Hebrew Word Study: The Government Will Be Upon His Shoulders
Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government will be upon His shoulders.”
With the advent of worship teams, church choirs are starting to become an endangered species, if they are not already extinct. That is good and bad in certain ways. For me, it is good in the sense as I no longer have to endure Christmas or Easter Cantatas. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with some quasi-classical cantata musical score running through my head. One such score came from a Christmas Cantata I endured as a child that comes to haunt me many times in the middle of the night. It is a musical score where the choir keeps repeating Isaiah 9:6 and the phrase; “And the government will be upon His shoulder.” Only they do it in a halting voice like some opera or bad movie musical you know where they emphasize each syllable and the gov—er—ment—will – be—etc. Sort of like they hiccup their way through it. Not only would the whole choir do it together but then each group singing their musical part would do it, the tenor, the bass, then the baritones, etc. They finally work their way down to various soloists singing in a falsetto voice and the gov-er-ment-will-be-…
Last night as the Christmas season came to an end, I re-read the Christmas story including Isiah 9:6. At about 3:00 in the morning, I woke up thinking I had the hiccups only to realize I was being haunted by that nightmarish Cantata I heard so many years ago as a child and the choir singing the government shall be upon His shoulder part. I figured, “that’s it.” So I got up and began to do some research to see if I could find some redeeming message in that government upon His shoulder bit, other than the fact that the government gave Jesus a hard time while he was on the earth?
Then I started wondering, “Just what makes us think that phrase has to mean the government gave Jesus a hard time?” For one thing, it really does not fit the context and another when you look at the word for government in the Hebrew, you find the word is sarah which only has some obscure use as government. As one rabbi once said, “Christian translations of the Jewish Bible tend to do a lot of editorializing.” Such is the case here with the Hebrew word sarah. In its Semitic root, sarah really has the idea of protecting someone or fighting for someone. In a sense, I suppose, that is the purpose of a government, but do we have to really translate it as government?
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The phrase sarah (government) being upon one’s shoulder is an expression that is used in the Near East in the climax of a marriage ceremony. Even today it is practiced in some Semitic cultures. However, it is a common practice in a Jewish wedding that is familiar to most of us. In a Jewish wedding ceremony, a veil is always used to cover the face of the bride. Removing the veil is the most dramatic moment of the wedding. It is the climax and probably the most romantic part of the wedding ceremony. The bride will walk around her groom three times. It is believed that the groom is closest to God during this time as his future wife’s role will be to serve as a gateway to God. In fact, people often slip a prayer request to the bridegroom to offer up to God at this time. You see it is believed that a male child receives instructions about the Torah, the laws of God, from his parents as he is going through childhood. However, when he becomes an adult and has the laws of God down pat, he is ready to leave his parent’s instruction and be married to a woman who will replace his parent’s role as teachers and take the role of instructing him in his love relationship to God by teaching about the love and mercy of God. When the bride circles her groom three times it is to declare that his bride will teach him three things about God as found in Hosea 2:21-22. She will teach him of the righteousness and justice of God by being righteous and just before him. She will teach him of the love and mercy of God by loving him and being merciful to him. Finally, she will teach him of the faithfulness of God by being faithful to him. She circles her bridegroom as the circle is the picture of eternity and thus she is declaring that she will be betrothed to him forever to demonstrate what God promised to us in Hosea 2:21 that He will be betrothed to us forever. Then the bridegroom will remove the veil from the bride’s face and throw it over his shoulder. In this gesture, the groom is making a public declaration that the government of his bride will be upon his shoulder. In other words, it will be his honor and privilege to now be her protector and provider. He will protect her heart and provide all the love and affection that God created her to desire just as God has placed within us the need for love and affection from Him which He has promised to provide. It is also a demonstration of the fact that we are to be God’s protector and provider. That is to protect His heart and provide Him with all the love and affection that He longs for from us.
I believe that is what Isaiah 9:6 is conveying to us, not that the Messiah will have a difficult time with the governments of the earth, but that he will throw the veil of his bride over his shoulder signifying that he will be the protector and provider for His bride, which is us and His church. By dying on a cross and rising from the dead, He will defeat the sin that keeps us from consummating our marriage to Him and he will remove that veil from our face and throw it over his shoulder signifying that He will protect our hearts and love us for all eternity.
Now, at least, if I should awaken to the sounds of this really bad musical score running through my head, and listen to that choir hiccup it’s way through the government shall be upon his shoulder routine, I can find some real comfort in being reminded that God has voluntarily taken on the role of being my provider and protector. Not a bad thought to have in the middle of the night.
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Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
I’m the opposite of you in regards to music Chaim. I heard Led Zeppelin, and King Crimson in about eighth grade, and that was it. I never liked the Stones, and bands that only sang about girls and getting out of jail. I liked the songs that told of the end times, and God, like 20th century Schizoid man, The Eve ofDestruction, and Karn Evil Number 9. Songs by Sting, Triumph, Kansas, Yes, Wishbone Ash, ELP, Jethro Tull, and some songs by others.
