In Hebrew, when two nouns are placed together they are referred to as being in the "construct state" - meaning that these two words should be considered one – the first occurring or preceding noun being a possession of the subsequent noun. A few very quick examples from the Hebrew text:
The word of Jehovah [dabar yhwh] (Genesis 15:1)
The voice of Jehovah [qowl yhwh] (Genesis 3:8)
The face of Jehovah [paniym yhwh] (Genesis 4:16)
The mount of Jehovah [har yhwh] (Genesis 22:14)
The name of Jehovah [shem yhwh] (Genesis 4:26)
The eyes of Jehovah [`ayin yhwh] (Genesis 6:8)
The garden of Jehovah [gan yhwh] (Genesis 13:10)T
he angel (messenger) of Jehovah [mal'ak yhwh] (Genesis 16:7)
The way (path or road) of Jehovah [derek yhwh] (Genesis 18:19)
The mount of Jehovah [har yhwh] (Genesis 22:14)
The subsequent noun (or yhwh in the above examples) in the Hebrew construct state, would be most familiar to English speakers as a "possessive noun". In English, possessive nouns are used to show possession (owning, or having). They are words that would normally be nouns, but are used as adjectives to modify a noun or pronoun. Possessive nouns tell you who or what the modified noun or pronoun belongs to. Example:
The subsequent noun (or yhwh in the above examples) in the Hebrew construct state, would be most familiar to English speakers as a "possessive noun". In English, possessive nouns are used to show possession (owning, or having). They are words that would normally be nouns, but are used as adjectives to modify a noun or pronoun. Possessive nouns tell you who or what the modified noun or pronoun belongs to. Example:
The dog's collar is too large.
The word "dog's" is the possessive noun. It tells you that the noun "collar" belongs to the dog. The dog owns, or possesses the collar. In English we add an "'s" to the end of a singular noun to make it possessive. In ancient Hebrew, it is somewhat similar, except that the modified noun always occurs first (preceding), followed by the subsequent construct noun (possessive). In this manner, the Hebrew made the singular noun possessive.
Changing the English example of the dog and collar above to Hebrew would result in "collar dog" – which in English would simply be the "dog's collar" or even "the collar of the dog". Equally valid, you could express in English the above examples of Hebrew as:
Jehovah's word [dabar yhwh] (Genesis 15:1)
Jehovah's voice [qowl yhwh] (Genesis 3:8)
Jehovah's face [paniym yhwh] (Genesis 4:16)
Jehovah's name [shem yhwh] (Genesis 4:26)
Jehovah's eye [`ayin yhwh] (Genesis 6:8)
Jehovah's garden [gan yhwh] (Genesis 13:10)
Jehovah's angel (messenger) [mal'ak yhwh] (Genesis 16:7)
Jehovah's way (path or road) [derek yhwh] (Genesis 18:19)
Jehovah's mount [har yhwh] (Genesis 22:14)
Simple enough.
Which brings me to the point of this post. The phrase "fearing the Lord", or "the fear of God" – which, understandably, always seems to cause much discussion, sometimes quite heated. After all, who wants to admit they worship or honor something simply because they are "afraid" of it?
What kind of god would even require that of one of its creations? The famous phrase "fearing God" or "the fear of God" comes from 18 occurrences of the construct state "yir'at yhwh") –one of the most well known is probably Proverbs 15:33, which reads:
"The fear of Jehovah [yir'at yhwh] is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honor." Another clue that these two nouns [yir'at yhwh] do in fact represent a Hebrew construct state expression, is change of the letter ה (h) in the word yir'ah (fear) to a letter ת (t). When the first word of the construct phrase ends with the letter ה (h), it is always changed to the letter ת (t).
So this becomes the interesting part.
What you really have here is not "fear of Jehovah", but rather "Jehovah's fear" – or: "Jehovah's fear [yir'at yhwh] is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honor." The "fear" in the phrase "the fear of the Lord" or "the fear of Jehovah" is not our fear, it is God's fear. Because God cannot "fear" it might help to look to the Ancient Hebrew concrete meaning of this word in order to understand why and in what sense the author felt compelled to present this particular construct state expression.
And if you have always thought that this meant to "fear God", (i.e., be afraid of God) then maybe it is time to possibly re-think. You will find numerous Christian apologetics, which would state that this usage meant simple "a deep respect for", or "in awe of" would be a better translation – and you will even find a few modern Bibles have implemented such a change. And to a certain extent, yes, the base word yare (of which yir'ah is a derivative with the same basic meaning of fearing, or fear), can in certain context be best represented as "awe" or "deep respect", "deep honor" and so on.
