  And appointed place the river (eminency) the sleeping burst forth, it surrounds the whole land fat.  And appointed name the river (eminency) the captain Tigris (Hiddeqel?), he/she/it went before Assyria, and the river (eminency) the sprawling, he/she/it Euphrates.  And seized Yahweh gods the man and cast down him in garden of Eden to serve and take heed to self.

Analysis

At first glance, Gen. 2: 10 – 14 seems to have a unified theme, the naming of ‘four headwaters’ flowing out of Eden, but these verses are disconnected from the context of the surrounding text, and geographical reality. 

In the article, The Four Rivers of Paradise, author Yehuda Radday questions the geographical information in Genesis, why it is inaccurate, strange, and why it is there at all. Inaccuracies including the Tigris and Euphrates have no common source, rivers do not divide into ‘heads’ but deltas, and that the source of the river should be called the head.  He questions why the first river, Pishon, is “nowhere attested to in Biblical or extra-Biblical texts”, the second river, Gihon, is found in scripture but it is a rivulet which is not near the land of Cush, the third river, Hideqel, “beyond a doubt is the Tigris, but in contrast to the first two, does not ‘flow around’ but ‘goes’?   

What’s more, Radday wonders why the Nile river is omitted when it is mentioned 28 times in scripture.  He concerned that Cush is “a name which may apply equally to two widely different locations, . . .Ethiopia in the southwest of Canaan, . . . a Persian province northeast of Babylonia”.  He questions why the Hidegel ‘goes’ east of Ashur (Assyria) at the beginning of time, why the Euphrates is given just a brief mention, why no more is said of it, why the information on the four rivers gradually decreases?  He questions the mention of gold, with the definite article he, and bdellium and onyx stone, which are unidentifiable.   He believes the solution is to look for the figurative meaning behind the text which I agree is necessary to overcome our English Bible translations which support the Eden paradise theme.

The reason for the strangeness of this text is a combination of mistranslation and interpolation.  With arba translated as ‘sprawling’ (see fact #92) instead of ‘four’, rosh translated as ‘overlords’ (see fact #93) instead of ‘heads’, the accurate translation of the numbers (see the article The Real Meaning of the Numbers 1 to 7), and sham/shem as ‘appointed name/place’ (see fact #94), and stroking out  Tigris (Hiddeqel), and ‘river fourth is Euphrates’ which were likely added to complete the list of four rivers, we see a little more clearly that the context is not about ‘four rivers’, or geography.  

We know man’s relationship with God took a turn for the worse in Gen. 2: 10 – 14, because BEFORE, the man was not yet in servitude (see fact #64) to the ground in Gen 2:5, was made from the dust (perishable – see fact #52) in Gen 2:7, put/appointed (see fact #75) in the garden (enclosure) Eden in Gen 2:8, and presented with the choice between the tree of life (righteousness) and the tree of knowledge (experience) of good and evil (sin) in Gen. 2:9, and AFTER, Yahweh seized (see fact #115) and cast down (see fact #116) the man in Eden to serve (see fact #117) and take heed to self (see fact #118)” in Gen 2:15.

The setting of Genesis 2: 4 – 3:24 and Ezekiel 31 are in the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 3:1, 2, 8, 10, 23, 24 and Ezek. 31:8 & 9).  In Gen. 2: 6 “a vapour rose up from the earth and irrigated the whole face of the ground” (see facts #65 & #66 also mean ‘poison’ and ‘furnish a potion to’), and in Gen. 2:10 “river went out from Eden to irrigate the garden”, that in Ezek. 31: 4 are the waters  of the deep (tehom Gen. 1:2 see fact #29).  The time frames are different, Gen. 2:14 is ‘before Assyria’ versus  Ezek. 31:3 where Assyria is a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches and forest shade, became very high, its top among the clouds. 

There are many common words in Genesis 2 and Ezekiel 31:4 which explain what caused Assyria to grow (gadol see fact #26) and be exalted (rum see fact #122 height as a seat of idolatry):

• With their rivers (nahar Gen 2:10, 13 & 14 see fact #90 figuratively meaning ‘prosperity’, the resh suffix reflecting ‘eminence’ see fact #91),
• Running (halak Gen. 2:14 see fact #110),
• Around (sabab Gen. 2:11 & 13 see fact #102),
• Its planting place (matta from nata Gen 2:8 see fact #71 meaning established people),
• Sent (shalach Gen. 2:14 see fact #101 – ‘rank’ similar to shelach 123 – ‘attack’),
• Channels (t’alah Gen. 2:6 see fact #99 ‘uprising’),
• Upon (el in Gen. 1:9 see fact #99 contains some element of power)
• Trees (ets Gen. 1:11, 12, 29, & 2:9)
• The field (sadeh Gen 2:5 see fact #60 figurative meaning ‘toward ruin’)

There are three main characters in Gen. 2: 10 – 14:

1.  Satan is the eminence (see fact #90 – a combination of prosperity and power) that flowed out of Eden, furnished a potion (see fact #66) the garden.

2.  Assyria parted (see The Real Meaning of Numbers 1 to 7 under heading ‘One or Apart’) from the appointed place and became sprawling overlords (rosh see fact #93), and spread out ‘like an infection’ (see fact #96), surrounding (see fact #102) the whole land, the mobilization (see fact #97) lords (see fact #119) appointed place the gold (see fact #103). 

The prosperity and power (eminence) of the sleeping (dead) (see The Real Meaning of Numbers 1 to 7 under heading Two or Sleeping) burst forth (see fact #107), it surrounds (see fact #102) the whole land fat (see fact #108), and the prosperity and power of the captain/prince (shelishi  in The Real Meaning of the Numbers 1 to 7 reports directly to the king – see fact #100).

3. The severed piece (see fact #104) and building stone (see fact #105) the onyx/sheep (see fact #106). 

Assyria accepted Satan’s offer of “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory . . . if he would fall down and worship him”, a temptation to which Yahshua said “It is written, you shall worship Yahweh your God and serve him only” Matthew 4:8 – 10.  Satan became “the ruler of this world” John 16:11, the king (see fact #100 ‘foreign god’) of Tyre Ezek. 28: 11 – 16, and when his princes/captains died they were replaced with new ones Ezek. 28: 1 – 10. Until Yahshua came to give his life a ransom for many Matthew 20:28 & Mark 10:45, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoner Isaiah 61:1 & Luke 4:18, and appeared a second time to bring salvation to those who eagerly awaited him Hebrews 9:28.

In Gen. 2:10, rosh is found in plural form ראשים  translated as ‘heads’, ‘headwaters’, ‘branches’,  ‘rivers’, or even ‘riverheads’, but ‘heads’ are leaders, masters, and captains in war, fathers, and husbands under patriarchy, Rabbi’s, priest’s, and ministers in organized religion, presidents, vice-presidents, and governors in government, anywhere headship is followed.  This explains why rosh also means ‘poison’, the poison of headship which resulted in the loss of eternal life from the beginning of time.

Yahshua warned against those who lord it over others in Matthew 20:25,& Mark 10:42, being called ‘benefactors’ Luke 22:25 which today we call philanthropists, those who disguise their evil intentions under the guise of helping those less fortunate.  Yahshua commanded his disciples to “call no one teacher for one is teacher and you are brothers, and call no one father on the earth, one is your father in heaven, neither be called leaders since the leader of you is one the Messiah” in Matt. 23:8 – 10, forbidding any type of headship, because we are all equal before God.  As stated in Gal. 3:28, neither is there Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female, all are one in the Messiah.

Next we will look at Genesis 2: 15 to 17.

It seemed so simple to accept the numbers 1 to 7 as having a purely numerical meaning.  After all, they appear as such in the English translation of the seven creation days in Genesis 1:1 – 2:3, then in the four rivers of Eden in Genesis 2: 10 – 14, and in numerous lists throughout the Hebrew Bible. 

However, in looking at the text of Gen. 2: 10 – 14 it became increasingly evident that Strong’s numbering of words is inconsistent, making their Concordance useless at best, misleading at worst.  There is evidence that translators have taken words used to describe each of the seven days in Gen. 1:1 – 2:3, and assigned numerical values, to obscure the meaning of the creation account, what happened in Genesis 2: 10 – 14, and the prophecy in Daniel 9: 24 – 27. 

There are two major problems with Strong’s Concordance:

1.  They have taken the text of the entire Hebrew Bible, some inspired and some added later, and blended it together in their numbering system, resulting in completely different meanings for words of the same, or similar form. 

2.  They have assigned different numbers to words based on prefixes, and/or based on the meaning they want for words, not grouping words of similar form together, which we would expect from a Dictionary.

By applying standard Hebrew word construction rules in a consistent manner, where the meaning of the root, normally a verb, is modified by prefixes and suffixes, to arrive at a meaning, God’s message shines through, and it is quite different than we have been led to believe! 

One or Apart

The noun echad אחד (Strong’s 259 967 occurrences) means ‘one’, but in the sense of being ‘alone, single, another, each’, not ‘united, i.e. One; or (as an ordinal) first’, alike’, the meaning we assume based on Judeo-Christian teachings.  Echad is the same as the verb achad אחד (Strong’s 258 1 occurrence in Ezek. 21:16) that means ‘go one way or other’. 

The root of echad/achad is ach אח (Strong’s 251 630 occurrences) that means ‘brother, kindred’, that with the daleth ד suffix indicates the opposite, separation.  The way ab אב (Strong’s 1 1212 occurrences) that means ‘progenitor’, with the daleth ד suffix forms abad אבד (Strong’s 6 184 occurrences) indicates the opposite, ‘perish, destroy’. 

Echad is often found in the form אחת, the taw suffix means ‘of’, as we see in Gen. 2:21 “the adam deep sleep and took of kindred [echad] from their side”, and Gen. 27:38 where Esau said to his father Isaac “the blessing of kindred [echad], my father bless also me”.  Where echad/achad is used purely as a number, may be evidence of uninspired text, which unfortunately is plentiful in the Hebrew Bible.

The one occurrence of achad is in Ezek. 21:16, in the King James Bible is translated “Go thee one way or other [achad], [either] on [sum/sim] the right hand [yaman], on the left [simel], whithersoever [an] thy face [panim/paheh] set [yaad]”, but in the Berean Study Bible, NIV and NLT, in addition to achad being translated as ‘slash’, sum/sim (Strong’s 7760) that means ‘to put, place, set’ is translated as ‘set your blade’, and panim/paneh (Strong’s 6440) that means ‘face, faces’, is translated as ‘blade’, and the New King James Bible changed to this translation.  This is a perfect example of how translators change the meaning of text, in this case to support a literal sword theme.  

The sword is the Messiah who is the word 1 John 1: 1 – 2, who was with God in the beginning, in him was life, and the life was the light of men, the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it, the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man John 1: 1 – 3, & 9.  The Messiah is the whirling sword guarding the way to the tree of life Gen. 3:24.  “Assyria will be shattered at the voice of Yahweh” Isa. 30:31, “in that day . . . cast down Assyria by sword [chereb] not of mighty one [ish] and sword [chereb] not of mankind will devour . . .”.  Isa 31: 7 – 8.  The sword is the word of God, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart Hebrews 4:12.  

The Messiah is the sword prophesied in Ezek. 21 that Yahweh will draw out of its sheath and cut off the righteous and the wicked v.3, is sharpened to make a slaughter and polished to flash like lightening, that it may be handled in the hand of the slayer v. 9 – 11, against God’s people, against all the officials of Israel, who are delivered over to the sword v.12, for there is a testing by the rod which despises v. 13.  Ezekiel is told to prophesy and strike upon hands and double sword lord [shelishi – see section ‘three’ below], the sword slays, his sword slays the great, their privy chamber v. 14, that their hearts may melt, and many fall upon their gates, I have set the point of sword kindred [ach], made lightning, grasped for slaughter v. 15.  Mankind to go one way or the other, on the right hand, on the left v. 16, as the Messiah separates us from one another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats Matt. 25:32.

Looking again at Gen. 1:5, what we know as ‘day one [echad]’, the meaning is most likely ‘day kindred go one way or other’, in alignment with the separation (space between Gen. 1:4) the light and the darkness, when the waters were gathered into place ‘kindred go one way or other’ and see the dry ground in Gen. 1:9.  After the creation of the earth and heavens, when there was no shrubs or plants in the field and Yahweh gods had not rained their judgment on the earth, before man became a slave to the ground, a vapour rose from the earth and poisoned the ground in Gen. 2: 4 – 6, a test that the first man failed, resulting in being made perishable on ‘day two’.

Two or Sleep (in death)

The verb yashen ישן (Strong’s 3462, 3463 & 3465 24, 5 & 6 occurrences) means ‘to sleep’, ‘asleep, sleeping’, and ‘old’ (more likely ‘withered’ in Lev. 25:22 & 26:10) respectively, the yod prefix indicates third person, future tense ‘he/she/they sleep’.  Yashen is the root of  sheni  שני,  shenayim  שנים, and shenah  שנה , the nun suffix ן changes to נ when it occurs at the beginning or half-way into a word.   

The noun sheni  שני (Strong’s 8145 157 occurrences) is often translated as ‘second’, but the root yashen means ‘to sleep’, and the yod suffix either changes a plural masculine noun to the construct form ‘of sleep’, or indicates first person singular possessive ‘my sleep’.  Death is ‘a sleep’, those who are sleeping  (Strong’s groups with yashen but it is sheni ישני) in the dust of the ground, who will awaken at the time of the great tribulation, when Michael, the great prince, takes a stand, some to everlasting life and some to shame, contempt everlasting  in Dan. 12: 1 – 2 (a continuation from Dan. 9: 24 – 27), when judgment began at the house of God 1 Peter 4:17. 

Found in the same form as sheni, shani שני (Strong’s 8144 42 occurrences) is alleged to mean ‘crimson, scarlet thread’, but the occurrences in Exodus (26/42), Leviticus (5/42), and Numbers (2/42) are mistranslations.  In the verses in question, both shani and tola (Strong’s 8438) that means ‘crimson’, are mistranslated to make them fit the context, evidencing these verse to be uninspired, and calls into question the other 9 occurrences, as revealed in the analysis below:

• In Exodus 25 – 39 shani is found 26 times (both sheni and shani are found in Exodus 25:4, 12, 32, 26:1, 4, 5, 10, 20, 27, 31, 36, 27:15, 16, 28:5, 6, 8, 10, 15, 18, 33, 29:19, 39, 41, 35:6, 23, 25, 35, 36:8, 11, 12, 17, 25, 32, 35, 37, 37:3, 18, 38:15, 18, 23, 39:1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 24, & 29) in the phrase “and blue and purple and crimson [tola Strong’s 8438 translated as ‘and’] of sleep [shani Strong’s 8144 translated as ‘scarlet’] and linen and goats (ez  Strong’s 5795 translated as ‘goat [hair])’ . . . ”.
• Similarly, shani is found in the phrase in Lev. 14:4 “two [שתי  shenayim Strong’s 8147] birds living clean and tree cedar and of sleep [shani translated as ‘and’] crimson [tola translated as ‘scarlet’] and hyssop [ezob]”, in Lev. 14:6 “the bird take it and tree the cedar and besides/next [shani translated as ‘yarn’] the crimson [tola translated as ‘the scarlet’], and the hyssop”, in Lev. 14:49 “take to cleanse the house two [שתי  shenayim Strong’s 8147] birds and tree cedar and of sleep [shani translated as ‘and’] crimson [tola translated as ‘scarlet’] and hyssop”, in Lev. 14: 51 “tree the cedar and the hyssop and of sleep [shani translated as ‘yarn’] the crimson [toal translated as ‘the scarlet’] the bird the living”, and in Lev. 14:52 “the bird living and in tree the cedar and in hyssop and in besides/next [shani translated as ‘and’] the crimson [tola translated as ‘scarlet’].
• In Numbers 4:8 shani is found in the phrase “and spread over them garment crimson yarn [tola translated as ‘of yarn] of sleep [shani translated as ‘scarlet’] and cover . . .” and in Numbers 19:6 “and take the priest tree cedar and hyssop and of sleep [shani translated as ‘and’] crimson yarn [tola translated as scarlet] and cast them upon midst burning the heifer”.
• The following verses where shani fits the context of meaning ‘scarlet’ are likely not inspired text: in Gen. 38:28 & 30 where Tamar tied a scarlet thread on the hand of one of her babies to know which one was firstborn, in Isa. 1:18 where Yahweh says “though be your sins like scarlet, like snow be white”, in Joshua 2:18 – 21 where Rahab was asked to tie a scarlet cord in her window to protect her home from being attacked, and she did so, in 2 Sam. 1:24 women of Israel weep over Saul who “clothed you in scarlet with luxury”, in Prov. 31:21 the woman whose household are clothed with scarlet, in Songs 4:3 a woman whose lips are like scarlet thread, and in Jer. 4:30 “plundered for [ki translated as ‘though’] clothed crimson . . .”.

