HEBREW WORD STUDY – BROKENESS – TERUAH – תרועה   Taw Resh Vav Ayin Hei

Psalms 89:15:  “Blessed [is] the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.”

The Bible is full of people who are blessed. You are blessed if you study the Word of God, blessed is if you walk in the way of the Lord, blessed if we are meek, blessed if we are poor in spirit, blessed if we know that joyful sound…wait, back up.  What is this joyful sound?  The word in Hebrew is teruah and can have a wide range of meanings. 

The NIV renders teruah as: “those who have learned to acclaim you.”  Acclaim, what does that mean?  It gets pretty bad if I have to go to Webster just to understand a modern translation.  Anyways, Webster defines it as sounds of joy.  To be fair acclaim gives a more accurate nuance as it does carry the idea of a joyful approval.   The Living Bible says; “Joyful call to worship.”    That is entirely different than the NIV. The ESV just renders it as a festal shout.  Back to Webster, festal pertains to a holiday, that is altogether something different than the NIV and Living Bible. My bad, I was thinking in terms of, you know an infestation. Contemporary English Version renders it as those: “who join in the festival.”:   Net Bible says: “Those who worship you.” ISV – worship joyfully.  Aramaic Bible in Plain English – “knows  your glorious songs.” What songs?  That is plain English?  God’s Word Translation: “know how to praise you.”  That is the only one I can readily understand at first reading.  Douray-Rheims Bible – “knows jubilation.”  Back to Webster again.   Young’s Literal – “knowing the shout” back to square one, what is this shout? 

Why not just say “blessed are the people who praise you?  The only problem with that is that teruah is not a word for praise and the verb to know has to fit in. Blessed are those who know how to praise you?”  Is praise something we learn, a formula to follow and after much experience you really know how to praise.  During worship services, I am convinced there are people who are worshipping and I can’t but feel they are thinking: “Hey look at me, I am an experienced worship person, I know how to praise God, just follow my example and I will teach you.”  Of course our churches will send their worship leaders to an all-expense paid, with expense account, trip to California to attend a worship leader’s conference where they will learn the latest worship techniques to really get that spiritual manifestation and where they will learn the difference between praise and worship and will learn what songs to use for praise and what songs to use for worship. Then they can return with all new songs which oddly sounds just like the songs we had been singing.  Of course our proof text for the fact that we need to learn how to worship is Psalms 89:15 which tells us that we must know how to praise or worship, depending on your English translation and that this knowledge can only come from learning and teaching, especially from someone who has attended a conference on worship and praise.  Well, the word to know is not knowing from a learning experience, it is the word yadah which is an intimate knowing.

I love it when translations differ in their renderings because I feel free to give my own rendering.  But back to this word teruah.  The reason we have a problem with rendering it as praise is that there are many other words that clearly mean praise and worship, why did the Psalmist not use one of those words rather than a word which has an obscure rendering of worship or praise.  Teruah comes from the root word ru’ which simply means to make a loud noise. I am not sure why that loud noise (mouth) mechanic who fixes my disability bus should be blessed?  Other usages from my lexicon are to become evil, to make matters worse. Yep, that fits my mechanic but again, why should he be blessed?  Teruah is also used for brokenness or a broken heart.  Ok, that fits me after my bus has been repaired and I am calling my dispatcher two days later from downtown asking for a tow truck.  

But say, lookie here, Teruah is also used for making the sound of a trumpet or shofar during the time of the Jewish feasts.  It seems Jewish commentators are just as all over the place with teruah as Christian commentators but at least they are all over the same place in putting together a jigsaw puzzle. They render teruah as a triumphant blast as a result of brokenness. What is the relationship between triumph and brokenness? The Midrash Tehillim 81:4 teaches that the words: “they will walk in the light of Your countenance or presence…”  alludes to the days of Rosh Hashannah through Yom Kippur. It is during this time that the sound of the shofar makes a series of broken blasts that mimic the sounds of sobbing from the depth of the heart.  Guess what they call this little ritual. You’re right it is the Teruah. It is the sorrow or brokenness over your sins of the past year where you repent on Yom Kippur in sorrow and then rejoice or triumph over the remission of those sins giving you a Rosh Hashannah, a new year, a new life without those sins.

Hence they render this as: “Blessed are the people who are intimate with a broken heart over their sins for they shall walk in the presence of the Lord.”