Prophet Pearls #7 – Vayeitzei (Hosea 12:12-14:9)

Prophet Pearls (Vayeitzei) Hosea 12:12-14:9In this episode of Prophet Pearls, Vayetizei (Hosea 12:12-14:9), with the ear of the fluent, Nehemia Gordon informs us of the unique structures and forms of Hebrew used in the northern kingdom, and by its only prophet whose book has survived—Hosea. We learn of Hosea’s penchant for transient imagery, his “Jewish mother” tendencies, and his eight-step prayer. Word studies include: “the shepherd,” “the Leviathan,” “Ephraim,” “sheol,” “moshia,” “kissing calves,” “heal,” and the faulty connection between “bulls” and “fruit.” We also learn that while God prefers mercy over sacrifice, there is one thing for which he shows none.

"For the ways of Yehovah are straight; the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them." Hosea 14:9[10]

I look forward to reading your comments!

Download Prophet Pearls Vayeitzei Transcript
Prophet Pearls #7 - Vayeitzei (Hosea 12:12-14:9)

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: Shalom chaverim shelanu! That means “Peace to you, our friends,” in the language of Hebrew. This is Keith Johnson with Nehemia Gordon, ready to take another peek into the Prophets to see if we can find some more pearls to share with you. Shalom, chever sheli! Ata muchan? Are you ready?

Nehemia: Ani muchan. Shalom le’kulam. Peace to everyone. It’s such a blessing to be speaking the language of the Prophets.

Keith: The language of the prophets. Can you say the language of the prophets to them?

Nehemia: Le’shon hanevi’im, the language of the prophets.

Keith: Yes. Can you do this? Can you also say to them, because I don’t know if you realize it or not, this is called Thanksgiving weekend in the United States.

Nehemia: It is.

Keith: Now, there are people around the world listening to us, Nehemia, they may not know anything about this traditional celebration. What I love about this particular celebration is just the word Thanksgiving. And then who is the focus of that thanks. I’m thankful, of course, to our heavenly Father, and I’m also thankful to our many friends who stepped in to walk alongside us. This week this particular episode has actually been sponsored by our Prophet Pearls partners Seth and Cindy in Iowa. They were amazing.

Nehemia: Hey Seth and Cindy!

Keith: Seth and Cindy, thank you so much. They didn’t want to bring any questions or any comments. However, they were really instrumental people for us when we went to Iowa. They’re prayer warriors, they’re support warriors, they’re people who step up and do what they do.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: So again, thank you so much. We’re thankful during this weekend not only for them, but for a number of people who have decided that they’re going to walk with us through thE Prophet Pearls as sponsors. This happens to be one of the episodes that’s sponsored. We’re going to be dealing with a lot of interesting stuff this week, and maybe they decided not to comment because this is a hot one. I mean that’s what we’re going to do in Hosea. This is going to be amazing. I’m kind of kidding, but looking forward to it. You ready?

Nehemia: Keith, can I say something about Thanksgiving?

Keith: Sure.

Nehemia: So in Hebrew, it’s called “chag hahodaya.” Chag is a feast, and obviously, it’s not a biblical feast. But it’s been given a Hebrew name, and hahodaya, “ha,” is the, and “hodaya” is thanks. And here is the really interesting thing - the meat that’s eaten on Thanksgiving is English called…?

Keith: Turkey.

Nehemia: Turkey, right. And in Hebrew, it’s actually called “hodu,” do which means, and the full name is “tarnegol hodu,” which means, “turkey of India,” because they thought this was India. And the funny thing is that hahodaya and hodu sound like there’s a play on words there. And this is why when I speak about, for example, the Hebrew Matthew or even anything in the Tanakh, if you have just one example that could be a coincidence. Because here’s an example that’s clearly a coincidence, you know, the name of turkey had absolutely nothing to do with the name of this festival. It wasn’t a Hebrew festival, it was an English festival, but in Hebrew, it looks there is this play on words, but it’s a complete coincidence. By the way, do how to say turkey in Chinese?

