If you are just entering the website at this point, much has preceded this. As a minimum, go back to the one just before, called “Let’s have some fun.” Before that are many background pieces, but no one seems to like background these days. There are explanations of how Hirsch’s system works, which one should be familiar with before jumping off into unfamiliar territory. Using the tools properly is based upon having a very firm foundation.
Our trustworthy guide told us about the importance of the very firm foundation, and we see it most clearly in Matthew 7:24-27 and in Luke
Recalling that is always good to look at the context, in both of these passages, the verses just before are helpful in understanding what he is referring to, Matthew 7:21-23 and Luke 6:43-45.
And even further expanding the context, we see the Matthew passage comes from perhaps the strongest teaching in all the gospels, the Sermon on the Mount, all of chapters five through seven. Luke’s version is called by some the Sermon on the Plain, because (beginning in verse 6:17) it says “And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon,•••” Our guide stood on a level place with a great multitude from many peoples, including those clearly cursed. And he shared his words of wisdom.
I am particularly beholding to Luke’s version, when came the name of this website. But I am also always so happy that different witnesses tell of the same teachings in slightly different ways, to help us know what some of the passages really mean. The last two verses of the Matthew version always hit me. First, the people are “astonished” or “amazed” at his teaching, which was “as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” Important to know who the scribes were.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus/Scribes-and-Pharisees
In one of my other walks in life, I was taught about how institutions are really run, not by the “official leadership,” those hired to be leaders, but rather by what were called “opinion leaders.” Opinion leaders are those who stand with others on a level place and speak a wisdom that takes the rules into account (judgment) but also sees the truth of putting those rules into action in everyday life (mercy). We have all seen them. We do gravitate toward them. We are “astonished” by them, but their goal is not to be the “official leader,” because then their connection to the people is lost.
Let’s talk about Idaho.
Here, one person presented some things that came to mind about the state. There were numerous other graphics that focused on the aspect of mountains, and some on birds of prey. This is just one example:
The first and most natural way to divide this short name would be:
There are two potential roots for each of the words here.
For Ida:
And for •ho:
This is really interesting, and is in honor of two I know currently living in Idaho, and hold very dear. (But none of these are “pre-planned,” I just go where I am led.)
These two, ידה and ידע are obviously closely related by way of cognates, so we will center the map on acquire/cast off (C10):
- p.101 ידה cast; project upward
GV p.101 ידה cast [project upward]; p.149 נדה distance
CM ידה acquire/cast off (C10); נדה establish/separate (D74) - And note that the word for “hand,” p.101 ידע acquire knowledge; know, is derived from ידה. (As in Genesis 3:22)
- p.101 ידע acquire knowledge; know
- No variants
- CM ידע acquire/cast off (C10)
And note a wide range of meanings in Scripture for “to know” and “knowledge,” and the word h1847. דַּעַת ḏa‘aṯ, knowledge, as in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9), comes from this root.
A look at those other words in the lists is quite revealing, but••• for another time. For the industrious among you, קרח may open up some thought processes.
Let’s move now to הוא and הוה, again quite obviously closely related in form and meaning. (An old principle I learned from another season of my life, “form follows function.”)
- GV p.57 ההה express [pain]; p.57 הוה exist [bring into being]; p.57 הוא be [exist]; p.58 היה be; p.101 יהה exert power; also
¿ GV p.150 נהה pain; (p.151 נוה dwell [restfully and peacefully]) ? - CM ההה express deep emotion (A20); הוה and הוא hide/reveal (A3); היה isolate (A32); יהה increase/reduce (C15); אהה express deep emotion (A20); נהה impact physically/emotionally (D76)
You see above an underlined root נהה which fits the pattern we have been looking at, both in its form and in its meaning, but was not listed in the EDBH as a part of the Gradational Variant family with ההה. In parentheses is how it is listed, with נוה. There is no “rule” that a root such as נהה cannot be considered with the ההה family. Indeed:
Numbers 15:15-16 For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a statute forever throughout your generations. You and the sojourner shall be alike before יהוה. One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.”
And please note that this Variant family is that from which the Name which our Creator shared with Moses/Moshe, is derived. Read Exodus 3:13-15, and here is the Hebrew of verse 14, “I AM.”
Shemot 3:14
14 ויאמר אלהים אל־משה אהיה אשר אהיה ויאמר כה תאמר לבני ישראל אהיה שלחני אליכם׃
And many of you have heard me comment on the great compassion of God. In this family you can see His heart, how our behavior causes pain for the heart of our God. The appropriate balance of judgment and mercy is beyond our mortal understanding. It is, without a doubt, “tough love.” There must be great power combined with great love.
Once again, since הוא and הוה share the same cognate family, we form the map from that cognate family, A3.
Please pardon my philosophizing for one more moment as I explain whence I come, and my argument that h5091. נָהָה nâhâ must be considered here. First, every Hebrew root has listed in its definition in Clark/Hirsch’s book both a more physical type impact and a more spiritual/emotional type impact, simply because that is the nature of the language and the nature of God. h5091. נָהָה nâhâ appears three times in Scripture. In the ESV, it is translated once as lamented, once as moan, and once as wail. It is when we truly lament (very different from whining) that God hears our cries.
And the other half of the argument, if you go back to the initial point in Numbers 15:15-16, we just simply “don’t get it” if we do not see things from the point of view of the sojourner, the “outsider,” because we can’t truly put ourselves in their shoes. We must walk with them.
By the way, “sojourner” is also often translated as “foreigner,” or as “stranger,” and is from the Hebrew root: p.38 גור live fearfully. At a time such as a pandemic, if one is not much affected by the situation other than having to be inconvenienced by wearing a mask, or being “socially distant,” or working part time from home, that one should be on her/his knees thanking God for that blessing. And that one should also be on his/her knees washing the feet of those who have been greatly impacted. Those who no longer have a livelihood are living fearfully. They are impacted physically and emotionally.
Exodus 22:21-24
21 “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 22 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
This is the power side of our compassionate and loving God, who above all, will hear the cries of those who are truly oppressed.
I surely hope I have offended no one, but perhaps have opened an eye or two. God bless Idaho.
Sent to me by one who is there: 
© August 2020 logandspeck.com please cite if copying