Hebrew Word Study – Mother’s Womb – Bateni – בטני Beth Teth Nun Yod

Job 3:10: “For it did not shut up the door to my mother’s womb, nor did it hide misery from my eyes.”  

“We have met the enemy and it is us.”  Pogo

Here is a simple lesson in Hebrew grammar.  First, in the Hebrew there is only male and female, no neuter.  In English, we would say it. In Hebrew, you would have to say either he or she although just because you call it a she does not mean that it would be female.  A rock is feminine, but it does not mean that a rock is female. We have some cross-overs in English.  A man may look at a car and say: “Ain’t she a beut’” A car is neither a male nor female but we use the pronoun she anyways.    

You look at the context of this verse and ask yourself, who or what is the it that does not shut up the door.   Job is clearly talking about the day of his birth, which is neither male nor female, so we translate this as it.   

Next, we get to the womb.  This is more difficult because in the Hebrew the word womb (baten) in not followed by any Hebrew word to suggest a mother. Mother is only assumed by the translator.  Yet, you have the personal dependent pronoun my attached to the word womb. Obvious it cannot be Job’s womb’s for he can not birth himself, and besides that, he is male and has no womb. Why did the Hebrew not put the word mother in there? Christian translators easily say, “Well it is quite obvious that if Job is speaking of his birth, it would  have to be his mother, so the intent of the passage is to say “mother’s womb” and it just left the obvious out.”  That is all fine and dandy but the word baten does not have to be rendered as womb it could mean the innermost part of one’s being or even one’s heart.  But the translator would argue that the context clearly shows that this is speaking of birth so we would use the word womb.  There is another problem, the word baten or womb is in a masculine form.  Back to round one, just because something is masculine does not mean it is masculine in the Hebrew. 

Hence you have practically every English, Christian translation translating this as “it did not shut up the door to my mother’s womb.”  There are a couple of translations that are bold enough to hedge their bets and translate this as the womb rather than mother’s womb,  recognizing that the word mother is not in the Hebrew text.  However, neither is the article the in the Hebrew text either.

Still, this is a very good scientific, Western, Greek cultural approach.  However, the Jewish sages (theologians) were not Western, Greek culture.  They have no problem using He rather than it for ultimately it is God who created the day that Job was born. As far as the personal pronoun goes, the sages would say there is a reason why the word mother is not in the Hebrew.  The reason is that God wanted to show a second hidden meaning.  The lack of the word mother shows a hint, a remez, which should prompt you to seek out that hidden meaning.  Yes, our Western Greek cultural Christian translators have it right, but they close the door (no pun intended) to another hidden meaning. 

Let’s simply use another use for the word baten which is one’s innermost being or his heart. Does it fit?  Yes, it does. Try this on for size: “He did not shut up the door to my heart.”  Look at the rest of the verse and see how it fits: “nor did he hide misery from my eyes.” The word misery is a word used for labor. We call the birthing process labor pains and indeed that is the poetic intent here, but it is also a reference to the misery that Job is going through – double meaning.   

The sages see this not only as a reference to its literal meaning but it also has the hidden message that Job is saying:  “God, you have not shut up my heart, it is still open to you even through I am going through all this misery.”   

There is a very important lesson here.  God may choose to put us through a difficult or trying time, but, like Job, God doesn’t shut the door to our heart, it is still open to him, if our heart closes to Him in difficult times, it is us and not him who shuts it.  As Pogo said: “We have met the enemy and it is us.”  If you are going through a difficult time don’t shut your heart to Him. 

The stated mission of Chaim Bentorah Ministries is to lead the believer to the heart of God.  The first step is to never shut your heart to Him, for that is how He speaks to us, from His heart to our heart.  When you enter His heart His voice gets very loud and tends to shut out the misery outside.

Yes, once again I cannot help but quote that old Hymn, “When nothing else could help, love lifted me.”  Only when your heart is open to God can He open His heart to you and when He does you are allowed to enter and you will find that Heart filled with the Love of God and it will lift you from any miser, just ask old Job.

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