Hebrew Word Study – Bow Down – Kara’  כרע   Kap Resh Ayin

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

The Psalmist is encouraging us to do three things before God, worship, bow down and kneel.  Have you ever tried to bow down and kneel at the same time? Can’t be done. Yet, practically all our modern English translations walk in lockstep using the words worship, bow down and kneel. 

Let’s take this in order.  First, you worship which your lexicon tells you is shachah which means to fall prostrate, that is spread eagle before God, then you bow down which sounds to me like bending over oriental style, and then you take a knee.  How many of us go through all those contortions when we worship?  I have never seen it done.  What I have experienced for the last many years is Stand, Strike up the Band, and Wave Your Hands.  We do the total opposite of what the verse is allegedly instructing us to do and that is assuming the position of submission which is to fall prostrate. Show respect by taking a knee and expressing humility by bowing. 

How in the world did we allow worship to become so topsy-turvy?  Ah, yes, tradition. Somewhere in the history of the church a revival broke out and someone lifted their hands, some jumped upstanding, so started dancing and the music started to take a rapid beat Chassidic style. Someone declared this is worship and as Kermit, the Frog sang, “Someone said, someone believed and look what it’s done so far. 

But you know what?  I’m cool with it. I don’t believe God is a stick in the mud, I like to believe that Jesus is right there in the midst of a Pentecostal meltdown, center stage with all the worshippers who are whooping and hollering, with His hands lifted dancing with the stars (literal stars that are). I also believe He is right there in the quiet, classical music, liturgical just sitting back soaking in all the peacefulness. But to expect people to follow a script that involves falling face down, bending knees, and bowing seems a little contrived.  Since I have never seen a worship service conducted with prostrate falling, bowing, and bending knees, in that order, I suspect like the commentators that this is all metaphoric to describe an attitude we should have before God.

An who is to say that the opposite of falling prostrate, bow, and taking a knee cannot also express the same thing. Standing is a sign of respect, lifting your hands has always been a universal sign of surrender and lifting your face toward heaven singing a song of praise is a demonstration of humility. So maybe God is not so interested in how we express our worship physically, but in how we express it from our hearts. Whatever physical manifestation comes out of our worship is acceptable to God so long as it is a heartfelt expression to God. 

But let’s look at these words that are used.  The word used in Hebrew in this verse for worship is nishetachaveh which comes from the root word shachah which your lexicon tells you means to fall prostrate.  Nikera’ah comes from the root word kara’ which means to bow down and niberekah comes from the root word barak which is rendered as kneeling.  Yet, barak is the commonly used for blessing. There seems to be quite a jump from blessing to kneeling but I can see it. 

However, let’s jump from these physical manifestations to expressions of the heart.  For instance, nishetachaveh is in a Hithpael imperfect form that means it is reflexive, that is you cause yourself to worship.  It comes from the root word shachah is an old Phoenician word for being surround by water. Phoenicians were sea-fearing people and when someone fell overboard and landed in the sea he was surrounded by water and was said to shachah.  In some of these cop movies when the suspect is surrounded by officers with guns, he is ordered to lay on the ground, spread eagle while they put the cuffs on the old boy.  That kind of expresses worship where you just make yourself totally vulnerable before God in complete surrender so that He can surround you with his presence and take you captive into His heart.  I often call it swimming in the presence of God.   You can’t escape from the water until someone throws you a life rope and pulls you in so you might as well enjoy the swim and do a backstroke while waiting. 

The word kara rendered as bow down literally means to limit your height. The word was used when someone would drink water.  In Ancient times you almost always had to bow to drink water.  Even if you drank water from a cup, what do you do?  You watch a preacher when his throat gets dry, he stops preaching, picks up a glass of water and for a moment he takes his eyes off the audience and bends his head to the glass to sip the water. Kara, does not have to be a bow, but just a momentary pause from what you are doing, taking you eyes and thoughts away from the immediate situation and just focusing on God for a moment to sip his refreshing Living Water. 

Finally, we come to barak which only by context is rendered as taking a knee. But barak is a blessing.  To bless someone is to do something favorable for that person. You are literally putting that person above you for a moment as you give of yourself.  When we bless God it is like taking a knee.  We are showing respect to honor Him.  You take a knee at a gravesite to honor that person and his family. The family is blessed that you would bend a knee to that person.  I watched a military funeral where the widow of the fallen soldier was sitting in a chair as the honor guard walked up to her with the folded American flag and then fell to one knee before her and handed her the flag.  I asked someone from the VFW if it were a proper protocol for the honor guard to take a knee before the widow or loved one to present the flag. I was told that there was no protocol for kneeling. The proper protocol is to extend the flat to the grieved one from the waist, whether doing this standing or kneeling is up to the discretion of the honor guard who usually chooses to kneel before the grieved as it is a sign of respect rather than hand the flag to her while standing.  I like that because in practically all the photos I see of the flag being handed to the grieved the officer is always kneeling, his choice.  I even saw one picture where the widow was standing and the officer kneeled before her and offered the flag.  That wasn’t from the waist but I doubt very much he was called on the carpet for that gesture which broke protocol. The point is, God looks on the heart not the outward appearance. If the heart is right I am sure He has no problem if we break protocol and swing from the rafters with the joy of the Lord. 

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