Prophet Pearls #26 – Shemini (2 Samuel 6:1-7:17)

Image courtesy of the Digital Image Archive, Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology, Emory University.In this episode of Prophet Pearls, on the Prophets portion of Shemini, covering 2 Samuel 6:1-7:17, Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson provide background and insight into this portion focusing on the Ark of the Covenant. Gordon tracks the movements and uses of the Ark from the time of Saul to the last we hear about it, during David’s reign. We learn possible meanings for the unique word “shal” - the reason that Uzzah was slain. Johnson draws prophetic parallels for Obed-edom’s relationship with the Ark and David’s decision to return it to Jerusalem. We learn of  two other instances in the Tanakh where God refers to himself as a father to Solomon, and to Solomon as his son. Gordon closes with a prayer of thankfulness to be in the Land of his fathers and to be part of an era of blessing in which the Torah is going forth from Zion. All this and more in this week's Prophet Pearls!

"Now it was told King David, saying, 'Yehovah has blessed the house of Obed-edom... because of the ark of God.'" (2 Samuel 6:12)

I look forwad to reading your comments! Download Prophet Pearls Shemini Transcript
Prophet Pearls #26 - Shemini (2 Samuel 6:1-7:17)

You are listening to Prophet Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Keith: Welcome back to Prophet Pearls. This is Keith Johnson along with Nehemia Gordon face-to-face in the Land of Israel and I’ve got great news! My suitcase has arrived…

Nehemia: Halleluyah!

Keith: Which means Nehemia is going to be in a lot better mood because I’m going to smell a lot better.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: But we are here, and it’s so funny - we got the suitcase and Nehemia noticed that on my suitcase it actually said “RUSH,” [both laughing] which clearly I think they must have thought it really didn’t mean that. But either way, finally, it’s here and so we’re going to record this one, which is one of my favorite sections, actually, Nehemia, we’re going to be in 2 Samuel chapter 6 verses 1 through 7 verse 17. The Maccabees, our special Prophet Pearls sponsors are helping us out with this. Hey, Maccabees, we appreciate you. We’re in the land of the Maccabees, about to go into this wonderful passage, so Nehemia, let’s get this party started!

Nehemia: Yes. You say this is your favorite passage? I’m counting 50 favorite passages, Keith.

Keith: [laughing] No, no, no. I’m nowhere near that amount of passages.

Nehemia: All right.

Keith: Anyway. The reason it’s one of my favorites is because I just love this opportunity when you get a chance to go into history and you kind of see these things that connect with everything we’ve already studied. So it’s second Samuel chapter 6 verse 1 starting...

Nehemia: Well can I just tell people that we always encourage them to go look at the parallel in Chronicles when there is one?

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: So here, 2 Samuel chapter 6, the parallel is 1 Chronicles chapter 13, beginning in verse 1.

Keith: How about the Torah Pearls section? What’s the connection here?

Nehemia: So here the Torah Pearls, let’s see, is the portion of Shemini, which is Leviticus 9:1-11:47. There it’s talking about... it's Leviticus, those commandments related to the ritual around the Tabernacle.

Keith: Yeah. You memorized that stuff. You have that stuff down. [laughing] Anyway, I’m learning a lot here folks. You should know I’m here with Nehemia, and when we’re doing radio shows from different parts of the world, you basically get together and you do exactly what you do - you spend an hour and a half or whatever, recording. One of the things that’s nice about being here is that we get to discuss other things, not only the passages but some other things. I have tell you, every time we’re together my eyes are opened at a different level. One of the things that really has been surprising to me is just the understanding of the Hebrew language, and what I assumed, and I say that word very carefully, I assumed by those who maybe knew portions of the Hebrew language, but I made a really big assumption and that was that if you are a cantor, if you were a person who sang the Torah, my understanding would be since you could sing it would mean you understood it. That really wasn’t the case at all. Basically, from an educational standpoint, there really is a depth of understanding that you can go to with the actual Hebrew language. And you were mentioning to me that there are a lot of people who read the prayers, and they read the prayers in Hebrew, but they’re…

Nehemia: Oh yes, so you have to understand them. Israel, Israeli speak Hebrew and they have no problem with it. But in the diaspora, Jews outside of Israel, especially in the United States, which is the largest community of Jews outside of Israel - until recently, in fact, there were more Jews in the US than there were in Israel. The educational method of the diaspora Jews historically has been, you’ve got these certain prayers that you need to recite every day and then on Shabbat, so the focus of the educational system in the diaspora was to get Jews to be able to read Hebrew.

Now that’s very misleading because if you read a language, you assume you understand it. But actually, that wasn’t even important - because Hebrew is written with consonants and vowels, you can read it 100% without any problem. Read every single word perfectly, but not understand it. I would say probably most Jews in the United States who can read Hebrew perfectly cannot necessarily understand most of what they’re reading. In fact, probably the average Jew who could read Hebrew perfectly in the US maybe understands 10% of what he’s reading. In fact, to the point where you’ll even have cantors and even rabbis of synagogues who will be able to read Hebrew perfectly and impress you with all these Hebrew terms and terminology. But when it comes to pulling a verse out of Scripture and saying, “Okay, translate this,” they have no clue what it means.

Keith: So you’ve actually - not to go too far on this, Nehemia - but this is really kind of significant because a lot of times, and this refers to our conversation a couple weeks ago, regarding who you have to listen to, and by title, if a person has a certain title, if I’m a rabbi, that means I’m in a place where I can be the one that you can either be under him and you can learn. And in many cases the hard work of trying to understand what Scripture means in this language, history, and context, it doesn’t just come by title. I mean, you’ve got to go through the work. You’ve got to understand it.

Nehemia: To be sure, there are definitely rabbis and even layman in the Jewish world in America who can read Scripture without a problem and understand everything they’re reading. But if we’re talking about the average Jew in America, even an average Orthodox Jew… it’s interesting. When I was growing up, I was raised Orthodox and I was taught to read the Torah. But when it came to the prayers, we were taught, when you read these prayers, here are what we call “kavanah” or these are the “kavanot.” That’s the Hebrew word for intention. It never occurred to me growing up what a strange concept… that was really… the concept is that when I’m reciting a certain prayer - and really it’s prayer by rote, I recite the same prayer three times a day - when you’re reciting that same prayer three times a day, every day of your life, here’s what you’re supposed to think about. At the time it didn’t seem strange. Now it seems so strange looking back. What do you mean? What am I supposed to think about? I should be thinking about what I’m reading. I’m reciting these words, shouldn’t I be thinking about the words?

The answer to that is, well, the average person reciting those words doesn’t know what they mean. So you have to teach him, “When you’re reciting this prayer, here’s what you should be thinking about, either because that’s the content of the prayer or because this is what you should be focusing on in your prayer thoughts.” But the point is, the average Jew reading Hebrew, unfortunately, in the diaspora throughout history, didn’t understand what he was reading. There were many Jews who could read Hebrew perfectly fluently, who will read a prayer. “What was that prayer you just read?” “I’ve got no clue, no idea,” was the answer. And, that’s not everybody, but it’s probably the vast majority.

Keith: Well, I think there’s going to be an opportunity for people to be able to read and understand. We’re going to do the best that we can to help people in that process. So let’s get started right here in Second Samuel 6 verse 1. “Now, David,” you know David, the king, “again gathered all the chosen men of Israel. There were 30,000.” Then it says from there, and I’m thinking right away when I see that verse, I thought he again gathered all the children of Israel, 30,000, I’m thinking we’re getting ready for war.

Nehemia: Right.

Keith: What do you think?

Nehemia: Well it’s spiritual warfare. [laughing]

Keith: No, I mean when you read that, isn’t that what you kind of...?

Nehemia: Absolutely, yes.

Keith: And then it says, “and then David arose and went with all the people who were with him.” And then there’s the name of this place. And I don’t know if we want to deal with this or not, but I thought it was really...

Nehemia: We do. But I think first we have to give the background.

Keith: Okay, so let’s talk about, let me just read it. “David rose and went with all the people who were with them to Baal Judah to bring up from there the Ark of God.” And then I love this phrase, one of my favorite phrases in all the Bible, “which is called by the name,” what name? It goes on to tell us the very name “Yehovah Tzava’ot”, “Yehovah of Hosts, who is enthroned above the cherubim.” That’s what the verse says.

Nehemia: All right. So they’re coming and they’re going to bring the Ark and they’re going to take it to a different place.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: Let’s give the background here. So the Ark is captured by the Philistines at the battle of Evanhaezer, or Ebenezzer, in the time of Eli, who is the high priest who raised up Samuel, that happens in 1 Samuel chapter 4 verse 11. Then the Ark is taken to the Philistine cities of Ashdod, 1 Samuel 5:1, then to Gat, 1 Samuel 5:8, to Ekron, 1 Samuel 5:10, then finally to a place called the field of the Philistines in 1 Samuel 6:1. Eventually, it’s returned to Beit Shemesh, that’s 1 Samuel 6:13, where the people were punished for looking upon it, that happens in verse 19. Now, why were they punished for looking upon it? In Numbers 4:5-6 the Levites were commanded to cover the Ark with three layers.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: There was the parochet, the veil. There was this tachash, sort of leather, possibly. And then there’s the blue cloth on top of all that. So there are actually three layers of cloths or coverings over the Ark, that covers it whenever it’s moved. What this really means is nobody saw the Ark. The high priest didn’t see it on Yom Kippur. Why is that? Because when he would enter the Holy of Holies, he would first put the smoke inside, and he wouldn’t go in until the smoke covered the Ark - that’s in Leviticus 16:2 and then verses 12 to 13. 1 Samuel Chapter 7 verses 1-2. “The Ark is brought to a place called Kiryat Ya’arim, to the house of Avinadav on the hill.” “Bagiva’a” it says, which is the hill. That’s actually a place that we’ve seen.

Keith: We’ve been there, Nehemia, we’ve been there.

