HEBREW WORD STUDY – PAIN AND SORROW – ‘ESTAB עצב Ayin Sade Beth

Proverbs 14:23: “In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips [tendeth] only to penury.”

The word used for labor is ‘estab which is not really your standard word for work or labor. The word that is often used for work or labor is ‘asah. If the writer wanted to express the idea of one who works or labors why did he not use a word which is closely related to labor. To use ‘estab for labor as we understand labor is like saying that all the work we do is very painful and unpleasant because that is the primary meaning of the word ‘estab, pain, sorrow, anguishing at a loss. I labor at my bus driving job, pushing wheelchairs, carrying groceries, driving in crazy Chicago traffic and just getting up in the morning to go to work is labor. Yet, it is not painful or full of sorrow nor anguish. Still, there is profit in that labor, I get a paycheck and pay my bills.

Practically every modern English translation I read renders ‘estab as work or labor. Then it says that all – that is the word kal which means all in Hebrew. All in Hebrew means all. Every bit or work we do has a profit. If I clean my dove’s cage every day, is there profit in that? The only pay I get from them is a coo and they don’t glare at me when I walk by. The word profit in Hebrew is mothar from the root word yathar which is a word for ropes that connect a tent peg to a tent or a ship to a dock and stretch out when the currents or winds pull on a tent or ship. It is a word for stretching. It gets the idea of profit from the idea that the rope surpasses the power of the wind, it is preeminent to the wind. Your lexicons say yathar means profit or gain but that is not in the sense that we consider the word profit or gain. Profit or gain in the sense of yathar is the profit or gain used for security.

Some people have accused me of profiting off my books and shame on me for making money from my books. To begin with profit on books is very small and if I did use the money for my personal benefit it would only go to pay my rent so I would not have to cut financial corners elsewhere like needed repairs on a ten-year-old car, cheaper groceries, etc. Even then I would not consider my royalties from my books as profits according to my definition of the English word profit. This person accusing me of profiting off my books was likely thinking I was using the money from my books to buy a luxury items like a Tesla. I would consider myself profiting just living in a neighborhood where people own a Tesla. The simple fact is the money I make from my books is not even yathar. Every dime goes back into the ministry as well as a lot of the money I make driving a bus. So there is no profit in any definition of the word from my books.

The standard word for profit in Hebrew ya’al which is to earn above your normal expenses. There is another word for profit which is batsa which is an unjustly gained profit, like selling the Brooklyn Bridge. Then you have yathar, a word used in this verse for making a profit to gain the security that is to pay your bills. Yet, I labor every day on my books doing research, writing, marketing all those other things involved in writing and selling books and I gain no ya’al, batsa or yathar – profit. Does not the verse say all has profit? Ha, I proved that verse to be false at least according to the English definition or understanding of profit.

However, I understand why the translators use the word profit as the context clearly teaches that without labor you will gain no profit just as the simple talk will result in no penury, an old English word for poverty. That is not true either. Talk show host make a decent profit or living. The word talk in Hebrew is patayim which is idle talk. Talking about all the business ventures you plan to enter into but never doing it.

So, I don’t fault the translators for using the English word labor for ‘estab as it clearly fits the context. Yet when I read the works of rabbis and sages they do not hesitate to use the common meaning for ‘estab which is pain, suffering, and sorrow. There is a profit from sorrow, pain, and suffering that leads to future security. As anyone in the military will tell you. The pain and suffering of their initial training give them a little more security when they go to battle. As any professional athlete will tell you, without the pain and suffering of their work to strengthen their body and their skills, they will never have any security on that playing field.

I believe this verse is really saying that without even enduring the problems, sorrows, and disappointments of everyday life we will not have the strength to face greater difficulties that will result in greater security. Put another way, it is the old saying: Without failure, we cannot succeed. I remember as a child in grammar school when our nation’s space program was not getting off the ground. Our rockets kept exploding. I had a teacher who said; “Every rocket that fails is the step to future success for the scientist know that they can learn from each failure.

It is the way God designed us, we must go through difficulties to learn how to survive. We are not run to God every time a problem comes with; “Oh, Lord get me out.” But with: “Oh, Lord help me learn and grow from this problem and if there is nothing to learn or grow from, then get me out.”