Hebrew Word Lessons

GAIN/PROFIT/GREED: batsa, verb (Strong’s 1214); betsa, masculine noun (Strong’s 1215)  Root: בָּצַע Sounds like: bah’tsa/beh’tsa Greed: More, More, More Greed is the overwhelming desire to obtain MORE… more money, more possessions, more desirable life experiences, more food, more success. Many lament that the modern world seems very greed oriented, but greed is not a modern problem,… Continue reading Batsa: GREEDY For Gain

Peleshet, the place known as Philistia (Strong’s 6429) and P’lish’tim, the Philistines people (Strong’s 6430) Peleshet Root: פְלֶשֶׁת P'lish'tim Root: פְּלִשְׁתִּ֖ים Etymology of Philistines/Palestinians Egypt: Peleset (name of this particular group of Sea Peoples found in Egyptian inscriptions) Hebrew: Peleshet/P’lish’tim Assyrian: Pilistu/Palashtu Greek: Phylistieim Roman: Palaestina/Palestine With what’s going on in Israel these days there’s… Continue reading P’lish’tim: The Formidable PHILISTINES.

FOOL: naval, eveel, sakal, kesil  Today we’ll look at a few root words commonly translated as “fool”, “foolish”, or “folly” Why are there a few words for the concept of a fool? Well, Hebrew is not a basic language. Like most languages, there are many synonyms for many words. In the English language we have… Continue reading Naval, Eveel, Sakal, Kesil: So Many FOOLS

To Appear (or, to be seen) comes from the root verb, to see, ra'ah (Strong’s 7200). The root meaning of this word shows up over 1300 times in the Tanakh (Old Testament). To narrow things down, we're going to explore what it means to appear before YHWH. This is our final week exploring words from… Continue reading Era’eh: APPEARing Before God

Elohim Khayim: אֱלֹהִ֥ים חַיִּ֖ים El Khai: אֵ֥ל חַ֖י We've looked into the word LIFE a lot on this blog. One of the earliest postings was on LIFE (khai) and we revisited life four years later.  We've looked at numerous LIFE phrases, including the Tree of Life (ets khayim), the Path of Life (orakh khayim), the… Continue reading Elohim Khayim: Dwelling with the LIVING GOD

Thirst: Tsame, verb (Strong’s 6770); Tsame, adjective (Strong’s 6771); Tsama, masculine noun (Strong’s 6772); Tsima, feminine noun (Strong’s 6773); Tsimmaon (thirsty ground), masculine mount (Strong’s 6774). Root: צָמֵא Sounds like: tsaw-meh Psalm 42:1-2 As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, God. My soul thirsts [tsam’ah צָמְאָ֬ה] for God,… Continue reading Tsame: The THIRSTY Soul

This week I had planned to look into the word thirst, and we will look at that word next week, but considering what is happening in Israel, I think the time you would normally take to read this blog would better be spent in prayer. We should take some time to pray for civilians on… Continue reading Revisiting WAR. Praying for Peace.

This weekend, in Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving... a beautiful, food-filled, celebration of gratitude.  At my place of employment I'm responsible for producing our weekly internal newsletter. This week I wrote on the etymology of the English word THANKS which I thought I'd share with you. Although this blog is all about Hebrew words, it's also… Continue reading TODAH: Revisiting Thanks!

BROOKS/STREAMS: aphiq, Masculine noun (Strong’s 650). Root: אָפִיק Sounds like: aw-feek Psalm 42:1-2 As the deer pants for the water brooks [a’fiqey mayim אֲפִֽיקֵי־מָ֑יִם], so my soul pants for You, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? We have been taking some time to… Continue reading Afiq: STREAMS of Living Water

The PANTING DEER: Arag, verb to pant, (Strong’s 6165). Ayyal, masculine noun deer (Strong’s 354). Arag, sounds like: aw'rag. Root: עָרַג Ayyal, sounds like: ah'yawl. Root: אַיָּל Yesterday I took a lovely trip to visit family in New Brunswick. On my way home I saw three deer grazing in a field. This is not an… Continue reading Arag/Ayyal: The PANTING DEER