Hebrew Word Study – From the Rising Sun – Mizarch

Ps 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

I have always wondered about this verse.  How far is the East from the West?  I mean, when does East become West?   If you start walking East, you will always be going East. If you start walking West, you will always be walking West. Your compass will always point West if you are walking West.  For navigation purposes an arbitrary line has been chosen, known as the prime meridian.  The international standard is Greenwich in London.  This is the 180^th Meridian, where East becomes West.

Now there are political usages for the term. We talk of Eastern nations and Western nations.  This is determined by a socio-political standard.  We talk of a Westernized country.  Even though Australia is located in direct line with Eastern nations, it is considered a Western nation because of its economic, political, and religious considerations.

In Rudyard Kipling’s poem, The Ballad of East and West, he has a clever little saying: “East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”  It is sort of a play on the political as well as geological aspects of our terms, East and West.   Unlike the magnetic poles where North and South meet, East and West will never meet.

Ancient man had no real concept of the shape of the world, or of the magnetic poles; it is odd that this verse does say as far as the East is from the West and the North is from the South, so far has he removed our transgression for without a concept of the world being round you would assume North and South would never meet either and it would have made an interesting poetic couplet.  Still, it does present to the ancient mind, at least, that there is no meeting of East and West. If you go West, you will just keep going until you fall off the planet.  Ancient man would look at the sky, and if he looked off to his left, say East, he would see that vast universe heading off in that direction with no end.  Then he would look to his right, say the West, and he would see the vast Universe heading off into the West and in the words of Rudyard Kipling, the twain would never meet.

Thus, this is speaking in hyperbole to say that our transgressions will be removed such that there is no chance that you will ever meet up with them again.  They are removed heading West as you are heading East, and you will never meet up with them again.  The word far in Hebrew is rachaq which gives the idea of creating a distance between two objects.  In the Persian, the word represents the perfect wine.  Wine was much different in those days than today, and the ancients were always on a quest to find the perfect wine.  I suppose a true connoisseur of wine today will admit that he is on a quest to find the perfect wine. Of course how do you know it is the perfect wine if you have never tasted the perfect wine?  Hence the quest is endless because you have no way of determining if a wine is perfect; you can only say it is the best or choicest wine.  Just as it is impossible for the East to meet the West or for there to be a perfect wine, it is impossible for our transgressions to be heaped upon us once God has removed them.

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