HEBREW WORD STUDY – BELA – בלא  

Genesis 36:32:  “And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom: and the name of his city [was] Dinhabah.”

Actually, this verse should literally reads from the Hebrew as: “And the King of Edom was Bela the son of Beor and the name of his city [was] Dinhabah.”  Yeah, I know  what you are thinking, “Who cares who the King of Edom was and what the name of his city was, let alone that he was the son of Beor.”

It is verses like these that make the task of reading through your Bible in one year so daunting. Reading the Bible is like reading a Charles Dickens novel which has many stories within a story. For the Bible, each story is brief, to the point and then moves on.  The only reason Christians, who love God with all their hearts, will find the Bible such a boring book,  beyond the exciting Bible stories, is that they are not aware of the many stories within the story. Many times they don’t even know the story behind a book like Isaiah.  If one takes the time to check a commentary and find out the background and put it into a timeline they may find the Bible a little more exciting to read.  Most of the time Christians just pick out key verses like Isaiah 40:31, “They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength…” and are not even be aware of the story behind that verse, nor of the cultural symbolism found within that verse.  Once you start looking at it in the context of the story and its cultural context, it becomes a very interesting read.

Take for instance today’s study verse.  We find a man named Bela is the King of Edom, He was the son of Boer and his city was Dinhabah.   There is a whole story in this verse.  The first thing to understand is that a Semitic storyteller often did not use a person’s real name but gave him an allegorical name.  Remember Pilgrims Progress?  This was an allegory and the names of the characters told a story.  You have the main character names, Christian. Right there you are introduced to the story about someone on the journey of a Christian.  He meets someone named Evangelist who leads him to the Lord.   As he continues his journey, however, he encounters a couple of characters named Obstinate and Pliable.  I don’t have to tell you the influence they had on Christian, their names say it all.

So too with Scripture.  Was this king of Edom really named Bela or is the name an allegorical reference to a King of Edom that was a bela.  I believe there was a king of Edom who had a name, perhaps a number of names. Names in those days were not like names today.  Names identified people’s vocations, personalities, and characters in those days.  Parents often gave a child a name in hopes he would become what his name meant. If he became something else his name changed during his life.  Often today names are given to people which are not their birth names.  I read about a pro football player who was named Too Tall Jones. Obviously, his parents did not give him that name but you know something about this guy from his name.  If you purchase any of my books you will find the author’s name is Chaim Bentorah.  That is not the name I was given at birth it just tells you something about me, that I found life through the Son of the Law (Jesus). 

So Bela means swallowing and gluttony.  He swallowed or consumed everything in his path to satisfy his gluttony.  This tells you what kind of king he was, he was a king that acquired many things, things that amounted to junk but loved things as a gluttonous love food and most likely just took from his people whatever he desired.   His father was Bo’er which means stupid, dull-hearted, unreceptive, cruel, inhuman and barbarous.  So Edom had a king who was brutal and heartless to his people who were succeeded by his son who stripped the people of all their possessions to satisfy his gluttonous lifestyle, even to the point of seeking to conquer other lands.   As a result, his city was Dinhabah which means to be given over to judgment.   For such sins, this king was given over to judgment. 

In this simple verse that Christians will read and give no further thought or meditation, we find a story of morality that if you live a life of satisfying your fleshly hunger you will one-day face judgment.