Keith: Oh, please tell me.

Nehemia: Hoy-jee, which means firebird, fire-chicken.

Keith: Well, that’s kind of funny because actually according to the schedule, I may very well be eating…

Nehemia: Hoy-jee.

Keith: Hoy-jee depending on if all things go according to plan. Again, according to the schedule, last weekend I would have been in the Philippines. This weekend I would be somewhere in the land of China, so there’s a lot going on, so many things.

Nehemia: Good luck finding a chicken and turkey.

Keith: But here’s what’s interesting, this is just the spirit of Thanksgiving. And certainly, as we are preparing to do another episode of Prophet Pearls, I’m thankful. I’m thankful to you, Nehemia, that you’re here; we’re able to do this together. I will say I’ve got a little bit of frustration. I finally, before we get started, I want to tell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Nehemia: Do you mean the Three Goldilockses and the Bear?

Keith: No. Let me just tell you, I’m still here with Nehemia. Now today’s Goldilocks story is, I come home, and his car is in my garage spot. Now, he claims that his window is broken on his car. I haven’t been able to…

Nehemia: It’s a 12-year-old Honda. The window broke.

Keith: I haven’t been able to confirm. So the window broke.

Nehemia: And it rains here. I got in the garage spot.

Keith: So we’ve given him the garage spot. I’ll tell you what, man, I really do feel like you’re Goldilocks right now, and I’m one of the bears. My sister and my son are here, we’re the Three Bears, and you’re Goldilocks.

Nehemia: And boy is the bed comfortable.

Keith: Well, let’s get started. We’re actually in Hosea, and it’s funny, last week we talked a little bit, Nehemia, hinted towards, really now, what’s become one of my… not one of my most favorite verses, but one of the verses that tells me in very explicit terms why it’s important to know the original language of Scripture. This verse we’re going to get to, which I’m looking forward to; we’ll slow down. I will tell you ahead of time, I didn’t tell you this before recording - I have the Word of the Week, if it’s all right with you.

Nehemia: You do? Go ahead.

Keith: I’m going to push you on the Word of the Week if that’s all right.

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: So we’re going to take a look at Hosea, and we’re actually in chapter 12. And while I’m flipping to Hosea chapter 12 could you…

Nehemia: Can we qualify the Hebrew name if we’re going to be speaking about it?

Keith: Well, I’m talking to… okay, go ahead.

Nehemia: This is just me, but when I hear the name Hosea, and actually, just for kicks, I listen to this dramatized New King James Version. He said, “The prophet Hosea.” And I’m like, “Who’s that?” No, in Hebrew it’s Hoshea.

Keith: Hoshea

Nehemia: And who is the first Hosea in the Tanakh?

Keith: We know who it is.

Nehemia: He was the man we call Joshua. And he was a disciple of Moses, and Moses added the yud to his name to make him Yehoshua. Hoshea means “he saves,” and Yehoshua is “Yehovah saves.”

Keith: That’s funny. He’s the first man that ever was given a contracted name; Moses was the first one who came and said, look, here’s Joshua. He’s not going to be Joshua. Like you say, his name is Hoshea. I’ve got to change his name. Why?

Nehemia: You mean the one who has a compound name?

Keith: Compound name, sorry.

Nehemia: No, so he’s not the first.

Keith: Well, that was given from Moses.

Nehemia: No, so Judah was Yehudah, which is “Yehovah odeh.”

Keith: I meant where he was given a name.

Nehemia: Oh, okay.

Keith: In other words, where someone came and said, “We’re going to change your name.”

Nehemia: Oh, change your name, okay.

Keith: Yes, I’m sorry about that.

Nehemia: Then there was Yocheved, the mother of Moses, who is “Yehovah kavod,” honor to Yehovah.

Keith: What I like about the fact that Moses selected him, is that he knew what the job was that was going to be done, and there was no way that Hoshea, in the spirit of the word Hoshea, he’s like literally saying in order for this to be done, it’s going to have to be Yehovah himself that does this.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: So he called him by that name. It’s pretty cool.

