QUICK WORD STUDY – HIS HEART IS NOT WITH HIM – LEVU BAL IMAKE  לבו  בל  עמך   Lamed Beth Vav   Beth Lamed  Ayin Mem Kap

Proverbs 23:7:  “For as he thinketh in his heart, so [is] he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart [is] not with thee.”

Well we have become a culture where insincerity is not only acceptable, but expected.  I mean   sportsmanship is an admirable trait and of course we want to go out of our way to let a person know there are no hard feelings, and to remind everyone that a friendship is more important than coming out on top and to be beaten in a contest should not destroy a relationship. But on that rare occasion I watch a beauty pageant and the two runner ups gush with praise and excitement over the first place winner as if they themselves won is, well, wouldn’t just a hand shake, you won but I don’t hate you be enough?  Maybe both are lies but one is not so obvious.

This passage in Proverbs is not addressing the type of insincerity that is used to preserve a friendship but an insincerity that will destroy a relationship. A host may work very hard to prepare a nice meal for you and serves you a dish that to her mind would brighten the day for a top chef but to you it is all you can do to keep from gagging, yet you are not going to declare that its awful, you are going to say something nice.  You will say it is wonderful.  A lie?  Depends upon your definition of a lie.  That is the point of this passage.  

Lest look at this passage in Proverbs from a Semitic mindset.  First we discover that no two Modern English translations will translate this passage exactly the same way. That is because the Hebrew is very ambiguous and it is extremely difficult to translate these Hebrew words into English words that truly capture the Semitic mindset.  

In the KJV the word heart is used two times.  In the Hebrew it is used only once. The Talmud teaches there are no synonyms in Hebrew.  In the first line we have “For as he thinks in his heart so is he.”  In the Hebrew the word that is rendered as heart is the word nephesh which means the spirit or the mind it is not unheard of to use the English word heart for nephesh but to use the English word heart here you need to keep in mind this is not your heart in terms of the seat of your passions, just your private thought processes.  The word for think is sha’ar which is an interesting word.  In its Semitic root it has the idea of a gatekeeper. It also has the idea of calculating or estimating.  A gate keeper or security guard is responsible for guarding what is behind the gate or door. What one is thinking is the gatekeeper to one’s spirit or inner thought process.  In other words a person may be saying outwardly, eat drink and enjoy but in his inner thought process he is calculating how this will add to his personal agenda.   

The passage concludes by saying his heart is not with them.  That is the key. Here the word for heart is the Hebrew word lev which is the common Hebrew word for heart. This is a reference to your inner passions.  Shakespeare in his play Hamlet Act 3 Scene 2 actually explains the difference between the nephesh and lev. He refers to the heart of hearts or the core of your heart.  He presents two levels to your heart which would be nephesh as the top layer or thought process and your heart of heart or the core of your heart which is your inner passion that part of you that you reserve for someone special, a child, a spouse or a family member and for God. 

This is followed by the English word with which in Hebrew is the word im which means to be in agreement,  in the midst of, or among.  In other words he is not thinking what he wants you to think.  We would say you are not on the same page with him.  Yet this is not a misunderstanding but a deliberate attempt to make you think differently than what he is thinking. His intention is deceit.  Now here we get to our cultural problem. Keep in mind when I say deceit I am using the word in a Semitic understanding, not a Western understanding.  In a Western understanding deceit is always bad.  We may call those runner ups cheering and praising the winner with her crown as deceitful in our Western thinking.  They may be jealous and angry over losing.  By cheering the winner we may even say they are lying, they are being deceitful about their true emotions.  In our Western mindset we declare “Hypocrite, be honest.” Yet in a Semitic mindset they are not being deceitful or even lying as we define deceit and dishonesty.  In our minds deception and lying is a falsehood, period.  In a Semitic mindset you must intend to hurt someone for you own personal gain or agenda for a falsehood to be lying or deceptive. In other words deception and falsehood is a matter of the heart lev your heart of hearts, core of your hearts and not of your nephesh mind, that top layer of your heart.  

If your heart lev is with that proud papa showing you a picture of an ugly, red wrinkled new born baby then even if your nephesh  or mind says “what an ugly kid”  your lev heart of heart, core of your heart is going to say “she is beautiful” and from a Semitic mindset that is not being deceitful or lying, it is sharing your heart with him that you care for your friend and his feelings and you are truly rejoicing with your friend so you say what will bring pleasure to his nephesh and lev.  Telling him the kid is ugly to hurt his feelings, is expressing the truth of your nephesh or mind but to the Semitic mindset you are still dishonest and deceitful for you are not expressing your lev or heart of heart that you hate your friend. So those young women saying yippee for their opponent who got the crown that they worked so hard to get are not being deceitful in a Semitic mindset, it is their lev trying to do the right thing by not expressing their nephesh and that is the definition of chasad, righteousness trying to do the right thing.

Rahab told a whopper of a lie when she said the spies left the city when they were actually hiding in her attic yet she was considered righteous, for she was trying to do the right thing in her lev contrary to what her nephesh knew.  What Proverbs 23:7 is telling us is that deceit lies in the lev, your heart of heart, core of your heart, not the words of your nephesh or mind.