ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – RICH IN LOVE –  DA’ATIR BARACHAMUHI 

דעתיר ברחמוהי  Daleth Ayin Taw Yod Resh   Beth Resh Cheth Mem Vav Hei Yod

Ephesian 2:4: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,”

If you look through the many modern English translations of this verse from the Greek you find many different renderings.  The word love is repeated two times in the original text and the word mercy is mentioned once.  Yet many of your modern translations use the English word love only once.  Maybe that is because it sounds redundant.  The literal translation is “And God being rich in kindness (mercy) because of his great love which he loved us.”  It does sound a little awkward to repeat the word love even though the text thought it was important. The first use of the word love in Greek is agape.  The second time love is used it is egapesen which comes from the same root as agape.  The word mercy is eleei which is your standard word for mercy in the Greek, it also means compassion.

The Aramaic shows something you will not see in the Greek or the English text.  For the words his great love, you have sagia chav.  Sagia is an Aramaic word for great, so great it is timeless, eternal. You could render this as His eternal love wherewith he chav us.  Chav is like Ahav in Hebrew it is the standard word for love, an unconditional love.

But what is he rich in not chasad which is mercy in the Hebrew or chavas  which is the Aramaic word for mercy.  Instead we have the word racham used in a pael form.  A pael is like the piel in Hebrew it intensifies. Racham is always used to express God’s love for us and when it is used it is in a piel in Hebrew or  pael form in the Aramaic.

Now we learned that in Psalms 18:1 we have the only case where racham is used to express the love between a man and God. This is used by David, but David only uses it in the Qal, simple verbal form.  He would not, could not use it in a piel form he knew his love for God fell far short of God’s love for him.

The word racham is a common word throughout Semitic languages although it is used sparingly in both the Old and New Testament.  It is rooted in the word for womb.  Racham expresses the love a mother has for the child while in the womb and the moments after it is born and she is holding the child in her arms.  She is so aware at that moment of how vulnerable the child is and how completely dependent the baby is upon her for protection, nourishment and love. She is so aware of her responsibility for this life that is looking up at her with love and dependence she is filled with a great emotion. That great emotion is racham.  That is what God feels as He holds us, the life that He created and when we look up to him in complete dependence for protection,  nourishment and love he feels what that mother feels only in a piel, pael intensive form.

We have all heard the stories of a young mother who agrees to give her baby up for adoption because she feels she cannot care for it.  Then when the child is placed in her arms she regrets her decision and even fights to keep the child.  We have all seen the grief and agony of a mother when her baby is taken away from her for whatever reason. We see it portrayed in movies and some of us has seen it in real life. The cry, the agony the weeping of that mother, that is racham a natural love and is a picture of God’s love for us. We have even heard where a mother is given a choice, if the baby is born she may die or she can abort that baby and save her life.  We have heard of mothers who will risk their lives to give birth to that baby – racham.

Oh but get this, it is just racham in a simple Qal verbal form.  It does not even come close to racham in a pael or piel form.  What does the Paul say about this amazing love, this love that we cannot even understand?  The Lord is rich in that love.  In Aramaic the word for rich is ataira which is a pressing toward a goal.  The Lord is pressing toward a goal. The goal is to be able to fill us with His racham in a pael or piel form. Picture that, God is pressing, struggling to just simply love us, become one with us in love in racham.

If God is so pressed with reaching this goal of filling us with His racham, then whose fault is it if He fails to reach that goal in us, in you?

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