HEBREW WORD STUDY – GAVE UP THE GHOST – YIGEVA’  יגוע  

Genesis 25:8:  “Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full [of years]; and was gathered to his people.”

I remember hearing this phrase, gave up the ghost as a child and it always creeped me out. I don’t why, maybe because during Halloween I would wear an old sheet with holes for eyes to go trick or treating and one year I declared I was going to give up the ghost.  Fortunately, most, if not all, our modern translations do not use the word ghost and usually express this word yigeva’ as to expire or breath your last breath or breath you last.  But that does not express the wonder of yigeva’,

It does mean to die.  Yet the word for death muth is also used in the same sentence.  Why did the writer not just say he died in a good old age?   Why use two different words for death in one sentence.  I believe it is because our modern 21^st Century concept of death is much different than that of ancient man.  

The word muth means the end of life.  Literally, the Hebrew says he died at a good elderly age.  I tell you I am 68 years of age I don’t find much good in it.  Many of the people I drive on my disability bus are elderly and they don’t see much good in old age.   The word good, however, is tov which really means to be in harmony.  Abraham died in harmony with his old age. As you grow older, especially when you get that letter from AARP inviting you to join, somewhere along the line the reality of your mortality sets in. People have a hard time adjusting to the realization that life will end.   I don’t know if the media has a definite age limit but somewhere along the line when a celebrity passes away they will not give the cause of death as it is assumed that the person just died of old age.  If someone in their fifties and early sixties passes away they will say a heart attack, cancer etc.  I think I reached an age where no one would really wonder about the cause of my demise.   For me, that is when the reality of my mortality really sinks in, especially in when I hear the passing of people on the news who were my age, give or take five years.  

I remember how anxious I was right after graduation from Bible College to get the alumni news.  I was could not wait to find out which of my classmates were getting married.  After a few years I was checking to see who had kids, eventually, I was checking to see who was settling in as a senior pastor or some other ultimate achievement in life.  Then I started to read who was retiring and now I am reading to find out who died. 

Translators render the words after using muth death as a ripe old age, good old age or very old age. But with the use of yeigeva’ they are missing the point. The word for old age is simply the word for grey hairs, beshivah which is old age. I read in Jewish literature that the rabbis taught that to muth beshivah die in an old age was an idiomatic expression for having lived a life that was full and satisfying.  That when the end came there were no regrets, no fears, just a sense of peace knowing you had fulfilled your purpose in life and now it was time to join the God you love.

This brings us to the word for giving up the ghost, yigeva’ from the root gava’.  The word is used to express the idea of dying without suffering.  Sometimes that is not the case. I believe the Jewish rabbis really gave the best definition of gava’.  They called it the Divine Kiss.  You hear it so often, someone wants to live to see their granddaughter get married, to hold a great-grandchild, or some want to just reach a certain age like 100 and when that is fulfilled it is like they say: “Ok, I am now ready to go and they close their eyes and they just pass into the arms of Jesus without pain or suffering. It is called the Divine Kiss. They just give up their spirit to Jesus.

Maybe I am wrong, but I believe if we live a life seeking to fulfill God’s purpose for our lives, we will be rewarded one day with that Divine Kiss, an open portal into the realm of God and we will yigeva’ willingly give up our spirits to the God we have loved all our lives.