Nehemia: There’s a monastery there to this day. It’s in a place called Abu-Ghosh today.

Keith: Best restaurant in all of… that area.

Nehemia: Yes, well that area, right. It was kept there at the hill of Avinadav for 20 years by his son Elazar. Kiryat Ya’arim was a Gibeonite City. The Gibeonites were designated as altar servants by Joshua in Joshua chapter 9 verse 27. Then, in1 Samuel 14:18, the Ark is brought out to battle against the Philistines at Gibeah Benjamin, and that’s the last time we hear about the Ark. So we’re in 2 Samuel chapter 6. The last time we heard about the Ark was when…

Keith: That’s not the last time we hear about the Ark.

Nehemia: Really? Where’s the last time? From these two events…

Keith: Gotcha.

Nehemia: So between 1 Samuel 14:18, correct me if I’m wrong, until - I’m going look it up right now and make sure I’m right, If not, I’ll be happy to say I was wrong - but I believe between 1 Samuel 14:18 and2 Samuel chapter 6 verse 1 we don’t hear anything about the Ark.

Keith: He didn’t see it, folks. We do hear about the Ark.

Nehemia: We do? Okay, so tell me what we hear.

Keith: You know, about Josiah. Come on.

Nehemia: No, I’m talking about between these two passages. So here we’ve got about the Ark… or hold on, let’s go back because you’re challenging me now. 1 Samuel 14:18. Where’s this? Hold on. I’m looking at my little computer program here.

Keith: While he’s doing that folks, one of the things that really is kind of cool...

Nehemia: So 1 Samuel 14:18 mentions the Ark, and the next time the Ark is mentioned is in 2 Samuel 6:2.

Keith: Okay.

Nehemia: So the entire rest of the book of Samuel, of 1 Samuel and the first five chapters of 2 Samuel, don’t mention the Ark.

Keith: That’s right.

Nehemia: Meaning the last time we heard about the Ark was in the time of Saul. Then we don’t hear about it again until the time of David.

Keith: Gotcha. So David’s going to go and get the Ark, and this most important thing, that has inside the word of God. This is interesting, we actually talked about this in Torah Pearls, so make sure that you check out the Torah Pearls. We were in Numbers, where they’d be about to go off to war, “Arise oh Yehovah, may Your enemies be scattered.” I mean, that’s just a powerful...

Nehemia: Yeah. Let’s talk about that. So now in chapter 6, verse 2 of 2 Samuel, we have this amazing statement that the name of the Ark was, quote, “The name of Yehovah of Hosts who sits on the cherubim, on the kruvim.”

Keith: When I read that, I want to ask myself where does that come from? And again, the issue was when we went back to Numbers, and I think it’s, what is it? Numbers chapter… Where Moses, as they’re about to go out to war and they would lift up the Ark and he’d say “Arise, oh Yehovah, may Your enemies be scattered.”

Nehemia: Well, so it wasn’t actually just when they went out to war, it was whenever they travel.

Keith: Whenever they traveled, that’s right.

Nehemia: Let’s see, I’ve got the verse, I didn’t write it down, where it is though. It’s verses 35 to 36.

Keith: 35 to 36, one of those chapters? [both laughing]

Nehemia: “Vayehi binso ha'aron vayomer Moshe” “And it came to pass when the Ark would travel and Moshe would say, ‘Kooma Yehovah veyafutzu oyvecha veyanusu misonecha lephanecha’” “Arise Yehovah and let Your enemies be scattered and let those who hate You flee from before You.” “And when it would rest, he would say, ‘Shuva Yehovah rivavot alphei yisrael’” “return Yehovah of the tens of thousands of the thousands of Israel.” Which is another way saying Yehovah of hosts. Because hosts is a large number of people.

It’s really interesting. If a pagan came to this, they would say, “Actually the Israelites worship the Ark. The Ark is Yehovah. It doesn’t represent him. You don’t hear his voice from there. It is Yehovah.” A pagan reading it would hear… oh, it’s Numbers chapter 10, verses 35 to 36. It says here. So one of those chapters somewhere.

So you could come to the conclusion, if you are not an Israelite and didn’t know any better, that the Ark is Yehovah, that they worship this object, but actually it’s not Yehovah. But then here’s this amazing statement that helps us understand Numbers 10 here in 2 Samuel chapter 6, verse 2, it says, “Ahron Ha'Elohim” “the Ark of Elohim” “asher nikrah shem” “which was called in the name or by the name” “Shem Yehovah Tsava’ot yoshev hakruvim alav” “The name Yehovah of hosts who sits upon the kruvim,” that’s the name of the Ark. Wow.

Keith: That’s… I don’t know what else to say about it other than the fact that that’s His name. I mean, that’s what they called the Ark.

Nehemia: Well, and then we have 1 Samuel chapter 6, verse 20. This is when they look upon it and there’s this plague, it says “And the men of Beit Shemesh said, ‘who can stand before Yehovah this holy God, and who can…’” So wait a minute. They make it sound like the Ark is Yehovah. And definitely, even by some of the Israelites, there seems to be maybe a confusion because the Ark is so holy, and if they mess up around it, people die.

Jeremiah 3:16, we have the verse about the Ark no longer being remembered in the end times, we’ve talked about that, we don’t have to talk about it again. Joshua chapter 9 verses 17 and 27, what we have here? Oh, that’s has to do with the issue of… was there anything else about the Ark?

Keith: Yeah, no, I mean, so they have the Ark. David is on his way to go and get the Ark. He understands the significance of the Ark. “They placed the Ark of God on a new cart that they might bring it from the house of Abinadab which was on the hill and Uzzah, and Ahio the sons of Abinadab, were leading the new cart.”

Now. I’ll tell you, this is where this story gets really interesting to me. It later says, in 6:4 it says, “and so they brought it with the Ark of God from the House of Abinadab, which was on the hill.” Keep talking about the hill, and Ahio was walking ahead of the Ark. And meanwhile...”

Nehemia: What verse are you in?

Keith: I’m in 6:4. Okay, you still there?

Nehemia: I want to go back to the place where they took the Ark from.

Keith: Okay. Gotcha.

Nehemia: Can we talk about that? Let’s see, or where they left from. In verse 2, it says, “and he rose up and David…” when you read it you kind of blurred...

Keith: I’ve wanted to talk about it then you said we had to give the background to it.

Nehemia: Beseder. Alright, so now we’ve got the background, let’s talk about it. So “When all the people were with him from,” it says in Hebrew ba’alei Yehudah. Baale Yehudah could be the masters of Judah, but it also means the Baals of Judah. So there’s a name of a place called Baal, the Baalim or the Baalei Yehudah. That’s bizarre.

Keith: And we can find that where they use the name, Baal. And then is it in my imagination, but wasn’t this also was called something else?

Nehemia: In 1 Chronicles chapter 13, verse 6, which is the parallel passage, it appears a little bit differently. It’s called Baalata, and then it says to Kiryat Ya’arim, which is to Judah. So Baalata probably is a village or maybe even a neighborhood, but probably a little village attached to Kiryat Ya’arim.

Joshua 15, verse 9, mentions Baala, which is Kiryat Ya’arim. And then in Joshua 15:60 and 18:14, it says, Kiryat Baal, and kirya, by the way, means city. So the city of Baal, which is Kiryat Ya’arim. So four times we have this reference to some kind of a city called Baal, or Baalata or Baale Yehuda or Kiryat Baal. These apparently all refer to the same city, or village, which is associated with Kiryat Ya’arim. Now, Kiryat Ya’arim itself is interesting because it’s one of the Gibeonite cities.

So we have in Joshua chapter 9, verses 17 to 27, it says, “And the children of Israel traveled and they came to their cities in the third day, and their cities were Gibeon and Kfira and Be’erot and Kiryat Ya’arim.” So there are four Gibeonite cities, and we’re not going to… We remember the story of the Gibeonites, they didn’t want to be destroyed by the Israelites, they pretended they were from far away and made a covenant. And that covenant stood.

And then it says, “Joshua placed them on that day as cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of Yehovah until this day to the place where he will choose.” So you asked this question, “Wait a minute. The Ark is the house of Avinadav. Then we’re finding out that there’s this place Kiryat Ya’arim, which was a Gibeonite city. What is the Ark doing at the Gibeonite city?” That’s because the Gibeonites were appointed by Joshua to have this service for the Tabernacle and for the Temple. So they were appropriate to be doing that.

It’s really interesting, these Gibeonites, because they’re not Israelites by race, they’re not descended from Jacob. They’re basically kind of a separate people who have kind of been attached to Israel. Then in Jeremiah 26:20 we have a really interesting reference. I’ll just pull that up. Jeremiah 26:20, it says, “And there was also a man who prophesied in the name of Yehovah Oriyahu the son of Shmayahu from Kiryat Ya’arim’, and he prophesied over this city and over this land according to all the words of Jeremiah.”

So we have here a prophet whose name is… he’s like a very obscure prophet Oriyahu the son of Shmayahu, and he is a Gibeonite, and as far as I know, this is the only gentile prophet in the entire Tanakh who’s a legitimate prophet or the non-Israelite prophet. Because we do have obviously Balaam, but Balaam turns out to be a bad seed. This guy is a legitimate prophet, and we have lots of Israelites who are bad prophets, 400 or whatever the number is in 1 Kings 22; here we have a legitimate Gibeonite prophet. So that just tells us how relevant and how significant the Gibeonites are. Nehemiah chapter 7, verse 29 mentions people of three of the Gibeonite cities as returning to the Land of Israel with Zerubavel which is really interesting. So it’s not that these Gibeonites just disappear - they continue to be part of the Jews who returned.

Keith: Isn’t it interesting, Nehemia, say his name again?

Nehemia: Zerubavel?

Keith: No, the prophet.

Nehemia: Oriyahu Ben Shmayahu.

Keith: So what does Oriyahu mean?

