21. In Death are we Exposed

Near the end of the last note (20), we spoke of needing to do an entire study on this family of words:

• GV p.141 מנן hold back; p.141 מנה apportion [divide and limit]; p.137 מון define [group or species]; p.105 ימן sidle [to the] right
  DV אמן – p.141 מנן distance [hold back]; p.141 מנה apportion [divide and limit]; p.137 מון define [group or species] > p.11 אמן depend upon; rely upon
  DV מאן – p.141 מנן distance [hold back] > p.135 מאן refuse

That will be our next major goal, but there are a few steps to get there. It has been quite revealing to me. And I hope it will be to you. Recall first that we have spoken numerous times about “nations,” nations reflecting character, nations reflecting the nature of people and people reflecting the nature of nations. Today’s entry could in itself be very extensive, as there is much referring to it in our Bible. I will limit to a few “witnesses.” First, sometime I encourage you to read Exodus chapter one, Exodus 3:7-10, and Exodus chapters 6-14, with a specific purpose in mind, looking at the nature of the nation of Egypt and the nature of Pharaoh in interacting with the Israelites and with Moses/Moshe. I know most everyone knows the story, so I won’t review it here. But notice what message Scripture is giving you about character.

Think about other nations from your study of World History in school. I’ll refer only to two nations with which you may be somewhat familiar:

There is no intent here to make a political statement, no intent to enflame our already terribly divided country. The message I hope to get across in the next two or three entries is to get you to look at your own heart, and not try to put blame elsewhere. Let’s not fall into the “blame game” that Adam and Eve/Havva fell into. Let’s look at our own reflection and see what we can personally do to change our own lives.

We have referred to the end of Matthew 25 several times recently. Look again, please, at Matthew 25:31-46, with the idea in mind of the theme of today’s entry. What lives on in this world (not speaking of Heaven here) at our death is the nature of who we were in life, our character, our reputation. 

A few selected lyrics from a song by Rascal Flatts called How They Remember You follows. A YouTube link is at the bottom, but I realize not everyone’s style. Good words:

“It wasn’t ’til I saw my daddy’s name in stone I knew

It ain’t a question of if they will

It’s how they remember you

Did you stand or did you fall?

Build a bridge or build a wall?

Hide your love or give it all?

What did you do? What did you do?“

•••

“What did you choose? What did you choose?

When it all comes down

It ain’t if, it’s how they remember you

When you’re down to your last dollar

Will you give or will you take?

When the stiff wind blows the hardest

Will you bend or will you break? (Will you break?)

You’re gonna leave a legacy, no matter what you do

It ain’t a question of if they will

It’s how they remember you

Did you stand or did you fall?

Build a bridge or build a wall?

Hide your love or give it all?”

Now to some pertinent Scripture.

•Ezekiel 18:4-9

4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.
5 “If a man is righteous and does what is just and right— 6 if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity, 7 does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, 8 does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, 9 walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord יהוה.

Recall there are always different levels of meaning in Scripture. A part of us lives on in the world that we leave behind, when we leave, whether we are a nation or a person.

•Isaiah 59:1-3
1 Behold, יהוה’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
your tongue mutters wickedness.

Notice the word underlined twice in this Isaiah passage••• iniquity. This could be another entire study, which we will not do today. However, it is the same word in the passage known as the “thirteen attributes of God:”

Exodus 34:6-7
6 יהוה passed before him and proclaimed, “יהוה,יהוה, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

We will not belabor this passage either, though there is much to be said. Two points are that, first, “iniquity” is the same word as in Isaiah 59, above. Second, the word translated as “visiting” here is:

p.205 פקד invest with purpose or responsibility 

The general point to be made here is that the future generations learn from who we are. It may be positive, or it may be negative, but they learn from what they are exposed to. If I am an alcoholic, my children will likely either become alcoholics themselves or have such an averse feeling toward what they have seen, that they will make every effort not to become that. Either way, who we are forms the next generation.

OK, one more passage about how in Death we are Exposed, and again this is all just preliminary to some additional study. This passage is best understood by those who have studied Genesis a good bit. We have referred before to the extensive story of Jacob, who becomes Israel. The last half of Genesis (chapters 25-50) are the story of Jacob and his family. There is SO much to be learned about human nature in general, and our own nature, in specific in Jacob’s life. There is a great book by Watchman Nee entitled “Changed into His Likeness” that reviews much of the struggle. For our purposes, I will give a very brief overview before our passage. There is a great struggle in Jacob’s life, centered around two wives who are sisters, one he prefers and one he does not prefer.

