Y’hee: (Let there) BE!

Be/Become: Y’hee (Root: hayah), verb (Strong’s 1961)

Root: הָיָה

Sounds like: haw-yaw, y’hee

It occurred to me, recently, that we’ve looked at many Biblical Hebrew words on this blog, but we’ve never looked at the first word God uttered in the text. Today we will rectify that oversight by lookin at the word BE (as in “let there be”), which in Hebrew is y’hee. (It’s helpful that be and y’hee rhyme).

Genesis 1:3

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light [y’hee ohr; wa-y’hee ohr יְהִ֣י אֹ֑ור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור]. 

The English words, “Let there”, are implied, so more literally it could sound like this:

Genesis 1:3-5

Then God said, “Become light”; and light became. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And it became [wa-y’hee] evening and it became [wa-y’hee] morning, one day.

We can simplify this even more:

Then God said, “Be light”; and light be(came) [y’hee ohr; wa-y’hee ohr]…

Creation coming into existence with the simple word “Be” is beautifully uncomplicated and yet profound. To be is a state of being. It’s a proof of existence. With a word issued through His breath/wind/spirit (ruakh), God called light into existence. He used His ruakh (spirit/breath) to form a word, and every molecule in the universe responded to it. Every part of His creation was on guard to actively reply to YHWH.

The Earth Be…

God’s utterance-command wasn’t the first use of this word in the Bible. It sneaks in, in an unexpected place:

Genesis 1:2-3a

And the earth was [ha’y’tah הָיְתָ֥ה] a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said…

Hyper-literally, this would read, “the earth be formless and void.”

This sounds awkward in Anglo-based English but harkens to African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Caribbean English where be is sometimes substituted for was or is. In vernacular studies, this is called the habitual be. For example, every time I call home, Dad tells me that Mum is outside weeding the garden. In AAVE Dad might say “she be weeding the garden,“ but this doesn’t necessarily mean that she is wedding the garden at that very instant. Rather it indicates that she habitually weeds the garden and there’s a good chance that’s where she’ll be.

In Genesis 1:2 the phrase, the earth be formless and void, could mean that it was habitually without order and YHWH would change the habit and set things in working order. YHWH’s command, “be light” was the first step to an ordered existence that would counteract the status of the earth “be(ing) formless and void.”

The Y’hee of Blessings and Curses 

Y’hee (and the root hayah) seems to be commonly connected to curses and blessings, prompting us, in English, to insert May there (be) or Let there (be) into the sentence. Creation, of course, was the ultimate blessing where God made things to be and saw that they were all good. In the creation story, between Genesis 1-3, the root of hayah appears 37 times as the world “becomes” ordered under the instructions of YHWH.

The blessings found in the Tanakh frequently have a becoming action:

Zechariah 8:13

[YHWH to the Hebrew people:] “And it will come about that just as you had been [hayee’tem הֱיִיתֶ֨ם] a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you that you may become [wi-h’yee’tem וִהְיִיתֶ֖ם] a blessing. Do not fear; let your hands be strong.”

This promise, announced by Zechariah, was that YHWH would take the chaotic curse of the people and re-create it into a blessing. In this way blessings and curses could be expressed as a metaphor, highlighting creation, de-creation, and re-creation. Creation was a blessing, de-creation was, and is, a curse, and re-creation is a renewed blessing. The metanarrative of the Bible starts with creation, falls into de-creation, and only with YHWH’s plan of redemption and salvation, does the world find itself in a re-created state prophesied in the final chapters of John’s Revelation.

Becoming a De-Creation

The vast majority of the Bible tells the story of humanity struggling in a world that is constantly battling the attack of de-creation from spiritual forces that promote death and destruction. Job suffered more than most people in the Bible under the attack of ha-Satan (the Adversary). After losing his family, his home, and his health, Job lamented his very existence. In a heartbreaking poem, Job wished for the reversal of his own creation:

Job 3:1-5

After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And this is what he said:

“May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is conceived.’

That day let there be [y’hee יְֽהִ֫י] darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it. May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.”

This was the opposite of the creation story. Instead of the blessing, “Let there be light”, Job ached for the curse, “let there be darkness”. Instead of his life coming into ordered existence, Job wished for his personal creation story to have remained in chaotic nothingness.

Job continued:

Job 3:6-11

If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year; may it never be entered in any of the months.

Behold, that night, let it be [y’hee יְהִ֣י] barren; may no joyful voice come into it. May it be cursed by those who curse the day — those prepared to rouse Leviathan.

May its morning stars grow dark; may it wait in vain for daylight; may it not see the breaking of dawn. For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.

Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?

Wishing that the day of his birth had not existed and that the night of his birth had been unfruitful (let it be barren), Job held nothing back from God. His words were gut-wrenching and they were an honest portrayal of his feelings of grief and despair. Job experienced suicidal depression and many people who have lived through that illness understand (at least at the very basic level) the concept of de-creation, which is wishing for death, instead of life.

In his suffering, Job’s desire was for his own de-creation, but David, and others, often prayed for the de-creation of their violent rivals.