Nehemia: Oriyahu I guess comes from the word or, which is light. “Yehovah is my light” or possibly “Yehovah is my furnace”, son of Shmayahu, which means, “Hear Yehovah.”

Keith: It’s so funny when I think about his name and I think about what it would mean, we call him a gentile prophet, but yet he’s got this name.

Nehemia: I should say non-Israelite. That’s more accurate.

Keith: Isn’t that interesting though?

Nehemia: That is interesting, because there is a discussion in Jewish sources about, well, if somebody converts to Judaism if they joined the people of Israel, can they be a prophet? And here we see the answer is clearly yes. Wow. That there are no second-class citizens in Israel. If you’re part of the people of Israel, you’re part of the people of Israel.

Anyway, the three cities mentioned in Nehemiah 7:29, Kiryat Ya’arim, Kfira, and Be’erot, and it’s clear by the time of Nehemiah that the Gibeonites are assimilated as Israelites, there’s really no distinction between them. It doesn’t call them Gibeonites in Nehemiah 7:29, it just says where they’re from. So, anyway, yes, let’s talk about the Ark coming from the Gibeonite city.

Keith: Okay. So, we gave you background on that, and I thought you were going to say something. I’m going to wait till later. I’m not going to tell you otherwise… I’ll wait until we’re done and say, “Why didn’t you bring this up?”

Nehemia: Why don’t you bring it up?

Keith: [laughing] Just kidding. I’m just kidding you.

Nehemia: All right.

Keith: All right. So it says, “And they placed the Ark of God on a new cart.”

Nehemia: What verse are you in, 3?

Keith: 3. All right. “And they placed it on it, brought it from the house, a bit of Abinadab, which was on the hill, and Uzzah and Ahio the sons of Abinadab were leading the new cart. So they brought it with the Ark of God from the House of Abinadab which was on the hill.” Again, we’re talking about the hill, and I want to, I just want to say...

Nehemia: This is the hill in Kiryat Ya’arim where the monastery is today.

Keith: Which is amazing, because having been there and I’ve been there several times, and when you say “the hill”, when you’re in that area you know where the hill is. I mean there’s only one place [laughing] where the hill is, and again it’s another example where geography is so amazing to actually see. Now when you say the hill here, you’re like, “Well, it’s just a hill.”

Nehemia: Which hill?

Keith: Yeah. Which hill? But there it says “the hill”, and in that place you actually see exactly where that is. But it says, “David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before Yehovah.” And there’s another example, they’re celebrating before Yehovah with all kinds of instruments - wood, lyre, harp, tambourines, et cetera. “But when they came to the threshing floor of Nachon, Uzzah reached out toward the Ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen nearly upset it.” Now...

Nehemia: [laughing] What? They nearly upset it? Alright, can we finish reading? Then we’ll go back and talk about “nearly upset it”?

Keith: Yeah. “And the anger of Yehovah burned against Uzzah and God struck him down there for his irreverence. And he died there by the Ark of God.” And this is just before David got angry. All right, go ahead.

Nehemia: Read one more verse?

Keith: Okay. “David became angry because of Yehovah’s outbursts against Uzzah, and that place is called Peretz Uzzah to this day.”

Nehemia: Yes. So first of all, Peretz Uzzah - the word peretz means outburst or to burst forth. So in Hebrew, it’s a play on words. It says “Paratz Yehovah peretz Uzza.” He said, Yehovah is paratz, he burst forth, and therefore it’s called Peretz Uzzah. We’ve had another discussion once about baal pratzim in the book Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence. Anyway, it’s the same word, and the ancestor of David is a man named Peretz, because he came out.

This is interesting. So what did you have there at the end of verse 6?

Keith: So it says, “But when they came to the threshing floor of Nachon, Uzzah reached out toward the Ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen nearly upset it.”

Nehemia: What does that even mean? What translation is that?

Keith: That’s the NASB.

Nehemia: Okay. So if you read that in the NASB and you didn’t know the Hebrew, would you know what that meant?

Keith: Yeah. Well if I just read it the way it is there, it says, “he took hold of it for the oxen nearly upset it,” meaning the oxen upset the cart.

Nehemia: What does that mean? Oh! So it like destabilized.

Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nehemia: So JPS has, “for the oxen had stumbled.” King James has, “for the oxen shook it.” NIV has, “because the oxen stumbled.” So what’s the real word there? Do you know what the word is in Hebrew? The word is “shamtu” and that’s the word “shmittah.”

Keith: Ah!

Nehemia: Everyone’s talking this year in 2015 about the “shmita,” which is the seventh-year sabbatical year. The word shmita literally means to let something go. It talks about not plowing the fields, which you’re letting that… the fields go. Also, in Deuteronomy 15:2, you can see this very clearly. It says, “Every creditor lendeth oft onto his neighbor shall release it.” The word for release it is “shamat.” You could also translate it as to throw something down. The literal translation in Hebrew is “shamot” “throw down or let go every master of a loan of his hands that he lends to his fellow.” So he’s got this loan in his hand, he’s holding the debt in his hand, the certificate of debt. He’s saying, “Let it go.” I apologize, Keith, but when I hear this, every time now I hear about shmita I think of the Disney song, Let It Go. [sings]

Keith: No, no, no.

Nehemia: Let it go! The reason I think about that is I actually taught that to my Chinese students in China. There were two translations in Chinese. One is swai ta ba, which means let it be. And the other, which is more popular is fun chi sho, fun chi sho, which literally means open the hand. And that’s what shmita means. It means open the hand and let it go. So what happened here is the oxen were carrying this thing and they almost let it go. They almost dropped it. Yeah. They almost...

Keith: Okay. Now I will tell you show something so really interesting. So one of the things that I did, and you actually were a part of it - you weren’t as excited about it as I wanted you to… but eventually, you moved into the mode, which was really kind of exciting - and that was where I told you that I wanted to go on a journey to find… The best way I could say it, it’s is like in the footsteps of the Ark, from where we know of the crossing the Jordan until we get to those five Philistine cities, and Nehemia, I just want to bring this up because you brought something up earlier about how the Ark sometimes being seen as a god and it’s interesting, the Philistines go so far as to say it - when the Ark came into the camp, they said, “Their God came into the camp.” I think it was something like that. So the Philistines actually saw it as the Ark. Meaning the Ark as if, you know, they talk about it as if it was God.

But what was so interesting about this is that the journey of the Ark going into that place that God allowed for two things happening. One, that the Ark itself was taken. Like, it was actually taken.

Nehemia: It was captured.

Keith: It was captured, but then with that capturing came judgment. It’s like, I mean, I don't know. For me, I was just…

Nehemia: So the Philistines thought they had power over the Ark, and the truth is that the Ark had power over them.

Keith: Exactly. You really don’t want to play with God. [laughing]

Nehemia: You don’t want to mess with Him. If only they had seen the movie Indiana Jones, with the Ark, where the faces are melted off. That's obviously exaggerated in the movie, but it’s not far from the truth.

Keith: But the reason I’m bringing that up, and again we also found the situation as you talked about Beit Shemesh, where the men of Beit Shemesh saw the Ark. Does it say they opened it? Or did they just look at it? How does it say that?

Nehemia: I think they looked upon it, if I’m not mistaken. People look it up and post in the comments and say, “Nehemia was wrong, Keith was right.”

Keith: But the point is, we have David’s history and understanding, all these things that are going on. And then this act takes place, “The anger of Yehovah burns against Uzzah and God struck him down there,” and it says for his irreverence.

Nehemia: What verse are you reading?

Keith: I’m reading 6:7. So I want to ask you a question. What in the text, in other words, what does the text say that shows irreverence? That he reached out?

Nehemia: So first of all, I want to look at the other translations and see what they say, because I’m curious. Yours has irreverence. This is 2 Samuel chapter 6 verse 7, and the word in Hebrew is “shal”. So literally it says “al hashal”, “because of the Shal.” King James has, “And God smote him there for his error.” Okay. He was in error. JPS has, “God struck him down on the spot for his indiscretion.” So we have indiscretion, error. NIV has, “of his irreverent act”.

Which ones did you read? NRSV doesn’t actually translate the word, it skips it. And here’s the interesting thing. It says, “because of the shal,” shal is what we call a hapax legomenon - it’s a unique word that only appears here once in the entire Tanakh, and really it’s one of these words that we have to say the meaning is uncertain.

Keith: It’s uncertain. But something happened.

Nehemia: Here’s an interesting thing, I’ll hear many people talk about the Septuagint, how, “We’ve got to go by the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Bible.” Even though the original Septuagint was only the Five Books of Moses and the Prophets were translated much later by unknown people. This is in Samuel, which is considered part of the Prophets in the Hebrew.

So the Septuagint leaves out this word because it doesn’t know how to translate it, and the NRSV is basing itself on the Septuagint, saying, “Look, I don't know what this is. I'm just going to ignore it.” Some of the modern scholars suggest that this is a scribal error, meaning they don’t know what to do with it, so they just ignore it. In Aramaic, the word “shali” means error, and so those who are translating it as error, they’re getting it from the Aramaic. Aramaic is a sister language of Hebrew, another Semitic language, so there’s nothing wrong with that. Meaning, it may not be correct, but it’s a legitimate approach, to say, “If we don’t know what the word is in Hebrew, let’s look in the other Semitic languages and see if they can shed light.”

In Akkadian, the word “shulu” means to treat disdainfully. What you can see, if you look at the different translations, some of them are ignoring it, like the Septuagint, some of them are basing it on the Aramaic and some are basing it on the Akkadian. The bottom line from all this is, we just don’t know.

Keith: I have to tell you something that I think is so cool about just the study. You know, Nehemia there’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 words in the verse of 2 Samuel 6:7. And by going through word by word, you find this one pearl. I consider this a pearl. I really do consider this a pearl, because here’s an example where, by looking at other translations, looking at the English translations, looking at the Hebrew, you find that there’s this word here. The truth of the matter is, after it’s all said and done, we don’t know exactly what the word means, but we do know because of that word, this thing happened.

