HEBREW WORD STUDY – ENGULF AND DESTROY – BALA בלא
BALA: “Engulf and destroy”
Exodus 7:12: “For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.”
Archeologists have discovered that the cobra played a vital role in Ancient Egypt. Cobra heads were carved from gemstones and worn around the neck as a necklace. Cobra amulets were formed into rings and hammered into precious metal armbands and bracelets. To wear such an amulet was believed to protect the owner from snakebites. The cobra was worshipped as the goddess Ua Zit or better known as Wadjet (the Green One) whose primary role was to be the protector of the Pharaoh. She was the serpent goddess of Justice, time, heaven and hell. This old gal carried a lot of clout. Along with the goddess Nekhbeth the white vulture they were the protector of all of Egypt. The rods that were carried by the magicians most likely were carved images of the goddess Wadjet or a cobra.
Whether these rods were real cobras controlled by the magicians or were just carved images that the magicians performed some illusion, we can never really know. The word rod in Hebrew is matteh which in its Semitic root has the idea of reclining, falling down, resting or throwing down. From this idea, the word is used for a walking stick to keep a person from falling and also as a scepter which is a symbol of the power of the gods that fell upon and rested on the bearer of the matteh. In Moses’s case, his staff was a matteh, a symbol of the power of God Jehovah. Thus, this became a challenge of the gods against God Jehovah.
The word swallow in Hebrew comes from middle Egyptian word bala which means to engulf surround and/or to destroy by engulfing something very quickly. A bala is like pouring acid on a tablecloth and watching it dissolve or destroy the tablecloth. It happens so quickly it looks like it is eating the cloth up. The snakes turned back into rods and then Moses’s rod bala, engulfed and destroyed the rod of the magicians, their rods disappeared before their very eyes, into nothing, not unlike their goddess of protection Wadjet.
Maybe the time has come for us believers to start throwing our rod, or scepters down to demonstrate the power of Jehovah and allowing it to bala, engulf or destroy the scepters of the powers of this world.
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