Genesis 27:20-22:  “ And Isaac said unto his son, How [is it] that thou hast found [it] so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the LORD thy God brought [it] to me.  And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou [be] my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice [is] Jacob’s voice, but the hands [are] the hands of Esau.”

I have always been a little baffled over the expression, the voice of God.  Few people have really heard an actual audible voice from God. I am not saying that God does not speak an audible voice at times,  I believe there are two occasions in my life when I heard an actual audible voice.  Yet when I think about it, I do wonder if it was a real voice that I heard or if it was just so clear that it seemed to be audible.   Needless to say when we speak of the voice of God generally we are not speaking of an audible voice but a strong prompting in our spirits. An actual audible voice coming from God rarely occurs but it does occur as shown in the Bible.

This led me to examine this word that is often rendered in the Hebrew as voice which is the word qol.  I traced this word back to its Semitic roots in the Ugaritic, Sumerian and Aramaic.  More often than not qol is not a reference to an audible voice but a report, the delivery of a message.  Since writing was left to only an elite few in ancient times, most reports were given audibly and thus the word qol took on the meaning of the delivery of a report by one’s voice.  However, the emphasis of the word qol is on the report, not on whether it is an audible voice or a written document.  In examining extra Biblical literature I have found that qol is often used for the message in a written document which has nothing to do with an audible voice.  I have even found qol used as a reference to a silent voice, in other words communicating by a hand signal or a gesture.  Nodding your head up and down to indicate a yes is considered a qol. 

So where am I going with this.  I was reading this morning in the Midrash Rabbah.  The Midrash Rabbah is a collection Jewish writings throughout the ages that concerned itself with the stories and words of the Old Testament and does not concern itself with legal matters of the law.  It is here that you can find many of the deep understandings of Hebrew words from the Jewish masters of the Hebrew language which takes you much further than your Strong’s and BDB.   It was in the Midrash Rabbah that I discovered that many of the Jewish sages do not render the word qol as an audible voice but merely as a report or a statement.  One example in the Midrash Rabbah is Genesis 27-20-22 where Jacob seeks to deceive his father Isaac into believing that he is really Esau so he could get the inheritance.  The ancient sages indicate that it was not the difference in the audible voice of Jacob from Esau that raised Isaac’s suspicions, but it was the report, the qol  of Jacob that caused Isaac to question Esau’s identity.

The ancient sages translate Genesis 27:22 as the report is the report of Jacob but the hands are the hands of Esau.  In this we find a very important lesson. In Malachi 1:3 and Romans 9:13 we learn that God hated Esau but loved Jacob.  In Romans Paul was quoting from the Hebrew or Aramaic text. Yet he wrote this in Greek. He chose the best possible Greek words to fit the Hebrew text, but due to the differences in language only someone  living in Paul’s day where Aramaic was a common language and familiar to many Romans would be able to pick up on Paul’s inference. The Greek word used for hate is emisesa which means to love someone less than another. That is probably the closest word in Greek that you can get to match the Aramaic word that is used in the Aramaic Bible which is sena.  In Malachi 1:3 the Hebrew word used for hate is sana.  Both words have a Semitic origin SNA.  This is a word that is used for two people who have opposing viewpoints.  It does not mean that they hate each although it could.  Politicians can violently oppose each other and yet still be friends outside their professional viewpoints. The phrase “Politics make strange bed fellows”  comes from the day when you did not purchase a room in a hotel for a night, but you purchased a spot on a bed that you shared with other strangers.  Politicians would travel from town to town seeking votes and often ended up sharing the same bed with their opponents. If they hated each other, I think one would choose to sleep under the stars.  That is sena. A husband and wife may get into a big fight, wake up the neighbors and even have the police show up and then that night they are all huggy huggy and kissy kissy. They still love each even if they have a disagreement. That is the root of the word that we translate as hate. It is interesting that in Romans the Greek word for love is agape.  Yet, the word used in the Aramaic Bible is not chav which is the word that closely matches agape, but a word which has no Greek equivalent and that is racham. This is to love  and have that love returned. God loved both Jacob and Esau, but Esau did not return that love where Jacob  did.

The Midrash Rabbah teaches that it was not the audible voice of Jacob that raised Isaac’s suspicions, but it was the fact that Jacob almost blew it when he said, “The Lord (YHWH) thy God brought it to me.”  I could just see Rebekah standing in the wings shaking her head, “Dumb, Dumb, my sons a Dummy.”  The Mishnah Rabbah teaches that Esau never spoke the name of God but the name of God was always on the lips of Jacob.  Thus, old Isaac probably thought, “Say what?  Esau speaking the name of God?  Not my Esau that is not his qol that is the qol of Jacob.”  That is a little hard for us to understand. I mean how could someone who walks so closely with God as to keep God’s name on his lips be so deceitful?   Come on, we are human after all.  I am not Jewish so I do not wear a skull cap but I do wear a baseball cap at all times to remind myself that I am always in the presence of God and that all I do I do as unto God.  Yet, just yesterday I had two passengers on my bus. One was a sweet delightful person the other was a sour old prune faced bitty of a woman.  I drove out of my way to get her home first just to get rid of her and the sweet delightful passenger suggested it would have been quicker if I drove her home first.  Even wearing my baseball cap to remind myself I was in the presence of God, I found myself saying, “Well, dropping you off last positions me for my next pickup.” True, but not the real reason I took that route.  Jacob was supposed to get the inheritance, but he used a matter of deceit to get it, yet that did not mean he did not love God, he just blew it as we all do at times, no matter how close we walk with God.  If the name of God is always on our lips, it does not mean we will not fail, it just means we will make very poor liars as the light of God will always give us away as it almost did for Jacob.

My brother was telling me yesterday how there is a real issue in the Muslim world. Some Muslims will become Christians and still declare they are Muslims. Those openly declare their faith in Jesus face excommunication and possible death.  Some are saying that they can still be Christians, pray to Jesus and still retain their Muslim identity.  I cannot give an answer to that issue, but I think the story of Jacob and Esau sheds some light on the issue.  If you are truly a believer in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the one who died and rose again to give you salvation, if His name is continually on your lips, you may get away with deceit for a time, but you will let it slip sometime and you will not be fooling anyone. Like Jacob, a true believer cannot keep it a secret for long.

If you enjoy the Hebrew Studies please “like” our facebook page, join our mailing list and/or pass along the Word Studies to friends and family. Thank you and we truly appreciate all your support!