In other words, whatever it was, whatever shal was, Yehovah, through his eyes saw Uzzah do this thing. And again, we could make conjecture, maybe he got mad and started cussing and...

Nehemia: It actually could be because he took his shoe off. Because the word sha’al as a verb means to take off your shoe. [laughing]. Because of the removal of the shoe.

Keith: Maybe. I can do a whole teaching on this, this is holy ground, maybe he didn’t take his shoes off. You know what I’m saying? [laughing]

Nehemia: It’s possible.

Keith: You know, we don’t know what it is, but I think what’s exciting, and I want to slow down and just say this, what’s exciting is again people, there are ways that you can actually learn this where they could at least find out what each of the words are and find out what the issue is. Not always knowing the answer, but knowing what the questions are, to me, in many cases becomes the biggest blessing.

So in this situation, we just know that Uzzah is going along with this whole process and he does something that causes Yehovah to strike him down. And David didn’t like it when that happened.

Nehemia: What’s to like? Of course he didn’t like it.

Keith: I know. I’m saying whatever it was, David’s like, “Look, this is not acceptable.” So David was - and here’s what it says in 6:9, and you can please see if there’s a difference here. In the NASB it says, “So David was,” and it uses the word “afraid”. “David was afraid of Yehovah that day, and he said, ‘How can the Ark of Yehovah come to me?’” So, whatever it is that happened, I mean, we know what happened physically - what happened is that Uzzah died. But for David, he’s like, “Well look, there’s a direct relation between whatever he did, the shal, and the fact that he died.” So David says, “All right...”

Nehemia: Oh what he did is clear. He stuck out his hand. Okay. And that was a shal. Why that was a shal, I don’t know. Was it an error? Was it an indiscretion? Whatever. Or some other unknown thing. He clearly stuck out his hand and he died as a result of it. And that’s scary. David’s right. David’s thinking, “Oh man, I’ve committed adultery and I’ve done all these things and God’s had mercy on me. Now all of a sudden we’re dealing with this Ark, where you just do some minor little thing like this and God strikes you down? What?” He’s done some major things and survived it. He’s thinking, “I’m not ready. This is scary. I can’t have this Ark. This is a scary thing, the Ark.”

And it says, “David feared”, literally “vayera David”, “and David feared Yehovah on that day.” He was afraid.

Keith. Exactly. Rightly so.

Nehemia: Yes, rightly so. By the way, we won’t go into this, but I just want to invite people to go to 1 Chronicles 13:2 and see that for this idea of Peretz Uzzadah, the bursting forth upon Uzzah. There’s another pun there. If you look into the Hebrew, you’ll see that word peretz with a slightly different meaning. It’s kind of like a more intricate pun. That’s kind of a bonus for those who are able to read it. Pretty cool.

Keith: Yeah. Awesome. All right. So anyway, David gets this and he says, “Look, I’m not gonna bring this back with me to Jerusalem.” So he took it aside to the house of Obed Edom, and then it says, “Obed Edom the Gittite.” Now is this really the Gittite like that big guy who fought David?

Nehemia: So you’re referring to Goliath the Gittite. It’s a different Gittite but he’s from the same place.

Keith: You think it’s the absolute same?

Nehemia: Absolutely. We should say there were not a lot of places called Gat. A Gittite is someone from Gat. There are at least three places. There’s the Philistine Gat, there’s Gat Rimon and there’s Gat HaChefer. For example, Jonah, Yonah Ben Amitai, or the prophet Jonah, he was for a place called Gat HaChefer. Gat just means wine press. So wherever there was a wine press or an important wine press, the city could potentially be called Gat. So there were villages called Gat. The house of Obed Edom the Gittite… David, in particular, was surrounded in his life by a lot of Gittites who were from Gat, who were from the Philistine Gat. And that’s because during David’s time as a refugee, when he was being chased by Saul, we’re told that he went to Achish, who was the king of Gat. He was hiding out with the Gittites in Philistia and he was...

Keith: You know why they brought David in, as a Gittite? Why they let them come to that place? Do you have any idea?

Nehemia: Because he was an enemy of Saul, and your enemy’s enemy is your friend.

Keith: No! Because he beat Goliath. He was a hero for them! [laughing] It’s like in football terms, where you have this great guy who plays for one team and next thing you know he’s available, he’s a free agent. So you bring him on your team. He beat you every year.

Nehemia: Well, but when push came to shove, they said “We don’t trust this David.”

Keith: Exactly. Exactly.

Nehemia: “Maybe we’ll be against Saul and he’ll go out to war against us.” They remembered, “Wait a minute, this is the guy who killed our hero.” So they really were untrusting of David. But I want to look at some of these Gittites that were around David. Can we do that real quick?

Keith: Yes. Were there even a couple amongst the three, or no?

Nehemia: The 30 and the 3. I can’t tell you I remember.

Keith: [laughing] I love when you talk about the 30 and the 3.

Nehemia: There were not, apparently. Okay, so that’s in 2 Samuel Chapter 21, something like that. Anyway. Alright. So 2 Samuel Chapter 15 is a really interesting passage. It’s where David is fleeing from Avshalom, or Absalom. In verse 17, it says, “And the king went out and all the people at his feet,” literally it says, “and they stood, outside, far away and all of his servants were passing before him.” Then it says, “and all the Creti and all the Pleti.” The Creti apparently were Cretins from Crete, or actually they may have been Philistines whose ancestors came from Crete. The Pleti were also some sort of Philistine... These were bands of soldiers who were loyal to David, and they were probably what we would call today foreign mercenaries. In other words, they joined David during his time as an outlaw, and he was literally an outlaw - he was outside the law. Saul was the law and David was his enemy.

So, he had this band of merry men that surrounded him, and some of them were Philistines, and it says, “All the Gittites, 600 men who came with him from Gat.” So we’ve got these Philistines, three bands of Philistines - the Gittites and the Cretins and the Pletins; I don’t know what Pletins are. Then it talks in verse 19, the very next verse, “And the king said to Itai the Gittite.” Now, who is Itai the Gittite? He’s the king’s advisor. He’s his right-hand man. He is a general, and you may think, well…

Let’s stop before we read verse 2 Samuel 15:19. Tell me what the controversy was about Oved-Edom the Gittite that… you were called to task for this. Tell me why.

Keith: I was called to task for this because I was saying that Obed-Edom… I said he was the Gittite that got it right. He invited the name to his house.

Nehemia: Who got it right. So Goliath was the Gittite who got it wrong?

Keith: He got it wrong. He didn’t want anything to do with the God of Israel.

Nehemia: Actually, he cursed the God of Israel.

Keith: He cursed the God of Israel. And what people said was, “No, Obed-Edom could not have been a Philistine.”

Nehemia: He had to be an Israelite. Because no Gittite would have anything to do…

Keith: With the Ark of God. Why would David bring…?

Nehemia: Couldn’t be, right. Even though this is near Gibeon or somewhere around Gibeon.

Keith: Right. And it was a big deal. It was a big problem.

Nehemia: Oh yes. This was an international controversy. So here we’re reading about Itai the Gittite, and if we base it on the same ideas that your people are talking about, where you were brought to task and say, “Wait, he’s a Gittite, he’s gotta be an Israelite.” But it goes on, and the king says, “Why should you go also with us? Go and dwell with the king,” meaning with Absalom. It says “Ki nochri ata” “For you’re a foreigner, you’re a gentile.” That’s the word that means gentile. It says, “Also, you are in exile from your place.” Meaning, this isn’t even your fight. What are you doing here? You’re going to come with me fleeing from Absalom? You’re a foreigner. Whoever pays your salary, you’ll be loyal to.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: Absalom will be fine with you. You don’t want to have to come with us. You’re not even an Israelite. This isn’t your fight. And Itai refuses, and he does go with David. But isn’t that interesting? Then, verse 21 says, “Itai answered the king and he said ‘Chai Yehovah vechye adoni haMelech,’” “By the life of Yehovah and by the life of my Lord the King.”

Keith: Give that reference again.

Nehemia: That’s 2 Samuel 15:21. So here, this Gittite, who’s a gentile, he’s explicitly stated to be a gentile, he’s swearing by the name of Yehovah saying, “Oh, I’m going wherever you’re going. I swear by the life of Yehovah and by your life, the king.” Pretty cool.

Keith: The reason why this is really interesting to me is that we have examples, and we could do a study on this, examples of people who came and joined themselves with Israel, who were not quote-unquote Israelites in blood, but ended up joining them and becoming significant. And again, when we have the situation with Obed-Edom, and what you said that was really interesting was the job that Joshua had given to those people, to the Gibeonites, and including… Now, you're thinking they’re going to cut wood and water and then it adds “for the altar”. [laughing]

Nehemia: The altar right, they’re Temple servants, that’s a term - Temple servants. We have a picture of a Temple servant with Samuel. Samuel is this little boy and he says, “Okay, you’ve been dedicated to Yehovah. Here go work at the Temple.” And they’re like, “Wait a minute, is Samuel even a Levite? He’s definitely not a Kohen, he’s definitely not a priest. What’s he doing in there? Oh, he’s been given over to the Temple.”

Keith: Isn’t that something? Yeah.

Nehemia: So I don’t have a problem with Obed-Edom being a gentile, meaning a non-Israelite and having to deal with the Ark. I think this is the point. David’s thinking, “I can’t have any more of my people die. This is really bad. Uzza was this holy guy and he died. Let’s just not deal with this.” And he puts it in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite… and let’s read on.

Keith: Well, and again, he puts it in his household, and after three months he finds out Yehovah has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him on account. And it then says why. I mean, the verse literally says, “David finds out that Obed-Edom has got a blessing in his house and the reason is the Ark of God.” And David is not a dummy. He sitting, thinking, “Now wait a minute. I turned aside, I give the Ark to Obed-Edom and I find out for three months everything has been blessed. And they say the reason is because of the Ark?” So he has second thoughts, “Maybe I better go get it anyway.” [laughing] It was exactly what he did. So he goes and he says...

