HEBREW WORD STUDY – GETTING SPOILED – YITE’ABER יתעבר Yod Taw Ayin Beth Resh
Deuteronomy 3:24-26: “O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God [is there] in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? (25) I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that [is] beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. (2But the LORD was enraged with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.
We have all learned in Sunday School and from our preacher’s sermons that because Moses got angry with the people and struck the rock with his rod to bring forth water God got angry with him and refused to let him enter the Promised Land. Talk about a raw deal. Here Moses who was faithful to God, who obeyed God, who endured the experience of freeing his people from Egypt, leading hundreds of thousands of his people across a desert and then endured 40 years of wandering the wilderness continually experiencing the pain, heartaches, and trials of leadership is now ready to enter the promised land and God says; “No, you blew it, you got angry at the people and struck that rock in anger. Now I am angry and I am not going to let you enter the land, you will not get a comfortable retirement, you will not see the land you work so hard to enter, so there put that in your pipe and smoke it.”
Indeed, Deuteronomy 3:24-26 seems to bear this out as Moses pleads with God arguing that he has only begun to see God’s greatness. “Give me a break so I can see your even greater work.” But verse 26 tells us that God would have none of it, and would not even listen to him and was ordered to not even speak of the matter of entering the land again. Wow, talk about harsh parenting. “That is my decision don’t even mention it again.” I mean this is one God you don’t want to mess around with.
Every translation I read renders the words hachiloth as begun and yite’aber as enraged, anger, wroth. The lesson that the church seems to try to get across is: “See their children you can faithfully serve God all your life, but, boy, you mess up just once and He will squash you like a bug. And don’t try to flatter Him with how great He is, it won’t work.” I mean where is all this chasad – mercy that I keep hearing about. Surely a man who walked with God sat before the face of God, talked with Him face to face as a friend talks to a friend would be shown some mercy, forgive him and allow him a comfortable retirement in the land he worked so hard to reach.
I believe God was showing his mercy it is just the church’s traditional rendering of hachiloth – begun and yite’aber – anger that keeps us from seeing it. You see hachiloth is not you normal word for begin. It is berishith. In a very remote sense does hachiloth mean beginning. It comes from the root word chalal which means to profane, pollute, desecrate or defile or to treat as common. Only when in a Hiphal or Hophal form does it carry the sense of a beginning but a beginning to pollute or make something common.
Would you like Chaim Bentorah as your personal Hebrew teacher?
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I believe the dynamic that is going on is that God is saying: “I have made my powers and greatness to you seem commonplace. You take it for granted and you started to become careless and you are slipping up, we cannot have that when we enter this next phase of the journey. You’ve outgrown your usefulness here on earth, I spoiled you, let me take you home to be with me where you can really enjoy your retirement.
“Oh,” you say, “but my Bible says God was angry with Moses.” The word anger is aneph. The word used in this passage is yite’aber from the root word ‘abar to take away or to cross over, to emigrate, leave one’s territory. I have never read, except here, where it is used for anger. The translators simply assume that God is passing over Moses’s promotion to the Promised Land because He is angry with Him. You can get anger from the idea that ‘abar also means to vanquish someone and you don’t vanquish someone unless you are angry with them. But Moses is being vanquished to heaven. I believe this should be rendered not as: “But the Lord was angry with me for your sakes but the Lord yite’aber me, that is: “The Lord wanted to emigrate me to heaven for your sakes.”
You know there is a flip side to our Christian walk. Some people just do not have the faith to speak to the rock to bring forth water, they need to see that rod in action. But then there are those who have walked with God for so long, enjoyed such a close communion with God, an intimacy with God that they can speak to the rock to bring forth water, only they are spoiled and they get impatient and angry with Christians because they just don’t believe and you have to resort to the old faithful rod to strike the rock and bring forth water.
Even if you are an old, established believer who has walked with God for years, seen God’s power, experienced one answered prayer after another. There is a danger, you become spoiled and soon have no patience for those young believers who think that it is the rod, the church attendance, tithing that brings God’s blessing. You begin to mock their immaturity and even get impatient and angry with them. Maybe the Lord is telling you yite’aber, you’re getting spoiled with my greatness, maybe for the sake of the young believers, you better off coming home.