Shanah שנה (Strong’s 8140 & 8141 7 & 876 occurrences) is commonly translated as ‘a/one year’, The he suffix indicating future tense, ‘toward sleep’, perhaps tracking time by counting days (sleeps), in periods of years.  The same as the noun shenah שנה (Strong’s 8139 & 8142 1 & 23 occurrences) that is always translated as ‘sleep’, although it is often found with various suffixes; only  4/23 he ה, 6/23 taw ת, 7/23 taw waw  תו, 2/23 taw yod שנתי , 3/23 taw final nun תם, 1/23 aleph א (which is the same form as shanah/shenah שנא , Strong’s 8132 & 8133 3 & 21 occurrences, that mean ‘alter, change’, the latter found in Ezra & Daniel in various forms).  In the form shenayim שנים (Strong’s 8147 769 occurrences) the yod and final mem suffix can indicate plural ‘sleeps’, or indicate dual form ‘two sleeps’.   On the third day, lights were put in the sky to distinguish between day and night, in evening when we sleep, and morning we rise, which become years [said to be shanah, but is in plural form shenayim שנים] Gen. 1:13 – 14.

The first occurrence of shanah (Strong’s 8141) is in Gen. 1:14 – 15, the day that gods created lights in the heavens to divide the day and night and for signs and seasons, and days and years [in plural form שנים] and for lights in the heavens to shine over the earth.  Also found in:

• The genealogical lists like Adam’s in Gen. 5: 3 – 32, and Shem’s in Gen. 11: 10 – 25, alternating between singular and plural form, in a haphazard manner, translated as ‘years’ because the context is plural.  In Gen. 5:8 שתים is categorized as the noun shenayim שנים (Strong’s 8147) and translated as ‘two’ as it often is.  Similar in form to the proper name Seth שת (Strong’s 8352 8 occurrences) who was named so because as Eve said “God has appointed/granted [shith שת Strong’s 7896] me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him” in Gen. 4:25, although shith is not found in its standard form שית that means ‘put, set’, in this occurrence is similar in form and meaning to shem except the mem suffix is replace with taw (see fact #94).
• Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream in Gen. 41: 25 – 36, alternating between the form sheni  [שני] and plural form, in a haphazard manner, translated as ‘years’ because the context is plural.  In v. 32 shanah שנה (Strong’s 8138 22 occurrences) that means ‘to repeat, do a second time’, frequently translated as ‘change, alter’, is found in the form השנות,  translated as ‘repeated’.  Also, in v. 32 the noun paam פעמים (Strong’s 6471 118 occurrences) often translated as ‘times’ in the sense of strokes or footsteps, is translated as ‘twice, doubled, two versions’, and in the form הפעם in Gen. 2:23 is translated as ‘now’.

Looking again at sheni שני in Gen. 1:8, ‘day of sleep’ is an appropriate title for the day gods divided space between the waters under the firmament and the waters above, mankind were separated from God, the day they went to sleep in death Gen. 1:7 & 8, which points to Gen. 2:7 when man became a living soul.  ‘Sleeping, asleep, in the sleep of death’ are words used to describe mankind who are separate from God, living and breathing, but dead spiritually, as Yahshua told his disciple “let the dead bury their own dead” Matthew 8:21 – 22 & Luke 9:59 – 60.  Similarly, Paul indicated it was the hour to awaken from sleep, for salvation was near Romans 13:11.

Three or Rank and Rule

The root of Shaliysh שליש (Strong’s 7991 17 occurrences) is shal/shel של which is the combination of ש ‘that/ who/which’ + ל ‘to’ = ‘that/who/which’ + ‘to’ = ‘that/who/which [belongs] to’. It is found in Song of Solomon 1:6 where it is translated as ‘my own’, but is not assigned a Strong’s number, and it is found in Song of Solomon 3:7, combined with Solomon של + שלמה (Strong’s 8010) translated as ‘it [is/belongs to] Solomon’. Shaliysh is often translated as ‘captains, officers’ used of a person of high rank who reports to, belongs to, is under the authority of the king:

• In the form שליש in 2 Kings 7:2, 17 & 19, the officer reports directly to the king, thus has a high rank; v.2 “answered the officer [השליש] lord [aser] to king [melek] he leaned [shaan] upon [al] hand [yad]”, similarly in v.17 “the king appointed the officer [השליש] lord [aser] he leaned upon hand”, and v.19 “answered the officer [השליש] mighty one [ish] the gods and said . . .”.  Note: although shin and asher are said to mean ‘‘that, which, who’, we see in fact #119 that asher contains some element of ‘leader, guide, keeper, lord’, and I have changed the translation in v. 2 & 17 to reflect this fact.

• In the form שלישו in 2 Kings 15:25 translated as ‘officer of his’, the shin translated as ‘of’, and the yod indicating third person, possessive, ‘his/its’ translated as ‘his’.  In the form שלישיו in 2 Chr. 8:9 translated ‘of his officers’, followed by “and captains/prince [sar] his chariots and his cavalry”, evidencing an ‘officer [shaliysh]’ to be of a high rank.

• In the form שלשיו in Exodus 15:4 and 1 kings 9:22 translated as ‘his officers/captains’.

• In plural form שלשם in Exodus 14:7 translated as ‘captains’, followed by “over all”, evidencing an ‘officer [shaliysh]’ to be of a high rank.  In the form שלשים twice in 2 Kings 10:25, Ezek. 2:15 & 23 translated as ‘officers’. 

Shelishi  שלישי (Strong’s 7992 108 occurrences) alleged to mean ‘third part, rank, time, three years old’, is often found in the similar form as shaliysh, thus must have the same or a similar meaning.  Similarly, the root of shalosh/shalash/shalosh  שלש (Strong’s 7969, 8027 & 8029 429, 9 & 5 occurrences) and sheloshim שלשים (Strong’s 7970 174 occurrences) is  shal/shel של, which has un element of belonging, ownership.  In Numbers 2:24 “thousands and hundreds to war and captains [shelishi in the form שלשים translated as ‘and the third’] set out”.  Similarly, in 2 Sam. 18:2 it is more likely that shelishi in the form שלשים means ‘the captains’ not ‘a third’ were in the hand of different leaders who are listed by name.  In 2 Kings 1:13, the context of the sentence is Elijah ‘sending’ rulers (sar Strong’s 8269 421 occurrences) army [chamishshim  חמשים mistranslated as five as described under that section below] captains [shelish in the form שלשים] and army [chamishshim  חמשים], and went up and came the leader army [chamishshim חמשים] the captain [shelish  in the form שלישי] and bow upon his knees before Elijah.”

In Hosea 6:2 “They will live [יחינו translated as ‘revive us’] from my waters [identified as yom but more likely mayim Strong’s 4325 in the form מימים, translated as ‘two days’] in day [yom ביום] of the lord [shelishi translated as ‘on the third day’] raise up and we live to his face.”  This is a prophecy for the ‘day of YAHWEH’, when the righteous are raised up from the living waters,  but in this case it is called the ‘day of the lord’.  Although the quotation of this verse in 1 Cor. 15:4 lends credibility to ‘the third day’ translation, in his article Apocryphal Apparitions: 1 Corinthians 15: 3 – 11 as a Post-Pauline Interpolation, author Robert Price provides evidence against these verses.

Shalach שלח (Strong’s 7971 847 occurrences) from the root shal/shel של shows authority which among mankind represents a form of ownership.  Although shalach is often translated as ‘sent’, it more specifically means sending or taking with authority.  For example, in Gen. 3:22 – 23 Yahweh gods said “behold the man has become apart [echad – see analysis in section One above] from us experiencing [daath] good and evil”, now lest he stretch out [shalach] his hand and take from the tree of life and eating and live forever, therefore Yahweh gods sent him [shalach] from the garden of Eden to serve the ground which taken from appointed place [sham].  In Gen. 4:1 the man ‘knew [yada]’ his wife and she conceived and bore Cain, evidencing that yada [and daath that is from yada – see fact #83] goes beyond the definition ‘knowing through observation’, to ‘having a relationship through experience’. 

Looking again at Gen. 1:13, shelishi in the form שלישי, the yod suffix either changes the noun to the construct form ‘of’ or indicates first person, singular, possessive ‘my’, resulting in ‘day of captains’.  Although it is difficult to see mankind began ruling over each other in the text of Gen. 2: 10 – 14, we will look at these verses next which will uncover the real meaning.

Four or Sprawling

Arba  ארבע (Strong’s 702 318 occurrences) means ‘four’ as it is most often translated (167 out of 318), from the verb raba רבע (Strong’s 7250 and 7251 3 and 12 occurrences) that mean ‘to lie stretched out’ and ‘to square’ respectively, that according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance is “rather identical with raba’ through the idea of sprawling ‘at all fours’”. 

Where the term ‘four’ ארבע (arba) ‘corners’, ‘ends’ or ‘winds’ are found, in Jer. 49:36, Isaiah 11:12, Ezek. 7:2 & 37:9, Dan. 7:2, 8:8, 11:4, Zech. 2:6, Matt. 24:31, Mark 13:27, Acts 10:11 & 11:5, & Rev 7:1 & 20:8, the whole earth is meant, not ‘four’ literal corners, ends or winds.  In Ezek. 1:17 the creatures likely moved in all directions, or ‘any direction’ as translated in the Contemporary English Version, not ‘four directions’ as translated in other Bible versions which aligns with the meaning of the primitive root ‘sprawling “on all fours”’.  In Ezek. 14:21 ‘four judgments’ means earth wide.

Both Gen. 1:19 and 2:14 contain rebii  רביעי (Strong’s 7243 55 occurrences) that means ‘foursquare, fourth part’,  which is ‘from the same as’ the noun arba ארבע.  The yod between the letters of rebii modifies it to mean a corrupt form of sprawling, just as esh אש (Strong’s 784) that means fire/existence (there), with a yod in the middle becomes ish איש (Strong’s 376) that means ‘mighty one’ (see fact #56 – an ish is not a godly person but a fallen one), and el אל (Strong’s 410) that means god/power, with a yod in the middle becomes ayil איל (Strong’s 352) that means ‘a ram, mighty man, oak, tree’.  The yod suffix either indicates first person, singular, possessive, ‘my’ or changes a plural masculine noun to the construct form ‘of’, so ‘day of sprawling’ in Gen. 1:19, and ‘the sprawling of’ in Gen. 2:14.

In Gen. 2:10 arba is found  in the form לארבעה, the prefix lamed ל means ‘to, for’, and the suffix he ה indicating movement toward (see fact #54 d) ‘sprawling’ which is when God put lights in the heavens to separate the day and night, for signs, seasons and days and years, and made gods sleep of [shenayim] the lights, the greater to rule the day and the lesser light the night, on the ‘day of sprawling’ Gen. 1: 14 – 19. The idea that the lights in the heavens were temporarily put in place for mankind’s enslavement to the ground is supported by the fact that there are no sun nor moon in the New Jerusalem because it is illumined by the glory of God in Rev. 21:23.

Five or Armed for Battle

Chamishi  חמיש (Strong’s 2549 45 occurrences) means ‘fifth’, chamesh and chomesh חמש (Strong’s 2567, 2568 & 2569 1, 344 & 1 occurrences) mean ‘take the fifth part’, ‘five’, and ‘fifth part’ respectively, in plural form chamishshim חמשים (Strong’s 2572 163 occurrences) means ‘fifty’, but the same form chamushim חמש (Strong’s 2571 4 occurrences) means ‘in battle array’.  The context that chamesh in Isa. 30:17 supports its translation as ‘battle’ not ‘five’, “Thousand separate in the face of threat, separate at threat of battle [chamesh] flee . . .”.  Chomesh חמש (Strong’s 2570 4 occurrences) means ‘belly’, but always in the sense of being wounded perhaps representing a serious injury.

So Gen. 1: 20 – 23 describes the ‘day of battle’ (chamishi חמישי with a yod suffix indicating ‘of’), but looking back at my analysis of these verses in the article The Fifth Day, I was unable understand why God would ‘create’ [bara see fact #55] sea monsters and living things for the waters which represents those under Satan’s influence, and ‘bless’ [barak see fact #28] them saying “be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas . . .”.   We must take another look at these words to better understand what happened on the fifth creation day.

The root of bara and barak/berek  is bar בר that means ‘grain, corn’ (Strong’s 1250 14 occurrences), used in a figurative sense in the day of Yahweh prophecy in Joel 2: 23 – 24, bar is grain on a threshing floor where it is beaten to separate the wheat from the chaff, and in Isa. 1:24 & 25 Yahweh says “comfort from adversity and vengeance enemies, and turn my hand upon you and refine like grain [bor] your dross and take away all your alloy”.  In the same form, bor בר  is alleged to mean ‘pure, clean’ (Strong’s 1249 7 occurrences), but the context in Isa. 1:25 supports it meaning ‘refine’.  Both bor בר (Strong’s 1252 6 occurrences) found in the form כבר, four of which are in 2 Sam. 22:21 & 25 & Psalm 18: 20 & 24 where Daniel states that Yahweh “recompense him, for his righteousness, for clean [bor] hands and returned me, in his sight”, and bar בר (Strong’s 1247, 1248 8, 4 occurrences) means ‘son’, are likely uninspired text.

Bar בר with a yod aleph suffix forms bari בריא (Strong’s 1277 14 occurrences) that means ‘fat’, which according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (SEC) is “from bara (in the sense of barah); fatted or plump – fat (fleshed), fed, firm, plenteous, rank”.  SEC states that bara ברא (Strong’s 1254 55 occurrences) means create, or does it means “choose, create creator, cut down, dispatch, do, make fat”, from “a primitive root; (absolutely) to create; (qualified) to cut down (a wood), select, feed (as formative processes) – choose, create (creator), cut down, dispatch, do, make (fat)”.  The problem is bara means all of these things at once!

From the beginning, Gen. 1:1 and 1:21, Yahweh ‘fed to grow and refine [bara]’.  Yahweh promised to “search for my sheep . . . shepherd them in good pasture  . . . shepherd my flock and lead them to rest . . . seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick, but the fat and the strong I will destroy, I will feed them with judgment . . . I will judge between one sheep and another . . . judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep . . . I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them, he will feed them himself and be their shepherd” in Ezek. 34: 11 – 23. Yahweh allows the wheat and the tares to grow together until the harvest when the reapers gather the tares and burn them, and gather the wheat into the barn Matt. 13:30.

Although barak ברך (Strong’s 1288 330 occurrences) is often translated as ‘bless’, according to SEC it means ‘abundantly, altogether, at all, blaspheme, bless, congratulate, curse, greatly’.  Barak is sometimes found in the form ברכ, as are most occurrences of berek (Strong’s 1290 25 occurrences) that means ‘knee’, perhaps some of the reason for the confusion.  When found in the form ברך  there is an underlying element of feeding in the sense of ‘bounty’.  For example,  in Ex. 23:25 ‘bountiful  [barak] your bread and your water’, and in Num. 23:11 & 24:10 barak in the form ברכ is translated as ‘blessed’ and in the form ברך as ‘bountifully’.  In Gen. 1:1 “in beginning abundance gods the heavens and the earth”, and in Gen. 1:22 “abundantly gods sea monsters great and every soul living that creeps which abounded the waters according to their kinds . . .”

The ‘day of battle’ was the ‘day of Yahweh’ prophesied in Joel 2: 1 – 3, “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the dawn spreads over the mountains a people numerous and strong like of which never has been from antiquity and after, nor again years ages, to face devours fire and behind them blazing flame like garden of Eden the land before them and behind them a wilderness desolate and surely become escape none of them.” 

The ‘day of Yahweh’, is the great tribulation prophesied in Matthew 24:1 – 2, Mark 13:2, and Luke 21: 5 – 6 when the temple was torn down, not one stone left upon another, which occurred in 70 AD, at the end of the seven year war against the Roman army.  Yahshua’s disciples were warned that when Jerusalem was surrounded by armies, her desolation was near, and those in Judea must flee to the mountains and those in the midst of the city must leave because these were the days of vengeance, so that all things written were fulfilled, there was great distress upon the land and the people, and they fell by the edge of the sword and were led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem was trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled Luke 21: 20 – 24.

That generation Matt. 23:36, was the time when Michael the great prince took a stand and there was a distress such as never has occurred from the beginning of nations until then, and everyone whose name was found written in the book escaped Dan. 12:1.  Michael and his angels waged war with the dragon, the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world, thrown down to earth and his angels with him, having great wrath, causing woe to the earth knowing he had a short time Rev. 12: 7 – 12. The son of man came in a cloud with power and great glory and the saints were redeemed Matt. 16: 27 – 28, 24:30, 26:64, Mark 13:26, Luke 21: 27 – 28, Rev. 1:7, and Dan. 7:13.

Six or Make White

Shesh שש (Strong’s 8337 215 occurrences) allegedly means ‘six’, although it is from shayish שיש (Strong’s 7893 1 occurrence) that means ‘alabaster’ from an unused root that means ‘to bleach, i.e. whiten, white, i.e. marble’, tied to shesh שש (Strong’s 8336 41 occurrences) that means ‘fine linen’, translated as ‘marble’ in Esther 1:6 and Songs 5:15.  Sheshak ששך (Strong’s 8347 2 occurrences) that means ‘thy fine linen’ is apparently a name for Babylon.  Shishsha  (Strong’s 8341 1 occurrence) means ‘give a sixth part’, but found in the form ששיתם in Ezek. 45:13, within the temple chapters 40 – 48, and sus שוש (Strong’s 7797 27 occurrences) that means ‘to exult, rejoice’, sometimes found in the form שש or שישי, four in Deut., 2 in Job, 3 in Jer. & Lam., likely uninspired text.