Nehemia: Basically, you’re saying we've got this gentile, Obed-Edom Ha'Giti, the Gittite, and David’s jealous that he’s got the Ark, which is called by the name Yehovah. You have a great teaching on this. Honestly, from my perspective, this is one of your best teachings. Is this in the Open Door Series?

Keith: It’s in the Open Door Series.

Nehemia: Yes, okay. I actually first heard you teach this at the church in Smithfield, and it was really cool because there was this Ark, there was this model of the Ark, like a replica of the Ark. You were preaching on this, and it was a really powerful thing, and you made a really good point. The Ark is called by the name of Yehovah, and we’ve got the situation where the Israelite looks at that thing, the Ark, and the name that it represents, and he’s terrified of it. Isn’t that a picture, we talked about prophecy for yesterday, today and tomorrow? Today, the reality for the average Jew is they’re terrified of that name, Yehovah. It’s frightening to them. It’s too holy, we can’t pronounce it, and now we’ve got Jews who are looking and saying, “Whoa, wait a minute. Why are all these gentiles speaking the name?” And some of them are starting to get jealous.

Keith: You think that’s happening, Nehemia?

Nehemia: I do think it’s happening.

Keith: You really think that’s happening?

Nehemia: I do.

Keith: Because what’s so interesting about what you’re saying...

Nehemia: I think my people need to go up like David and take the name back.

Keith: We’re in Jerusalem right now! [laughing]

Nehemia: You’re getting the blessing and we need a piece of that.

Keith: We’re in Jerusalem, we’re ten minutes away from this whole thing happening, and you’re saying you think it’s possible that maybe there’s something about the whole idea of David looking over and saying, “Wait a minute, Yehovah seems to be blessing that Obed-Edom the Gittite.” [laughing]

Nehemia: The Ark, which is called by the name, because of the Ark, which is called by the name. So we should not be afraid of Yehovah.

Keith: Wouldn’t it be amazing if the Jewish people would decide to take the name back?

Nehemia: I think we would be so blessed, I think it would bless the whole world. Certainly the people of Israel.

Keith: I’ll tell you what, and you’ve come a long way, and let me just stop I’m probably getting in a little trouble for this. You’ll probably beat me up after this, but look, we recording two or three of these in one day, but, Nehemia, just regarding this, because we’re talking about the name and we’re going to stay within the timeframe here, but I think this is really interesting. Because you and I, we went through a really difficult process of trying to determine how to bring the information to the average person, and we were concerned. You want to get… you do get concerned - is someone going to be like Uzzah and be irreverent with the name of God, and not treat it in the way that it should be treated? So the other balance of that is, well, let’s just stay away from it completely. So the rabbis say, let’s just stay away from it completely. Let me just say this - in the first few years, I fought you because you’d be so conservative and you’d say, “Well, you know…”

Nehemia: Diplomatic!

Keith: Is that what you call it, Nehemia?

Nehemia: I think I’m a very diplomatic person by nature.

Keith: What happened?! Why did you go from this diplomacy to writing this study - I’m going to bring it up again - which now by far is probably the most important study that Nehemia has ever done. Other than the name, this is number two regarding the issue of Jupiter and the way that you did it with Yahweh. So you said something in the middle of this study about people potentially, maybe not understanding, clearly not understanding what they’re doing, but what the root of it would be, which is really an explosive issue. And then on the other end of it, you’re sharing with people, “Here’s what we see in the Hebrew manuscripts regarding the name.” What happened to you? What’s this…?

Nehemia: What I don’t want to do, and I consider myself to be extremely diplomatic and if people want to criticize me for that, I’m fine. If people actually listen to this study… What I don’t want to do is hit people over the head with the Torah scroll. I don’t want to hit them over the head with the name of Yehovah. I don’t want to be the word police. What I want to do is empower people with information, and that’s what I did in that study. I said, “Here are the sources. Let’s look at the sources and understand the sources.” And then you work it out for yourself in fear and trembling with prayer and study.” I’m not saying, “This is now the doctrine. Anyone who doesn’t say it is a pagan heathen who should be cast…” I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying, “Look, this is what the sources are.”

Keith: Well, it’s a pretty compelling title, though. Catchy - I mean, are you kidding me?

Nehemia: What I say in the study is, “Look, it’s not that I’m saying it. This is what the people who are saying it…”

Keith: For those who don’t know, what’s the title called, Nehemia?

Nehemia: Have You Been Praying to Jupiter? [laughing]

Keith: [laughing] Diplomatic…

Nehemia: But that’s really the question. The point, for those who haven’t listened to this study, is that the people who cooked up this name, Jupiter in the 1800s, is particularly the scholar named Gesenius. He actually says, “Well, how do we know it’s Yahweh?” Because the Greek… Latin pronunciation of Jupiter is Yohweh, and that can’t be a coincidence to him. To him, that must be the source of the Hebrew name. We’re having a common source from Egypt. And this is the guy who is the source for… Somebody said to me, he said, “Well, you should give more credit to the Encyclopedia Judaica, I'm sure they looked up their sources.” I looked up their sources and this is their source. A guy who’s telling me that it’s Yahweh because the Latin says, “Yohweh,” which is Jupiter. Sorry, I can’t accept that. And so it’s not that I’m saying it, this is what it says, these are the guys who are saying, and I looked in the source where Yahweh came from, that’s where it comes from, one of the places it comes from.

Keith: What’s so amazing to me, Nehemia, is that you have done something really radical. You haven’t, just to let the gentile go and run with the name. You have said, “Look, I want to be able to understand and I want to share it. I want it… I mean, it’s prophetic. It’s biblical. His name is going to be known. People are going to know His name.”

I just think this story is such an amazing story, because David basically said, “Look, I’m afraid of it. Let me give it to Obed-Edom the Gittite.” Obed received it, got blessed. David said, “Okay, I want to go back and get it.” And we hope that that’s the story that people do say, “Look, let’s have what it is that’s been given to us.” This is the Ark of God where He’s got His written word, where He speaks His word. I mean, it’s an amazing thing.

Now, I won’t go into great depth about this, but there is a phenomenal study, which eventually we’re going to share, regarding where this place is... where Obed-Edom’s house is, and also where this took place for Uzzah. And it really is something that goes into great depth, and I have to give credit to my friend Yehuda Glick, who did an entire study on this, which really opened my eyes to some geographical issues. So eventually, I’d like to be able to share that. I’d love for you to see it. But I want to thank you, Nehemia, for going with me... Just tell them about one thing. We went to the five cities of Gat, we went where the Ark went...

Nehemia: Well, the five cities of the Philistines. We actually didn’t go to Gaza. [both laughing] But we were close. We saw Gaza and we went to the four cities of the Philistines. We saw the fifth one… from afar.

Keith: So anyway, the story is that David now is going to bring it back. There’s a really interesting thing here. It talks about what happened when they decided to bring the Ark back. It says, “When the bearers the Ark of Yehovah had gone six paces they sacrificed an ox and a fatling,” is what it says here. So literally they went six steps. David said, “We’re going to be sure to be holy before the…” They took six steps…

Nehemia: Do you have a spiritual teaching about why it was six, six and six? Uh oh. Now let’s move on.

Keith: [laughing] “So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the Ark of Yehovah with shouting and the sound from it.” One interesting fact, I just like to bring up, I do think it’s really interesting that David now has it where the priests are carrying the Ark. Before that, the Ark was on a cart. Where does it ever say anything about an Ark being on a cart? In other words, when transferring the Ark, they were actually specific.

Nehemia: Well, there were poles. So they were carrying the poles.

Keith: Exactly. But I’m saying, so now when he does decide to bring it back, he must’ve asked the question, “Well, how is the Ark supposed to be transported?” You know, how did it travel?

Nehemia: So you’re saying, basically David said, “Okay, we had this tradition,” and remember…

Keith: We’re not saying for sure, but I mean...

Nehemia: Well, I mean, one place we know the Ark was on the cart is when it came back from the Philistines. The Philistines stuck it on a cart. And now David’s saying, “Maybe we need to get biblical here. Let's get biblical. Yeah, let's go back to what it says in the Torah.”

Keith: And that’s a great title. Let’s try to do a show - Let’s Get Biblical.

Nehemia: I think we should do that. We need to do a program called Let’s Get Biblical.

Keith: That’s what David did.

Nehemia. Absolutely. Anyway, so can we read, we’re not going to read the whole thing here because we’re running out of time. Can we read verse 18?

Keith: Yes, we have to. Verse 18, “When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offering, he blessed the people in the name Yehovah Tsaba’ot.”

Nehemia: Now he didn’t actually say the name Yehovah, he said “in the name of Adonai of Hosts.”

Keith: No, no, no. He blessed them in the name.

Nehemia: In your Hebrew does it say Adonai or Yehovah?

Keith: No, it says Yehovah.

Nehemia: Oh, wow. Yeah.

Keith: He blessed him in the name.

Nehemia: But I thought the name was a secret then; they’d never heard it.

Keith: No. David understood. He brought the name back.

Nehemia: He didn’t whisper the blessing under his breath? Can we talk about the dancing? Okay. So can you read verse 20?

Keith: Yes. “But when David returned to bless his household, Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, ‘How the King of Israel has distinguished himself today. He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants and maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovers himself.” So David...

Nehemia: That’s because he was dancing nekid. Well, I mean, he probably took his shirt off, and, look we say in Yiddish, how I was raised, he was very labadick. He was moved by his heart, and Michal who is the daughter of a king - now remember her father was a shepherd, he grew up, but she doesn’t remember that. She grew up as a princess. That’s all she knows. And then she married a king, and in her eyes, the king is too distinguished. And look, David was half-dressed. If he were up there in Syria with ISIS, they’d have flogged him; and he would definitely be kicked out of the Baptist Church for what he was doing. Am I right?

