HEBREW WORD STUDY – FOR YOURSELF – LEKA לך LAMED KAP
Numbers 13:2: “Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.”
Deuteronomy 1:21: “Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up [and] possess [it], as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. (22) And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come.”
Something I fail to understand is why do most modern English translations ignore the word leka in Numbers 13:2. I did find a couple of modern translations that did translate the word, but the vast majority do not translate this word from the Hebrew. This is one reason I am teaching a Hebrew grammar class on our All Access site. There are times you have a perfectly good translatable word that is ignored by the translators because it sounds awkward or just doesn’t fit their perceived context. It is time Christians stop depending upon the elite few to tell them what the Bible says in the original Hebrew. It is time for Christians to decide for themselves what the context demands and what words to use to fit your world view of God.
As I said, most the English translations I read ignore the preposition and pronoun leka – for yourselves. Practically every commentator I read clearly states that this idea of sending spies was the idea of the children of Israel and when presented to Moses and he even thought it was a good idea. When he went to God, God seemed to suggest it was not a good idea but if that is what you want, then go ahead. Yet, to not translate the wore leka makes it sound like it was God’s idea. Yet, clearly in Deuteronomy 1:21-22 we see it was the idea of the people. God said; “Go up and take the land.” And the people responded by suggesting they send out spies to see determine what would be the best approach into the land and the which cities to take first.
I mean, really, why would God want to send spies into the land. Once they see what they are up against, they would chicken out – which they did. Besides, was not God their general, would He not be the best one to decide how to approach the coming battles. God allowed spies to go into Jericho because there was a righteous person in Jericho that had to be saved. But for the battle of Ai, they blew it again by saying it was an easy win.
Would you like Chaim Bentorah as your personal Hebrew teacher?
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The point is that God allowed them to send the spies, He did not condone it. He knew that to investigate the land would scare the living pudding out them when they came upon the giants. Then again God told Gideon that if he was too yellow-bellied to fight against the Midianites who had him outnumbered over 100 to 1 he was to go into the Midianite camp to get his assurance.
Apparently, there are times we just need to go by faith. The children of Israel should have just entered the Promised Land without scouting it out. Their faith should have been at its peak with all the miracles of the Red Sea, water from a rock, manna from heaven, etc. Then there is a time like in Gideon’s case that our faith needs to be strengthened like Gideon and God will send us right into the snake pit to increase our faith. There are times our faith and assurance that we heard the voice of God is at its peak that we do not need to scout out the land, just go.
Needless to say, in the Hebrew God clearly says: “Send out men leka – for yourselves…” If the words are there, use them. Sometimes it takes a study in the original language to discover where translators may differ with your world view of God. I mean, do you ever read something in the English Bible and your spirit is quickened and you think, “That can’t be, but my English translation says it is, so I guess I have to believe it.”In reality, your instinct might be the Holy Spirit telling you to dig a little deeper and move beyond a translator’s bias.
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Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
This was eye opening for me. It is one of my favorites teachings from Chaim. It sheds some light on a question I’ve pondered for a long time. Why did God make Joshua and Caleb wait for their rewards, in other words punish them along with their brothers. But with this teaching it opens my understanding and allows me to see things from a different perspective.. and consider they may have been part of the problem with the initial game plan. It is great food for thought. Thank you
I find at times I already feel the Holy Spirit has led me to what you say BUT often I am definitely learning something and am surprised i did not see something that seems so obvious once shown to me.
Thanks for clearing that up. It never made sense to me that most of the translations state that God told them to spy out the land and then He is angry at them for doing what He told them to. Whenever I start getting upset about the way the Israelites react to God’s instructions after the mighty miracles they witnessed, He always reminds me that I am really no different in my own life. Thanks to Jesus I am forgiven & thanks to the Holy Spirit for reminding me every day.