HEBREW WORD STUDY – FALL PROSTRATE, BOW, KNEEL – SHACHAH, KARA’ BARAK שחה כרע ברךShin Cheth Hei Kap Resh Ayin Beth Resh Kap

Psalms 95:6: “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.”

We are being exhorted to do three things in this verse, worship, bow down, and kneel. Actually, I believe the KJV has the right syntax here. We are called to worship by bowing and kneeling. However, you fact check your lexicons you will find the word worship, which is shachah means to fall prostrate.

Quite frankly, that is impossible. If you are prostrate you are already bowing down and kneeling. You might say that is the gradual progression, first, your bow, then you kneel and then you end up prostrate. But if the passage meant that then it would have put it in that order.

It could be we are given a choice, we can either prostrate ourselves before God which I am sure all of us at some time in our desperation to get God’s attention have done something like that. We could choose to bow or bend before God which is a sign of respect, at least in oriental cultures. I remember when teaching in the Bible College I had students from India, China, Japan, and other oriental cultures who would come up to me to ask a question after class, and often I would detect a slight bowing. They understood enough of our American culture to know you did not bow before you professors as they did in their homelands and it was amusing to watch them catch themselves as old habits surfaced. But I understood their cultural norm to show respect to one in a superior position and even though they put their bowing in check they still spoke to me with such amazing and nerve-shattering respect.

Even Americans with a military background are programmed to show respect to a leader. I had one student who had been a member of the Delta Force. When he came up to me with a question he suddenly snapped to attention and I swear he clicked his heels and said a sharp: “Sir!” I was tempted to say: “At ease grasshopper.” Although not a bow it was a Western form of bowing to a superior. The whole idea is to show respect. Thus the word nakarava which comes from the root word kara’ does mean to bow but the intent of the word is to show respect.

Then we are told to kneel. This is the word nabaraka which comes from the word barak which means to bless. When you bless the Lord you are essential for submitting yourself to His rules and authority. Barak is also rendered in other passages as to honor, to thank, to salute, or to greet. In oriental culture and even western culture, kneeling is a sign that you are submitting to the sovereignty or showing a desire or submission. In England, you are not required to kneel before the Queen particularly if you are not a citizen of that realm. Such a person, if a male, would be expected in the least to bow his head from the neck, and a woman is expected to curtsey to show her respect to the sovereignty. However, if you wish to show that you are submitting yourself to the authority of this sovereignty in some formal way, like being knighted, then you must kneel before the Queen. By kneeling before the Queen you are basically agreeing to live by the Queen’s rules, pay taxes and defer to her authority in resolving disputes.

The first thing this verse is exhorting us to do is to worship God. This is the word shachah which means to fall prostrate. Falling prostrate is usually expressed with the knees and palms of the hands touching the ground with the head facing the ground. On rare occasions, it is falling spread eagle. This could a hiketeria which is a Greek word for falling prostrate to seek a favor from the sovereign. It was often used when seeking protection from the sovereign. Like when Danielle Wellys was being sought by Batman for having murdered four men. She arrives at the Themiscyrean Embassy in New York City and prostrates herself or hiketeria before Wonder Woman who agrees to protect her and she inturns gets herself in quite a pickle with Batman because she is sworn to protect the woman. The ceremony of hiketeria often involves the supplicant kissing the feet or ankles of the sovereign as a sign that they are submitting their lives and future servitude to the sovereign.

The thing about this hiketeria is that it often involves a god or goddess, either the god or goddess themselves, demigod or one who represents the god or goddess. Prostration or hiketeria is reserved only for an appeal to a divinity and is often found in most religions of the world. Wonder Woman is a sort of demigod who is subject to the Erinyes who would severely punish her should she fail in her commitment to defend Danielle (Hey, I might as well enjoy doing my homework).

This is why the word shachah is found in your lexicon to mean falling prostrate. In ancient culture falling prostrate was an act performed before a god or a representative of a god to show complete and utter submission to that god. The word shachah itself comes from a Phoenician word for someone who has fallen overboard on a boat and is swimming or surrounded by water.

The intent of the word shachah is not so much a physical act but the purpose of the act, to be completely surrendered and/or surrounded by the god, to literally be swimming in the presence of the god where you are totally protected by his or her power and authority and literally owned by that god or goddess.

Hence, since it is impossible to fall prostrate – shachah, bow – kara’ and kneel – barak before God all at the same time as this verse implies, it would linguistically be reasonable to assume that the reference is not the act of falling prostrate, bowing and kneeling but the intent behind the gestures. Thus, the Psalmist is exhorting us to surrender ourselves to the presence of God, allowing God to surround us with His presence – fall prostrate, to show God respect and honor – to bow and to submit to his authority and rule over our lives – to kneel. Hence, it might be impossible to perform all three gestures physically, but emotionally, mentally and spiritually we can shachah, kara’ and barak when we worship God.