Keith: No question about it.

Nehemia: There’s plenty of synagogues he would be kicked out of no question, but here he was before the Ark and he was being moved by his heart to dance before Yehovah.

Keith: I have to be honest, it’s hard for me not to think about David’s earlier experience with Uzzah. He’s seeing what happens, it says he’s afraid of Yehovah, the things get changed. He gets biblical, he has people sacrificing, he has the priests carrying the Ark and he’s dancing before Yehovah. Clearly, it’s like he’s at a place of all-out commitment. “Here it is. I don’t care what anyone thinks. I can be the king, but before Him, who am I?” He’s just dancing and worshiping before Yehovah.

Nehemia: 2 Samuel chapter 7 has the parallel, please go read it in 2 Chronicles chapter 17 verses 1 to 15. I want to encourage people to go read both passages side by side and compare them. You’ll learn a lot of interesting things.

Keith: It is really amazing. Now, the second part of it, Nehemia, we’ve talked about this actually before, regarding what happened. So where are we at right now?

Nehemia: I’m jumping ahead because we're running out of time. 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 3, I want to talk about.

Keith: Got you.

Nehemia: So we have the phrase there, “And Natan said to the King,” Nathan, Natan the prophet, “all that is in your heart, go and do,” go do “ ki Yehovah imach”, “for Yehovah is with you.” And this is a phrase, a concept that we have repeatedly throughout the Tanakh, and I’m sure we’ve talked about this. About Yehovah being with someone is… this repeated… is a central concept. He actually said, “I will be with you,” to Moses. Let me bring you that one.

That’s a common phrase. For example, well actually even in Genesis 26:3, Yehovah says to Abraham, “Eheyeh imcha” “I will be with you.” I think that’s to Abraham. And then, let’s skip ahead, there’s a bunch of places. “I will be with you” is this phrase that appears over and over.

Exodus 3:12, when Yehovah reveals Himself to Moses at the burning bush. He says, “Eheyeh imach”, “I will be with you.” And then He says, “I will be with your mouth,” and here’s this idea of Yehovah being with somebody, and that actually goes back to the core of what Yehovah’s name is. He’s “Haya, Hoveh, Iihiyeh,” He who was, He who is, and He who is to come. He will be, and it’s not just that He exists, which He does, but He’s the one who was going to be with us.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: He is, and He’s with us.

Keith: Amen. Amen. So then, again, what was it that was in his mind? David was dealing with the issue of wanting as he’s brought the Ark there, and now he wants to deal with the issue of building a house, as we already talked about, a house for the name, a House for Yehovah, a house for the Ark, a house for the things. And it says here, when He says, “Go ahead and do that, I will be with you.” But in the same night, the word of Yehovah came onto Nathan. “Go and say to My servant, David, ‘Thus says Yehovah, Are you the one who should build?’” And I like this phrase, it says, “Are you the one who should build Me a house to dwell in?”

Nehemia: I’m building your house, you don’t need to build my house. [both laughing]

Keith: Exactly. Interesting, He says, “Me a house to dwell in,” and again, and we’ve seen this phrase over and over again, what is the house being built for? A house, for the name, build the house, shall I build the house? et cetera, et cetera. Again, speaking of His name “for I’ve not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt even to this day,” and then here’s where it says, now this is Yehovah speaking, Nehemia, and I really, really love this phrase, “but I have been moving about,” I’ve been moving about - and what is he talking about? “I’ve been moving about in a tent, even in a Mishkan,” even in a Tabernacle. So you have the perspective of the people, you have the perspective of what we’re seeing happening, and then you have the words of Yehovah saying, “Look, yes, My presence has been moving about.” And what was the representation of His presence? What was the representation of His presence? Where was the Ark?

Nehemia: I want to be careful about the word “presence”, because that could mean different things to different people. But definitely the Ark was the place Moses would hear the voice of Yehovah, and it was a holy object, and we could see how holy it is. The guy stretches out his hand to touch it and he gets stricken down.

Keith: What I think is interesting, when I think about the Ark, I actually think about it from the perspective of the written word and the spoken word - the written word on the inside, the spoken word on the outside, basically. And then, of course, it being called by His name.

Nehemia: By the name Yehovah, yes.

Keith: So it really is pretty amazing. It says here “Where I have gone with all the sons of Israel? Did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?”

“Now therefore,” 7:8, can I continue? “Thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says Yehovah of Hosts, I took you from the pasture and from following the sheep...’” He’s reminding David where he came from and what He did for him. He says, “I’m going to make you into a great name.” This is all preparing for what it is, the promise that comes to David in 2 Samuel Chapter 7, “appointing a place for My people, Israel, and will plant them that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again!” May it be.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: “Nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, even from that day, I commanded judges to be over My people, Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies, and Yehovah also declares to you the LORD will make a house for you.” [laughing] Now we're talking about the promise to David. I mean, in other words, we’re talking about him wanting to make a house for Him, and you just said it. “Now I’m talking about making a house for you.”

And so this says in verse 12, I’m getting to your verse, “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers,” and we’ve have done Prophet Pearls sections on this, what happened with David and what happened regarding the promise to Solomon, “I will raise up your descendant after you who will come forth from you and I will establish his kingdom.” This is again, this Messianic promise of what’s going to happen, that David’s going to be established, his line’s going to be established. “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me.”

Nehemia: Ooh. Can we talk about that?

Keith: We can say that. Let’s stop and ask and see what that says. Let’s read it, Nehemia and I don’t know if you’d be willing to...

Nehemia: We’ve talked about this before, this idea, but I love this concept. Yehovah says, “I will be for him a son,” meaning your descendant. And he will be for Me... I'll be for him, a father, and he will be for Me a son. And then the parallel, 1 Chronicles chapter 17, verse 13, He says the same thing, “I'll be for him a father and he will be for Me a son.” And it says, “Vechasti lo asir me'eemo” “And My grace,” or “My righteousness I will not remove from him,” “I won't take away from him,” “ka’asher asi’oti me’asher haya lephanecha”, “as I took it away from he who was before you,” meaning Saul, meaning your son I’m going to choose that line forever. The one who I choose as my son.

And then we have 1 Chronicles 28:6. It says, “Vayomer liSlhomo bincha hu yivne beiti vechatzerotai.” Here David is saying that God said to him, “Your son Solomon, he will build My house and My courtyards for I have chosen him for Me as a son and I will be for him a father.” That’s 1 Chronicles 28:6.

So we’ve got these three witnesses, three passages which speak about the king of Israel, the anointed, the Messiah, the one from the line of David who comes after David. In this case, Solomon is God’s chosen son. And I believe that is a picture of the Messiah who will come, that he is a son of God, that Yehovah has chosen him.

I know for my Jewish brothers and sisters who are hearing this, we don’t talk about this in the synagogue. This is a difficult concept for some Jews, but it shouldn’t be because we definitely have this idea in, for example, Deuteronomy 14, where Yehovah says, “You are sons of God,” meaning to all of Israel. And He explains what that means. It means you’re holy. It means you’re chosen. And what He’s saying here is that the King Messiah, who will come from the Line of David will be God’s chosen son. Amen.

Keith: Give God praise.

Nehemia: Praise to God.

Keith: Nehemia, it’s interesting you said for Jews sometimes that this is a difficult concept, and I remember one of the things that you and I did a long time ago, Nehemia, when we were writing our book A Prayer to Our Father, Hebrew Origins of the Lord's Prayer. In the first part you said, “our Father”. And you’re like, “Okay, well I don’t care about that section. Let's move on quickly.” That’s the kind of a Christian concept with “Father”. Until we did what? We opened up the book, we opened up the Bible, and we started seeing over and over again of Yehovah being a father, and the title “father” being given to different people. And you know, I think what I appreciate about what you’re saying right now is that there are some things that are uncomfortable. Okay, so He’s talking about a son. What? Wait, is that a concept that’s okay for us? Well, it’s right here. It’s right here in the Scripture. So I think we have to let the Scriptures speak, and then we go from there.

Nehemia: Amen. All right. Can we read verse 16? Or do you have something on this verse?

Keith: No, no, no. Go ahead. What I liked was verse 15, it says, “But My loving kindness shall not depart from him as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your House and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever. Your throne shall be established for a couple thousand years.”

Nehemia: Until we go to establish a different religion. No, it’s forever.

Keith: [laughing] It’s forever.

Nehemia: Wow.

Keith: Yeah. “In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.” I think that’s pretty amazing.

Nehemia: I think this is amazing. This is an amazing passage. I know we had to run through it, but I do think we hit the key points, and there’s a bunch of other points, obviously. I want to encourage people, go study this for yourself and post your comments at Nehemiaswall.com and Keith’s website, BFAinternational.com, on the section related to this week’s portion, and share what you’ve learned, please. Go do your homework and share what you’ve learned.

Keith: I want to do something. You know, normally we stop and when we talk about our ministries and we talk about what we’re doing and I’m sure some people are like, “Okay, let me get through that part.” But you know what? Nehemia, let’s just be honest. We were talking about this. I was actually talking to Nehemia’s mother about this. The significance of what ministry is and how… I know we talked about it a few weeks ago, but again, how many people that we have that are listening or they’re being engaged by what we’re doing. I don’t look at it as a way for, “Let’s stick out our chest and talk about how many people,” but I think it’s a really amazing thing that right now we can be here doing this recording, push a button, and this information goes literally around the world. I mean… [laughing]

Nehemia: It’s humbling. It’s so humbling.

Keith: I mean, think about that. I mean, literally, we don’t even have to talk about the statistics, but there are thousands of people who are going to sit and listen for 45 minutes to an hour on this. I would like to say to you, thank you for continuing to keep the position of giving access to the information. Some people will be like, “Well, Keith, give us more of your perspective,” or, “Nehemia, beat up the Christians,” “Christians, do something with the Jews.”

I just think this is a blessing to let the word of God speak. I just think this is a blessing.