In Dan. 9: 25 & 26 shishshim ששים (Strong’s 8346 59 occurrences) that means ‘white’, is found in combination with shenayim שנים, that we see under the two section above means ‘sleep’, but in these verses is translated as ‘sixty-two’.  Daniel’s prophecy is referring to the ‘fullness of time [shabua – see seven section below], when the white [shishshim] sleeping [shenayim] return [shub] and build the street and the wall even in troublesome times’ v. 25, and ‘after the fullness [shabua] when white [shishshim ] and sleeping [shenayim] made a covenant [karath] anointed [mashiach] . . .’ v. 26. Daniel’s prophecy continues in Dan. 12: 1 – 4, the day of Yahweh, the great tribulation when those who sleep [yashen in the form מישני as discussed above] in the dust of the ground awake, to everlasting life but others to disgrace and everlasting contempt, and those who have insight shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever, at the end of the age, which was fulfilled in Yahshua’s generation evidenced by the destruction of the temple Matthew 24:1 – 3.

On the day whiteness in Gen. 1: 26 – 31 gods made man in their image, male and female, to rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and blessed them saying “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and every plant was given for food and to every beast of the earth and bird of the sky and to everything that has life”.  This is the thousand year reign of the Messiah and the saints that began after the great tribulation during which Satan is bound in the abyss to not deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed when he is released for a short time, those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and hand, came to life and reigned with the Messiah for a thousand years Rev. 20: 1 – 5.

Seven or Fullness

Saba/soba/sabea  שבע (Strong’s 7646, 7647, 7648, 7649 99, 8, 8, & 8 occurrences) mean ‘to be full, sated, satisfied’.  Shibah שבע (Strong’s 7651 394 occurrences) alleged to mean ‘seven’ is often found in reference to time, or quantity of something, but does it in fact refer to a full compliment of years or things, as shabua  שבע (Strong’s 7620 20 occurrences) refers to a week, which is ‘a period of seven’ days, and the plural form shibim שבעים (Strong’s 7657 91 occurrences) refers to a lifespan of ‘seventy’ years, thus ‘generation’ is implied.

In the case of sibah/sobah  שבעה (Strong’s 7653 & 7654 1 & 5 occurrences), the he suffix changes the meaning to future tense, movement toward being ‘full, satisfied’, not ‘seven’ shibah/sheba  שבעה (Strong’s 7655 6 occurrences – 1 in Ezra and 5 in Daniel), which are likely uninspired text.  Four of the five occurrences of sibah/sobah are in Isa. 23:18 ‘to eat to fullness’, Isa. 55:2 ‘wages for not to satisfy’, Ezek. 39:19 ‘eat fat until full’, and in Haggai 1:6 ‘eat and not to satisfy’.  The last of the five occurrences and the 1 occurrence are in Ezek. 16:28 & 49, in the form שבעת, the taw suffix should add ‘of’ to the noun, which in v.28 doesn’t fit the context of the sentence, perhaps indicating a problem with the text, although v.49 does fit the context.  Ezekiel 16 is suspected to be uninspired for its pornographic theme wherein God is characterized as male, and Jerusalem as his adulterous wife, genderization that contradicts the fact that God is both male and female, and does not show preference.

In Daniel 9:24 there are two back to back shibim שבעים, translated as ‘seventy weeks’, but the meaning is ‘seventy [generation]’ ‘seventy [generation]’, that we know means ‘seventy seven generations’, the number of generations from Adam to Yahshua Luke 3: 23 – 38.  Dan. 9:24 should read “Seventy seven generations determined upon your people for city your set apart to finish the transgression, and to make atonement iniquity and to bring in righteousness everlasting, and to stop vision and prophecy and to anoint set apart, sacred.”  We know this is true because all things were fulfilled in the generation Yahshua was born Mark 13:4 & 30, the blood of all the righteous shed on earth Matt. 23:32 – 36.

In Dan. 9:25 there is a shibim שבעים, a sibah/sobah  שבעה (assigned Strong’s 7651) and another shibim שבעים (once again assigned Strong’s 7620), translated as ‘weeks seven and weeks’, rather than ‘seventy seven fullness generations’.  Dan. 9:25 should read “know and be prudent, from going forth of command to restore and build Jerusalem upon anointed the prince seventy seven fullness generations when the white [shishshim] sleeping [shenayim] return [shub] and build the street and the wall even in troublesome times”.

In Dan. 9:26 there is a shibim שבעים (once again assigned Strong’s 7620), translated as ‘the weeks’, rather than ‘the seventy [generations], the fullness’.  Dan. 9:26 should read “and after fullness [shabua] when white [shishshim ] and sleeping [shenayim] cut off anointed [mashiach] and not if only [low] and the city and the sanctuary destroy the people of the prince to come and at the end in outburst until the end war decreed desolation”.

In Dan. 9:27 berith ברית (Strong’s 1285 284 occurrences) is translated as ‘covenant’, but according to SEC “from barah (in the sense of cutting (like bara)); a compact (because made by passing between pieces of flesh) – confederacy, (con-)feder(-ate), covenant, league”.  Also, shabua שבוע (Strong’s 7620 20 occurrences) is translated as ‘weeks’, but only found in this form in Jer. 5:24 where it is referring to “the later in season time of appointed harvest reserved for us”.  Dan. 9:27 should read “and confederacy to many at time appointed [shabua] separation [echad] and midst appointed time [shabua] rest [shabath] sacrifice and offering  and upon the wing abominations be stupefied and upon consummation and decreed poured upon stupefied.”

Now, armed with this insight, we can better understand what happened in Genesis 2: 10 – 15 which we will cover next.

Hebrew Without Vowels or Accents

The text of Genesis 2: 4 to 9 appears as follows:

Samaritan Targum Interlinear Translation

Here’s the interlinear translation of Genesis 2:4 to 9 from tanakh.info:

Facts About Hebrew

We can add the following to our facts about Hebrew:

57.  The Hebrew noun toledoth תולדת (Strong’s 8435 – 39 occurrences) is normally translated as ‘generations’ or ‘genealogies’.  Genealogies meaning ‘line of descent from an ancestor’ is a more appropriate translation for toledoth, to distinguish it from the noun dor דור (Strong’s 1755 – 167 occurrences) that refers to ‘generations’ in the sense of periods of time.

Toledoth is from the verb yalad ילד (Strong’s 3205 – 497 occurrences) that means ‘to bear, bring forth, beget’, used of woman/women ‘bearing’ offspring in pain as prophesied in Gen 3:16 (fulfilled in the woman Israel giving birth to the Messiah, a son, a male, who is ruling all nations with a rod of iron Rev 12: 1 to 5), and Eve ‘giving birth to/bearing’ Cain and Abel in Gen 4: 1 & 2, and ‘giving birth to’ and naming Seth in Gen 4:25, (excepting Gen 4:17 to 24 which I believe are an interpolation – see fact #84).  In contrast to this, Adam is said to ‘father/beget’ and name Seth in Gen 5:3, which continues from that time forward, supporting that Patriarchy was established in Adam’s generation.

The Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament is correct in saying, “The words ‘these are the tholedoth of the heavens and the earth when they were created,’ form the heading to what follows.  This would never have been disputed, had not preconceived opinions as to the composition of Genesis obscured the vision of commentators.  The fact that in every other passage, in which the formula ‘these (and these) are the tholedoth’ occurs (viz., ten times in Genesis; also in Numbers 3:1; Ruth 4:18; 1 Chronicles 1:29), it is used as a heading, and that in this passage the true meaning of תולדות precludes the possibility of its being an appendix to what precedes, fully decides the question.”

58.  The noun yeled ילד (Strong’s 3206 – 89 occurrences) is the same as yalad except for vowel points that are not part of the inspired text, said to be masculine and mean ‘son, boy’ but often used in reference to children generally.  The noun yaldah לדה (Strong’s 3207 – 3 occurrences) is alleged to be yeled’s feminine counterpart meaning ‘girl’ but all 3 occurrences show evidence of being interpolations,  Joel 3:3 (4:3 in the Hebrew Bible) (see fact #85), Zech 8:5 (see fact #86), and Gen 34:4 (see fact #87), leaving no evidence to support that the word yaldah existed in ancient Hebrew.

59.  The noun siach שיח (Strong’s 7880 4 occurrences ) meaning ‘a bush, shrub, plant’ from the verb siach שיח (Strong’s 7878 21 occurrences) meaning ‘a shoot (as if uttered or put forth)’ or ‘to utter, muse, complain’. 

60.  The noun sadeh שדה (Strong’s 7704 – 333 occurrences) means ‘field, land’, which is the same as shadday  שדי (Strong’s 7706 – 48 occurrences) said to mean ‘field, land’ but always translated as ‘almighty’, from the verb shadad  שדד (Strong’s 7703 – 57 occurrences) that means ‘to deal violently with, despoil, devastate, ruin’.  Recognizing the he suffix means ‘towards’ (see fact #54 d) we can deduce that the noun sadeh figuratively means ‘towards devastation/ruin’.  ‘Field’ is a better translation choice to distinguish sadeh from yabbashah (see fact #60) the ‘dry land/ground’ that appeared when the waters were gathered together in Gen 1:9.

61.  The verb tsamach צמח (Strong’s 6779 – 33 occurrences) means ‘to sprout, spring up, bear, bring forth’, transitive or intransitive, literal or figurative.  In Gen 2:5 & 9, the tsamach has a yod prefix indicating pronominal, third person imperfect, that in Zech 6:12 is personified in reference to ‘the Branch’ צמח (Strong’s 6780) ‘he shall branch out’ יצמח (Strong’s 6779), supporting a similar translation which has the added advantage of distinguishing tsamach from dasha דשא (Strong’s 1876 – 2 occurrences), in Gen 1:11 where the earth ‘sprouted’ vegetation. 

As a noun, ‘branch’ means parts of a tree growing out from the trunk, and as a verb means ‘divide into one or more subdivisions’, harkening to the ‘branch’ analogy found John 15: 1 to 10, representing how the Messiah judges mankind based on the fruit they bear, some are pruned to bear more fruit and unproductive branches are burned in the fire.  In Romans 11: 16 to 24 natural branches represent the nation of Israel of which some were broken off and branches from the gentile nations grafted in place of them, with only holy ones remaining on the holy root which is the Messiah.  The Messiah’s separation work was taking place before man was made from the dust of the earth in Gen 2:7.

62.  The noun eseb עשב (Strong’s 6212) means ‘herb, herbage’, from an used root used of grass or any tender shoot, said to sow seed in Gen 1: 11 & 12, and given for food in Gen 1:30.  

63.  The verb matar מטר (Strong’s 4305 – 17 occurrences) means ‘to rain’, always used in reference to Yahweh sending something from heaven, hail or fire and brimstone Gen 19:24 & Ezek 38:22, manna and meat Psalm 78:24 & 27, or withholding rain in judgment Amos 4:7.  The noun matar (Strong’s 4306 – 38 occurrences) is used of Yahweh sending rain water from heaven, as a sign Exodus 9:33 & 34, or a blessing Deut 11: 11 to 14, 28:12, or dust and powder in judgment Deut 28:24.  Matar with the suffix aleph א or he ה forms the noun mattara מטרא or mattarah מטרה (Strong’s 4307 – 16 occurrences) that mean ‘guard, ward, prison, target, mark’ or ‘a jail (as a guard-house), also an aim (as being closely watched), mark, prison’ respectively.  Most of the occurrences (11 of 16) are found in Jeremiah of a location ‘the courtyard of the prison’, and (2 of 16) similarly in Nehemiah 3:35 & 12:39 of the ‘courtyard of the prison’ and ‘gate of the prison’ respectively.

64.  Abad עבד (Strong’s 5647 – 289 occurrences) is a verb that means ‘to work, serve’, or a noun (Strong’s 5650 – 800 occurrences and Strong’s 5649 – 7 occurrences) meaning ‘slave, servant’.  There are 28 occurrences in Ezra and Daniel where abad is assigned Strong’s 5648 because it is translated into a variety of different words like ‘carried/carrying, celebrated, committed, do/does/doing/done, executed, going, held, incited, observe, perform, torn, waging’ which requires further investigation to get to the bottom of.  Analyzing the legitimate occurrences of abad, we see that it does not refer to the work of our hands, which is melakah (see fact #47), but submitting to someone or something in servitude, be it as a servant of God, or as slave to the ground which represents our desire for material things.

The noun abodah עבדה (Strong’s 5656 – 145 occurrences), which is abad with the he suffix (see fact #54 d), indicates future servitude, as in the case of Jacob’s future service for Rachel to become his wife in Gen 29:27, to ongoing slavery of Israel in Egypt in Exodus 1:14 & 2:23 or deliverance from it Exodus 6:9, and future service in the tabernacle in Exodus 12:25, 26 & 13:5.  Included under Strong’s 5656, is abad with the taw suffix  ת that can mean ‘of’ like in Isaiah 32:17 “servitude of עבדת the (toward) righteous הצדקה”, that can also indicate second person singular ‘you’, first person singular ‘I’ with a yod תי as in Gen 29:25, second person plural with a final mem or nun (masculine and feminine respectively).

65.  The noun ed אד according to Strong’s means ‘a mist’ (Strong’s 108 – 2 occurrences), but ‘a vapor, a fume’ is more in alignment with the noun ud אוד (Strong’s 181) it is sourced from that means ‘a brand, firebrand’, from an unused root meaning ‘to rake together; a poker (for turning or gathering embers)’.

66.  The verb shaqah שקה (Strong’s 8248 – 61 occurrences) means ‘cause to drink water, give to drink’, from a primitive root meaning ‘to quaff, i.e. (causatively) to irrigate or furnish a potion to’.  In Gen 19: 32 to 35 and Habakkuk 2:15 shaqah is used in reference to getting someone drunk to corrupt them, harkening to Babylon the great drunk with the blood of the saints and the witnesses of Yahshua in Rev. 17: 5 & 6, and all the nations drank the wine of the passion of her immorality in Rev. 18:3.

67.  the verb yatsar יצר (Strong’s 3335 – 63 occurrences) means ‘to form, fashion’, identical to yatsar יצר (Strong’s 3334 – 10 occurrences) that means ‘be distressed, be narrow, be straitened in straits, be vexed’, the same as the verb tsarar צרר  (Strong’s 6887 – 52 occurrences) that means ‘adversary, to bind, tie up, be restricted’.

68.  The noun aphar עפר (Strong’s 6083 – 110 occurrences) means ‘dry earth, dust’, but also “ashes, rubbish’, from the verb aphar עפר (Strong’s 6080 – 1 occurrence) that means ‘to throw dust’.

69. The verb naphach נפח (Strong’s 5301 – 12 occurrences) meaning ‘to breathe, blow, give up, cause to lose life, seething, snuff’, from a primitive root meaning literally ‘to inflate, blow hard, scatter, kindle, expire’ or figuratively ‘to disesteem’.  In order to avoid confusing naphach with neshamah נשמה (Strong’s 5397 – 23 occurrences) that means a persons ‘breath, soul, spirit’, and ruach רוח (Strong’s 7307 – 377 occurrences) the means Yahweh’s ‘breath, wind, spirit’, naphach is best translated as ‘blow’ and allow the context to tell us if it is in anger or not.

70.  The noun aph אף (Strong’s 639 – 276 occurrences) means ‘a nostril, nose, face, anger’, most often translated as ‘anger/angry’ – 212 our of 276 occurrences, from the verb anaph אנף (Strong’s 599 – 14 occurrences) that means ‘to be angry’, from a primitive root meaning ‘to breathe hard’ i.e. ‘be enraged – be angry (displeased)’.

71.  The verb nata נטע (Strong’s 5193 – 58 occurrences) means ‘to plant’ literally, or figuratively in the sense of establishing a people.

72.  The noun gan גן (Strong’s 1588 – 42 occurreces) meaning ‘an enclosure, garden’, from the verb ganan גנו (Strong’s 1598 – 8 occurrences) meaning ‘to cover, surround, defend’ used of God defending his people.

73.  The noun eden עדן (Strong’s 5731 – 16 occurrences) the same as the noun eden (Strong’s 5730 – 5 occurrences) that means ‘a luxury, dainty, delight’, from the verb adan (Strong’s 5727 – 1 occurrence).

74.  The noun qedem קדם (Strong’s 6924 – 87 occurrences) means ‘front, east, formerly’, in relation to time ‘a-fore-time, ancient time, before, side eternal, everlasting, forward’, the same as qadam קדם (Strong’s 6923 – 26 occurrences) that means ‘to come or be in front, meet’, also ‘flee before, disappoint, prevent’, from a primitive root that means ‘to project (ones self), i.e. precede, hence to anticipate, hasten, meet (for help)’. 

75.  The verb sum/sim שים (Strong’s 7760 – 583 occurrences) meaning ‘to put, place, set’, also ‘appoint, bring, call a name, care, cast in, change, charge’.  In Gen 2:8 & 4:15 the form of sum/sim וישם is possibly the adverb sham (see fact #76) with a yod י prefix, indicating the imperfect tense (future), jussive (3^rd person command), expressing a desire that something should happen.  In modern Hebrew ישם means ‘to implement, to be implemented’.

