HEBREW WORD STUDY – WIFE – ISHAH  אשׁה  

Proverbs 18:22:  “[Whoso] findeth a wife findeth a good [thing], and obtaineth favour of the LORD.”

Practically everyone who has attended a wedding is familiar with this verse.  This familiarity creates some big problems in translation.   For one thing, we are so familiar with the passage that we never stop to consider the basic context of the passage.  The second problem is that if we try to fit a proper translation into the context people will cry out that we are changing the Word of God and burn us at the stake.

But let me ask you a couple of questions.  If you are married, really love your wife, would you call here a good thing, I mean a thing?  A second thing, all you have to do is find a wife and you have favor with God.   So if a 92-year-old billionaire marries a 22-year-old stripper he has found favor with God? It doesn’t say what kind of wife, just a wife.  I say this purely for linguistical purposes, but if two homosexual men get married and one calls himself a wife does that mean he has found favor with God?

What I am saying is that the English word wife is going through changes as with any language.  This next-generation coming up will hear something much different when they hear the word wife than what our generation thought when we heard the word wife.  My point being that just because your lexicons and Bible dictionaries are written over a hundred years ago call the word ishah a wife does not mean that what we view as a wife is what the ancients viewed as a wife.

Let me ask you this.  One must find a wife.  That fits today but even a hundred years ago and even today in certain cultures men do not find a wife, their marriages are arranged, somebody else finds the wife for them.  Today a wife in our 21^st Century is a person, male or female, who has a legal contract of marriage with another person.

There are eleven words in Hebrew that are rendered as a wife.  The word used in this verse is ishah which means a woman, wife, female, spouse, old woman, and a hen. So we read in our text the word “wife” but that may not be the proper English word here.

Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel.  Now how can a man have two wives when God created a man and woman to have one mate?   Well, both are called an ishah both were wives in the eyes of man and earthly law but only one could be the wife in the eyes of God which was Rachel because Jacob loved Rachel and she loved him.  Leah, unfortunately, was just an ishah in the sense of a woman.  God does not command an angel to observe the marriage ceremony to make sure everything is properly signed, approved by the state, and that the preacher is legally licensed.

So, in God’s eyes, when is someone married?  When are you officially married or betrothed to Jesus?  Jesus has given you an offer of marriage, a proposal if you prefer.  Just as that young man holds out a ring and says “Will you?” and she wilts.   So is marriage for life?  Well, is our salvation for eternity?

My point is, in the eyes of God a wife not one who signs a legal contract and makes a vow.  A wife is one whom the man loves and she loves him in return and a vow is made in love.  So within the proper and emotional context, Proverbs 18:22 should read: “Find a woman who loves you and is committed to you and you have found a good thing.”  Ouch, that good thing hurts.  For one thing, the word thing is not in the Hebrew text, it is only the word tov which means good.  I check 26 modern translations and 18 say good thing.  Translated by men obviously. The rest say simply good.  Adequate, acceptable, ok.  Not great, not excellent, just good.   The Living Bible renders it as finding a treasure.  Ah, now we are getting close to what I believe God intended.  Still, the word good or tov means to be in harmony.  He who finds a loving, caring committed wife finds someone who can bring him into harmony with God and will have favor with God.

As long as truth is determined by the power structure of the church and that is ruled by men, I am afraid you will not find my translation in any Modern English translation of the Bible.  But I give it to you for your consideration.

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