Hebrew Word Study – Difficult  – Qashah – Qop Shin Hei 

Deuteronomy 1:17b. “And the thing which is too hard for you, you shall bring near to me and I shall hear it.”The context of this passage is a message delivered by Moses who instructed the elders to judge matters of conflicts and bickerings that would arise among the people of Israel.  If a matter were too difficult to handle, they were to bring it to Moses who would hear it. Moses was sort of like the Supreme Court, the last train out of Dodge in matters of dispute.

There are some questions that come to mind when you read this verse. First, the word for thing is davar which is literally word, specifically words from the heart.   The Talmud teaches that this thing is the nominative to the predicate hard or qasah which means harsh, stubborn obstinate, and relates to an obstruction. In other words, “if this thing becomes an obstruction to hearing the voice of God.”  It seems this verse is trying to say that if the elders hear something that is very difficult such that they can n “ot discern the voice of God in the matter, they are to take it to Moses.  Note the word mekem rendered as for you.  Grammatically that does not belong here.  This is a separable pronoun, which does not add anything to this verse.  The syntax, as the sages teach, is that mekem is there to emphasize the point that the obstruction is in the elders.

You ever had a problem in your church and the pastor or an elder is called to mediate and somehow the conflict just goes South from there?  It is very easy to just say these people are impossible and maybe even be tempted to tell the person in the center of the conflict that it would be better if they worshiped somewhere else.  You may find a similar situation in your home or at work and you are in the middle. You soon reach that point where it is too qasah, hard, stubborn.  You are tempted to just crawl under yon rock and hide or even quit your job.   Consider what Moses is telling the elders.  If the problem is too stubborn mekem for you.  

Moses says to bring it to me and “I shall hear it.” The word for hear is shama which means to listen intently.  Why does he not say: “I will make it known.”  Moses does not say he will give them the answer, only that he will listen.  

The Talmud teaches that a person’s preoccupation with the physical world and desires will cause a wall of separation between himself and God causing him to be unable to hear the voice of God.  You see the conflicts that these elders were to deal with would ultimately be resolved through hearing the voice of God. But they become so personally involved in the conflict that they will not hear the voice of God. They become preoccupied with the earthly or physical matters and forget the spiritual matter involved.  So these elders had to step it up the ladder to Moses who would likely not be personally involved or what we say today as having a conflict of interest. We learn in earlier passages that the elders were to remove their shoes when they approached Moses.  This was not a sign of respect but a sign of removing oneself from all physical desires.  Then before Moses, they would hear the voice of God and learn God’s way of resolving the conflict.

Next time you find yourself with a conflict to mediate at home, work, or in the church, it might not be a bad idea to find yourself a Moses who is totally removed from the conflict, has no conflict of interest and spiritually removes your shoes or remove yourself from your physical desires.  In other words, your motives of self-interest in resolving the conflict like finding personal peace, getting rid of a personal headache, feeling more secure in your position or just getting revenge.  Then let your Moses listen to the matter and together come into agreement or Amen what you discern is the voice of God and what He is saying. Calling the person a jerk “in love” won’t fool anyone.

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