76.  The adverb sham שם (Strong’s 8033 – 833 occurrences) meaning ‘there, thither’, but frequently translated as ‘where’, from a primitive particle meaning ‘there (transferring to time)’. 

77.  The conjunction asher אשר (Strong’s 834 – 5502 occurrences) means ‘who, which, that, what’ or ‘after, alike, as soon as, because, every, for, for-as-much, from whence (where)’.

78.  The verb chamad חמד (Strong’s 2530 – 28 occurrences) means ‘to desire, lust, take pleasure in’, translated in Exodus 20:17, 34:24 and Deut 5:21 & 7:25 as ‘covet’. 

79.  The noun mareh אדמה (Strong’s 4758 – 104 occurrences) means ‘sight, appearance, vision’.  The he suffix supports movement toward (see fact #54 d) in Gen 12:11, 24:16, 26:7 where it is translated as ‘to look upon’, from the verb  raah ראה (Strong’s 7200 – 1306 occurrences) that means ‘to see’.  Raah is found in the form וירא in Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31 translated as ‘and saw’, in Gen 22:13 & 24:63 is translated as ‘and looked’, but the context would support ‘and saw’, and in Gen 26:2 & 24 as ‘appeared’, but these verses appear to be an interpolation as Yahweh could not have ‘appeared’ to Isaac because ‘no one has seen God at any time’ John 1:18 & 1 John 4:12.

80.  The preposition min מן (Strong’s 4480 – 1223 occurrences) means ‘from’,  but is translated often as ‘than, because, before, above, outside, too, etc.’, as it describes movement ‘from or out of in many senses’.   Found in the form ממנו in Gen. 2:17, 3:3, 5, 11, 17 & 22 that means ‘from him’.  The same as the noun men  (Strong’s 4482 – 2 occurrences) that means ‘string’, from an unused root meaning ‘to apportion; a part; hence a musical chord (as parted into strings)’, unlikely given the lack of evidence to support this alternate meaning.

81.  The noun maakal מאכל (Strong’s 3978 – 29 occurrences) means ‘food’, from the verb akal אכל (Strong’s 398 – 810 occurrences) that means ‘to eat’ literally or to ‘burn up, consume, devour’ figuratively. 

82.  The noun/adjective ra’ רע (Strong’s 7451 – 667 occurrences) means ‘bad, evil, adversity, affliction, calamity, displeasure, distress’, from the verb ra’a’ רעע (Strong’s 7489 – 98 occurrences) that means ‘afflict’, from a primitive root that means ‘to spoil (literally by breaking into pieces); figuratively, to make (or be) good for nothing’.  Although the basic form of ra’a’ is רעע  it never occurs in this form, only with one ayin ע with various prefixes and/or suffixes, thus is the same as ra’.

83.  The noun daath דעת (Strong’s 1847 – 95 occurrences) means ‘cunning, ignorantly, knowledge’, from the verb yada ידע (Strong’s 3045 –  occurrences) that means ‘ acknowledge, acquainted with, advise, answer, assuredly, be aware’, from a primitive root that means ‘to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing) used in a variety of senses, figuratively, literally, euphemistically and inferentially (including observation). 

84.  Genesis 4: 17 to 24 contain a record of Cain’s genealogy which appear to be interpolated into the text which is describing the offspring of Adam and Eve – Cain who slew Abel resulting in his banishment from the presence of Yahweh Gen 4: 1 to 16, and Seth who God provided as a replacement in place of Abel Gen 4: 25 & 26.  Cain is never mentioned again in scripture other than in respect of him murdering his brother in Hebrews 11:4, 1 John 3:12 & Jude 1:11 because his actions and offspring after his banishment are meaningless.  The names of his descendants appear to be stolen from Jared’s, Jared fathered Enoch, Enoch fathered Methuselah, and Methuselah fathered Lamech in Gen 5: 18 to 26.  That Lamech also murdered a man in Gen 4:23 tarnishes the reputation of the Lamech who fathered Noah in Yahshua’s lineage in Luke 3:36.  For these reasons I reject this text as inspired of God.

85.  Joel 3:1 to 3 is a prophecy for the ‘day of the Lord’, as indicated by the phrase “in that day” and/or “at that time” found in Joel 3:1.  That the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem would be restored at that time Joel 3:1, contradicts other ‘day of the Lord’ prophecies which reveal it to be the beginning of judgment when God took vengeance against the enemy (sin) and the ancient ruins of Zion began being rebuilt Isaiah 61: 1 to 4. 

That God gathers ‘the nations’ הגוים (goy Strong’s 1471) for judgment Joel 3:2, contradicts the warning in Joel 1, to all the inhabitants of Israel v2 of a day when a mighty nation would invade their land, with teeth of a lion v6, cutting off the grain and drink offerings of the priests and ministers of Yahweh v9, causing them to wail v13, a destruction from the Almighty v15.  The prophecy continues into Joel 2 about the testing by fire that would consume those who fail to return to Yahweh, when the bridegroom (the Messiah) and bride (righteous Israel) come out of their rooms, and the sons of Zion will rejoice with Yahweh being in their midst (in Zion as stated in Isaiah 61:4).

That the nations scatter Yahweh’s people and divide up Yahweh’s land in Joel 3:2, contradicts that Yahweh scatters them when they go astray Ezek 34:6, Yahweh brings a sword on Israel, destroying their high places, leaving their altars desolate, slaying them in front of their idols, which are broken, and the remnant scattered among the nations to remember how Yahweh was hurt by their adulterous hearts that turned away, and as warned Yahweh inflicted disaster on them Ezek 6: 1 to 14. 

John Barton, in his book Joel and Obadiah: A Commentary, states of Joel, “On one interpolation there is wide agreement: 3: 4 to 8.  This passage is usually thought to be in prose and may represent, as Muller puts it, an attempt to “Anchor” the massive vagueness of 2:28 – 3:21 in some specific historical events.” p 12.  Barton is critical of the text after Joel 2:27, agreeing with Merx who described them “as a muddle without consistency or clarity”, when “the rot sets in, at precisely the point where we have the telltale formula ‘then afterward’, indicating here as elsewhere in the Old Testament that new material has been added to an old collection” p 13.  This would explain why Joel 3:3 is strangely disconnected from the surrounding text, as if it was added solely to present yeled and yaladah as meaning boys and girls respectively. 

86.  There are numerous Zadokite interpolations in the Hebrew Bible which have a different message than inspired text.  In these interpolations, mankind continues their fleshly existence, the priesthood and sacrifices continue in a physical temple, things which no longer exist in the heavenly Zion.  These interpolations are easily spotted when we understand God’s salvation plan and question all text that is not in alignment. 

One example is found in Ezekiel 40 to 48, which speaks of a massive temple where the sons of Zadok and Levi minister to Yahweh Ezek 40:46, and sacrifices, sin offerings to make atonement, continue in this physical temple Ezek 43: 18 to 27.  These elements contradict that God and the Messiah are the temple in the heavenly Jerusalem Rev 21:22, all who receive the inheritance of eternal life are priests of God Rev 1:6, and sinners are destroyed in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone before the holy city comes down out of heaven and fills the earth Rev 21:1 to 10.  The author uses language similar to the inspired text of Ezekiel, the ‘visions of God’ on a ‘very high mountain’, and ‘son of man’ Ezek 40: 2 to 4, perhaps to mislead or perhaps they believed God was inspiring them to write.

Another example is found in Zech 8: 1 to 8, which has Yahweh promising to “return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem” and “old men and women will again sit in the streets”, contradicts that the righteous inheriting eternal life in Zion which comes down from above to fill the earth and Yahweh dwells among them Rev 20 & 21. In the article ‘Zechariah 8 As Revision and Digest of Zechariah 1-7’ by Elie Assis who states the presently accepted approach is that 8:18 – 19 is the prophet’s answer to his question in 7: 1-3, and there are three different theories about the verses in between, one being it was introduced by a redactor, and another is simply that the material in between is not connected. 

87.  The Book of Jubilees, also known as The Little Genesis, is a rewriting of the history of Israel from creation until the Law was given to Moses at Mount Sinai.  There is strong evidence that the narrative in Jubilee 30: 1 to 26 that portrays Simeon and Levi’s revenge in a positive light, is the source drawn upon by the author of Genesis 34.  Some scholars accept the authors message that strife with Israel meant death to its neighbors, failing to consider that the narrative in Gen 34 which has two of Jacobs sons killing the perpetrator, his father and every male in the city, then looting it in Gen 34: 25 & 27, is a breach of God’s commandment to love your neighbor (see fact #88) as yourself in Lev 19:18, and they fail to see all the contradictions that come with it.

Claus Westermann, author of Genesis 1 – 11, attributes the content of Genesis 34 to an independent author.  He sees  Genesis 35:5 as an interpolation “which originally followed 34:29 and concluded chapter 34, is to integrate his conclusion more closely with the preceding narrative” p. 244. He sees Genesis 49: 5 – 7 as “a secondary composition.  Simeon and Levi had to be included because they were part of the twelve.  They are probably called ‘brothers’ only because they cooperated in the escapade of verse 6b.  They are accused of an act of violence; the form of the accusation recalls the accusations of the prophets.  The motivation for the charge is stated in verse 6b.  Here, as in verse 4, the author is borrowing from tradition; it is generally accepted that the reference is to the surprise attack on Shechem in Chapter 34.  But a variant of the account must be involved, because 34:30 and 35:5 look upon the brothers’ action in avenging their sister as an honorable deed.” P 328. 

Daughters are not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible except those who marry an important male figure, but Dinah is mentioned only in this account, and Gen 30:21 & 46:15 to lend credibility to the account.  That the name Dinah דינה (Strong’s 1783 8 occurrences) is the same as the noun din (Strong’s 1780 5 occurrences) that means ‘judgment’ which is found with the he suffix in 4 out of 5 occurrences (1 in Ezra 7:26, and 3 in Daniel 7:10, 22, & 26), and judgment being the theme of the account in Jubilees 30 is no coincidence.  Dinah is called a ‘young woman’ (נער naarah Strong’s 5291) in Gen 34:3, then a ‘girl’ in verse 4, likely because the Book of Jubilees 30:2 says “she was a little girl, a child of twelve years”, evidence that Jubilees is the source of the Genesis 34 account. 

Mentions of Shechem, son of Hamor, outside of Genesis 34 insert information that contradicts other text.  The claim that Jacob bought a piece of land from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money in Gen 33:19, which is where Joseph was buried Joshua 24:32, is contradicted in Act 7:15 & 16 it states Jacob and ‘our fathers’ (Stephen speaking) died and were removed to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham purchased a tomb for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem (“sons of Emmor the father of Shechem” in the King James,  and in Gen 49:29 & 30, & 50:13 Jacob was buried in the cave at Machpeleh which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite, as described in Gen 23:8 to 17. 

In the census Moses took of Israel, in the tribe of Joseph, of Manasseh, of Gilead there is a son named Shechem of the family of the Shechemites Numbers 26: 1 to 4, & 28 to 31.  The territory named Shechem in Joshua 17:7, 20:7, 21:21 and 24:1, 25, & 32, Judges 8:31, 9:1 to 25 & 46 to 57 is likely referring to Shechem, son of Gilead who received part of his great grandfather Joseph’s land inheritance.  Shechem son of Gilead is different then Shechem son of Hamor in Judges 9:28, but Gaal is only mentioned in Judges 9:26 to 41 which is thought to be from a different source then the rest of chapter 9. 

88.  The noun rea רע (Strong’s 7453 186 occurrences) means ‘friend, companion, fellow, another’ from the verb ra’ah רעה (Strong’s 7462 164 occurrences) that means ‘companion, keep company with’ from a primitive root that means ‘to tend a flock; i.e. pasture it’.  The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon states that ‘friend, intimate’ is the primary meaning, or in a weaker sense ‘fellow, fellow-citizen, even another person’, which contradicts Yahshua’s definition of who a neighbor is in in his story of the  ‘good Samaritan’ in Luke 10: 29 to 37, where he commands us to show mercy to all our neighbors, who are everyone we meet regardless of nation, tribe, tongue.

Constructing The Sentences

Let’s construct the sentences:

Gen 2:4  The subject is ‘genealogies the heavens and the earth’, with compound verbs ‘in the creation’ and ‘in day made’, and the object ‘Yahweh Gods earth and heavens.

Gen 2:5  The first sentence has compound subjects ‘in earth shrub the field’ and ‘all herb the field branched out’, with compound verbs ‘before become’ and ‘before branched out’, and the compound objects  which are independent sentences – the first with the subject ‘Yahweh Gods’, verb ‘not the rain’, and object ‘on the earth’, – the second with the subject ‘man’, verb ‘not to serve’, and object ‘the ground’.

Gen 2:6  The subject ‘vapor’, verb ‘ascended’, and object ‘from the earth’, and the verb ‘irrigate’, and object ‘all face the ground’. 

Gen 2:7  The subject ‘Yahweh Gods’, verb ‘molded’, and object ‘man dry earth of the ground’, and the verb ‘snuffed in anger’, and object ‘breath of life’, and the verb ‘become’, and object ‘the man soul living’.

Gen 2:8  The subject ‘Yahweh Gods’, verb ‘planted’, and object ‘a garden in Eden in the east’, and the verb ‘put’, and object ‘the man whom formed’. 

Gen 2:9  The subject ‘Yahweh Gods’, verb ‘grow’, and object ‘out of the ground every tree we will desire to see and good to consume’, subject ‘tree’, verb ‘life’, and object ‘in midst the garden’, and verb ‘awareness’, and objects ‘good and evil’.

Literal and Figurative Translation

The paragraph translates as follows:

These genealogies the heavens and the earth in the creation in day made Yahweh Gods earth and heavens.  And all shrub the field before become in the earth and all herb the field before it branched out because not they rain Yahweh Gods on the earth and man not to serve the ground.  And vapor ascended from the earth and irrigate all face the ground. And molded Yahweh Gods the man dry earth of the ground and snuffed in anger the breath of life and became the man soul living.  And planted Yahweh Gods a garden in Eden in east and put there the man whom formed.  And grow Yahweh Gods from the ground every tree we will desire to see, and good to consume ,and tree of life in midst the garden and tree the awareness of desire and evil.

Analysis

Instead of Gods אלהים as found in Genesis 1, in Genesis 2 to 4 we find Yahweh יהוה Gods אלהים, evidence of different authorship, and the passage of time after the prophesies of Genesis 1 were given. 

The ‘genealogies’ (toledoth see fact #57) of the heavens and the earth Gen 2:4, indicates the beginning of mortality, the tracking of time and familial relationships for the purpose of inheritance, power and status.   

When we study Genesis 2: 5 to 8 in English, we see the literal meaning, a one dimensional view that sounds benign.  Only when we take a close look at the Hebrew text, can we see that the figurative meaning describes the fall of mankind:

• In Gen 2:5, before any shrub (musing, uttering, complaining – see fact #59) or tender shoots of the field (toward ruin – see fact #60) had branched out (see fact #61), because Yahweh Gods had not rained (God’s judgment – see fact #63) on the earth, and adam not in servitude (caused by desire for material possessions – see fact #64) to the ground (Adam was named after – see fact #35).
• In Gen 2:6, a vapour (from fire not water – see fact #65) ascended from the earth and irrigate (cause to drink/quaff/furnish a potion to – see fact #66), all the face of the ground. 
• In Gen 2:7, formed (tied up/restricted – see fact #67) Yahweh Gods man dust (ashes/rubbish – see fact #68) of the ground and snuffed (caused to lose life – see fact #69) in anger (see fact #70) breath life and became the man a soul living.
• In Gen 2:8, planted (establish a people – see fact #71) Yahweh Gods a garden (enclosure that God defends – see fact #72) in Eden (luxury – see fact #73) in the east (a fore time – see fact #74) and put (appointed – see fact #75) the man whom formed (tied up/restricted – see fact #67). 

The trees God sprouted from the ground in Gen 2:9, the tree of life and the tree of awareness of good and evil, represent following the Messiah or Satan, the mutually exclusive choices before all humanity from that day forward.  The Messiah is the true vine and Yahweh is the vine dresser, and every branch in him that does not bear fruit, God takes away and every branch that bears fruit, God prunes so it may bear more fruit John 15: 1 & 2.  To be a branch of the Messiah requires that we abide in him, keep his commandments, just as he kept Yahweh’s commandments John 15: 4 to 10.  The two commandments we must keep are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbor (see fact #88) as our self Mark 12: 30 & 31. 

Next we will look at Genesis 2: 10 to 14.

Hebrew Without Vowels of Accents

The text of Genesis 2: 1 to 3 appears as follows:

Samaritan Targum Interlinear Translation

Here’s the interlinear translation of Genesis 2:1 to 3 from tanakh.info:

Facts About Hebrew

We can add the following to our facts about Hebrew:

45.  The verb kalah כלה (Strong’s 3615) means ‘to be complete, at an end, finished’ from a primitive root that can be intransitive (to cease, be finished, perish), or transitive (to complete, prepare, consume).   

