Hebrew & Aramaic  Word Study: “Hope Deferred” 

Proverbs 13:12: “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh it is the tree of life.”

The most common understanding of the verse is that unfulfilled desired brings pain to the mind, but the fulfillment of the desire brings gratification.  I don’t discount this, but I am curious as to the writer’s choice of words.

The word for hope here is yachal. There are a couple other words in the Hebrew which is rendered from hope such as kavah which is a hope of anticipation.  It is an expectation that is questionable as to its fulfillment, so you hope it is achieved. There is the word savar which is a hope that your investigation or inspection will achieve results.  Then there is yachal. This is rendered as hope but not in the sense that you are not certain of the outcome, but it is more of a waiting for something to happen as you work toward its fulfillment.  This is the word that I would render as imagination. If you are an architect  you will imagine a building, but you must wait for it to be designed on paper and then wait longer for it to be built.  The outcome of yachal is assured, but you must wait for it to find its fulfillment.

The word deferred comes from the root word mashak which is from the same root where the name Moses comes from and means to draw out. It is the idea of a protracted start, long enduring. Let’s go back to a building. Donald Trump imagined a building and owning the tallest building in Chicago. It took years to become a reality. There were times he almost gave up on his yachal hope. Over the years we would hear the project was on, then it was off, then it was on again. Today it stands as a reality, although not the tallest building in Chicago, it is still an architectural wonder.  This is a hope deferred a yachal or something imagined that took a long time to develop, build and become a reality.

Many times Donald Trump became heart sick over waiting for the building to become a reality but he clung to his dream or imagined it as it went through the process of getting approval, financing, permitting and building. The word sick is chalah which means to make weak, or weary.

Let’s take this to a more personal level. Do you have a prayer or promise that came from God, something that you are imagining and you know God is in it. You keep praying, believing, imagining but like Trump’s tower, you begin to grow weary and almost give up.  It makes your heart weak and weary.

These last words prove to be very interesting. There is a play on words here. The word for desire is t’avah. This not only means to long for or desire, it is also used for the word lust and object of desire.  It is also the same word used for wailing or and an expression of grief.  But, hey, let’s not quit there, the very same word is used for a sign or a miracle. This is a word used for the pain of giving birth.  You long for the birth but in the meantime, giving birth is a painful experience. The word cometh means to fulfill, so when this object of desire, this sign or miracle is fulfilled it is —- wait a minute, did I not say there is a play on words.  Here it is, the word comes from a similar root for a gazelle.  This is not so much the expression of the animal itself, that word is kitsevi in the Hebrew, but this word has the idea of the speed and swiftness of the gazelle. In other word the passage is saying that when your desire (miracle, sign) comes (and it will come swiftly), it is the tree of life.

Let’s take a look at the expression tree of life. Do not share this with your local rabbi, he will probably throw salt in the air, if not on you.  But the word tree otz has in its origin the idea of fallen. As trees grow old or face storms and winds they fall. Carpenters chopped down trees and they fall, which is most likely how the word in a noun form came to pick up the idea of tree from original verb fall. It later took on the form of wood and in the Aramaic by the time of Jesus’s day it also meant in a noun form a carpenter.  Now there is one slight difference between the tree of life in Genesis 2 and the tree of life in Proverbs. There is a definite article attached to the word life which is in a plural form in Genesis 2. Oddly, the word “otz” (tree) does not have an article nor is it in a plural form and if tree were an adjective it would have to also have a definite pronoun and be in a plural form or it should at the very least have a megeth attached. That is simply not there. You could and may translate it as The lives of a tree. Or how about the original use of the word otz and say The lives of the fallen one. Well that is another topic.

Anyway, the one difference between the tree of life in Genesis and the tree of life in Proverbs 13:12 is that there is no definite article. In other words it is rendered A tree of a life or a fallen one for a life. Extra Biblical literature sometimes uses this word otz (tree)  for a gallows or as a carpenter. Now tell me who was a carpenter who died on a tree to render lives. Jesus is our tree of life. When the object of our desires, miracle, or sign finally comes after we have become heartsick and almost given up hope or imagining; it turns out to be Jesus Christ Himself. Oh yes, also embodied in that word desire (a’vah) is an idea of healing our hearts which were sick, weary or weak, are healed by This Tree of Life.

I have to conclude as my Looking Glass is beckoning me to pay a visit Beyond the Daleth.

Chaim & Laura

Tonight in our Bible study we will be talking more about the Tree of Live:

Hope you can join us.

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