Nehemia: It really is the picture of Amos 3:3, coming together on the common ground of the Word of God.

Keith: Yes. So I want to say, you know, again, our ministries - we have two different ministries. I’ll let you talk about your ministry. BFAinternational.com was established really as a result of a meeting with you, where I was sitting across from that place and seeing again those big stones and thinking, “What would it be like to have that kind of a biblical foundation for people’s faith?” That’s really what this whole thing is about for me. I just have to say all these years later, I mean, I’m just sitting here thinking, “Wow, it’s happening. It’s actually happening.” So it’s pretty amazing.

Nehemia: Well, my ministry, Makor Hebrew Foundation, people can go to my website, Nehemiaswall.com, sign up for my free newsletter, get the weekly updates. That’s the plug for the ministry.

I want to talk about something. You talked about your ministry was founded when we went to the Western Wall together and there were the giant stones, and they were the foundation stones, and that gave you this image of the Biblical Foundations Academy. I know for me I'd go to the Western Wall and stand before these ancient stones. They’d been there for thousands of years and they were put on the spot where Zerubavel before him had built the Temple and on the spot where Solomon before him had built the Temple. I stand there and I’m like, I’m standing here at the place where Jeremiah walked down the street, and David walked down that street, and it really, to me, it’s like unbelievable.

Now I’m thinking about the Ark traveling around. I don’t know if I told you about this place, but, there is this one particular place in Israel where there’s an ancient bridge and it’s exactly in the area geographically where the Philistines, when they left the battlefield at Even Ha’ezer, at Eben-Ezer, they would have crossed that bridge over this nachal, over this wadi. Maybe it’s not the same bridge because the bridge has been replaced, but the bridge would have been at that site, at that spot.

Keith: Why haven’t we gone there?

Nehemia: I don’t know. [both laughing] We can go there. I remember going on a hike and going over that bridge and thinking, “I am passing over the exact spot where the Ark, which is called by the name of Yehovah, passed.” And it’s just amazing being here in the Land, and in a sense, it’s really empowering. Like I said, my ministry is about empowering people with information. I know I’m empowered when I go to these biblical spots. I said, “You know what? I don’t need any rabbi to be my intermediary. I don’t need any rabbi to be my interpreter. Here I can interact directly with the Creator of the universe by going to the places that He talks about in Scripture and reading those biblical passages and just being moved by it.” I mean, I believe that is the spirit of Yehovah. Yehovah is doing things; we read a few weeks ago about how David, by the spirit, had this knowledge, and I believe Yehovah is doing things with His spirit now for the people of Israel, for the people around the world, in fact. There are David’s out there and there are Obed-Edom the Gittites out there, and I think this is such an era of blessing that we live in where we have this opportunity.

Keith: Well do us a favor folks, share Prophet Pearls with people. There’s no requirement. There’s no registration. You can click on Nehemiaswall.com, BFAinternational.com and you can listen to… I think we have up to this point 24 or so of these things that have been done. We're going to get all the way to 54. We’ve got a big process ahead of us, two or three of these a day. I’m not feeling the best, but I will say, when we open up the Bible and we start talking I start feeling better, and then as soon as it’s done I feel bad again. [laughing] So you got to pray for us, Nehemia, to end. But is there anything you’d like to say before we before we end this section?

Nehemia: No, let’s just close it out. Yehovah, thank You so much for bringing us here to Jerusalem, to this place, so close to the place where You put Your name forever, to the Temple Mount, in the city of Jerusalem. We’re here in Jerusalem in this cave, in this little apartment in a sub-basement. But it’s such a blessing to be here, to be here of all places, to have this opportunity to come before You and speak about Your word, and for that word to go around the world. We have the verse where it says, “The Torah shall go forth from Zion,” and to be part of that, to be part of people coming from all the nations, as it says in Isaiah 2, and for then the Torah to go forth from Zion. I am so humbled by this, Yehovah, and so grateful for You for sharing Your blessing, for sharing Your name with Your people and Your Torah, this amazing blessing You’ve given to us, this Torah and these prophets, these revelations are such a beautiful blessing and gift to the world, Yehovah, I’m so grateful for this gift.

Yehovah, I pray that like in the time of David, You give us rest from our enemies round about, and that You, as it says here in the Book of Samuel, that there will be the one who You choose as Your son, who is from the Line of David, who is a descendant of David. Yehovah, please bring Your chosen son and rebuild the house of David soon in our days, Yehovah. Yehovah, please let all mankind know that You, Yehovah, are Elohim, that You are the one and only, and let all mankind know Your son, the one You have chosen and will send to the world to defeat the enemies of Israel, to gather in the exiles, the exiles of Israel and the ones who are exiled, like Oved-Edom the Gittite and Itai the Gittite, to bring them to You out of the spiritual exile in which they are in and to bring world peace, Yehovah, so that the swords are beaten into plowshares. May this be soon, Yehovah. Amen.

Keith: Amen.

You have been listening to Prophet Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

We hope the above transcript has proven to be a helpful resource in your study. While much effort has been taken to provide you with this transcript, it should be noted that the text has not been reviewed by the speakers and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. If you would like to support our efforts to transcribe the teachings on NehemiasWall.com, please visit our support page. All donations are tax-deductible (501c3) and help us empower people around the world with the Hebrew sources of their faith!

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  • Brandon Powell says:

    As I was preparing this comment, it dawned on me that Yehova had commanded Moses on Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19:12+13 – You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. 13 Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live. At first , I heard a teaching on this and I’ll sum it up; That Uzzah’s mistake was that he didn’t worship Yehova as Yehova prescribed. I. E his lack of reverence. And now as I type this comment out, I can see, that Uzzah simply touching the Arch of the Covenant was in direct disobedience to the command of Yehova “to not touch” the Holy mountain of the Lord. Which seems to be a reference to the meeting place where Yehova came to make a covenant with men.
    What exactly was the homework that was to be done?

  • Louis C Korkames says:

    Interesting. Uzzah drove the cart. Ahio walked in front. “I drive the cart carrying YHVH! I saved YHVH when he fell!” Might this have been his error?!

  • Louis C Korkames says:

    It struck me that a possible reason God struck down the man who tried to steady the ark when it was being upset, maybe it was his idea to put the ark on a cart instead of being carried by the poles, which would have been an underlying reason that the cart nearly dropped the ark?

  • Anon says:

    Is the Gittite Obed-Edom of 1 Chr. 13:13 the same one as the Levite Obed-Edom of 1 Chr. 15:18?

  • Bonface says:

    May Yehovah bless for your wise teaching.You really change alot of people’s life.

  • Rachel Cory says:

    David was anointed to be king while Saul was still reigning. Judah accepted David as king, and he reigned over Judah for 7 years. He finally became king over all Israel in the 8th year, after the death of Saul. An interesting TYPE I think.
    David won Michael (the daughter of Saul) for “a hundred foreskins of the Philistines” (2Samuel 3:14). She was a trophy.

    After the death of Saul and the defeat of his remaining sons, David demanded Michal be returned to him. He had never divorced her. Saul had given her in marriage to Paltiel (a political supporter) during his war against David. Michal loved David when they were first betrothed/married. I doubt she was “married” willingly to Paltiel.

    David thought he needed Michal to legitimize his reign. As King Saul’s legal son-in-law, David would be heir to Saul’s throne (2Samuel 3:14-16). Perhaps he thought it would help him win over Saul’s followers.

    A weeping Paltiel followed his wife to the gate of Jerusalem. If Paltiel had actually treated Michael well, we can understand why Michal could despise David, for using her yet again as a political trophy.

    David already had sons by Ahinoam, Abigail, Maacah, Haggith, Abital, and Eglah. He certainly did not NEED another wife. He thought he needed her – for political reasons. He should have looked only to the LORD. We read the results.

    David was not “naked” in our sense of the word. He simply was not wearing his royal attire or ornaments.

  • don murphy says:

    should have covered II samuyl 6:14-23 in more detail.

  • Jok B. Bulabek says:

    This is Revolutinary Servants of the Most High- Yehovah the God of Israel. Yehovah bless your ministry. I have two questions.
    1) In my English translation , the Shema Israel is not very specific in relation God’s name. How does the Shema read? Should I read it “ The Lord our God” as Adonai or Yehovah?
    2) What should we say to our Christian brothers who read the Torah and the four gospel in Arabic. The name of Yehovah has been translated as “Allah” which is the name of the God of Islam. Can you address this issue at length place. I feel many Christians have been misled by accepting Allah as Yehovah

  • Fernando says:

    Wow!!! At 39:53 Nehemia makes a point that echoes Romans 11:11-12. May the Glory of Yehová shines upon every Jew. Yehová yoshía!!!

  • Sheila Price says:

    I remember my Grandmother telling me about a professor and his college students, apparently in the late 1800’s or early 1900;s who tried to make an exact replica of The Ark of The Covenant according to instructions in the Torah and they couldn’t complete it because it created such electrical power… I just googled it and someone else was asking about the same thing on a website ‘unexplained-mysteries.com’ but there is no answer… just the inquiry and a lot of guessing and silly comments but nothing about the actual experiment.
    I also found a site called Quora that mentions it, stating that one Erich von Daniken seems to be the originating source for this story…so I researched him… but he seems to have been WAY out in left field with space aliens etc… so not a reliable source.

    What I’m wondering is, if a replica could produce that kind of electrical current would it not be feasible that the Real Ark conducted some kind of current which is why it had to be carried by wooden poles and why when Uzzah touched it he was struck dead? I believe God is all things good… and therefore believe He is Love, He is music, He is Grace, He is Mercy, He is Justice He is Science,… He is Power… While the Ark itself is not God… His Power was in it. The people of that day would have seen Uzzah’s death as being ‘struck by Yehovah’ himself instead of the result of contact with an electrical current. This is not diminishing Yehovah in it… but to me just shows even more how Yehovah God is all Powerful and Creative. Just a thought.