But I can’t listen to oldies stations because most of the songs aren’t nice!
I love Classical music as well.
I’ve heard great classical and choral music in my dreams, that seemed to come straight from heaven. I’m fact, in the choral one, the Lord stored the music, and asked me what I was waiting for.
What?
Write it down, it is your message.
Oops!
I had said to my wife, just that day that the church page in the local paper could have been better. The message was good, but the writing?
Funny thing. The message of the song was the same message!
I spent a week trying to write that song. I don’t write music. It came out terrible, but the lesson was learned. Everyone has a unique way to express.The message that they are given.
Oh. Another lesson. Humility.
I totally agree with you, Ken (actually Chaim agrees too) Trying going on a road trip with him, lol. We’ve agreed to only listen to podcasts!
thank you for these magnificent insights. However I question your assumption that Mary didn’t have a midwife to help her give birth to Jesus. The conventional Christmas play has Mary arriving on the donkey about to go into labor and she and Joseph find a miserable little shed.Luke 2:6-7. But is the following not plausible? “while they were in Bethlehem for the census, probably surrounded by many female relatives, there wasn’t any room in the upstairs guest room for a woman to be laboring so someone swept the area where the animals were sheltered, so she could have some privacy. In our day this would be like the whole clan had come to visit so the garage was cleaned out and that’s where the baby was born”
I agree with Howard. Strong’s 4951 is misrah or government. 5628 is sarah which means to spread, hang, or sprawl (a verb not a noun).
I’m sorry you don’t appreciate the Hallelujah Chorus from George Frederic Handel’s MESSIAH….
It was not Handel which I do appreciate, it was some obscure Christian composer who wrote the cantata for small church choirs. I doubt the unskilled and untrained voices of the little Baptist choir could have really done justice to Handel.
Oh what a beautiful picture of our loving Father and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for your continued work in teaching me to look deeper, be hungrier and continue loving the Word of God. You have richly blessed me today. 🙏👏
Not a bad thought at all. Excellent description as always.
Plus, your sense of humour is simply spicy😃
That was Awesome!! I love these Hebrew word studies you do. Thankyou, that was right on! Bless you, I learn so much from these, and your books and online courses
Looking through the lexicons the word you use for government is “sarah” but they all use the מִשְׂרָה
or misrah which means dominion. In the Reader’s Digets version of things your beautiful picture and use is somewhat true in that in the covenantal relationship (whether in marriage or God) offers the weaker party things they cannot obtain on their own (protection, provision etc). but the jump seems a bit broad. Tell me please where do you get the translated word sarah?
Sarah is the root word from which misrah is derived.
Sarah is the root word Sine, Resh Hei. all root words in Hebrew are three letters. The Mem is a preposition indicating the preposition from. Translators say upon as that fits their English version better. Someone commented it is a noun and not a verb. Actually all root words are verbs but contextually they can be a noun.
I only say this as one needs to really have a little background in the ancient Hebrew (prior to the Masoretic text) to really understand the lexicon. It is not a deep understanding of grammar but some simple basic rules and principles to make sure you do not mix up English grammatical terms with Hebrew grammatical terms. There are some differences between Hebrew nouns, verbs, participles etc. from the Enlglish noun, verbs and participles etc.
If you do use a lexicon without a background in Hebrew grammar I really suggest the analytical lexicon by Davidson (who was Jewish). In that lexicon Davidson shows that misarah root is sarah.
Shalom Rav Teacher, I’m so grateful to The Father for you and your gift of interpretation of scripture. We have been robbed by misinterpretation and false teachings. The Scripture says know ye the truth for the truth shall make you free. Thank you for being a source where we can get the true meaning of Scripture. Blessed is he that has eyes to see and ears to hear.. This scripture makes sense now!
Thank you for sharing this! I had sometimes wondered if ‘the government shall be upon His shoulder’ perhaps needed some more information/background. It seemed there should be more. What an amazing picture this is! Thank you.
During the millennium, the government will be upon Jesus’ shoulders. To me that is the logical & obvious reference.
I was chuckling to myself as I read..with your child- like description! Oh my..what we all have endured at the hand of legalism and lack of knowledge.
Thank you for your hunger for truth prompting a of uour readers to go to the word mining for truth.
This touches my heart so deeply, I can hardly express it in words. Thank you for giving the Judaic wedding understanding. I can never learn or know enough of things like this!!! The more I learn of His love for us, the more awe and love grows in my heart for Him. I thank Him, and you, with my whole heart, for all your years of learning, and for your heart that loves to share that with us.
I really enjoyed this lesson!!! Thank you for writing all of these word studies.
Sometimes after reading a Chaim Bentorah Word Study, I find myself in awe, immobile except for a side to side motion of my head and a slow smile of happy realization blooming on my face. It’s a glorious moment, arriving at a new understanding of a Biblical passage or word that brings to greater light the love Christ has for me.
Thank you, Dear Teacher, for sharing what your studies unveiled.