HEBREW WORD STUDY – SAY DESTROY – YO’MAR HASHAMAD יאמר  השמד 

Deuteronomy  33:27 The eternal God [is thy] refuge, and underneath [are] the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy [them].

Deuteronomy 33:27 in our English translations gives the impression that we really worship a blood thirsty God and you sure do not want to get on the bad side of this God lest He thrust you out and destroy you.

The first thing I noticed about this verse is that it tells us  God will say. There are two words used in Hebrew that is rendered in English as say.  English translations regularly translate these words as simply say or speak yet, never show the subtle difference between these two words in Hebrew. 

I have spent the last forty years pondering over the differences between these two words, debar and ‘amar which are both rendered as speak or say.  One approach to understanding words in Hebrew is to recognize the culture behind the words. The Hebrews, as with others in the Semitic culture, were very much into relationships. Relationships were very important as people lived very closely with each other, shared scarce resources, depended upon each other for protection from outside enemies.  Thus, they would pick up on the subtle differences in relationships and this is reflected in their languages as it is in Hebrew.  Relationships are not as important in our Western culture as they are in a Semitic culture. When we read, for instance, in the passage In my Father’s house are many mansions (dwelling places) what we picture in our minds in Western thought are large southern plantation homes with pillars on the front porch where a husband and wife and two and half children live. In the Semitic mind they would picture the many room additions to their father’s house where all the kin folk lived under one roof, aunts, uncles, cousins, daughters-in-laws grandchildren etc.  These homes were pretty crowded and often everyone slept in one room and lived with each other closely together.  Humans are humans after all and you can bet there was a lot of relationship problems.  In the Western culture we can run away from these relationship problems and find our own little dwelling place alone, in ancient cultures they could not do this, you were stuck with each other and if you could not get alone, you learned to get along. If there was a problem of theft, assault, or even murder, there was no local police to call, if there was a fire there was no fire department, things had to be handled among each other you could not rely upon strangers in policemen or firemen uniforms to protect you.  So the Semitics were far more tuned into relationships than we are in our culture.  Thus, we take these words debar and ‘amar and simply call it say. Yet these words mean something very different to an ancient Semitic culture.

A husband may ‘amar (speak) with another woman, but he debars with his wife.  To debar with a woman not one’s wife would be adulterous.  Hence men in a Semitic culture would not even speak to a woman that was not his wife for fear of crossing that boundary.  You can ‘amar (say) to a woman that she is beautiful, or you can debar (say) to a woman that she is beautiful. English does not show the different, but the Hebrew does, for ‘amar is just general speaking but debar is speaking with your heart.  God can say, “you are my children.”  He can either just say it ‘amar or He can say it debar, with His heart. There is power when God speaks with His heart, or debar. 

The ancient Hebrews see something in Deuteronomy 33:27 that we in our culture just will not see. Why does the Bible not say that God will destroy our enemies or command us to destroy our enemies, instead, He says destroy them?   It is because when God says, destroy them, He is not using debar, but ‘amar.  He is giving the order to destroy the enemy, but His heart is not in it. This is not His heart’s desire, but in order to preserve the object of his passion, it is the last resort.  God is not some blood thirsty commando looking for a fight and the chance to kill, but He is that gentle artist seeking only to preserve the object of passion. If you are the object of His passion, He will destroy your enemy, but only as a last resort and don’t you for a second think His heart is in it or that He finds pleasure in it.