But that does not work here in Proverbs 15:33 because "yir'at yhwh" in this usage is clearly a construct state expression, or possessive noun modifier. Ancient Hebrew uses "concrete" expressions, whereas our English and most non-Semitic languages use or employ "abstract" expressions. Those who read my posts , has likely heard me use that expression many times "in it's concrete Hebrew meaning".
Concrete thought is the expression of concepts and idea in way that can be seen, touched, smelled, tasted, or heard. All five senses are used when speaking, hearing, writing or reading ancient Hebrew (and even to a certain extent, modern Hebrew and Yiddish). A Greek or Latin based language uses abstract (words based on description or appearance of items), whereas Hebrew thought describes objects in relation to their function. For example, a "Greek" based description of a pencil would be, "it is yellow and about eight inches long". An ancient Hebrew description of the same pencil would relate to its function, or something like "I write words with it".
To our western trained abstract minds, a deer and an oak are two very different objects and we would never describe them in the same way. The Hebrew word for both deer and oak however, is the same – "ayil" – because the functional description of these two objects is the same – so the Hebrew used the same word for both. The Hebrew concrete definition of "ayil" is "strong leader", which can be seen clearly in its ancient paleo form. A deer stag is one of the most powerful animals of the forest, and is seen as a strong leader. The wood of the oak tree is very hard, and as compared to other trees it also is considered a "strong leader". In Psalms 29:9 the KJV and the NASB both read, "The voice of the Lord makes the deer [ayil] to calve", while the NIV translates the same verse as "The voice of the Lord twists the oaks [ayil]".
Putting the verse into the Hebrew concrete meaning would result simple in "The voice of the Lord makes the strong leaders turn." I know the concrete meaning of yare, and its derivative yir'at, as used in the above discussion of Proverbs 15:33, and so I do not believe that being afraid of God is the first step towards wisdom, but rather that God's fear (yir'at) is the first step towards wisdom. In its concrete meaning, yare means simply "flow", like a rushing river flows, the throwing down or flow of water in a rain, the flow or rush of a fast moving arrow.
If you have ever been "afraid" or in complete "awe" or suddenly become "enlightend" of something you know the feeling of the inner "flow" or "rush" quite well, and it is in this regard that yare can relate to fear. Common synonyms include pahad, hata, and harad, as several words related to flow also in the sense of quaking or shaking. So then, what is God's yare which is the beginning of wisdom?
Simply compare Proverbs 15:33 with Exodus 31:3 - "And I have filled him with the spirit of God (ru'act yhwh), in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship."It is "the Spirit of God or God's spirit)" that gives us wisdom in the same way that "the fear of the Lord (or Lord's fear)" does. The Hebrew word for "spirit" is "ru'ach" literally means the "wind," which is also a flowing albeit of air - an unseen impersonal force enacting upon other things. The "fear of God" (or God's fear) is his spirit which "flows" or "rushes" out of him into us - and enacts upon us, and this is the beginning of his providing wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
One must remember that "fear" is an English word, not a Hebrew word. Toss it away - think about that word no more and instead try this: the root meaning (e.g., yr) of the words yara (yare masculine, yirah fem), and yarah is "to flow" and is related to words meaning rain or stream as a flowing of water.
From "YR" (the parent root) comes yare, yirah, yarah, and all other forms of YR. To the Hebrew mind, fear can be what is felt when in danger, or what is felt when in the presence of an awesome sight or person of great authority. These feelings "flow out" of the person naturally in such ways or actions as shaking when in fear, or bowing down in awe of one in great authority (hence yare, yirah, yarah, etc). And this sense of "flowing out" is contained in the Hebrew parent root for all these words. Hosea 6:3, "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain (yarah), as the latter [and] former rain (yarah) unto the earth."
As rain. Falling down in plentiful. A "flowing" of water from the sky. Yarah, whose parent root is YR, just as it is the parent root for yare/yirah.Yirah (yare fem form) when used as a noun, in a possessive noun construct, it becomes yirat, as in yirat'yhwh, or Jehovah's yirat (in the KJV, "fear of the Lord", or "Lord's fear", or more concretely in Hebrew, "flow of the Lord", or "the Lord's flow"), a flowing down, like rain.
But a flowing of what?
Ru'ach--his "spirit" which leads one to "knowledge", "understanding", "wisdom", "discernment" according to the Scriptures.Exodus 31:3 - "And I have filled him with the spirit of God (ru'act yhwh), in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship."
