Author Topic: "Fear"  (Read 55 times)

Offline cizz

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"Fear"
« on: February 29, 2012, 04:10:15 pm »
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/27_fear.html

Fear ~ yara
By Jeff A. Benner


The root meaning of the word yara is "to flow" and is related to words meaning rain or stream as a flowing of water. In Hebrew thought 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 in such as actions as shaking when in fear or bowing down in awe of one in authority.


www.ancient-hebrew.org/emagazine/028.doc

This Hebrew noun is used forty-five times and is most frequently translated as fear. In our English language fear is a state of excitedness, in a negative way, toward something terrible. Before we look at the Hebraic meaning of this word we will examine its use in the common context of "the Fear of the Lord" which appears twenty-seven times.

Proverbs 15:33 (RSV)
The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility goes before honor.

The common understanding of this verse is that if one is afraid of the Lord he will have wisdom but, as we shall see this is not consistent with its use in the Hebrew language. The Hebrew for this phrase is יראת יהוה (yirat Yahweh). When two nouns are placed together they are in the construct state meaning that these two words should be considered one. Another clue that these two nouns are in the construct is the change of the letter ה (h). When the first word of the construct phrase ends with the letter ה (h), it changed to the letter ת (t).

Below is a complete list of construct phrases from the book of Genesis where the second word in the construct is "the Lord" (Yahweh).

The Word of the Lord (Genesis 15:1)
The Voice of the Lord (Genesis 3:8)
The Face of the Lord (Genesis 4:16)
The Name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26)
The Eyes of the Lord (Genesis 6:8)
The Garden of the Lord (Genesis 13:10)
The Angel of the Lord (Genesis 16:7)
The Way of the Lord (Genesis 18:19)
The Mount of the Lord (Genesis 22:14)

You will notice that in every instance the first word in the construct (word, voice, etc) belongs to the second word of the construct (Yahweh). The "fear" in the phrase "the fear of the Lord" is not our fear; it is the Lord's fear. Because God cannot "fear" we must look to the Ancient Hebrew concrete meaning of this word to understand it.

The word yirah comes from the parent root yar which means "to flow" and is related to words meaning river and rain, from their flowing, and to throw in the sense of flowing. From this we can see that when one is afraid the insides begin to shake, a flowing of the insides. But as the word yirah means "to flow" it is not limited to "fear" alone.

In our introductory verse we saw that wisdom comes from this "fear of the Lord." Compare that with Exodus 31:3 - "And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship." It is "the Spirit of God (the Lord)" that gives us wisdom in the same way that "the fear of the Lord" does. The Hebrew word for "spirit" is "ruach" literally meaning the "wind," which is also a flowing. The "fear of the Lord" is his Spirit which flows out of him into us giving us wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

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Offline cizz

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Re: "Fear"
« Reply #1 on: February 29, 2012, 04:24:16 pm »
I find it interesting that the word "Sojourn" (verb) is also considered "Fear" or afraid..

 http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H1481&t=KJV




http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/25_gam.html

Verb: Sojourn       Noun: Traveler / Fear

Pictographic Meaning: The pictograph  is a picture of the foot and means to walk. The  is a picture of a man. Combined these mean "a walking man".
Root Meaning: One traveling through a foreign land is a stranger to the people and culture. Fear is associated with strangers and seen as an enemy. This root also has the idea of laying out flat to sleep through the idea of spending the night.