46.  The noun tsaba צבא  (Strong’s 6635 486 occurrences) means ‘army, war, warfare’, from the verb tsaba צבא (Strong’s 6633) that means ‘to wage war, serve’, a mass of persons, especially organized for war (an army).  Most often translated as ‘host(s)’ (322/486) or ‘army/war’  (139/486).  The word ‘host’ fails to capture that God’s army serve and protect, not entertain which means ‘provide with amusement or enjoyment’.

47.  The noun melakah מלאכ (Strong’s 4399 – 167 occurrences) means ‘occupation, work’, from the noun malak מלאך (Strong’s 4397) that means ‘a messenger’.   The word ‘work’ means ‘mental or physical effort done to achieve a purpose or result’ is so broad nothing is excluded.   The word ‘occupation’ or ‘craftsmanship’ narrows the meaning to ‘job, profession’, which aligns with malak which means ‘messenger’, a specific occupation. 

‘Messenger’ work, angels delivering vision and prophecy, is done away with when the perfect comes 1 Cor 13: 8 to 10, stops (Hebrew verb chatham חתם from a primitive root that means to seal, make an end, stop) during the thousand year harvest Daniel 9: 24, in keeping with Sabbath Law commanding that work cease.

48.  The adjective shebiith שביעי (Strong’s 7637 – 97 occurrences ) means ‘seventh’.  The verb shabath שבת (Strong’s 7673) means ‘to cease, desist, rest’, as a noun means ‘Saturday’.  Both are from shibah שבע (Strong’s 7651 – 394 occurrences)  that means ‘seven’.

49.  The verb qadash קדש (Strong’s 6942) means ‘to be set apart, consecrated’, from qodesh קדש (Strong’s 6944) a noun meaning ‘apartness, sacredness, holy’.  The word ‘consecrated’ means ‘to dedicate to a higher purpose’, and ‘sacred/holy’ mean ‘connected with God or dedicated to a religious purpose’, both fail to convey the necessity for separation from things which are unrighteous.  The words ‘set apart’ more accurately support the intended meaning.

50.  The noun olam עולם (Strong’s 5769) means ‘long duration, antiquity, futurity’.  To know whether  ‘perpetual, eternal, everlasting’ or ‘long duration’ is meant, we need to understand the intricacies of God’s plan.  For example, with respect to the Sabbath Law in Exodus 31:16, some Bible’s translate olam as “lasting” NIV, “for all time” NLT, “forever” ESV, or “perpetual” NASB & KJ not understanding that Yahshua and those who walk according to the Spirit have fulfilled the ritualistic elements of the Law Romans 8:1 to 4 & Luke 24:44, and the only eternal commandments are to love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbor as our self Matthew 22: 37 to 39.  Loving our neighbor means we will do them no wrong, thus sums up the commands to not commit adultery, murder, steal, or covet, therefore is the fulfillment of the law Romans 13: 9 & 10.

51.  The verb naphash נפש means ‘to be refreshed’, from nephesh נפש  that means ‘living being, soul’, from a primitive root meaning ‘to breathe, to be breathed upon’.  All mortal life is created by the breath of God, but eternal life requires the indwelling of God’s Spirit to perfect us, so we are able to stand before him and not be consumed by God’s fire Acts 17: 25 to 31, 1 Peter 5:10 & Hebrews 12:18 to 29, and enter God’s rest in the kingdom of heaven John 3:3 to 7.

52.  The noun maaseh מעשה (Strong’s 4639 – 235 occurrences) means ‘a deed, work’, from the verb asah עשה (Strong’s 6213 – 2628 occurrences) that means ‘do, make’.  The root of both of these words is ash עש (Strong’s 6211 – 12 occurrences), that Strong’s identifies as a noun meaning ‘moth’, but when we look at the text, ash functions as a verb meaning ‘perish’ or an adjective/noun meaning ‘perishable’:

• In Psalm 39:11 “with rebukes upon iniquity chasten mighty ones (ish איש – see fact #56) and dissolve like perishable (ash כעש)”. 
• In Isaiah 50:9 “they act wickedly (rasha רשע) behold (hen הן) all treacherous (beged בגד) decay (balah בלת) , perish (ash), consumed (akal אכל)”. 
• In Isaiah 51:7 & 8 “do not fear the reproach of sick people (enosh  אנוש) and their reviling words (gidduph גדופ) , be shattered (chathath תחת) that treachery (beged בגד) consume (akal אכל) perishable (ash), and like wool consume  (akal אכל) moth (sas סס)”.   Note –  sas סס (Strong’s 5580 – 1 occurrence in Isaiah 51:8) means ‘moth’, but is translated as ‘grub/worm’, perhaps because it would be obvious that ash is mistranslated, having two different words both translated as ‘moth’ in the same sentence.
• In Daniel 4: 25, 32, 33 & 5:21 ash is translated as ‘grass’ with respect to Nebuchadnezzar eating ‘grass’ (a perishable thing) like an oxen in the field,  but the book of Daniel is different from other books and interpolated so no conclusions can be drawn from it.

When we analyze some verses that contain maaseh מעשה, we see that it always used in relation to perishable work, because it is the root ash modified by the prefix  mem מ (see Fact #53 a), and the suffix he ה (see fact #54 d).  In Gen 40:17 maaseh is translated as ‘goods’ in context of “Pharaoh goods baked” making it a work of his hands, a perishable thing that the birds ate.  In many cases, the context of the sentence supports that maaseh is referring to a perishable things mankind has made (Isaiah 2:8, 5:12, 17:8, 19:25, 29:23, & “the work hands” Hosea 14:3) or deeds they have done (Ezek 16:30), or even or Yahweh’s accomplishments on earth Jer 51:10, which are not permanent.

53.  In Hebrew, prefixes modify the meaning of nouns and verbs.  Although some have been mentioned as we’ve come across them in our study, having a somewhat comprehensive list may help us to understand the possible effects prefixes can have on words:

a)  The prefix mem מ can function to convert a verb to participle or noun form, or as the preposition ‘from’. 

b)  The prefix nun נ can function as the pronoun ‘we’ in future tense of a verb, or convert a verb from active to passive voice.

c)  The following Hebrew letters as prefixes function as inseparable prepositions; the letter lamed ל means ‘to, for’, the letter bet ב  means ‘in, with, by’, and the letter kaf כ means ‘as, like’.

d)  The prefix he ה can function as a definite article, or indicate a question.  Scribes have marked the he with vowel point to provide information about the meaning, but because we are using the Hebrew without vowels, we are on our own, and won’t have the scribal markings to lead or mislead us. 

e)  The prefix is taw ת indicates either third person, singular, future tense (he/she/you/they will), or second person future tense (you will), or in biblical Hebrew, third person, plural, future tense (they will).

f)  The prefix (initial) yod י indicates the imperfect (future) tense, called the jussive that  expresses a desire that something should happen, normally used in the 3^rd person (he/she/it) but may be 2^nd person (you).

In The Beginning article, I mentioned the internet site shebanq.ancient-data.org as a resource for our study of Hebrew, that will come in handy to help us distinguish between words that begin with he, versus those with the definite article or interrogative.  When we select the ‘Words’ tab at the top, it functions like a dictionary, listing the letters of the Hebrew alphabet to the left, and when we select the letter ה, we see a list of 164 words, the first and second being the definite article ‘the’ and interrogative.  When we select the ה to the right of ‘the’, we see a list of 30369 occurrences of the definite article he, and when we select the  ה to the right of ‘interrogative’, we see a list of 743 occurrences of the interrogative he.  This example displays the amazingly robust drill down capability of the Shebanq database and the advantage of separation of prefixes and suffixes from words.

The definite article he is very common, often translated as ‘the’, implying that the specific person, place or thing being mentioned has already been mentioned, or is common knowledge, or is about to be defined.  In Gen 1:1 heavens and earth both have the prefix he, and the context supports that he means ‘the’ in this sentence.  We discussed the meaning of this prefix with adam  אדם (Strong’s 120) in fact #35, with the prefix he, indicates ‘the’ adam being referred to is a specific person, in some instances considered to be the name Adam (Strong’s 121). 

The first occurrence of the interrogative form of he is found in Gen 3:11, with the verb nagad (Strong’s 5046) often translated as ‘told’ or ‘declared’, where God is asking the man “who told you . . .?”.  It is obvious that he is not a definite article in the context of this sentence because the sentence doesn’t make sense with ‘the’ .  Similarly, in the case of yesh יש (Strong’s 3426) that is often translated as ‘there’,  in the form היש in Gen 24:23, Isaiah 44:8, Jer 14:22, 23:26 & 37:17 is translated as ‘is there?’, in Gen 43:7 & 44:19 as ‘have?’, and in Exodus 17:7 as ‘is?’. 

54.  In Hebrew, there are several suffixes, called ‘formative letters’, that are pronominal, indicating possession:

a)  The yod י indicates first person, singular possessive/objective  ‘me/my’. 

b)  The final kaph ך (normal form כ which takes the form ך, as a pref ix means “like”) indicates second person singular possessive – ‘your’, or similarly ‘thy’, or in reference to things, like in Genesis 2:3 where gods ‘blessed it ברך’ the seventh day.

c)  The suffix  kap yod יך, indicates second person objective ‘you’.

d)  It is alleged that the ה and the waw ו suffixes indicate third person singular feminine and masculine possessive respectively – ‘her/it’ and ‘his/it’, a theory that I reject for the reasons stated in Fact #13.  Comparing the verb hayah יהי (Strong’s 1961 – 3561 occurrences) which in its standard form  means ‘to be’, with the waw suffix indicates possessive without implying gender in Gen 1:15, where it is translated as “them be היו” in reference to the lights in the sky of the heavens, and with the he suffix indicates future tense in Gen 1:2 “The earth became היתה waste and empty”, in Gen 1:29 “shall be יהיה for food”, and in Gen 2:5 “before became יהיה in earth all herb”.  We can spot an error in translation in Gen 2:7, where it states “the man be יהי a living soul”, not ‘become’, as God’s breath caused it to happen immediately, like in the rest of creation. 

The future tense indicated by the he suffix is another way of saying it is ‘directional’ in that it “expresses the concept of movement (either in space or in time) toward the word (usually a person or thing) that takes the suffix” as stated in the article Suffix Directional He on uhg.ReadtheDocs.io.  They use Gen 15:5 as an example, where the noun heavens שמים with the suffix he is translated as “toward heaven” and in the context of the sentence is future tense because Yahweh said “Now look toward heaven . . .”.  Consider the meaning of the name God gave the ‘woman’ in Gen 2:22, ishshah אשה (Strong’s 802), is the noun esh אש (Strong’s 784) that means ‘a fire’, with the he suffix that ‘expresses the concept of movement toward the word’, that is translated as ‘toward’ in Gen 15:5, thus ishshah means ‘toward fire’, and since Yahweh יהוה is like a consuming fire (Exodus 3:2 & 24:17), it isn’t a stretch to conclude that the woman was ‘toward Yahweh’.

What a powerful tool this knowledge is in our Hebrew tool kit!

e)  The kaph and final nun כֶן and the kaph and final mem כֶם indicate second person, plural, feminine and masculine possessive respectively – ‘your’. 

f)  The final nun ן and final mem ם indicates third person, plural, feminine and masculine possessive – ‘their’.

55.   The Hebrew verb bara ברא (Strong’s 1254 – 55 occurrences) meaning ‘to shape, create’, from a primitive root that means ‘to create’ or ‘to cut down, select, feed’.  In Joshua 17:15 & 18 bara is translated as ‘cut down’, but  the context of the sentence would support ‘create’ because it is referring to a new place being created in the land for the nation of Israel.  In Ezek 23:47 bara is translated as ‘cut down’ but in verse 45 it says “righteous mighty ones (ish) will judge them”, which contradicts the fact that mighty ones are never righteous in scripture (see Fact #56), a strong indication the text is not inspired.

The noun beriah בריאה (Strong’s 1278) from the verb bara, only occurs once in Numbers 16:30 where it is translated “a new thing’ in the King James Bible, and “an entirely new thing” in NASB, which is supported by the context of verse 29 & 30 where Moses says “If like death all the people they die these, and common fate all people are visited upon, not Yahweh has sent me, and if a new thing (beriah) creates (bara) Yahweh and opens the earth mouth and swallows them and their belongings whole  and they go down alive into the pit, and understand that rejected mighty ones (ish) Yahweh”.

56.  The Hebrew noun ish  איש (Strong’s 376), means “god, god-like one, mighty one”, but is translated mostly as ‘man’, ‘men’, or ‘husband’.  It becomes evident when we look at the Hebrew text, that ‘man’ (adam’s) and ‘mighty ones’ (ish’s) are not the same Jer 49:18, ‘ish’ lie and ‘adam’ repents Numbers 23:19, ‘ish’ Yahweh rejects Numbers 16:30, ‘ish’ language is evil Psalm 140:11, ‘ish’ devise mischief and give wicked counsel Ezek 11:2, ‘ish’ set up idols Ezek 8:11 & 14:3.  It is no coincidence that Adam and Cain were both ‘mighty ones’ (ish) and both had the ground cursed for murder in Gen 3 & 4.

Constructing The Sentences

Let’s construct the sentences:

Gen 2:1  The subject is ‘gods’ (as stated in Gen 2:2), the verb with waw suffix ‘completed them’, and object ‘the heavens and the earth and army’.

Gen 2:2  The subject is ‘gods’, with two clauses, the first having the verb ‘completed’, and object ‘in day seventh craftsmanship they made’, and the second with the verb ‘rested’, and object ‘in day seventh from all craftsmanship which made’.

Gen 2:3  Containing two sentences, the first with the subject ‘gods’, verb ‘blessed it’, and object ‘day the seventh’, and a second verb ‘set apart’, and the second with the subject ‘gods’, verb ‘ceased’, and object ‘from all their craftsmanship which to make’.

Literal and Figurative Translation

The paragraph translates as follows:

And completed the heavens and the earth and all the army.  And completed gods in day seventh craftsmanship they made, and rested in day seventh from all craftsmanship which made.  And blessed it gods, day the seventh, and set apart for ceased from all their craftsmanship which gods to make.

Analysis

Keeping the Sabbath, was the fourth commandment in Exodus 20: 8 to 11, a long lasting (olam – see fact #50) covenant for generations to come, a sign between God and Israel of long duration (olam), until the time of the Sabbath rest arrived Heb 4: 1 to 13.  In six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth but on the seventh day rested and was refreshed (naphash see fact #51) Exodus 31:17 & 16, and in six days, all persons, including sojourners, and livestock in Israel were to make תעשה your craft מעשיך  (asah and maaseh – see fact #52), but on the seventh day cease and be refreshed Exodus 23:12. 

The Scribes and Pharisees believed that Yahshua was violating the Sabbath Law when he healed on Saturday (see fact #48), but his explanations reveal that they had taken God’s command beyond that found in the Law.  To keep the Sabbath, labor/craftsmanship ceased, not doing good things like healing Matthew 12: 9 to 13, Mark 3: 1 to 5, & Luke 6: 6 to 10, or leading livestock to water Luke 13: 13 to 16, or pulling a son or an ox out of a well Luke 14: 1 to 6.  Yahshua said that Moses circumcised on the Sabbath, and told the Scribes and Pharisees “do not judge by appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” in John 7: 22 to 24.

God’s ‘making’ in Genesis 1 was perishable things (see fact #52), and it is this perishable work that God ceased ‘making’ on the Sabbath.  When used of God ‘making’  the expanse, two great lights, living (souls), and mankind, in Gen 1:7, 16, 25, & 26, asah (see fact #34) is referring to perishable elements.  At the end of time, the new heaven and earth will come down from above and fill the earth and the first pass away, God will no longer be separated from mankind by the expanse, there will be no sun or moon because the glory of God will illuminate it Rev 21: 1 to 3, & 23, and mankind who are born again will inherit the kingdom of God John 3:3, and be given a new name Rev 2:17, no longer named Adam after the ground they were taken from (see fact #35).

In contrast to asah ‘making’ which refers to perishable things (see fact #52), bara refers to God’s creation of new, permanent things (see fact #55), like great sea monsters in Gen 1:21, and mankind in image, male and female Gen 1:27.  God’s creation of the heavenly man in God’s image, male and female in Gen 1:27 reflects the original condition of man at the time of creation, and ‘making’ in Gen 1:26 is referring to man becoming mortal in Gen 2:7 after which the woman separated from the man in Gen 2:22.  This supports that idea that Genesis 2 & 3 provide the details of the fall of mankind, how and why they left God’s enclosure (Eden) where God provides and protects, into the dry land to fend for themselves.

To understand what Yahshua meant when he explained that “the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” in respect to picking grain on the Sabbath, which did break the Sabbath Law in Matthew 12: 1 to 8, Mark 2: 23 to 28 & Luke 6: 1 to 5, we need to understand eschatology.  As Lord of the Sabbath, Yahshua heard the cries of the righteous against those living in luxury and self indulgence and his coming was near, the judge was standing at the door James 5: 1 to 9.  God assigned judgment to the Son, and whoever hears his word and believes God who sent him, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life, and the hour had arrived when the dead who heard his voice would live John 5:22 to 25. 