There are numerous character flaws in Jacob and his wives that have longer-term impact on their children. The focus for today is what led to the birth of Jacob’s last son, Benjamin, whose heritage eventually was absorbed into Judah. After Jacob left his family in Canaan to escape the wrath of his brother Esau and to look for a bride with the people of his ancestors, he had many struggles over twenty years, in marrying Leah and Rachel and getting his life established. Eventually he gets a sign to return to Canaan and takes his wives and concubines and livestock, all that he has, and leaves his father-in-law Laban. It is already not a smooth departure, but Rachel steals her father’s household idols, unbeknownst to Jacob. A confrontation arises between Laban and Jacob when Laban catches up with the escaping caravan. Laban accuses Jacob of stealing the household gods and the unknowing Jacob makes a rash oath, saying,

•Genesis 31:32
32 Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

The household gods are not found, and are later discarded, but the actions of Rachel (theft, secrecy, lying to her father, and likely the use of the “fertility gods” in the struggle with her sister over having sons [several clues]) and Jacob (the oath) bring about this very sad occurrence, another example of “in death are we exposed:”

•Genesis 35:16-19

16 Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. 17 And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for you have another son.” 18 And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem),

Briefly, some words, and a comment.  Of course בית means house, and בן is son.

⦁Ephrath h0672. אֶפְרָת ’ep̱râṯ – p.15 אפר is a Derivational Variant of the פרר family, Strong’s says from פרה, most often translated as fruitful; fruitfulness, and recall p.296, Dropping the final consonant and adding an א as the first consonant of the root, Hirsch calls “individualizing or targeting” the new action.

• GV p.207 פרר separate [out parts]; p.206 פרה produce; p.205 פרא free [of control]; p.199 פור invalidate [undermine proper proceeding]; p.196 פאר distinguish [stand out]
• DV פאר – p.207 פרר separate [out parts] > p.196 פאר distinguish [stand out]
• DV אפר – p.207 פרר separate out parts > p.15 אפר cover
  CM פרר separate out (B42); פרה and פרא emerge from constraints (B37); פור undermine (B20); פאר expose; highlight (B1); אפר expose/conceal (A8)

⦁Bethlehem h1035. בֵּית לֶחֶם ḇêyṯ leḥem – p.131 לחם struggle for existence  CM struggle for essentials 

Think of Bethlehem Ephrath/Ephratha as the targeted or individualized fruit of our labor, what is produced by our struggle for existence, the product being positive or negative, depending on our walk – as is spelled out in the Ezekiel 18 passage above (and continues past what is copied here, explaining additionally what we covered on Ex34:6-7). [other references for Bethlehem/Ephrath – Ruth1:1-2, 4:4; 1Chr2:50, 4:4; Ps132:6: Mic5:2; also see 1S1:1, 17:12; and of course in Mat2; Lk2; and John7]

⦁Ben-oni h1126. בֶּן־אוֹנִי ḇen-’ôniy – 

• GV p.13 אנן mourn loss; p.12 אנה cause [direct to goal]; p.5 און acquire; p.9 אין absent
  CM אנן grant/withdraw (A46); אנה bring about (A44); און form (A6); אין contain (A13)

[[see that און is a cognate of עון, and that און is sometimes translated as iniquity e.g. Nm23:21, which EDBH refers to as “misusing means of acquisition – it would appear that Rachel sees the results of her actions]]

⦁Benjamin h1144. בִּנְיָמִין ḇinyâmîyn

• GV p.141 מנן hold back; p.141 מנה apportion [divide and limit]; p.137 מון define [group or species]; p.105 ימן sidle [to the] right
• DV אמן – p.141 מנן distance [hold back]; p.141 מנה apportion [divide and limit]; p.137 מון define [group or species] > p.11 אמן depend upon; rely upon
  DV מאן – p.141 מנן distance [hold back] > p.135 מאן refuse
• CM (מנן no cognates); מנה give/withhold (B67); (מון no cognates); ימן hide (C53); (אמן no cognates); (מאן no cognates)

This all hearkens back to a much earlier post called Synthetic Grasp of Life, where hopefully you got the clear picture of how actions and consequences of actions are inextricably interwoven from the Biblical perspective.

••• however, I want to leave you with a summary of one small paragraph on EDBH p.295. I would quote the paragraph but is uses some terminology we have not yet discussed. This paragraph was one key that helped open up one more passageway. And a key to help with a conundrum I’ve had for years. And one of the critical pieces in getting around to the discussion of:

In the paragraph on page 295, there are some closing comments about the discussion of Gradational Variants. He explains that each of these word families is inter-related. Their respective meanings show degrees of intensity or similar activity in other spheres. Hirsch claims that in many cases the root with a vav in the center position of the root (as in טוב – “good”) and a yod in the beginning position of the root (as in יטב, recalling that Hebrew reads right-to-left) have identical meanings. Other forms that interchange are the roots with a hey and an alef in the final position (we have seen already), as in קרה and in קרא. He gives examples of verses in this paragraph.

I have known for a long time of the interrelationships in the above מנן family interpreting Benjamin, and knowing that, for example one of the words we know well, “amen,” often translated as “verily” or “truly,” from the root אמן, is part of this family, and that ימן is part of the family. I’ve been trying to figure out for years exactly what it means when it says “sidle to the right” as the definition of ימן. Oh, it’s easy enough to look up what the dictionary says “sidle” means, but quite another to understand exactly what Scripture is meaning when it says left hand versus right hand and north versus south. Are John 18:37 and Revelation 5:7 saying the same thing? It has been a riddle, to be sure. Perhaps Hirsch’s statement sheds some light upon me, a very slow learner, and perhaps much more quickly you are picking up on it. This little “link,” the מון connection May open new vistas.

••• and for those who don’t mind the “country,” here is that link:

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