Hebrew Word Study – In The Thicket – Basevake – בַּסְּבַ֖ךְ Beth Samek Beth Kap
Genesis 22:13: “And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and beheld behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.”
I never really considered the significance of the ram being caught in the thicket. My initial thought was, well God had to have the ram held in place by something. But as I thought about this, I recalled reading about an archeological discovery made back in the thirties in Southern Iraq in the area that was known as Ur. This was Abraham’s home town.
British Archeologist Charles Leonard Whoolley was excavating the Death Pit of Ur. This was thought to be a graveyard site for kings and nobility from the land of Ur but some felt it was the pit where those who were sacrificed to their god were thrown. Human sacrifices were made to win the favor of their god. He found an object guarding this pit that he called the Ram in the Thicket because it resembled the story in Genesis 22. The image is not so much that of a ram, goat or young bull that appears to be caught in a thicket, but is actually more a picture of a horned animal standing on its hind legs eating something at the top of a bush. This is dated to about 2050 BC. The picture of a horned animal reaching for a high branch would bear out this date as this is when there was a 300 year drought in the land of Ur and goats or similar horned animals would have been reaching high on bushes to eat because such feeding in the wild was scarce due to the drought. Abraham lived or was born about 1815 BC so he would have been born during this drought and more significantly when this symbol of a horned animal was a known symbol. No one really knows what the symbol represents. It is speculated, however, that this somehow represented the gods of that era taking a soul up to heaven. Another idea, which I think is more logical, is that the horned animal reaching up a thicket trying to get the last morsel of food was a picture of the struggle to survive during this 300 year drought and indicated that this was the pit where human sacrifices were thrown.
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The word thicket in the Hebrew is savek which means to entwine, or an entwining vine, tree or brush. It is not really a bushy type plant as we would imagine. In fact a fairly good picture of a savek can be found on the internet if you google up Ram in a Thicket. The word ram is derived from a sort of an all-purpose root word aval which is a word for any animal with horns. It could be a goat, deer, ram or horned bull.
Considering the words for ram and thicket and looking at the picture of the Mesopotamian god guarding the Death Pit I would not be surprised that when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, God told him to look behind him where he saw an image similar to one he may have seen as a child growing up in the land of Ur to which many children were similarly sacrificed. He saw the image of Marduk or as it is known in the Sumerian language Amar-utu which means the calf of Utu (the sun god) or the young bull of the sun. Amar-utu would fit the Hebrew word aval which translators render as a ram but could also be rendered as a young horned bull.
So when Abraham took the ram or young bull and sacrificed it instead of his son he was putting to death, so to speak, the pagan god Amar-utu, the god of his youth and declaring his complete loyalty to the God Jehovah that revealed Himself to him. God was declaring that He was a God that demanded no human sacrifice of a child to obtain life and life eternal but instead He would offer His own son as a sacrifice to bring life and life eternal to him and to us. Just as Utu demanded the sacrifice of one’s son or daughter in order to grant life, God also demanded the sacrifice of a son, only it would be His Son to grant not only life but eternal life.
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Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
Hindsight is 50/50: It is surprising how GOD tends to touch on a lot of different areas, making us wonder where HE is going with these random bits of information, then suddenly the unveiling & all the dots connect… and my jaw is on the ground. Lately it’s when I feel like criticizing someone or I wonder how in the world can anyone be saved!? And for a long time I’ve had problems with accepting this part of Scripture, sure I’ve heard ppl citing Hebrews 11:17-19 as Abraham having already figured out GOD’s plan to raise Isaac from the grave, but I much prefer this explanation to any other. I mean please, have some humility, we all are blinded by our idols which GOD is smashing for us.
[a] Isaiah 55:8-9 [NIV] “For MY thoughts are not your thoughts, nor MY ways your ways..”
[b] John 13:7 JESUS “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will..”
Genesis 18:19 [NLT] ¹⁹ I have singled him out so he will direct his sons & their families to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right & just. Then I will do for Abraham all I have promised.”
Anyhow, I had watched A Stranger Among Us (1992) last night & read this post; but got annoyed by the bombardment of propaganda ads from the ppl who started a war against GOD’s ppl. And as I was formulating something to say against them, I cracked open Through The Psalms by Derek Prince & read this:
Psalm 139:21-22 Do I not hate those who hate YOU, O LORD?
DP went on to write it is right to echo these words of David, if we can also echo what he said in the next two lines: Search me, O GOD, and know my heart…see if there is any offensive way in me..” The enemies of GOD we need to be most concerned about are not those who attack us from without, but those within our own hearts.
This next part is uncanny since I had also watched The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) the night before last, where one of the characters died in an attempt to join the war in Spain (1936-1939), which DP said gave rise to the phrase fifth column.
One General remarked: I have four columns attacking the city, North/East/South/West, but it is my fifth column that I’m expecting to take the city for me.” The second General asked, “Where is your fifth column?” The reply was brief, “Inside the city.”
This part gets chilling bc I’m been obsessing over the thought about a friend of the world is at enmity with GOD, James 4:4 You adulteresses! (And Jean Brodie is an Adulteress) Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with GOD? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of GOD.
If there is a 5th column of GOD’s enemies in our hearts, that spells defeat. A young man once confessed to me that he had a problem with lust. “But I rather enjoy it,” he added, “Do you think GOD will deliver me?” Prince replied, “Definitely not! GOD delivers us from our enemies, not from our friends.” We cannot afford to be friends with GOD’s enemies.
Prayer: Show me LORD, if I am harbouring a 5th column in my heart, and help me to get hate it so YOU can help me to get rid of it. In JESUS Name, I pray, Amen
Thank you for another wonderful lesson.
Wow. I just looked up this god on google and saw what you just described. How awesome. I sure wish these teachings that the Holy Spirit provides through you were a norm for The Body. This is amazing.
GOD’s Word is alive.
Thank U ABBA for Chaim sharing knowledge at turn I write here link to interesting page hope he enjoy too
Brenner has a whole different philosophy on Hebrew and he is not trained linguistically,(a former engineer) so I needed to remove your link posted.
Amazing!! Thank you for sharing this! Easy in these times!!
The people of today are so entwined with saving their own hides they’d rather sacrifice their unborn and call it a right. May God have mercy on those who choose death in voting for those wanting to implement this.
Thank you again for a wonderful lesson!
Many Christians are familiar with this story in the Bible and know that it is about the Messiah Jesus ,but many don’t know that the Ram is symbolic of a false god !
There are many more stories that are symbolic of Jesus in the Bible (Old Testament) that most Christians and Jews never understand their true meaning. I am totally amazed by these stories and how many of them are tied together.
I’m sure that you as a man of God know these stories. Would you teach about them because it is more crucial now then ever before that people are told more about Jesus as the Messiah. People are hungry for the Messiah because of the coming true of many prophecies! If people see that you are teaching about Jesus more people will want to sign up for your classes.
This adds such rich context to an already powerful Bible story. Thank you!