The harvest time arrived and the landowner sent his beloved son to the vine-growers to receive his produce but they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him, unleashing God’s wrath on them and their city Luke 20: 9 to 16. Yahshua confirmed that the favorable year of God had come Isaiah 61:1 & 2 & Luke 4: 14 to 21, and warned that the day of vengeance Isaiah 61:2 & 63:4 was imminent Luke 21: 5 to 32, also called the end of the age and the great tribulation Matthew 24:3 & 21 & Rev 7:14, and the day of the Lord 1 Thes 5: 2 to 10. Fulfillment of the ages came upon that generation 1 Cor 10:11, the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth Matthew 23:33 to 36. 

In the 77^th generation from Adam Luke 3: 23 to 38, at the decreed time, judgment began at the house of God 1 Peter 4:17, against God’s people and holy city to stop the transgression, put an end to sin, make atonement for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place Dan 9:24. In the 7 year battle, from 66 to 73 AD, God brought Rome against the nation of Israel, in the middle the seven, in 70 AD, the temple were destroyed, causing sacrifices to cease Dan 9: 26 & 27.  

The great tribulation when Jerusalem was surrounded by armies indicating her destruction was near,  they fell by the edges of the sword and were led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem was trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled, and the temple was destroyed without one stone left upon another, and the coming of the Son of Man in a cloud with power and great glory Matthew 24: 3 & 34 & the days of vengeance when all things written were fulfilled Luke 21: 5 to 32. 

God said to his Servant whom he called from the womb “in a favorable time I have answered you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you, and I will keep you and give you for a covenant to the people, to restore the land, to make them inherit desolate heritages.  Saying to those who are bound ‘go forth’, to those who are in darkness ‘show yourselves’, along the roads they will feed, and their pasture on all bare heights.  They will not hunger or thirst, nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down, for he who has compassion on them will lead them and will guide them to springs of water.” Isaiah 49:1 to 10. 

The seven creation days describe God’s creation of the heavens and earth that surround us, while at the same time prophesying how righteous mankind will be saved; from the ancient ruins in Gen 1:2, creation of the light which was separated from the darkness, and shines day by day, throughout time, to separate righteous mankind from the darkness Gen 1:3 to 5.  The separation of the dry land called earth from the sea Gen 1:9 & 10, which was the deep, the abyss, the waters separated from those above Gen 1:2.   Shepherding the sheep on the dry land called earth, leading them to the living waters above Gen 1:7 & 25, fishing them out of the sea where a multitude are attached to the gills of the sea monsters Gen 1: 26 & 28, teaching mankind by word and example to be trees yielding fruit which provide food Gen 1: 9 to 12, 29 & 30, culminating in the restoration and reuniting on the Sabbath in Gen 2:3.    

Next we will look at Gen 2: 4 to 9 where Adam became a living being, formed of the dust of the earth 1 Cor 15:45 & 47.

Hebrew Without Vowels or Accents

The text of Genesis 1: 24 to 31 appears as follows:

Samaritan Targum Interlinear Translation

Here’s the interlinear translation of Genesis 1:24 to 31 from tanakh.info:

Facts About Hebrew

We can add the following to our facts about Hebrew:

29.  The Hebrew noun t’hom תהום (Strong’s 8415 36 occurrences) translated as ‘deep(s)’ also means ‘abyss, sea’, the figurative meaning is ‘large difference’, and its origin is possibly related to the Arabic hama which means ‘to be thirsty, to crave’.   In English the word abyss means ‘hell, the bottomless pit, primeval chaos, unfathomed depth, & moral depravity’.  In Rev 20:13 the sea is indicated to be one of the places the dead are sleeping at the time of the final judgment.

30.  The Hebrew verb yatsa יצא (Strong’s 3318) means ‘to go or come out’.  In Gen 1:12 & 24 it appears as תוצא, which according to the Dictionary means ‘effect’.  The noun ‘effect’ means ‘a change which is a result or consequence of an action or other cause’ and verb means ‘cause to happen, bring about’.  In Gen 19:12, it is used of the angels sent to ‘take’ תוצא Lot and his family out of Sodom before its destruction. 

31.  The Hebrew noun behemah בהמה (Strong’s 929 with 190 occurrences) means ‘a beast, animal, cattle’, the root is a verb that means ‘to be mute, properly ‘a dumb beast’’.  The translation of behemah is fairly evenly distributed between ‘beast, animal  and cattle’ but in Gen 1: 24 & 25 it is mostly translated as ‘livestock or cattle’, indicating a domesticated animal (it is even translated as ‘domestic’  in the Good News and God’s Word Translations).   In Lev 1:2 offerings to Yahweh were behemah, either from the herd, baqar בקר (Strong’s 1241 ‘cattle, herd, an ox’), or the flock, tson צאן (Strong’s 6629 ‘small cattle, sheep and goats, flock’), evidencing ‘livestock’  which means ‘farm animals regarded as an asset’ as the best translation.

32.  The Hebrew noun remes רמש (Strong’s 7431 with 17 occurrences) is the same as the verb ramas רמש (Strong’s 7430 with 17 occurrences)  except for the vowel points, meaning ‘creeping things, moving things’ or ‘to creep, move lightly’ respectively, in reference to a reptile or any other rapidly moving animal.  This word is used in Gen 1:21 in verb form of the great monsters and living souls ‘that creep’ which swarmed the waters according to kinds.  In Gen 1:24, 25 & 26, remes functions as a noun, referring to a type of living soul that comes forth from the earth.

33.  The Hebrew particle hinneh הנה (Strong’s 2009 841 occurrences) means ‘lo, behold’, the same word (except for the vowel points) is identified as the Hebrew pronoun hennah (Strong’s 2007 48 occurrences) means ‘they’, the adverb hennah (Strong’s 2008 50 occurrences) means ‘hither’.  These words are all from the interjection hen הן (Strong’s 2005 318 occurrences) that means ‘lo, behold’, or ‘if, whether’ (Strong’s 2006 18 occurrences).  According to the Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language by Ernest Klein (1987), in addition to the meanings stated above, hinneh could be a verb meaning ‘to be agreeable, be pleased’ but the context of its use in Gen 3:22 in reference to the man knowing good and evil, and in Gen 6:12 to the earth becoming corrupt do not support this meaning.

34.  The Hebrew verb asah עשה (Strong’s 6213) means ‘do, make’, but can also mean ‘attend to, put in order’, ‘appoint’, or ‘bring about’.  

35.  The Hebrew noun adamah אדמה (Strong’s 127) meaning ‘ground, land, soil’, is “from the same as” adam אדם (Strong’s 120) meaning a human being, common person, or ‘to be red’.  Adam is determined to be the proper name Adam (Strong’s 121) when prefixed with the definite article he ה, or the context indicates adam to be referring to one human being specifically as in Gen 3:17 where God said “to Adam” לאדם . 

After Adam האדם was put to sleep and his/her side formed into a woman in Gen 2:21, the male is called man/Adam and the female woman in Gen 2: 22 & 23, which continues into Genesis 3 where Adam names the woman, Eve in Gen 3:20.  There is an overarching maleness in the name ‘man/Adam’ from that point forward that we need to consider in order to comprehend what it means to be male or female. 

36.  The Hebrew noun tselem צלם means ‘an image, idol, semblance’.  Semblance means “the outward appearance or apparent form of something, especially when the reality is different”, which the best choice given the first man’s name, Adam, means ‘ground’ (see fact #35), who Paul contrasts with Yahshua saying “the first man is from the earth, earthy, the second man is from heaven” in 1 Cor 15:45.

37.  The Hebrew noun demuth דמות means ‘likeness, similitude’, as Adam’s offspring Seth bore his likeness in Gen 5:3.  In Ezekiel 1, 8 & 10, it is found in reference to the outward appearance of the beings in Ezekiel’s visions, and is translated as ‘pattern’ in 2 Kings 16:10, thus not likely to be referring to personality.  The best choice for translation is ‘image’.

38.  The Hebrew noun dagah  דגה  (Strong’s 1710) the feminine counterpart of dag דג (Strong’s 1709) mean ‘fish’, and are from the verb dagah דגה (Strong’s 1711) that means ‘to multiply, increase’.  The word identified in Gen 1: 26 & 28 the feminine dagah has taw ת instead of he ה at the end, which changes a singular feminine noun to the construct form ‘of’, appropriately translated as “over fish of” in these verses.

39.  The Hebrew noun  zakar זכר ( Strong’s 2145) means ‘male’.  Zakar is from the verb zakar זכר (Strong’s #2142) meaning ‘to remember’ but in the sense of ‘to prick, pierce – fix in one’s mind’. 

40.  The Hebrew noun  nequbah נקבה (Strong’s 5347) means ‘female’.  Nequbah is from the verb naqab נקב (Strong’s 5344) meaning ‘pierced, perforated, with holes – in the sense of ‘designate, distinguish, specify, prick off’’ from a primitive root meaning ‘to puncture, literally (to perforate, with ‘more or less violence’)’. 

41.  The Hebrew adverb neged נגד (Strong’s 5048) means ‘in front of, in sight of, opposite to’ translated mostly as ‘before’, ‘front’, and ‘opposite’, from the verb nagad נגד (Strong’s 5046) that means ‘to be conspicuous’ mostly translated as ‘told/tell’ and ‘declare(d)(s)’, from a primitive root that means ‘to front, stand out boldly opposite, to manifest, figuratively to announce’. 

42.  The Hebrew verb radah רדו (Strong’s 7287 27 occurrences) means ‘to have dominion (dominate) also subdue, rule, prevail against, bear’ from a primitive root meaning ‘to tread down, i.e. subjugate; specifically ‘to crumble off’’.  Radah could not mean ‘dominion’ which means exercise control over, or ‘rule’, which means exercise ultimate power or authority over, because Yahshua said the rulers of the gentiles ‘lord it over’ them, but it is not this way among you, who must become like the youngest and the servant in Matthew 20:25 & 26, Mark 10:42 & 43, & Luke 22:25 & 26.  Thus in Gen 1: 26 & 28 radah must mean ‘prevail’, meaning ‘be victorious, persuade to do something’ because the ‘fish of the sea’ are those being lorded over by the gentile rulers. 

43.  The Hebrew verb kabash כבשה (Strong’s 3533 -14 occurrences) means ‘to subdue, bring into bondage’, in Aramaic ‘to tread down, beat or make a path, subdue’ from a primitive root meaning ‘to tread down, disregard, violate, force, conquer’.  The noun kabsah כבשה (Strong’s 3535 – 8 occurrences) means ‘ewe lamb’, from the same as kebes כבש (Strong’s 3532 107 occurrences) which means ‘lamb’, from an unused root which means ‘to dominate; a ram (just old enough to butt)’.  Each of these words is the exact same but marked by scribes with vowels to distinguish between them, used of lambs as a sacrificial offering or describing their gentle nature in Isaiah 11:6 & Jer 11:19.

We can deduce that kabash is a verb that has some connection to lamb, whether their peaceful grazing, or ‘like lamb’ being easily shepherded as Yahweh wishes Israel was in Hosea 4:16, not ‘conquer’ or ‘subdue’ or ‘bring into bondage’ which all have a negative, possibly violent, connotation.  For example, in Numbers 32:22 & 29, we see that ‘peaceful’ is a more fitting translation, “when the land is peaceful before Yahweh . . . “, “the land is peaceful before you . . .” respectively.   Similarly in Joshua 18:1, the land was ‘peaceful’, not ‘subdued’ which means depressed, gloomy, or downcast.  In 2 Chr 28:10, Neh 5:5, Jer 34:11 & 16 where kabash is used in reference to slavery, instead of ‘forcing’ it likely means ‘allowing’, as lamb’s being easily shepherded supports this meaning.

Constructing The Sentences

Let’s construct the sentences:

Gen 1:24 has a major clause with the subject ‘gods’, the verb ‘said’ and within the object is a clause with the subject ‘the earth’, verb ‘bring forth’, and object ‘soul living to kind, animals, and creeping thing and living of the earth to kind’.  The sentence ends with a subordinate clause the subject is the major clause, the verb ‘be’, and the object ‘so’.

Gen 1:25 has a major clause with the subject ‘gods’, the verb ‘made’,  there are three  et את that indicate they are direct objects of the verb ‘made’,  ‘living the earth to kind’,  ‘and animals to kind’, ‘and everything creeping the earth to kind’.  Then a major clause, with the subject  ‘gods’, the verb ‘saw’, and the object ‘good’.

Gen 1:26 has a major clause with the subject ‘gods’, the verb ‘said’, and within the object are two subordinate clauses with the subject ‘mankind’, the first with the verb ‘make’, and object ‘in semblance, in image’, and the second with the verb ‘prevail’, and object ‘in fish the sea, and in birds the heavens, and in livestock, and in all the earth and in everything the creeper that creep on the earth’.

Gen 1:27 has two major clauses both with the subject ‘gods’, the first clause with the verb ‘created’, and an et את that indicates ‘Adam in image in image gods’ is a direct object of the verb ‘created’, and the second clause with the verb ‘created’ and object ‘male and female’, followed by a sub clause with the verb ‘created’ and a plural  et אתם indicating ‘Adam’ both ‘male and female’ to be direct objects of the verb ‘created’.

Gen 1:28 has two major clauses, the first clause with the subject ‘gods’, and a plural et אתם indicating ‘Adam’ both ‘male and female’ to be direct objects of the verb ‘sanctioned’, the second clause with the subject ‘gods’,  verb ‘said’, and two subclasses, the first sub clause with an et את that indicates ‘the earth’ is a direct object of  the verbs ‘fruitful and multiply and fill’, and the second with the verbs ‘shepherd’ and ‘prevail’, and object ‘over fish the sea, and over birds the heavens, and over every living that creeps upon the earth’.

Gen 1:29 has a major clause with the subject ‘gods’, the verb ‘said’, the interjection ‘behold’, and within the object  a subordinate clause with the verb ‘give’, and three objects, the first object ‘every herb sowing seed on face all the earth’, the second object with an et את that indicates ‘every tree which fruit tree sowing seed to you . . . for food’ is a direct object of the verb ‘be’.

Gen 1:30 the third object  tied to the subject ‘gods’ and verb ‘give’ from Gen 1:29 is ‘every beast the earth and every bird the heavens and to everything creeping upon the earth which in it soul living every green herb for food’.  The sentence ends with a subordinate clause the subject is the major clause, the verb ‘be’, and the object ‘so’.

Gen 1:31 has a major clause with the subject ‘gods’, the verb ‘saw’, and within the object a subordinate clause with the adverb and verb ‘everything made’,  and object ‘indeed good very’.   The sentence ends with a major clause with the subject the ‘sixth day’, the verb ‘be’, and the object ‘evening’, and a sub clause with the verb ‘be’, and object ‘morning’.

Literal and Figurative Translation

The paragraph translates as follows:

And said gods “bring forth the earth soul living to kind, livestock, and creepers, and living earth to kind”, and be so.  And made gods living the earth to kind and livestock to kind and all creepers on the earth to kind and saw gods that good. 

And said gods “make mankind in semblance in image, and prevail over fish the sea, and over birds the heavens and over the livestock and over all creeper that creep on the earth”.  And created gods Adam, in semblance, in semblance of gods created, male and female created and sanctioned gods  and said gods “bear fruit and multiply and fill the earth, and shepherd and prevail over fish the sea and over birds the heavens and over all living that creep upon the earth”. 

And said gods “behold, given all herb sowing seed which on face all the earth and every the tree which in fruit tree sowing seed to you be for food and to every living the earth and to every bird the heavens and to every creeper upon the earth which in it soul living every green herb for food”, and be so. 

And saw gods everything that made and indeed good very, and be evening and be morning, the sixth day.

Analysis

We discussed the figurative meaning of the plants and trees, which the earth ‘effected’ (yatsa – see fact #30) on the third creation day in Gen 1: 11 & 12, as representing mankind exercising their free will. 

On the sixth creation day, the earth ‘effects’  living souls (nephesh chay – see fact #24) according to kind, ‘livestock’ (behemah – see fact #31) and ‘creeping things’ (remes – see fact #32), all that creep (remes – see fact #32) on the ‘ground’ (adamah – see fact #35) in Gen 1: 24 & 25.  Cattle and sheep (livestock) and snakes (creeping things) figuratively represent mankind who chose righteousness, or wickedness, the two gates that each and every one of us must choose between Matthew 7:13 & 14. 

Livestock represent stubborn persons, who like cattle, are difficult to pasture Hosea 4:16, or flocks of sheep or goats, who are God’s people, the flock of God’s possession Micah 7:14 of whom the Messiah was put in place as the shepherd to separate and feed Ezek 34:23 & 37:24.  Jesus was the Passover sacrifice, an unblemished year old, male kid, sheep or goat Exodus 12:5, the slaughtered lamb, in whose blood the sheep must wash our clothes to make them white, under his shepherding we will hunger and thirst no more because he will guide us to the springs of the water of life and God will wipe every tear from their eye Rev 7: 9 to 17. 