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This is wonderful because it points us to our God who is merciful to the end and understands what we go through when we are not chosen by mankind to speak for God. I see Love too. Moses was chosen by God and interceded for people who could care less about the heart of God. They were not baby believers but the people God chose to reveal Himself to. Moses was not chosen by the men of renown but by God and he had to deal with so much. God knew. God was blessing him by taking him from these stiff-necked people who would only complain and end up dying in the wilderness. I have compassion for Moses.
Doing translations from the Aleppo Codex I find that I often come up with a different translation than the norm. As you pointed out, the norm usually takes the angry God stance, where I see a God wanting man to just open their eyes and realize that He is their creator
It isn’t a one time deal, it happens a lot.
very insightful
“The Lord wanted to emigrate me to heaven for your sakes.” YES YES YES !
” I bring him to Paradise, now, because,
1]
He had done the hardest jobs :
1) to lead the stiff-necked Jews to trust Me ,
2) to face death by negotiating an impossible favor Pharaoh,
3) to teach and guide the 1.5 millions Jews about following Me .
2]
I want to save him from all troubles from :
1) the little-faith Jews. ( 10 spies’words had frightened the whole nation to death ! )
{the MAJOR reason}
2) the wars{the minor reason}.
——–
By this revelation,the Lord is telling us this :
” My love for you is what I care more than
your sacrifice/service/ministry ,even your big mistake……”
Outstanding credible exposé! Thank you for sharing that with us. It certainly ameliorates the centuries-long meanness that we have imposed upon our loving God!
Could it also be that Moses was a type of messiah for the Jewish people to reveal YHWH’s character? Almighty God did not want His covenant ones to perceive His character as one of impetuous anger especially when Jesus came on the scene.
Thank you my Dear Teacher,
I realize that this commentary is an older one. Thanks for posting past lessons I hope that your readers from that time are safe and happy .
This passage reminds me of something that God Himself taught me . When I ask God for understanding or for something, He would often answer twice . There were two women that wanted to have babies, one could get pregnant but would lose it soon after .and the other couldn’t get pregnant I prayed for these women and in both cases they each gave birth to twins . One had twin boys and the other twin girls and they were healthy. There are many more times when God answered twice and I just recently came to understand why .
There are two stories in the Bible about Moses and the rock. One is in Exodus 17:6 the other is the one you are writing about and it is in Numbers 20:8-11 . I believe that God was upset over Moses because he took credit for getting the water and failed to give the Glory to God .
I believe that these two stories are prophetic and are about the Messiah and His death on the cross . Everything in these two stories is symbolic . The rock is Jesus, the water is the word of God . Moses is those who sit on the seat of Moses and the staff is the cross .May God Bless you all with His wonderful love!
Thank you for that 👍🏻
Wow. Thank you. Again!!! Absolutely love learning from you. Bless you.
Thank you so much for clarifying this. I just KNEW God wasn’t angry at Moses, but I never in all my years heard this clarification on the subject. God chose Moses and did all these awesome things with him for all those years. I love the Hebrew meaning for Moses’s faithful end.
Wow, most thought provoking insight on the scripture on seek and you shall find. Seeking a true meaning of the word in Hebrew. You have blessed me today! I so enjoy the research you have shared with your web sight. Thank you so very much.
Hi Chaim,
Your word studies & FB videos are always a true life changing blessing! No one can analyze the Word like you can. What a gift you have! Your ministry is healing my heart from the ravages of religion.
Thank you and God bless!
Hey Chaim, You have done it again. Turned what i have been taught for years on it’s head. But it also made me aware that in plus 3 score years and ten that I must be gentle and forgiving of those who are early in their journey of relationship to the Fathers heart. Thanks heaps keep up the insightful work.
God bless you Chaim Bentorah for exposing our beautiful God as LOVE, and not as the dictator God most believe in (or run from). I am enjoying your word studies very, very much. Thank you.
Very convicting and root-shaking. Thank you for not mincing your words!
WOW! Thank you for breathing new life and insight into this passage—definitely a fresh revelation for me.