HEBREW WORD STUDY – ENCHANTED

HEBREW WORD STUDY – ENCHANTED – CHARASH חרשׁ  

Zephaniah 3:17: “The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty.  He will save, He will rejoice over you with joy.  He will rest in his love, He will joy over you with singing. 

For me, this verse is the best expression of God’s love in the Old Testament.  I mean read this carefully.  He is saying that He will rejoice over us with joy, He will rest in His love, He will joy over us with singing.  This description caused me to think back to when I was teaching in Middle School and I had a student, a little ninth grade girl who had her first love.  A normally attentive student I had difficulty keeping her on target. She would just drift off onto Cloud 9 and I swear even sigh.  I was teaching English and the class had to write a poem. You can guess what she wrote about.  It was a little dorky but for a thirteen-year-old, it came from the heart: 

When he looked at me

I was happy, so happy

I was happy in my happiness

I sang to him in my heart

I sang to him a song of love

A love song from my heart.

And then he touched me 

His touched enchanted me

And I fell into nothingness.

I gave her an “A” (promising not to read it to the class) although I was a little concerned with this nothingness business. Looking over my glasses I asked: “I assume you have never been drunk.”   If I wasn’t the teacher I am sure she would have slapped me. 

But look at her poem, it bears a striking resemblance to Zephaniah 3:17.  It is almost like God is a giddy little school girl experiencing his first love.  Note my little student’s words “his touch enchanted me.”  We can get away with that word enchant in a love poem for we know it means that her love for this young man had totally captivated her like he has put a mystical spell on her, but she and the reader know no such thing happened.

Let me ask you a question, what in the blazes does it mean when God says He will rest in His love?  This phrase is a very troubling one for translators. You see the word in Hebrew for rest here is charash which in its root meaning is very troubling in the context of this verse. Yet, it makes perfect sense when put into a proper context.  You see the word charash is used in extra-Biblical literature for enchantment or bewitchment.  Those are not words we like to associate with God. I mean in its literal sense the English word enchanted and bewitched implies putting a spell on someone. We obviously do not put a spell on God. However, if we trace this word charash to its Semitic origins it does not really imply a real spell but the idea of being so taken with an object or person that you become obsessed with them.  In other words, the word charash would better be rendered as an obsession.  So we could say: “He will rejoice over you with joy.  He will be obsessed with His love for you, He will joy over you with singing.” But just between you and me, I like to use the word enchanted:  “He will be enchanted with His love for you.”

You see God just loves to be in love.  Just like my little student, and like you, me and any other human being.  We love to be in love. Never forget we are created in the image of God and He is the granddaddy of romance who loves to be in love and when we return that love, he is like my little student, charash, enchanted. Have you told Him lately that you love Him?  It will just thrill the daylights (charash) out of Him.