Creeping things/snakes represent the mighty nations who are cursed to lick the dust and crawl from their holes in the presence of Yahweh in Micah 7:14 to 17, the wicked who speak lies, have venom like that of a serpent Psalm 58:3 & 4, sharpen their tongues as a serpent, the poison of a viper under their lips Psalm 140:3. Yahshua called the Scribes and Pharisees ‘serpents, brood of vipers’ in Matthew 23:33, saying they were of their father the devil (Greek diabolos meaning false accuser), a murderer, a liar and the father of lies John 8:44.

The final act of God’s creation was ‘mankind’, created in the ‘semblance’ of gods, in their ‘image’, created male and female in Gen 1: 26 & 27.  Named Adam Gen 5:2 after the ground he/she would be formed from in Gen 2:7, a verb that means ‘to be red’ representing sin Isaiah 1:18 & Romans 1:20 to 25.  Semblance (tselem – see fact #36) means “the outward appearance or apparent form of something, especially when the reality is different”, and ‘image’ (demuth – see fact #37) also refers to outward appearance.  Neither semblance nor image refers to the condition of the heart, which in mankind is evil from youth Gen 8:21, causing all to sin and fall short of the glory of God Romans 3:23.

The heavenly Adam was created male and female, like the angels, like we will be in the resurrection as Yahshua stated in Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25 & Luke 20:36.  The Hebrew male (zakar – see fact #39) means ‘piercer’ and female (neqebah – see fact #40) means ‘pierced’, opposite sides (neged – see fact #41) of mankind in Gen 2:18 & 20.  It was this heavenly, male and female, Adam who was commanded to bear fruit, multiply and fill the earth, and shepherd (kabash – see fact #43), and prevail (radah see fact #42) over the fish of the sea, birds of the air, livestock and creeping things, over all living that creep upon the earth Gen 1:26 & 28.

Fish (see fact #38) represent the multitude of mankind who are in the rivers (seas – see fact #29) of the great monsters, the mighty rulers of the earth, like Pharaoh, and will stick to his scales and be put in the field for the beasts and birds as food Ezek 29: 3 to 5, caught in a net, ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them Eccl 9:12.   In a parable, Yahshua equated the kingdom of heaven to a dragnet cast into the sea gathering fish of every kind, the good fish gathered into containers and the bad thrown away, like at the end of the age when the angels come forth and take the wicked from among the righteous and throw them into a furnace of fire where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matthew 13: 47 to 50, which is why he told his disciples “follow me and I will make you fishers of men” in Matthew 4:18 & 19. 

God granted the heavenly Adam every herb and the fruit of every tree as food for every living soul Gen 1: 29 & 30, which changed to a command to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in Gen 2:17 after Adam is made from the dust and received the breath of life in Gen 2:7, which is when he/she became perishable, flesh and blood 1 Cor 15: 42 to 50.  The command that Adam transgressed Hosea 6:7  & Romans 5:14, was God’s command to ‘shepherd’ and ‘prevail’ in Gen 1:28, which we will explore in our study of Genesis 2.

In my next article, I will look at Genesis 2: 1 to 3, the seventh and final day of the account of God’s creation.

Hebrew Without Vowels or Accents

The text of Genesis 1: 20 to 23 appears as follows:

Samaritan Targum Interlinear Translation

Here’s the interlinear translation of Genesis 1: 20 to 23 from tanakh.info:

Facts About Hebrew

We can add the following to our facts about Hebrew:

24.  The Hebrew adjective/noun chay  חי (Strong’s 2416 – 503 occurrences & 2417) means ‘alive, living’ forms part of the verbs chaya  חיי (Strong’s 2418) and chayah חיה (Strong’s 2421) translated as ‘live(d)’.  In Gen 1:24, 25, & 30, chayah חיה (Strong’s 2421 – 263 occurrences) are assigned Strong’s 2416, and translated as ‘beast’.  In Gen 1: 20, 21, 24, 30, 2:7 & 19 the adjective/noun chay (Strong’s 2416) is found in conjunction with the Hebrew noun nephesh  (Strong’s 5315) means ‘a soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion’, and translated as ‘living creature’ until Gen 2:7 where they are translated ‘living being’ in reference to ‘adam’, then back to ‘living creature’, of the animals the man named in Gen 2:19.  This is an example of translator bias, where English words are chosen, not based on literal meaning, but to align with theology, which is the reason we can’t understand the meaning of scripture from English translations.

25.  The Hebrew tannin תנינם (Strong’s 8577) by definition means ‘serpent, dragon, sea monster’.  Only the NASB, Tanakh, and Jubilee Bibles translated tannin appropriately as ‘monster’ or ‘dragon’ in Gen 1:21.  Other Bible’s translate it as ‘creatures’ and the King James Bible as ‘whales’ which is incorrect.  Outside the Genesis creation account, tannin is never translated as ‘creatures/whales’, only as ‘serpent, dragon or monster’, evidencing this to be a mistranslation.

26.  The Hebrew adjective gadol  גדול (Strong’s 1419) most often translated as ‘great’, is from the verb/adjective gadal גדל (Strong’s 1431 & 1432) that means ‘to grow/growing up, become/becoming great’, the noun godel גדל (Strong’s 1433) that means ‘greatness’.  

The word ‘great’ conveys a positive sense, as an adjective it means more of something than average, and as a noun in it is used in reference to a distinguished person, but in scripture, ‘great’ isn’t always positive.  Gadal is used positively in relation to the ‘great’ things Yahweh will do in Joel 2:21, and the Messiah, the ruler in Israel whose ‘greatness’ will reach to the ends of the earth Micah 5:4.  It is used in a negative context of the ‘great’ things Satan’s northern forces do in Joel 2:20, of boasting Obadiah 1:12, arrogance Zeph 2: 8 & 10, magnifying ones self above another Dan 8: 4 to &  Zech 12:7, or ‘great’ mourning in Zech 12:11.

We must look at the context to determine whether ‘great’ is meant in a positive or negative sense. 

27.  The Hebrew noun sherets שרץ (Strong’s 8318), is the same as the verb sharats (Strong’s 8317) except for the vowel points, meaning ‘an active mass’ or ‘swarming/teeming’ respectively.  Although sherets/sharats occurs twice in Gen 1:20, most Bible versions translate it once as ‘teem’,  ‘swarm’, ‘abundantly’, or ‘be filled/full’, except the ESV where it is translated as ‘swarm with swarms’, and NASB as ‘teem with swarms’.  The duplication emphasizes the volume of monsters in sea in comparison to the birds in the heavens, an important part of the account that should not be omitted.

28.  The Hebrew verb barak ברך (Strong’s 1288 – 330 occurrences) and berak (Strong’s 1289 – 5 occurrences in Daniel) mean ‘to kneel, bless’, and are most often translated as ‘bless(ed)(es)’.  The masculine noun berek ברך (Strong’s 1290 – 25 occurrences), and feminine berak, (Strong’s 1291 – 1 occurrence in Dan 6:10) which are the same except for the vowel points, both mean ‘knee’, and they are the same as barak and berak except for the vowel points. 

Translating barak as ‘bless’ makes it appear the object to which it refers is favored by God, when that is not the case.  For example, in Gen 1:22 the verb barak is specific to the monsters and birds generating offspring, not an indication that they have God’s favor.  Similarly in Gen 1:28, the verb barak is specific to man being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth and subduing it and having dominion over every living thing that moves upon the earth.  In Gen 2:3, the verb barak is specific to the seventh day being set apart.  A more fitting translation would be ‘authorize, consent, allow, sanction, grant, enable, entitle’ which is what seems to be meant by God ‘kneeling’.

Constructing The Sentences

Let’s construct the sentences – subject, verb, object:

Gen 1:20 has a major clause, the subject is ‘gods’, the verb ‘said’, and within the object are two subordinate clauses, first – the verb ‘teem’, and object ‘the waters with an abundance of souls living’, and second – the verb ‘fly’, and object ‘birds above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens’.

Gen 1:21 has a major clause, the subject ‘gods’, the verb ‘create’, there are three  et את that indicate they are direct objects of the verb ‘create’; ‘monsters great’, ‘every soul living that moves which swarmed the waters according to kind’, and ‘every bird winged  according to kind’.  Then a major clause, with the subject  ‘gods’, the verb ‘saw’, and the object ‘good’.

Gen 1:22 has a major clause, the subject ‘gods’, the verb ‘sanction’, there is plural  et אתם (indicated by the prefix ם) indicating two direct objects of the verb ‘sanction’; the first for the monsters (although this isn’t stated directly it is clear from the context that only the monsters fill the seas and the birds multiply on earth) to ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas’ and the second for the birds to ‘multiply on earth’.  In the first direct object there is an et את indicating ‘the waters in the seas’ is a direct object of the verb ‘fill’.

Gen 1:23 has a major clause with the subject the ‘fifth day’, the verb ‘be’, and the object ‘evening’, and a sub clause with the verb ‘be’, and object ‘morning’.

Literal and Figurative Translation

The paragraph translates as follows:

And said gods “let swarm the waters with an abundance of souls living and birds let fly above the earth across the face firmament the sky”.  And created gods monsters great and every living soul that moves swarmed the waters to kind and every bird winged to kind and saw gods that good.  And sanction gods saying “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and birds let multiply in earth”.  And be evening and be morning fifth day.

Analysis

The ‘great monsters/dragons’ and ‘birds’ are opposites, and like the greater and lesser lights God created in separate spaces in Gen 1: 14 to 19, they are separated as a result of monsters being created for the ‘waters’ and birds for the ‘earth’ respectively in Gen 1:21 & 22.  Just as the separation of the greater and lesser lights on the second day was declared ‘good’, meaning acceptable for the time being, the separation of the monsters and birds on the fifth day is declared good in Gen 1:21.

The active mass of monsters or dragons living in the water, represent  monstrous leaders and king’s of the nations under Satan’s influence. In Ezek 29:3 Pharaoh is called a “monster great crouching in the midst river”, similarly in Ezek 32:2 God says Pharaoh is “like a monster in the seas”, and in Isaiah 13:22 & 34:13 there are monsters in their palaces/temples.  God destroys Jerusalem, Judah, Hazor (the greatest city in the land of Israel in the late Canaanite period, “the head of all those kingdoms” Joshua 11:10, which today is Tel Hazor), and Babylon, leaving them desolate, a place where only monsters live Jer 9:11, 10:22, 49:33, & 51:37. God destroys the mighty ones like Pharaoh by the sword of other mighty ones, desolating them, bringing them down to the pit, to Sheol where the strong and mighty ones slain by the sword end up Ezek 32: 11 to 32. 

Birds flying in the heavens represent Israel, however “they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” Romans 9:6.  The nation of Israel became Babylon the great, glorified itself and lived sensuously, and was burned up with fire Rev 18:2, 7 & 8.  Which is what Paul meant when he quoted Isaiah “though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved” in Romans 9:27.  Righteous Israel (Israel of God) are represented as doves that God settles in their houses in Hosea 11:11 & Isaiah 60:8.

God had a plan from the beginning, ancient times, that was brought to pass Isaiah 37:26, established an ancient nation and let them declare the things that are coming, events that are going to take place Isaiah 44:7, declared the end from the beginning Isaiah 46:10, the purpose of rebuilding the ancient ruins Isaiah 58:12, on the favorable year of Yahweh Isaiah 61: 1 to 4, which Yahshua stated was fulfilled in Luke 4: 16 to 21.

In order to rebuild the ancient ruins, “God, intending to show wrath and make power known, bore with great patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” Romans 9:22.  Throughout time, God uses the nations to refine and test Israel, that those who call on God’s name, God will answer and say “they are my people” and they will say “Yahweh is my god” Zech 13:9.   When judgment takes place, mighty ones like Pharaoh are given for food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the heavens Ezek 29: 5, and birds that fly in mid-heaven are called to the great supper of God to eat the flesh of kings, commanders and mighty men and their horses in Rev 19: 17 & 18.

In my next article, I will look at Genesis 1: 24 to 31.

Hebrew Without Vowels or Accents

The text of Genesis 1: 14 to 19 appears as follows:

Samaritan Targum Interlinear Translation

Here’s the interlinear translation of Genesis 1:14 to 19 from tanakh.info:

Facts About Hebrew

We can add the following to our facts about Hebrew:

21.          In fact #5, we looked at et את which according to Strong’s and NAS Exhaustive Concordances is not translatable, and up until Gen 1:16 hasn’t been.  In Gen 1:16 there are four occurrences of et את , and the 4^th is translated as “He also made” in NIV and NLT, “He made” in Berean Study Bible, “He made” in NASB and KJB, and is not translated in the Tanakh (see above), ESV, ISV and Christian Standard Bible.

We discussed that in Brown Driver Briggs it states that et is “the mark of the accusative, prefixed as a rule only to nouns that are definite”, which in this verse indicates that “two lights great”,  “the light greater”, “the light lesser”, and “the stars” are direct objects of the verb “made”. 

This is the first instance where the plural gods elohim אלהים is made to appear singular and masculine (male), a false image that permeates organized religion today.

22.          As we discussed in fact #10, Hebrew verb or אור (Strong’s 215) translated as ‘to give light/shine’  in Gen 1:15 is the same word as the noun or (Strong’s 216) translated as ‘light’ in Gen 1: 3 to 5, except for the vowel points.  There is another noun,  or with the prefix mem מ, maor מאור (Strong’s 3974) which means ‘a luminary’, and is translated as ‘lights’ in Gen 1:14 to 16.  In Gen 1:15, maor is preceded by the preposition ל that means ‘to, for’ (fact #15), translated as ‘for’ which makes it function as a noun, ‘for light’, but if translated as ‘to’ would function as a verb, ‘to light’.  This is something to keep in mind as we construct sentences – subject, verb, object, whether or not this methodology captures the meaning of the text, and if not, what the alternatives are.

23.          The Hebrew noun oth translated as ‘sign’ אות (Strong’s 226) and the noun moed מועד (Strong’s 4150) translated as ‘seasons’ in Gen 1:14, fail to capture the full meaning of this verse.  The noun oth more specifically means ‘pledge, oath’, being the same as the verb uth, that means ‘to consent, agree’, except for the vowel points which were added by scribes.  The noun moed is from the verb  יעד meaning ‘to appoint’, and most often translated as ‘appointed time/meeting’.  In the broadest sense, the message of Gen 1:14 is that  the heavenly luminaries allow mankind to track time, to know when the time for fulfillment of God’s ‘pledge, oath’ has arrived.

Constructing The Sentences

Let’s construct the sentences – subject, verb, object:

Gen 1:14 has a major clause, the subject is ‘gods’, the verb ‘said’, and within the object are three subordinate clauses, first – the verb ‘be’, and object ‘light in the firmament of the heavens’, second – the verb ‘to divide’, and object ‘between the day and between the night’, third – the verb ‘be’, and object ‘for pledge and for appointed time, and for days and years’.

Gen 1:15 has a major clause, the subject ‘lights in the firmament of the heavens’, the verb ‘be’, and the object contains a subordinate clause, the verb ‘to light’, and the object ‘upon the earth’.  The sentence ends with a subordinate clause the subject is the major clause, the verb ‘be’, and the object ‘so’.

Gen 1:16 has a major clause, the subject ‘gods’, the verb ‘made’, and the object ‘two the light the great’, and two subordinate clauses – the first with the subject ‘the light greater’, verb ‘to rule’, and object ‘the day’, and the second with the subject ‘the light lesser’, verb ‘to rule’, and object ‘the night and the stars’.

Gen 1:17 has a major clause, the subject ‘gods’, the verb ‘set’, and object ‘them in the firmament of the heavens’, and three subordinate clauses, the first with the verb ‘to light’, and object ‘upon the earth’.

Gen 1:18 the second with the verb ‘to rule’, and object ‘over night’, the third with the verb ‘to divide’, and object ‘between the light and between the darkness’.  Then a major clause, with the subject  ‘gods’, the verb ‘saw’, and the object ‘good’.

Gen 1:19 has a major clause with the subject the ‘fourth day’, the verb ‘be’, and the object ‘evening’, and a sub clause with the verb ‘be’, and object ‘morning’.

Literal and Figurative Translation

The paragraph translates as follows:

And said gods “Be light in the expanse the heavens to divide between the day and between the night and be for pledge and for appointed time and days and years.  And be for lights in firmament the heavens to shine upon the earth and it was so.  And made gods two lights great, the light greater to rule the day and the light lesser to rule the night and the stars.  And set them gods in firmament the heavens to shine upon the earth, and to rule over day and over night and to divide between the light and between the darkness and saw gods that good.  And be evening and be morning day fourth.

Analysis

Tradition would have us believe that creation was perfect ‘in the beginning’, until ‘the fall’ in the garden of Eden in Gen 3, but we know from our study that it was not.  Throughout Genesis 1, God was creating separation between the wicked and righteous, and declaring the separation ‘good’.  In Gen 1:14, God made heavenly luminaries to divide between the day and night, and for tracking time, which is only necessary when life is finite.  The lights illumine the earth Gen 1:15 until all righteous mankind are reunited with God through the Messiah and all evil destroyed, along with death itself, at the final judgment Rev 20:11 to 15 & 21:23 to 25.

