HEBREW WORD STUDY – CALLING OUT IN SURRENDER – TSA’AQ  צעק Sade Ayin Qop

Exodus 14:10b “And they were sore afraid and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord.”  

Every major translation I have looked at will render the word tsa’aq as cry out. Now tsa’aq does mean to cry out but it also means to summon or to appeal. In its Semitic root it has the idea of assembling together and being of one mind and purpose. However, to use this rendering the word would have to have a Piel or intensive stem. As a simple verb, it is just calling out. 

In our Tuesday evening live streaming Hebrew class, we are now studying verbal stems. For instance, in English, we have adjectives whose comparative and superlatives are irregular. That is good – positive, better – comparative and best – superlative.  In Hebrew you do not have these forms, however, with verbs, you do have certain inflictions which determine intensity.  The simple Qal infliction would be like your positive, the Piel infliction would be your comparative and with the addition of a paragogic you could suggest the superlative. 

Tsa’aq is in a simple Qal form and grammatically you should use its simplest form which is to summon and make a request. In other words, it was not of the intensity to bring about repentance or a desire to be of one mind and purpose with God. They went to Moses bellyaching that God sent them out to die. Yet, they called out to God but God did not deliver them.  Why? They were not willing to call out in surrender and submission to God’s will, they want their will.

Let me offer for your consideration another grammatical issue to consider. The word is in an imperfect form, that is an incomplete action. As it is not a participle we would consider putting it into future tense. “They will cry out to God.” This, however, makes no sense in the passage as they were already afraid and likely had been calling out to God. Some Hebrew grammar teachers would say this is in a preterite form. That having taken place in the past but continuing into the future. However, it would need to be in a perfect completed action form with a participle. 

One would then have to ask just what the Masorites could have been thinking to put this into a Qal imperfect form.  Maybe they were trying to show something else.  If we kept this in a Qal imperfect form about the only way to render this in the English is:  Because they were sore afraid, they would have assembled themselves to summon God. Sort of like the aorist tense in Greek.

Being in this form they would never have gotten around to tsa’aq in an intense state, that is crying out to God in repentance and surrender. Instead when called didn’t answer they went bellyaching to Moses.  

The most logical conclusion I can reach is that they did most likely cry out to God, got no response and then went complaining to Moses.  Perhaps that is why the Masorites pointed this up as a Qal imperfect to show that the people were not calling out to God in repentance and surrender, they were only concerned about their own gizzards. 

Even the word tsa’aq call out itself will tell you why God did not respond to the crying out. The word tsa’aq is spelled Sade, Ayin, Qof.  If you are calling upon God or summoning His help you must first consider the Sade which teaches humility and surrender to God.  Next, you must demonstrate the Ayin – looking beyond the circumstances and seeing the ultimate will of God.  Finally you must demonstrate the Qop, which is a willingness to make peace with change.  

When we “cry out” to God we are humbling ourselves and surrendering ourselves to His will, looking beyond our present circumstances to where that is taking us and making peace with any change that will come as a result. The letters in tsa’aq also carries a shadow, which is a blindness to the unholy tendencies embodied in that cry. When Israel cried out in its shadow form, there was no response from God, so they complained to Moses. 

So you cried out to God and got no response. Consider the message in the letters of tsa’aq. Are you crying out in its shadow, blindness to the future and unholy desires or are you crying out in humility and surrender to God, looking at the future through God’s eyes and then be willing to change whatever God wants to change in you to bring about his response.