The word of Jehovah [dabar yhwh] (Genesis 15:1)
The voice of Jehovah [qowl yhwh] (Genesis 3:8)
The face of Jehovah [paniym yhwh] (Genesis 4:16)
The mount of Jehovah [har yhwh] (Genesis 22:14)
The name of Jehovah [shem yhwh] (Genesis 4:26)
The eyes of Jehovah [`ayin yhwh] (Genesis 6:8)
The garden of Jehovah [gan yhwh] (Genesis 13:10)T
he angel (messenger) of Jehovah [mal'ak yhwh] (Genesis 16:7)
The way (path or road) of Jehovah [derek yhwh] (Genesis 18:19)
The mount of Jehovah [har yhwh] (Genesis 22:14)
The subsequent noun (or yhwh in the above examples) in the Hebrew construct state, would be most familiar to English speakers as a "possessive noun". In English, possessive nouns are used to show possession (owning, or having). They are words that would normally be nouns, but are used as adjectives to modify a noun or pronoun. Possessive nouns tell you who or what the modified noun or pronoun belongs to. Example:
The subsequent noun (or yhwh in the above examples) in the Hebrew construct state, would be most familiar to English speakers as a "possessive noun". In English, possessive nouns are used to show possession (owning, or having). They are words that would normally be nouns, but are used as adjectives to modify a noun or pronoun. Possessive nouns tell you who or what the modified noun or pronoun belongs to. Example:
The dog's collar is too large.
The word "dog's" is the possessive noun. It tells you that the noun "collar" belongs to the dog. The dog owns, or possesses the collar. In English we add an "'s" to the end of a singular noun to make it possessive. In ancient Hebrew, it is somewhat similar, except that the modified noun always occurs first (preceding), followed by the subsequent construct noun (possessive). In this manner, the Hebrew made the singular noun possessive.
Changing the English example of the dog and collar above to Hebrew would result in "collar dog" – which in English would simply be the "dog's collar" or even "the collar of the dog". Equally valid, you could express in English the above examples of Hebrew as:
Jehovah's word [dabar yhwh] (Genesis 15:1)
Jehovah's voice [qowl yhwh] (Genesis 3:8)
Jehovah's face [paniym yhwh] (Genesis 4:16)
Jehovah's name [shem yhwh] (Genesis 4:26)
Jehovah's eye [`ayin yhwh] (Genesis 6:8)
Jehovah's garden [gan yhwh] (Genesis 13:10)
Jehovah's angel (messenger) [mal'ak yhwh] (Genesis 16:7)
Jehovah's way (path or road) [derek yhwh] (Genesis 18:19)
Jehovah's mount [har yhwh] (Genesis 22:14)
Simple enough.
Which brings me to the point of this post. The phrase "fearing the Lord", or "the fear of God" – which, understandably, always seems to cause much discussion, sometimes quite heated. After all, who wants to admit they worship or honor something simply because they are "afraid" of it?
What kind of god would even require that of one of its creations? The famous phrase "fearing God" or "the fear of God" comes from 18 occurrences of the construct state "yir'at yhwh") –one of the most well known is probably Proverbs 15:33, which reads:
"The fear of Jehovah [yir'at yhwh] is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honor." Another clue that these two nouns [yir'at yhwh] do in fact represent a Hebrew construct state expression, is change of the letter ה (h) in the word yir'ah (fear) to a letter ת (t). When the first word of the construct phrase ends with the letter ה (h), it is always changed to the letter ת (t).
So this becomes the interesting part.
What you really have here is not "fear of Jehovah", but rather "Jehovah's fear" – or: "Jehovah's fear [yir'at yhwh] is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honor." The "fear" in the phrase "the fear of the Lord" or "the fear of Jehovah" is not our fear, it is God's fear. Because God cannot "fear" it might help to look to the Ancient Hebrew concrete meaning of this word in order to understand why and in what sense the author felt compelled to present this particular construct state expression.
And if you have always thought that this meant to "fear God", (i.e., be afraid of God) then maybe it is time to possibly re-think. You will find numerous Christian apologetics, which would state that this usage meant simple "a deep respect for", or "in awe of" would be a better translation – and you will even find a few modern Bibles have implemented such a change. And to a certain extent, yes, the base word yare (of which yir'ah is a derivative with the same basic meaning of fearing, or fear), can in certain context be best represented as "awe" or "deep respect", "deep honor" and so on.
But that does not work here in Proverbs 15:33 because "yir'at yhwh" in this usage is clearly a construct state expression, or possessive noun modifier. Ancient Hebrew uses "concrete" expressions, whereas our English and most non-Semitic languages use or employ "abstract" expressions. Those who read my posts , has likely heard me use that expression many times "in it's concrete Hebrew meaning".