God, who knows all things, was preparing for the fall of mankind, and had already planned for their future salvation through the Messiah, which is the ‘pledge for the appointed time’, not ‘seasons’ as translators would have us believe.  Daniel’s 77’s prophecy points to the generation in which the Messiah was born as the decreed time the Messiah would come and rebuild Jerusalem Daniel 9: 24 to 27, which is the heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly one.  The 77 generations are listed in Luke 3: 23 to 38, from Adam to Yahshua.  Yahshua warned that the ‘appointed time’, the ‘tribulation’, the ‘day of the LORD’ would take place in that ‘generation’ Matthew 24: 1 to 44,  Mark 13: 23 to 33, and Luke 21: 10 to 36. 

The ‘greater light to rule the day’ is the opposite of the ‘lesser light to rule the night’ in Gen 1:16 and they are separated having been created in the ‘day’ and ‘night’ respectively, which were separated on the first day Gen 1: 3 to 5.  As the separation on the first day was declared ‘good’, meaning acceptable for the time being, the creation of the greater and lesser lights in their separate spaces is declared good on the fourth day in Gen 1:17.

The ‘greater light’ that rules the day is the Messiah, the light that shines in the darkness, the darkness did not comprehend John 1:4.  Satan is the ‘lesser light’, the moon, and his angels, the stars who rule over the darkness called night Gen 1:5.  Satan is the ruler of the earth John 14:30 & 16:11 until the Messiah (the archangel Michael who stands guard over God’s people Dan 12:1) wages war with the dragon and his angels, a third of the stars of heaven swept away by his tail, and throws them out of heaven Rev 12: 4, 7 & 8.

In the New Jerusalem the illumination of God and the light of the Messiah will be the only lights Rev 21:23.

In my next article, I will look at Genesis 1: 20 to 23.

Hebrew Without Vowels or Accents

The text of Genesis 1: 9 to 13 appears as follows:

Samaritan Targum Interlinear Translation

Here’s the interlinear translation of Genesis 1:9 to 13 from tanakh.info:

Facts About Hebrew

We can add the following to our facts about Hebrew:

18.          The Hebrew el אל is translated as a participle ‘into’ in Gen 1:9  (Strong’s 413 which occurs 5517 times and is translated sometimes as ‘against’ in reference to positioning), but allegedly it could be a noun meaning god (Strong’s 410 235 times), or ‘not’ (Strong’s 408 725 times and Strong’s 409 4 times). The fact that the letter lamed ל which means ‘to, for’ is within the word el אל supports the Strong’s 413 definition, and this meaning makes sense in the context of Gen 1:9, makes it more probable. 

Plus, we don’t see  el אל translated as ‘god’, or ‘not’ until well into Genesis (chapters 14 & 13 respectively), and in the case of ‘god’ within known interpolations (4 times in the Melchizedek verses in Gen 14:18 to 22).  When we reach Genesis 13 & 14 in our study, we’ll need to consider whether the translation of  el אל as ‘god’ or ‘not’ is accurate, an error, or an interpolation.   

19.          The meaning of Gen 1:11 & 12 is obscured by translators word choices.  The verb עשה (Strong’s 6213) previously translated as ‘made’ in the form  יעש in Gen 1:7 “gods made the firmament”,  is translated as ‘bearing/yields’, in the form, עשה in Gen 1: 11 “the tree fruit makes according to kind”, and Gen 1:12 “and tree makes fruit whose seed to kind”.  The Hebrew verb zara זרע (Strong’s 2232) is also translated ‘yields’ but means ‘to scatter/sow’, “sprout the earth grass herb to sow seed according to its kind”.  These mistranslations blur the difference between plants which ‘sow/scatter seed’ and fruit trees which ‘make fruit’, which is critical to understanding the broader meaning of the text.

20.              In #4 we discussed the one letter word, beth, that means ‘in’.  In Gen 1:12 we find beth with the suffix waw in the Hebrew bow בו which indicates possessive ‘his, its’ and is translated as ‘in itself’.

Constructing The Sentences

Let’s construct the sentences – subject, verb, object:

Gen 1:9    has two clauses.  In the major clause, the subject is ‘gods’, the verb ‘said’, the object is what they said, ‘bind together the waters under the heavens into one place and see the dry ground’.  Within the object of the major clause are two clauses, for the first clause the subject is ‘the waters’, the verb ‘bind together’, and the object ‘under the heavens’, and a subordinate clause with the verb ‘see’ and object ‘the dry ground’.  The sentence ends with a subordinate clause the subject is the major clause, the verb ‘be’, and the object ‘so’.

Gen 1:10 has three major clauses.  In the first clause, the subject is ‘gods’, the verb ‘called’, the object is ‘dry ground, earth’.  In the second clause, the subject is ‘gods’, the verb ‘called’ and the object ‘gathering of waters, seas’.  In the third clause, the subject is ‘gods’, the verb ‘see’, and the object ‘that good’.

Gen 1:11 has one major clause and three sub-clauses.  In the major clause, the subject is ‘gods’, the verb ‘said’, the object is what they said, ‘grow the earth grass, herb sows seed, tree fruit makes fruit to kind whose seed in’.  Within the object of the major clause are three sub-clauses with the subject is ‘the earth’, for the first sub-clause the verb is ‘grow’, and the object ‘grass’, for the second, the verb ‘sows’ and object ‘seed in itself’, and the third, the verb ‘makes’ and object fruit tree fruit with a sub-clause ‘to kind whose seed in itself’.

Gen 1:12 has two major clauses, the first with two sub-clauses.  For the first major clause, the subject is ‘the earth’, the verb ‘brought forth’, and the first object  which is a sub-clause the subject ‘grass, herb’, verb ‘sows’, and object ‘seed’, with a sub-clause ‘to kind’, and the second object which is a sub-clause the subject ‘tree’, verb ‘makes’, and object ‘fruit whose seed in itself to kind’.  The second major clause, the subject is ‘gods’, the verb ‘saw’, and the object ‘good’.

Gen 1:13 has one clause.  The subject is the ‘third day’, the verb ‘be’, and the object ‘evening’, and a sub clause with the verb ‘be’, and object ‘morning’.

Literal and Figurative Translation

The paragraph translates as follows:

And said gods “gather together the waters under the heavens into one place and see the dry land”, and be so.  And called gods to dry land, earth, and collected the waters called seas and saw gods that good.  And said gods “sprout the earth, grass, herb, sow seed, tree fruit make fruit to kind whose seed in itself on the earth”, and be so.  And brought forth the earth grass, herb sow seed, to kind, and tree make fruit whose seed in itself to kind, and see gods that good.  And be evening and be morning third day.

Analysis

After God separated the waters above from the waters below, the earth was covered by the sea.  The Hebrew noun t’hom תהום translated as ‘deep(s)’ also means ‘abyss, sea’, the figurative meaning is ‘large difference’, and its origin is possibly related to the arabic hama which means ‘to be thirsty, to crave’.   In English the word abyss means ‘hell, the bottomless pit, primeval chaos, unfathomed depth, & moral depravity’.  In Rev 20:13 the sea is indicated to be one of the places the dead are sleeping at the time of the final judgment.

The ‘dry land’ is ‘the wilderness’ Ezek 19:13.  The land is dry due to the absence of the living waters above, God’s spirit Isaiah 44:3, the result of Satan, king of Babylon, overthrowing the cities of the world, and not allowing his prisoners to go home Isaiah 14:4 to 22.  The wilderness is where mankind are tested, as Israel was tested after their Exodus from Egypt, and those who failed to obey God’s commandments were not permitted to enter the promised land, including Moses for not believing, treating God as holy before Israel Numbers 20:12.

Gods gathered the waters, called seas, to expose dry land, called earth, and declared this separation to be ‘good’ Gen 1:9 & 10.  The Hebrew adjective/verb tob טוב means ‘to do/make good’, not ‘excellent’ as Brown-Driver-Briggs indicates.  The separation improves on the situation, making it acceptable to God until the new heaven and earth come down out of heaven from God, the first heaven and earth will pass away, there will no longer be any sea, the tent of God will be among mankind Rev 21:1 to 3, and the earth will not be dry anymore, it’s righteous residents having access to the water of life without cost Rev 21:6 to 8.

We see the difference between the literal, physical sea and dry land during Israel’s exodus from Egypt, when God divides the sea, allowing Israel to walk on dry land Exodus 14: 16 to 29, but Pharaoh’s army sink like a stone in the sea, the depths covered them Exodus 15: 4 & 5. But ‘dry land’ is not paradise either, yet it is on the ‘dry ground’, in the wilderness, that gods create plants that sow seed/offspring and fruit trees that make fruit Gen 1: 11 & 12!

Throughout scripture, fruit trees are used as an analogy for free will, which is why the seed is ‘in itself’, because all will eat “the fruit of their actions” Isaiah 3:10.  In Yahshua’s parable of the sower, there are two different seeds, the wheat sown by God and those with God’s spirit and weeds sown by the enemy, Satan and those with the spirit of lawlessness 1 John 3:2 to 10, and both allowed to grow together until the harvest when the weeds were gathered in bundles and burned and the wheat gathered into the barn, representing the kingdom of heaven Matthew 13: 24 to 30.

In his parable of the sower, Yahshua explains that the seed is the word of the kingdom, but unless the soil is good, it fails to yield a crop Matthew 13: 1 to 8 & 18 to 23.  Yahshua was “a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit” Isaiah 11:1, and he set an example for us to follow 1 Peter 2:21.  Yahshua said “I am the true vine, and my parent is the vine dresser.  Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, God takes away and every branch that bears fruit, prunes it so that it may bear more fruit” John 15: 1 & 2. 

Again we see that the Genesis creation account is dual, both literal and figurative at the same time.  The literal ‘sea’, ‘dry land’, ‘seed’ and ‘trees’ in our physical reality represent the spiritual choices we have before us.  Bearing fruit means loving the word in deed and truth, keeping God’s commandments, doing things that are pleasing in his sight, believing in the name of his son, Yahshua the Messiah, and loving ‘one another’ (the children of God only, as we are to not associate with those who do not abide in the teaching of the Messiah 2 John 1:9 to 11) just as he commanded, then God will abide in us by the spirit whom he will give us 1 John 3: 18 to 24.  In order to know the truth and God’s commands, we must study scripture and pray for the spirit of truth to teach us John 14:26 & 16:13.  The gate is small and the way narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it Matthew 7:14.

In my next article, I will look at Genesis 1: 14 to 19.

Hebrew Without Vowels or Accents

The text of Genesis 1: 6 to 8 appears as follows:

Samaritan Targum Interlinear Translation

Now let’s look at the interlinear translation of Genesis 1:2 to 5 on tanakh.info:

Facts About Hebrew

We can add to our list of important facts about Hebrew:

14.          In Genesis 1:6 & 7 there are three occurrences of the preposition/substantive בין , translated as ‘between’ but according to Strong’s means ‘an interval, space between’.  The first occurrences of this word were in Gen 1:4, and I didn’t pick up on the full meaning so I will go back and add it to my translation.

15.          In Genesis 1:6 there is another word to add to our list of common, single letter words found in the article In The Beginning, under #4.  At the end of the sentence, the word ‘waters’ מים occurs twice, and the second occurrence is prefixed with the preposition  ל that means ‘to, for’.

16.          In Genesis 1:7 we find the conjunction אשר that according to Strong’s Concordance means ‘that, who, which’, and is mostly translated as ‘which’, or ‘who(m)’, or ‘because’.

Robert Holmstedt in his 2002 dissertation, The Relative Clause in Biblical Hebrew: A Linguistic Analysis states that the relative clause modifies the noun ‘the waters’, “distinguishing between those waters that were above and below the dividing element, the firmament” p 115.  Holmstedt translates אשר as ‘that were’ in both occurrences in Gen 1:7, emphasizing the separation aspect, supporting that the waters above are different from the waters below.  This nuance is captured in some Bible translations as ‘that were’ (ESV) or ‘which were’ (NASB, and KJB), but not all Bible translations (NIV, NLT, and Berean Study Bible).

17.          In Genesis 1:7 we find a new adjective/adverb כן (Strong’s 3651) that according to Strong’s means ‘so, thus’, but according to Brown-Driver-Briggs, as an adjective means ‘right, veritable, honest’, as an adverb means ‘so’.  It doesn’t seem to affect the meaning of this verse, whether it ends with ‘and be so’ or ‘and be right’.

Constructing The Sentences

Let’s construct the sentences – subject, verb, object, like we did for previous verses:

Gen 1:6 has two major clauses.  In the first clause, the subject is ‘gods’, the verb ‘said’, the object is what they said, ‘let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it separation space between the waters and the waters’.    Within the object are two subclauses, the subject of both is ‘gods’ from the first clause, in the first subclause the verb is ‘be’, and the object ‘a firmament in the midst of the waters’, and the second subclause the verb is ‘and be’, and the object ‘separation space between waters for waters’.

Gen 1:7 has two major clauses.  In the first clause, the subject is ‘gods’, the verb ‘made’, the et את indicates that ‘the firmament’ is a direct object of ‘gods made’.    In the second clause, the subject is ‘gods’ from the first clause, the verb ‘separate/d’, and the object ‘space between the waters that were under the firmament and the waters that were above the firmament’, emphasized by the subordinate clause ‘and be so’. 

Gen 1:8 has two major clauses.  In the first clause, the subject is ‘gods’, the verb ‘called’, the object is ‘to firmament sky’.  In the second clause, the subject is the ‘second day’, the verb ‘be’, and the object ‘evening’, and a sub clause with the verb ‘be’, and object ‘morning’.

Literal and Figurative Translation

Finally, we can translate all the sentences in this paragraph:

And say gods ‘let there be firmament in the midst of the waters and be separating space between waters to waters.  So make gods the firmament and separating space between the waters which were under to firmament and space between the waters which were above the firmament, and be so.  And call gods to firmament ‘sky’ and be evening and be morning second day.

Analysis

Looking at what has transpired so far, there is clearly a major theme of separation.  Analyzing how this unfolded, we see that, at the start, gods ‘created’ the heavens and the earth’ in Gen 1:1, and the earth became formless/waste  and void/empty, and darkness over face of deep/abyss and spirit of gods hovering over face of waters in Gen 1:2.  The cause of the earth becoming ‘formless and void’ was the change in Satan from a perfect creation to unrighteous and was cast from the mountain of God as described in Ezek 28: 12 – 16. 

Gods said ‘let there be light and be light’ Gen 1:3, and the light was separated from the darkness on day one Gen 1:4 & 5.  God’s said ‘let there be firmament in the midst of the waters be separation space between waters to waters’, and ‘made gods the firmament’, and called to firmament ‘sky’ on the second day in Gen 1: 6 – 8.  Gods making, as opposed to creating, or speaking into existence appear to reflect a change to the creation due to corruption, hence the separation space between the waters above and below.

The figurative meaning of ‘waters’ in Genesis is similar to Revelation, where waters from God (those above) are said to be the source of life Rev 7:17 & 21:2, and those on the earth are ‘peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues’ Rev 17:15.  The ‘deep/abyss’ can also mean ‘sea’, a large body of water, representing Satan and his angels, who are also separated from God by the firmament.  The ‘deep’ causes trees to grow lofty, its roots extend to many waters, and its heart haughty in its loftiness, as Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, which appears to be referring to Adam, who is outside God’s garden Ezekiel 31: 1 to 10.   

 In my next article, I will look at Genesis 1: 9 to 13.

Interpolations (meaning “the insertion of something of a different nature into something else”) play a major part in redaction (meaning edit, censor or obscure) of the inspired word of God. Other forms of redaction include translation into languages other than the original Hebrew and Greek, mistranslation of key words and phrases, and improper chapter division.  Identifying redaction requires a firm understanding of the message of all Bible text in the original Hebrew and Greek, and a comparison to highlight that which has a different message.

A prime example of the opposing messages found in the Bible is in the difference between the traditional teaching about Adam and Eve and Paul’s teaching.  As Jerome Murphy-O’Connor said in his article Interpolations in 1 Corinthians, it was Paul’s opinion that “Adam was the transgressor par excellence (Rom 5: 12-21, 1 Cor 15:21-22, 45-49); and Eve was the prototype of the entire Corinthian community and not merely of the feminine element (2 Cor 11:3)”.  This truth is obscured by interpolations in 1 Cor 14: 34-35 and the Pastoral Epistles in their entirety, tradition which continues to teach that Eve was the cause of the fall, and redaction of the Genesis creation account, all working in concert to support this lie.

This example reveals the intricacy with which tradition changed the word of God into a lie Jeremiah 8:8.    Traditionalists would have us hold their words in the same esteem as the words of God, but in many cases they contradict them, polluting God’s words with theirs, making it impossible to distinguish between their lies and the truth without a comprehensive analysis.  This leads many to question their faith in God or put their faith in the church and its traditions hoping to find salvation which is only found through the Messiah Gal 2:16.

If I had to guess, I’d estimate that at least half the text of the Bible is not inspired by God.  The problem is so pervasive, we need to divide the Bible in sections to test one at a time.  Testing includes researching source and text criticism.  From the example above we see that not all sources are inspired, and some that are have sections added to deceive us.  When we find text we believe is inspired, and that which is closest to the original, we need to test its translation.

With this in mind, let’s begin testing Genesis.