    I continue to pray for Israelites who still do not understand or are afraid of the concept of having a personal Relationship with The Father.. of BEing in Relationship WITH Him. As a Gentile it took me far too many years to get it myself… but for different reasons than thinking of Him as too Holy or too Powerful to be able to have a relationship with.
    Whatever the reason for believing one can not have a personal relationship with The Creator God, I pray for His Truth to come into the lives of each Israelite… and for each Gentile… who still do not understand this concept, to be able to discover it, to live it, to have it.

    • donald murphy says:

      I believe that as the fire offered was profane so is the building things that were in the temple by people who weren’t priests were also of a profane nature.

  • Wasn’t the problem with Uzzah is that the priests were to carry the ark by the poles and not on a cart? Wasn’t this so as not to touch the ark itself? Therefore, if Uzzah (even with good intentions) did what was forbidden, (like Nadab and Abihu) then YHVH was not happy about it. David may have thought it was too harsh……maybe Aaron did too. But our opinions are not relevant to whether or not we obey the commands.

    • UKJ says:

      Interesting,

      And David was angry because the LORD had burst forth against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah, to this day.
      And it is displeasing to David, because that Jehovah hath broken forth a breach upon Uzzah, and [one] calleth that place Perez-Uzzah, unto this day;
      – 2 Samuel 6:8

      Did David understand that as “the initiator” of moving the ark , the punishment should really have come to him for not transporting the ark as requested by the law set forth?

      If so has Yehovah spared David’s life, but requested a punishment never the less (Uzzah happened to be the one who touched it ?)

      Just a thought..

    • don murphy says:

      great thought.

  • Shalom again! Some good comments here and I hope mine is an encouraging one also and full of hope. I don’t sense to direct this type of comment towards Kieth. Therefore Nehemiah, there you go again waxing wise with your parallel juxtaposition between the Ark’s name of Yahovah bringing it front and center AND the last days projected blessings of bringing God’s name forth once again! WAY TO GO! for such a one being so very detail oriented. You have again taken that which is seen, to see the unseen. (wisdom Rom 1:20). I believe the true “circumcised of heart” children of Amighty God ARE speaking forth His Holy name as it is being learned but in context of Scripture, this isn’t enough, is it? His proper name must be commomplace and spoken amongst any and all as it becomes known. Not rejected so wickedly as is today. So it was and will be again only this time around, the true Messiah will cause it to happen as the place called by His name is established once again. The sooner the better is my judgment. Amein and Amein! Please keep the wisdom coming as in these things, we may boast that we understand and come to know our Father. Didn’t we discuss salvation and relationship a couple episodes back. Brought deep felt tears inside and out to see the wise truth and what His intentions are. Earth shattering it is! Be blessed again and again continually. me

  • Janice says:

    David must have reasoned that the poles were wood, no hanan hands touched it, so a wood wagon? It is wood and not touched by hunam hands and it travels faster.

    Machal most likely had some resentment her father was not king, I don’t think David was naked, I think he word the Ephod, which meant he reveled he was a king priest line, Melchizedek. That’s the uncoverning she meant; not naked skin. Right?

    • Shalom Janice and all! If we look at Machal in context of being a woman, subject to like passions. If the points given concerning her heritage, the silver spoon upbringing not to menton being a “chip of the ol block” as the saying goes, have validity,, couldn’t we deduce quite conclusively in context that PRIDE and arrogance were her overflowing traits here? Another saying is “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” so as her father was, so she was. No doubt she was a miserable mistake in the Kings existence although we can clearly see the behind the scenes politics which brought forth such a mistake. When David was on the run, he took another wife which I believe was another mistake although she as indicated was a wonderful wise woman. Obviously these women didn’t satisfy so he continually looked for another,, ie., “the RIGHT one” perhaps? I personally believe Bathsheba was the one Amighty God had made for him. Sin complications withstanding, Yahovah would have worked this out His way if David would have sought and patiently waited. God placed her before him but someone else saw too and worked to thewart the blessed plan of God. HINT: haSatan. David was no ordinary man and he would have his “perfect” match made just for him. The cost was high however and so it seems for everyman who would seek a likewise prize! Take it or leave it, just my humble opinion. Blessings, me

  • Janice says:

    Why did the Ark not need to be purified after being handled by the foreignors and then Urizah?

  • יברכך יהוה I was touched, Nehemia, by the word you spoke from Isaiah before you prayed, “For the Torah will go forth from Zion, and the word of Yehovah from Yerushalayim.” Truly it’s a blessed honor the two of you have been given! Thanks for the study. A couple of questions:

    1) Since the high priest was the only one who could go into the Most Holy Place on Yom ha Kippurim (and that only after a barrier of incense smoke preceded him), what was the protocol for gaining access to the ark in the first place so that it could be transported along with the rest of the Mishkan? I was always under the impression that anyone entering the Most Holy Place other than the high priest according to said prescription would be met with a similar fate as Nadav and Avihu.

    2) I’ve heard that Eliahu ha Tishbi (Elijah the Tishbite) was also a non-Israelite prophet, which blew my mind to consider. I read that Tishbey is mentioned nowhere else in Scripture and its location is unknown (maybe a town called Istib 8 miles north of the Jabbok river). Or does Tishbi refer to תושב (sojourner). Either way, does this make Eliahu a non-Israelite prophet as well?

    Shalom aleykem,
    Adam

  • Don says:

    Thanks again guys. But sorry here comes my but. Poor Solomon took 1000 wives!!!! And built for them high places and the kingdom was divided after his death sure wasn’t a happy ending. Maybe you could address his gross lack of wisdom in his personal life. Kinda hard to understand him taking 1000 wives I guess one could reason it was to make foreign alliances. But 1000 wives YIKES!!!

  • Laura Olson says:

    Before entering Gaza, the IDF was prayed over. All I can gather is that it was the prayer before battle that includes the phrases “You will not be afraid”, and “I will fight for you”, and they were then NOT afraid (as told by a soldier on youtube who went street-to-street in that invasion, and filmed some of it), and there were NO casualties. I keep trying to find more video of it, I guess there is none of the rabbi (priest?) praying over the troops at the border just before the battle. But I wonder if the praying leader spoke the Name over the troops? Does anyone know?

  • Following the discussion of the non-Israelite prophet, here is a short list of non-Israelites having provision in the law and nation of Yehovah:

    Exodus 12:49
    The same law shall apply to the native as to the stranger who sojourns among you.

    Exodus 22:21
    You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

    Exodus 23:9
    You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

    Exodus 23:12
    Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves.

    Leviticus 19:10
    Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am Yehovah your God.

    Leviticus 19:33-34
    33 When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
    34 The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am Yehovah your God.

    Leviticus 24:22
    There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am Yehovah your God.

    Leviticus 25:35
    Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, in order that he may live with you.

    Numbers 15:15-16
    15 As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the alien who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the alien be before Yehovah.
    16 There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the alien who sojourns with you.

    Deuteronomy 16:10-14
    10 Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks (i.e. Pentecost, Shavuot) to Yehovah your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give just as Yehovah your God blesses you;
    11 and you shall rejoice before Yehovah your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite who is in your town, and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where Yehovah your God chooses to establish His name.
    12 You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.
    13 You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat;
    14 and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your towns.

    Deuteronomy 26:12
    When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and to the widow, in order that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

    Ruth 1:15-17 – Foreigners could choose to worship Yehovah.
    15 Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”
    16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
    17 “Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may Yehovah do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.”

    1 Samuel 26:6 – Foreigners fought for King David.
    Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, saying, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.”
    1 Kings 8:41-43
    41 Also concerning the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your name’s sake
    42 (for they will hear of Your great name and Your mighty hand, and of Your outstretched arm); when he comes and prays toward this house,
    43 hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, to fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.

    2 Chronicles 6:32-33
    32 Also concerning the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your great name’s sake and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house,
    33 then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, and fear You as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.

    Isaiah 56:3-8
    3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to Yehovah say, “Yehovah will surely separate me from His people.” Nor let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
    4 For thus says Yehovah, “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant,
    5 to them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.
    6 Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yehovah, to minister to Him, and to love the name of Yehovah, to be His servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the Sabbath and holds fast My covenant;
    7 even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.
    8 The Lord Yehovah, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, “Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.”

    Jeremiah 26:20 – Non-Israelites can be prophets
    Indeed, there was also a man who prophesied in the name of Yehovah, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land words similar to all those of Jeremiah.

  • Peter Phiri says:

    Keith & Nehemia
    You have hit a nerve here David claimed the ark from uzzah, does this parallel the need for reclaiming the Temple Mount away from the current occupier? Is Yehovah waiting for a David who will see the urgency to take back what belongs to Israel from those who have been defiling it?

    • don murphy says:

      I have wondered if several stray hamas rockets may land on it? Israel could then step in to reclaim it. hamas could be their own worse enemy

  • Kevin George says:

    Will Israel begin to speak the name because the gentile do and make them jealous? As nations align to war against them, they may need to. Look at the history of the ban on the name.
    When Greece was the greatest empire on the face of the Earth, they tried to ban the name, but Judah the Maccabee formed a small army and fought back. They won. Greece fell. The Maccabees feared Yehovah more than they feared death and He preserved them.
    Three centuries later, Rome is the greatest empire on Earth, and they too attempt to ban the name. Bar Kochbah forms a small army to fight back. About this time Rabbi ben Teradion teaches from the Torah using the name. Rome burns him to death. The other rabbis get together and say,” We can’t have Rome killing us for speaking the name! Let US ban the name!” Israel gets destroyed. Rome continues for centuries. The rabbis feared death more than Yehovah.

  • YoAv says:

    Yehovah must have been incensed that He was forced to enforce His word with Uzzah:

    NUM 4:15 “When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy objects and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is to set out, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them, so that they will not touch the holy objects and die. These are the things in the tent of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry.
    DEU 10:8 At that time Yehovah set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of Yehovah, to stand before Yehovah to serve Him and to bless in His name until this day.