Hebrew Word Study – I Will Bless Them – Ani ‘Evavakem  –  אֲנִ֖י אֲבָרֲכֵֽם   Aleph Nun Yod   Aleph Beth Resh Kap Mem 

Numbers 6:24-27- “The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: (25) The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: (26) The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. (27) And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.”

Numbers 6:24-26 is known as the Aaronic or Priestly Blessing.  This is not just a Jewish thing, you often hear this blessing in many churches and denominations.  It is so common in fact that we barely even notice it. It is just one those rituals that a church service ends with. You know like a benediction where the pastor or priest raises his hands and speaks some pretty words like; “And now to the God of Jeroboam, Rehoboam, Jehosaphat and all his phat and all them other phat boys – Amen!”  It is just another way of saying; “Ok, you’ve endured an hour of all this ritual, God is happy, so now you can go home be yourselves again.” 

Let me direct your attention to the verses prior to this priestly blessing starting in Numbers 6:22: “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,”  Well now if the Lord spoke to Moses wasn’t He saying something?  Say, speak gets a little monotonous doesn’t it?  It doesn’t in Hebrew because you see the Hebrew word for spake in God spoke to Moses is vayedaver from the root word davar.  The word davar are words spoken from the heart, words that contain meaning and depth of feeling and emotion. 

The Vav in front of the word is a Vav conversive and the Yod in front of the Daleth indicates a imperfect inflection which is an uncompleted action  rendered in English as a future tense. “The Lord will speak.”  Only the Vav conversive changes it the to a perfect inflection which is a completed action and often rendered in English as a past tense.  So we could better understand the grammatical intention as “The Lord spoke His heart to Moses and said.”  The word said is a different word ‘amar which is just general conversation, chit chat, how ya doin’ type talk. Except the word has a holem after the Mem making it an infinitive. The infinitive intensifies the verb. Thus, God spoke to Moses from his heart with great depth of feeling and emotion in His voice. 

Now look at verse 23: “Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,’Speak unto Aaron..’”  Here the word for speak is again davar which is in a Piel Imperative form.  God is telling Moses:“When you pass this message unto your brother Aaron, make sure it is a strong command. You are to tell him this message in no uncertain terms and you must make sure it is coming from words that I have put in your heart, don,t sugar coat it with you own thoughts.  You convey exactly what I have put in your heart.” Then God says that: “You speak the words that I put in your heart unto Aaron and his sons saying.”  Here the word saying is again is a Qal infinitive like before.  “You tell them in no uncertain terms what my heart is saying in your heart.” 

What is Moses to tell them? “This is the way you shall bless the Sons of Israel  saying to them.” Here the word saying is ‘amore only the holem is in the form of a Vav.  That Vav makes this an infinitive absolute. In other words when Aaron and his sons bless the children of Israel this is not to be a benediction, hurried through, sign of the conclusion of a service.  It is to be delivered not in a hurried manner but with great concentration and with wholeheartedness.  In other words, this is not meant to be a “Well, thank ya all for comin’. You all come back now ya hear!”  These words that you deliver are a blessing, the culmination of the entire service that you have enjoyed and experienced. If you take anything home it is these final words;
“1. May the Lord Bless you and watch over you.

2. May the  Lord cause His countenance to shine upon you and favor you.
3. May the Lord raise His countenance toward you and grant you peace.”

Why do some translation says “may” and others don’t?

What does this blessing really mean? 

What does it mean for the Lord to bless you and watch over you?

Then note verse 27 where God say: “I will bless them?”  He just got done telling Moses to tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people. Who is doing the blessing?

These and other questions are answered in our video version of our In Depth Study which you will find on our All Access.  Consider joining us at www.hebrewwordstudy.com. 

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Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!