Hebrew Word Study – Weary – Ayeph – Ayin Yod Pei

Jeremiah 31:25: “For I have satiated the weary soul.”

“Sometime exhausted with toil and endeavor, I wish I could sleep forever and ever. But then this reflection my longings allay, I shall be doing it one of these days.”  Piet Hein

Satiated the weary soul. I am not too sure what it means to satiate a weary soul nor am I sure what a weary soul is but somehow that is exactly the way I feel. But for the sake of accuracy, I will examine just what a weary soul is and how it is satiated.

The word weary in Hebrew is ayeph which has the idea of weariness (big help), like a heavy weight, it is a picture of being thirsty and drinking your fill of water. It is also a picture of leather straps that have become so dried out that they are no longer flexible.  You need to saturate or ayeph them so they will become flexible.

This morning I tried to get out of bed but it was so hard. I was so burdened by the troubles of the day that lay ahead of me. I found during the night that Ayeph (weariness) had come to wake me up but he was so weary that he fell right on top of me and passed out.  The Ayin in Ayeph (weariness) was made of heavy iron and he had leather straps that were tightened around my legs like cuffs. The next letter of Ayeph (weariness) is the Yod who was also made of iron and he had collapsed around my neck and just hung around my neck by his leather straps. The last letter, Pei was a block of iron who had passed out from weariness and landed right on my back, somehow, his dry leather straps were tightened around me and kept me from bending (Ayin, Yod, Pei – weariness). Each letter weighed at least a hundred pounds and its weight made it so difficult to get up that I could not even shave or brush my teeth. “Come on, guys, give me a break,” I pleaded. “Can’t you just loosen your grip” “Oh, it is in great pain that I am” moaned Ayin, “Sorry,” grunted Yod, “Too pooped out” sighed Pei “The enemy came last night and tightened our leather straps around you and I am just too exhausted to loosen the straps. I am afraid I am just stuck on you until, yawn, I get more sleep. “Same with me” muttered Yod.”  “Here too” said Pei as he struggled to remove the strap from around my back but just gave up with a sigh.

I knew the only way to get Pei off my back as well as his friends Ayin and Yod, was to somehow crawl through my Looking Glass to find some way to get these leather straps loosened and thus remove Ayin, Yod and Pei (weariness).  I crawled toward my Looking Glass hanging from my Daleth as Ayeph (weariness) encouraged me with a “Heave, hoo! Heave hoo!” Crossing beyond the Daleth and through my Looking Glass I found things were even worse, I was in a desert. It was hot and I felt the leather straps getting drying and tighter. The leather strap that had Pei strapped to my back was wrapped around my chest and his leather strap was getting dryer and dryer from the heat and thus tighter and tighter. Now Ayeph (weariness) was making it hard to even breathe.

“Ayin,” I pleaded, “You represent insight; tell me which direction to head. “I’ll try,” gasped Ayin, “But I am only a shadow, and all I see are your problems. However, take a right – no, wait a minute, that leads to your financial problems, try the left – oops, wait a minute, that leads to health problems, why don’t you try….”   “Forget it,” I said, “Yod, you are just hanging around my neck.  You are supposed to be a messenger from heaven, is there any way you can provide some direction? “Yod sadly replied: “Normally, I would help you to see the world to come, but when I am part of the word weariness, I can only see the bad results of your problems.

In desperation, I turned to Pei and asked: “Pei, you are a mouth and a voice, I need you to say something that will encourage me here.”  Alas, Pei, as part of weariness, could only speak of the dangers that my problems were presenting. “Fine bunch of Hebrew letters you guys turn out to be,” I say dejectedly. “But what can I expect from an Ayin, Yod, and Pei, who team themselves up to form the word Ayeph which not only means weariness but also dwelling on your problems (Ayin), seeing only bad results from these problems in the future (Yod) and speaking of all the negative results of these problems (Pei).

As we continued our journey Ayin Yod Pei let out a gasp: “Ooooo! This is it, can’t go on,” and when they collapsed, I went down with them. There we lay, one dusty old professor and three pitiful Hebrew letters gasping for breath.

Suddenly, along our path came Davar, which represents Words from the heart of God. Davar immediately paused and bent down to minister to us. Davar pulled out a canteen filled with Scripture, and I drank in Jeremiah 31:25, “For I have satiated the weary soul.” Then Davar said: “You must find  Ravah (satiated). Ravah – Resh Vav Hei can be found  at the next Oasis. I will send a word from the Heart of God to them.

Feeling revived from Davar’s refreshment, it still took all my strength to make it to the next Oasis, but once there I found that Ravah (satiated or saturate) had received Davar’s message and Resh Vav Hei were waiting for us. Ravah is spelled with a Resh (which represents the Holy Spirit and looks like a pipe with the top bent over dipping into the waters.  The next letter, Vav, represents a connection between heaven and earth and serves as an extension pipe to the Resh. The final letter Hei (representing God’s presence) which was connected to the Vav, began to spin around like a sprinkler saturating us with the fresh, cooling, refreshing water of the presence of God. As the leather straps became saturated, they expanded enough to loosen their hold on my companions Ayin Yod and Pei, and before long, they managed to work themselves free, which freed me from Ayeph (weariness) in the process.

Being released from weariness and feeling the fresh presence of God like a cool spray of water, I felt immediately refreshed.  I looked over at Ayin Yod Pei Ayeph (weariness) and found that Ayin was no longer located at the front of the word Ayeph (weariness) but had located himself at the end of the word. Their new order was now Yod, Pei, Ayin, and as they were also refreshed they began to shine very brightly. I then realized that Yod, Pei, and Ayin spelled the word Yapha’, which means to shine.  “What is it with this shining business?” I asked my companions. Yod said he was no longer a shadow but now represented a message from heaven and that now that he was released from the word Ayeph (weariness), he could tell me that a message from heaven was given to him to declare that all my troubles would bring me closer to God.  Pei said that his shadow had been released, and he could only speak of the good things that God had in store for me and Ayin, shining the brightest after his shadow left said that his insight has shown him how my present situation would lead me to God’s perfect will.

As Yapha’ (shining) and I joyfully journeyed back through my Looking Glass, Ayin paused to ask a favor. “Next time you see me leading the Yod and Pei (Ayeph – weariness), kindly move me to the rear so we become Yapha’ (shine), and you can wake up to brightness and not weariness 

“Thank you, Ayin,” I confirm, “That I shall, that I shall.”

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