Hebrew Word Study – A Mother – ‘Im   Aleph Mem

Judges 5:17: “The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.”

You read the commentaries on this passage and they are all over the place. They really do not know how to render the word parazon which the KJV renders as villagers.  Some say it was the judges who ceased, some say the authorities, the leaders, the peasantry nobody really knows. The context clearly says that someone ceased such that no one was willing to stand up against the Canaanites. The word cease is shaqam. This means to withdraw or retreat. To cease from fighting. 

Ancient warfare involved occupying the conquered land.  To maintain control they forced the inhabitants to adopt their culture and their religion. The religion of the Canaanites was idolatry. Biblical Archeologist believe this pagan religion was a form of satanic worship.  As we can see from the satanic cults today, they basically spend their time counterfeiting God and blaspheming the name of God. 

The people/leaders or whoever the parazon were would not stand against this. They just tucked their tails behind them and slithered off to hide under yon rock from whence they came. No one had the courage to stand up for God, just like King Saul and his army were too fearful to standup to one Philistine who mocked the name of God. That is until one young shepherd boy, with no military training by the name of David got so riled up over the insults thrown out to the God he love that he decided that if no one else in the Israelite army would take a stand, he would and he did and ended up loping off the head of Goliath. 

So here we are a few generations earlier and Israel is being harassed by the Canaanites, being forced to submit to their culture and their gods. Except one woman. Now in Semitic story telling the name of a character is usually metaphoric. This woman’s name was Deborah which means bees. Obviously, this was not the gentle honeybee who stings you once and then dies.  This is more like the hornets or yellow jackets who keep on stinging you until you somehow figure out how to avoid them.  I recall years ago I was raking some debris under a fruit tree. I accidently and unintendedly uncovered a nest of yellow jackets.  I mean no amount of excuse me’s and I’m sorry’s would satisfy them. They stung me on my face, my neck, they swarmed over me and crawled up my shirt sleeves and stung me on my arms and crawled up my pant legs and stung me where it hurt the most. I went running to the house screaming and they followed me all the way to the door where I managed to get in and slam the door shut as they flew against the door knocking themselves out trying to get to me. The few that managed to follow me inside carried on a suicide mission until I had killed everyone of those buggers. 

That describes Deborah, she was an aroused bee and took her stand when everyone else retreated. Now what was it that aroused her?  Well, there is more to her name. Deborah comes from the root word dabar which is speaking from your heart.  Note how this verse is worded: “… until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.” That is a strange wording with the word arose repeated two times. She is giving two motivations for her arousal.  One is her name sake, Deborah or speaking from my heart. Her motivation came right from her heart. Well, that still does not tell us the reason other than the reason coming from her heart. The Canaanites did something that broke or offended her heart like David’s heart was offended when Goliath mocked the God he loved.  

The Bible does not say that she was motivated by God being mocked. That is just an assumption by the commentators.  There was one other thing she mentioned, however, that really got her goat.  She was a mother in Israel. She wasn’t just a mother but a mother in Israel. Some translations render this as for Israel to follow their interpretation that this mother business is a metaphor. She was a mother to Israel.  That might be true, but the Bible does not use the preposition for it uses a Beth which means in or on.  Israel means prince of God. She was a mother and she was not going to let her little princes and princesses be turned over to this pagan, satanic government. The Canaanites may have buffaloed the other Israelites and they may have run and hid, but for Deborah, this was a matter involving her children and they did not intimidate her, they just aroused momma bear and you don’t want to get momma bear angry. 

Yes, she was a prophetess, that was true. She was a woman of faith. That is also true. She may have been a judge, that is also true. She might have been married to Barak, a general and warrior. We are not sure who her husband was, some Bible scholars believe it was a fellow named Lappidoth, as she is describe in Judges 5:4 as “a woman of Lappidot.”  Some Biblical scholars say Lappidoth and Barak were the same person. Still, we really don’t know. However, but this one thing is clear, she declares that she was an ‘im – a mother. An ‘im in Hebrew is a young woman raising young children. 

Now the general rule of thumb is that if there is no logical explanation for something in the Bible then examine it as a possible metaphor. However, it the most logical explanation fits, use it and consider the metaphor as a secondary interpretation.  To me the logical explanation fits that she when she called herself a mother she was saying she had little children to care for and use this as a reason why she, a woman would assume a role that would traditionally go to a male. No man was willing to step forward and someone had to speak for her children, she was a mother, so she broke tradition and bravely took her stand against the enemy for the sake of her children.

I don’t see why that is so hard to accept. I mean look at what is happening today in our country. School boards are introducing things to children that does not fit our Judeo-Christian beliefs and could very well be satanic.  No Christians, politicians, men or leaders appeared to take a stand so one day some mothers had all they could take, they were tired of waiting for their leaders to do something so they themselves stood up.  These school boards poked a stick at momma bear and boy they arouse a swarm of angry bees. So much so that that there was  even an attempt to have these mothers listed with the FBI as domestic terrorist. 

You see if nobody is going to do anything then God may just have to rise up His momma bears.  Now, I not a betting man but if I were I would bet the house that they will get results.  

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