HEBREW WORD STUDY – WISDOM AND RESPECT – BESEVAH  בשיבה Beth Shin Yod Beth Hei 

I Chronicles 29:29: “And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour: and Solomon his son reigned in his stead.”

This is one of those verses I have read all my life in many different translations and I just cannot help but think: “This cannot be right.” It is even more so now that I have reached that milestone of 70 years.  Considering the life expectancy in the United States is 79.8 years the train is pulling into its final destination.  If I were a Russian it would have already arrived and unloaded all its passengers. According to statistics as a male if I lived in Mississippi I should be getting my affairs in order.

Of course, it is nothing to joke about, although I sure don’t know why we can’t joke about it. As the old saying goes, death and taxes are the only things we can be sure about and we joke all the time about taxes.  However, it does raise an important issue.  If I lived in Mississippi and made it to my 71st birthday, could I say I lived to a good old age. Of course if I have to use the chart for my home state that means I have another nine years before I reach a good old age?   Some translations say a ripe old age. Ripe? Like for the picking? Brrrrrr! What determines  good or ripe old age?  

Note that the rest of the verse says full of days.  A life that is full of days is what?  If a person lived to be twenty he would have had 7,300 days, he was surely full of days, was he not? How about this riches and honor business?  If you do not live a life of riches and honor does that mean you have not reached a good or ripe old age no matter what your age? 

All these are questions like those I encourage my students to ask when studying the Bible. We read the Bible and never question a statement like living to a good or ripe old age as we just automatically assume it means someone lives to an old age. But if you pause to think about it, that phrase makes little sense. It makes it sound like a reward for living a good life.  Yet there are untold numbers of individuals that lived a good, Godly life and left this world at an early age. Why were they not allowed to live to a ripe old age?

Maybe we Christians do not ask these annoying questions but Jewish rabbis and sages do and they closely examine these words in the Hebrew and come up with some interesting ideas, as well as an important lesson for all of us. 

First the words good old age full of days in Hebrew is besevah tova seva’ yamin.  The first word is the key – beseva’.  This comes from the root word siv which means grey hair.  We automatically assume that means an old person.  I had a student who was thirty five years old and had grey hair.  I doubt many of use would consider him old. I started to turn gray ten years ago at sixty, was I then an old man? The word in Hebrew for being old in years is zaqan not siv.  Siv is assigned to a person who is old enough to received wisdom and respect, one who has lived a life worth living, one who has had a full experience.  Normally that is an elderly person but not always. Years ago, I had a student who was 27 years old and had been a member of the Delta Force.  He fought in Grenada and many other places that were and likely are classified.  His job in Delta Force was to free American citizens who had been kidnapped abroad or held hostage.  He was extremely disciplined, well trained, had been around the world, jumped out of planes, dived under the sea, saved many lives and all by the age of 27. He knew things about the world and human nature I could not begin to grasp. At the age of 27 he had wisdom, a life worth living, a life full of experience and above all respect. He had more respect that most people in their seventies.  In fact, if I knew him today at 70 when he was 27, he would be the siv and I would just be a zaqan. 

David may have died at an old age or a zaqan, but the Bible does not say that.  He died a beseva’ tovah.  Note the word tovah comes from the root word tov which is rendered as good.  You know like a man who finds a wife find a good thing.  Watch what happens if a husband tries to tell his wife she is a good thing. The word tov means to be in harmony. In context, in harmony with God. A man who finds a wife finds someone to bring him into harmony with God.  David lived a life full of experience and wisdom and died with honor and respect in harmony with God. 

Then it says that he had full days.  All of us live full days, 24 hours each day and we live in it. The word full is seva’ which means satisfying and accomplished.  The Jewish sages teach that this means that every day was lived to its fullest extent. David did not waste any time. Every moment of each day he used and where there were gaps in his day he filled them with worship and praise to God. 

So, for all of us zaqan(s), old people, there is a lesson in it for us. According to statistics I have another nine years give or take a few years of course.  That adds up roughly to 3,285 days.  I don’t know about you but time is very important to me. I do not want to waste a minute.  I want to spend that time so that if I read that statistic I will be able, like David, to say I have lived that life tova, in harmony with God and to its seva’ full extent, satisfied and accomplished in the purpose God set before me. Any gaps there may be will be filled in prayer, worship and praise to my God who will be waiting to greet me when that old train enters it final station.  Maybe if I do this I might not just be any zagan passing through those pearly gates but a zagan who was a siv. Not that it will give me any special place in heaven but that I will awake in the arms of Jesus satisfied.

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