Concrete thought is the expression of concepts and idea in way that can be seen, touched, smelled, tasted, or heard. All five senses are used when speaking, hearing, writing or reading ancient Hebrew (and even to a certain extent, modern Hebrew and Yiddish). A Greek or Latin based language uses abstract (words based on description or appearance of items), whereas Hebrew thought describes objects in relation to their function. For example, a "Greek" based description of a pencil would be, "it is yellow and about eight inches long". An ancient Hebrew description of the same pencil would relate to its function, or something like "I write words with it".
To our western trained abstract minds, a deer and an oak are two very different objects and we would never describe them in the same way. The Hebrew word for both deer and oak however, is the same – "ayil" – because the functional description of these two objects is the same – so the Hebrew used the same word for both. The Hebrew concrete definition of "ayil" is "strong leader", which can be seen clearly in its ancient paleo form. A deer stag is one of the most powerful animals of the forest, and is seen as a strong leader. The wood of the oak tree is very hard, and as compared to other trees it also is considered a "strong leader". In Psalms 29:9 the KJV and the NASB both read, "The voice of the Lord makes the deer [ayil] to calve", while the NIV translates the same verse as "The voice of the Lord twists the oaks [ayil]".
Putting the verse into the Hebrew concrete meaning would result simple in "The voice of the Lord makes the strong leaders turn." I know the concrete meaning of yare, and its derivative yir'at, as used in the above discussion of Proverbs 15:33, and so I do not believe that being afraid of God is the first step towards wisdom, but rather that God's fear (yir'at) is the first step towards wisdom. In its concrete meaning, yare means simply "flow", like a rushing river flows, the throwing down or flow of water in a rain, the flow or rush of a fast moving arrow.
If you have ever been "afraid" or in complete "awe" or suddenly become "enlightend" of something you know the feeling of the inner "flow" or "rush" quite well, and it is in this regard that yare can relate to fear. Common synonyms include pahad, hata, and harad, as several words related to flow also in the sense of quaking or shaking. So then, what is God's yare which is the beginning of wisdom?
Simply compare Proverbs 15:33 with Exodus 31:3 - "And I have filled him with the spirit of God (ru'act yhwh), in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship."It is "the Spirit of God or God's spirit)" that gives us wisdom in the same way that "the fear of the Lord (or Lord's fear)" does. The Hebrew word for "spirit" is "ru'ach" literally means the "wind," which is also a flowing albeit of air - an unseen impersonal force enacting upon other things. The "fear of God" (or God's fear) is his spirit which "flows" or "rushes" out of him into us - and enacts upon us, and this is the beginning of his providing wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
One must remember that "fear" is an English word, not a Hebrew word. Toss it away - think about that word no more and instead try this: the root meaning (e.g., yr) of the words yara (yare masculine, yirah fem), and yarah is "to flow" and is related to words meaning rain or stream as a flowing of water.
From "YR" (the parent root) comes yare, yirah, yarah, and all other forms of YR. To the Hebrew mind, fear can be what is felt when in danger, or what is felt when in the presence of an awesome sight or person of great authority. These feelings "flow out" of the person naturally in such ways or actions as shaking when in fear, or bowing down in awe of one in great authority (hence yare, yirah, yarah, etc). And this sense of "flowing out" is contained in the Hebrew parent root for all these words. Hosea 6:3, "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain (yarah), as the latter [and] former rain (yarah) unto the earth."
As rain. Falling down in plentiful. A "flowing" of water from the sky. Yarah, whose parent root is YR, just as it is the parent root for yare/yirah.Yirah (yare fem form) when used as a noun, in a possessive noun construct, it becomes yirat, as in yirat'yhwh, or Jehovah's yirat (in the KJV, "fear of the Lord", or "Lord's fear", or more concretely in Hebrew, "flow of the Lord", or "the Lord's flow"), a flowing down, like rain.
But a flowing of what?
Ru'ach--his "spirit" which leads one to "knowledge", "understanding", "wisdom", "discernment" according to the Scriptures.Exodus 31:3 - "And I have filled him with the spirit of God (ru'act yhwh), in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship."
How is this "filling" done?
The Proverb posted above tells us how - Jehovah's yirat – his flow, like rain – as Hosea states above, "then we shall know". Proverbs 15:33, which reads, "The fear of Jehovah [yir'at yhwh] is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honor."But it might better read, "Jehovah's flow is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honor." The same construct is used in Psalms 111:10 which reads, "fear of Jehovah [yir'at yhwh] is the beginning of wisdom." But it might better read, "Jehovah's flow is the beginning of wisdom." Isaiah 11:9 speaks of the coming time when the "earth filled with the knowledge of Jehovah". Did not Jesus himself say about his Father, "This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ" – John 17:3.
Knowledge. Accurate knowledge. The beginning of wisdom is the release of God's flow (yirat) of r'ach (spirit). A ru'ach which brings accurate knowledge.