Here are a few curses that David wished upon his enemies:

• Be [Y’hee] their way dark and slippery (Psalm 35:6) 
• May their table before them become [y’hee] a snare (Psalm 69:22)
• May their camp be [t’hee] desolated; may there be [y’hee] none dwelling in their tents (Psalm 69:25)
• And may strangers plunder his labour so there is nothing [no let it be: y’hee] (Psalm 109:11)
• Let there be [y’hee] no favour to his fatherless children (Psalm 109:12)
• Be [y’hee] his descendants eliminated. In the generation following, blot out their name (Psalm 109:13)
•  

David wished that his enemies experienced desolation, traps, homelessness, nothingness, a giftless existence at the very least, and extermination/annihilation at the most. Outside of a final annihilation of the wicked at the end of days, we don’t get a sense that YHWH followed through with any of David’s desires for direct revenge. These were human desires, not Godly desires.

YHWH wasn’t a God that promoted de-creation; that was the domain of His adversary, ha-Satan. The forces of evil were proponents of de-creation and curses, but YHWH continuously stood as the God of Life and Blessing.

More often than not, YHWH simply stepped back and allowed humanity to destroy themselves. When Babylon ravaged and destroyed Jerusalem, YHWH did not step in and take revenge, but within a few decades the Babylonians fell to their enemies to the East, the Medes and Persians. 

Cyrus, king of the Achaemenid Persian Empire changed the fate of the Hebrew people by kick-starting the re-creation of Jerusalem:

Ezra 1:2-3

“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘YHWH, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to rebuild for Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be [y’hee יְהִ֤י] with him! Go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of YHWH, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.’”

This was a re-creation moment. Jerusalem had fallen into destruction and chaos but seventy years later, Cyrus, the Persian king, sent the Hebrew people back to re-order YHWH’s Holy City, an event that was prophesied by Isaiah and Jeremiah decades earlier (see Isaiah 44-45 and Jeremiah 25:11-13). The key phrase in Cyrus’ edict, “let God be with him (the returning refugee)” is the lynch-pin of re-creation. Without YHWH, there is no chance for re-creation; it cannot be.

Psalm 122:6-7

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you. (May there) be [y’hee יְהִֽי] peace within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces.

The State of Being in the B’rit Chadashah (New Testament)

Existence has never been easy for an image-bearer of God, which is every human. We live in a space that is constantly afflicted with death and chaos. The draw to de-creation is a powerful force. Yeshua taught His followers how to exist in such a wilderness:

Mark 10:42-45

So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. But it shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

This was upside down thinking. In a time where slavery was commonplace and where most Jewish people lived under the oppressive thumb of Roman authority figures, Yeshua’s teaching seemed odd. Shouldn’t humans always try to improve their status, gain power and autonomy? Yeshua said, “no… it shall not be this way among you”. De-creation loves power-hungry people, and uses their weakness to further the agenda of death and destruction. Wealth and power and popularity were driving components of de-creation and so Yeshua taught counter-intuitive thinking. But like all good teachers, Yeshua didn’t just talk the talk, He walked the walk. He humbled Himself and fell at the feet of His accusers. He willingly gave His life as a ransom for the messy, sin-ridden, de-created, humans that He loved. 

Connected as one to YHWH, Yeshua gave up all the power He possessed and let death take him to the grave:

Luke 23:44-46

It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the entire land until the ninth hour, because the sun stopped shining; and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I entrust My Spirit.” And having said this, He died.

The crucifixion was the ultimate moment of de-creation. God’s command of “let there be light” was stopped in its tracks and “darkness came.” The sun stopped, darkness fell across the earth, and the veil which separated human-space from God-space was ripped apart. In many ways it looked like God’s adversary had secured victory.

But on the third day, (which, coincidentally, was the day that the land appeared on the earth in the Creation narrative) Yeshua returned, alive, to the earth. He defeated death and was raised to life. His first human interaction in this state was with His female followers and He commissioned them to tell their brothers the Good News of His return. Yeshua was the Light to the Nations, (Let there be light), and now He was passing the torch.

Yeshua paid the price to redeem us. We could now freely return to God’s Garden of Eden and walk with Him and face Him without hindrance. Death was simply the passport to eternal life for those who put their hope in Him:

Psalm 33:18-22

Behold, the eye of YHWH is on those who fear Him, on those who wait for His faithfulness, to rescue their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for YHWH; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His holy name.

Let there be [Y’hee יְהִֽי] Your lovingkindness upon us, YHWH,  as we have waited for You.

YHWH’s first words were “(Let there) be light”, now the Psalmist called on YHWH to share His love with the phrase, “(Let there) be Your loving loyalty upon us.”

YHWH has always been loyally devoted to us with His great love. He waits for us to be reunited with Him in His heavenly garden Kingdom at the end of our dusty days. Yeshua paid our entrance ticked so everything is free! All we have to do is show God’s love to those around us, and love YHWH our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with every fibre of our being through prayer and praise:

Psalm 113:2-3

Blessed be [y’hee יְהִ֤י] the name of YHWH from this time on and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of YHWH is to be praised.

Next week: Revisiting SILENCE