HEBREW WORD STUDY – A LAMENT – AYYEKAH איכה  Aleph, Yod Kap Hei

Genesis 3:8: “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. (9) And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where [art] thou?”

I read something in the Genesis Rabbah 19:6-7 today that left me a bit shaken.  Look carefully at the syntax of Genesis 3:8: “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden…”  Do you see anything unusual?  Of course not, when you read it in English, the translators worked out the syntax nicely for the English.  Yet, read this again: “And they (subject) heard (verb) the voice (predicate) of the Lord (prepositional phrase) walking (participle).  Wait a minute the participle is telling you what the predicate is doing.  The voice is walking.  At least that is the way it plays out in the Hebrew. 

The sages take this on in the Rabbah by pointing out that the word walk is mithhallek not mehallek.  Mithhallek is a participle in a Hithpael form.  It should read that God caused His voice to travel through the garden.  The presence of God was removed and it was only His voice that was present.  God could not longer dwell on this earth because sin entered. He is only a traveler to the earth now.  The wicked will not permit his Shechinah to dwell on the earth, God must cause Himself or make Himself show His presence on earth but only as a traveler.  However, once sin has been paid for through His Son’s death on the cross and we receive His cleansing He can dwell on this earth but only through clean vessels, ie., us.

So the voice of God asks: “Where are you” or in the Hebrew is it ayyekah from the root word ay which is an interrogative for where, which, whether and why.  Now come on, did God really have to ask “Where are you?”  Is He not omnipresent, does He not know everything? Besides this does not strike much comfort in having a God who is 24/7 and can’t locate me.  But for translators “where” is the only word that makes sense, except for me it makes no sense.  What does make sense from the word ay is the word why?  This is not a why as in asking for an explanation to help Him understand, this asking why is a lamentation.  In fact ay eventually came into the Yiddish as oy. Oy is an expression of woe.  Woe is me. 

You see the first to be kicked out of the garden was not Adam and Eve, it was Adam and Eve who kicked God out of the garden and now God is separated from His creation. The creation that He wanted to encompass with His love. Have you ever been in a love affair that went South?  The one you loved with all your heart, you were ready to share your life with that person, to give that person anything you were capable of giving and then you find that love has been betrayed, rejected for another lover, do you remember what that felt like?  Horrible wasn’t it. Over and over you repeat ay, ay, or oy oy or why? Why? You are not sure what you are asking in that  why.  It might be why does that person not love me?  Why does that person seek another?  Why does it have to hurt so bad? 

You see, God suffered the first broken heart in this world.   In verse 8 we learn the voice of the Lord was traveling in the garden.  The word voice is qol which is really a sound. Hence we could read this as: “And they heard the sound of the Lord God traveling through the garden.”  What was that sound?  It was ay or a lament. So we should read this as: “And they heard the lament of the Lord God traveling through the garden.”  

In verse 9 we learn that the Lord God called unto Adam. The word call is qara’.  Did God really have to call out for Adam to hear Him?  I think another English word that is used for qara’ is more appropriate for this context.  It is the word cry. “And God cried.  Note the word ‘el is used.  It means to or unto, but it also can mean before, in front of. God stood in front of Adam, wept and said: “Why.”  Note the word asked sha’al is not used it is the word ‘amar which simply means to say or speak. So I would not use the word “why” but woe.  How about we render this as “And God wept before Adam and said  “Oh woe.”  He couldn’t dwell in Adam, He could not share an intimacy with Adam which is what He created him for in the first place. So God wept and lamented like a rejected lover with a broken heart. 

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