Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
Job 12:22: “He discovereth deep things out of the darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.”
My study partner has a friend who related a dream to us. In this dream she found she was in the ocean and was sinking down to the bottom. Jesus came and took her hand and led her down to the bottom of the ocean. On the way down a shark came along and Jesus put up his other hand and the shark turned away. Then an eel appeared and again Jesus held his hand and the eel turned away. Finally they reached the bottom and a light appeared revealing a treasure chest filled with pearls and gold.
She indicated that God gave her Job 12:22 in relation to this dream. I believe that dream really illustrates Job 12:22. First thing I question is why does God have to discover something. Doesn’t He already know everything? The word, “discover” could come from one of two roots. It is either Gimel Lamed Lamed “galal” which means to discover or the root word could be Gimel Lamed Hei which I believe fit’s the context much better as this means to reveal something that is held secret.
The words “deep things” is “amak” which also means that which is unsearchable. Thus God is revealing secret things which are unsearchable. The word “darkness” is “chasak.” Now the Masoretes put the dot over the “shin” on the right side. However, if we put the dot over the left side, this very same word with the same consonants could mean “that which is restrained.” What I have now for this verse is: “God is revealing secret things which are unsearchable and which He has restrained.
In the last part of the verse we have “and bringeth out to light, the shadow of death.” The word “shadow of death” is considered by translators to be a compound word. You have “sal” from the root word “shalal” and “mot” for the word death. Keep in mind that in the original text there were no separation between letters to nor were there any verse separation. In other words the phrase in English “The cat ran home” if written like the original text in Hebrew would appear like this “thctrnhm” Without vowels and word separation is appears almost impossible to read this. That is where the difficulty in translating Hebrew lies. The Masoretes introduced a separation in letters to form the words and a separation to form verses and chapters. In the original script, the whole Torah is like one very long word, in fact the sages teach that the Torah is one word. My point is this. In the compound word, “Shadow of death” that last letter, the Taw, could easily be the first letter to the first word in the next verse. That would put the verb in the next verse in a future tense “He will make great” rather than “He is making great.” To put the Taw in the next verse would make better sense than to leave it out.
Now if we take that Taw and put it in the next word we are left with just one word rather than two. Instead of “Shadow of death” we would have “His secrets.” The word for “light” has a preposition and article attached and thus we would render the last part of this verse as: “He brings his secrets to the light.” The light does not go to His secrets, he brings them to the light. If we abide in the light, he will bring his secrets and mysteries to us like a waiter bringing your dinner in a restaurant.
I would render this verse to read: “He reveals his secrets which are unsearchable from that which he has restrained and will bring to the light His secrets.”
The secrets and mysteries of God can not be found by searching for them because he has put them in restraint. However, if we abide in His light we will bring them to us and reveal them to us. To learn the secrets of God we must abide in His light or for me that means to abide in His heart.
My study partner mentioned that God gave her this verse to describe meditation. That would make sense. Meditation is just sitting at God’s table in the light and letting God serve you with a meal of His secrets and mysteries.
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