Nehemia: Yehoshua, yes. And there is also a Hoshea who is the king of Israel, Hoshe’a Ben Elah. This is Hoshea Ben Be’eri.

Keith: So while we’re getting to in my NIV, Hosea or Hoshea, the original name. Could you do us a favor and give us a short background on this prophet, just a little bit of background?

Nehemia: He is a really unusual prophet. Well, he’s not really unusual. He’s unusual in our collection of prophecies, let’s put it that way. In other words, in the books that have come down to us, he is the only prophet who we can unequivocally point to and say he is a prophet of the Northern Kingdom. And if we think about it, Isaiah was from Jerusalem; Jeremiah was from Anathoth, which is a suburb of Jerusalem about five kilometers north of Jerusalem, three miles. You have Amos who is from Tekoa, which is in the Judean desert, at the edge of the Judean desert.

So we have all these prophets who are Judean prophets and they’re speaking… even Jeremiah, who’s from Anathoth, most of his prophecies are taking place in Jerusalem - he’s thrown in prison in Jerusalem because that was the capital. Hoshea is specifically a prophet to the Northern Kingdom, and that’s really what sets him apart.

Now, when I read it in Hebrew, I get so excited because I see these forms and these structures that don’t appear anywhere else in the Tanakh. They’re unique to the Hebrew of Hoshea, and I’m sure they’re not unique to Hoshea, but from what survives of the writings that we have, they’re unique to Hoshea. Jeremiah doesn’t have these forms, and Ezekiel doesn’t have these forms, and Isaiah doesn’t. But this northern prophet Hoshea has them. And he mentions Judah, but Judah is kind of an afterthought. His main subject is Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes of Israel.

Keith: And isn’t it interesting that when we’re reading in this book, if we know that, if we don’t know that that’s what he’s talking about, you really would get a bit confused. I mean it’s amazing. But let me say something. I was reading a comment someone made - and by the way, everyone that’s listening, we really challenge you to go to bfainternational.com, nehemiaswall.com, and listen to the Prophet Pearls and make comments. But I found a comment that really had to do with when we did the original Torah Pearls program, and a lady got mad at me, Nehemia. She got mad.

Nehemia: Only one?

Keith: Well, she was willing to write about it. She said I’m so frustrated that Keith is using the Anglicized name Yeshua, Yehoshua. He’s saying Jesus. And there may be people when I say that they get really frustrated. But let me explain why. Whether it’s whether I say Jesus or whether I say Hosea.

Nehemia: So she gets frustrated when you say Jesus just like I get frustrated when they say “Ho’zea.”

Keith: Exactly. Right. But let me just say something. The people – and I’ve been very clear about this from the time that you and I – I mean we were talking yesterday about how long we’re working together and no one knew anything about it; it wasn’t made public. From 2002 until 2007, we never talked about doing anything public. From 2007 to 2009, no one knew what we were doing, and it wasn’t until 2009 that we publicly made mention that we had been working on the Hebrew Origins of the Lord’s Prayer and ended up writing a book about it.

But one of the things that I’ve said, and I want to be really clear about this - the people that I really have a heart for are people that come from my background. Many people that are inside the church that don’t get a chance to experience what I got to experience personally, which was really interacting with language, history, and context of the Bible, which sounds very strange that many people in the church don’t know that Hosea is actually Hoshea. Many people don’t know that Jesus’s original name wasn’t Jesus. That’s the Anglicized name. This is how they were brought up. So for me, what I tend to like to do is to go where people are and bring them along. Sometimes what happens in this movement that you introduced me to, and you are the culprit, Nehemia. I knew nothing about Messianic people. I knew nothing…

Nehemia: Whoa. I don’t want to argue with you on the air, but…

Keith: I didn’t know who these people were.

Nehemia: Okay.

Keith: I didn’t know who these groups were. But let me say what I appreciate about the spirit of what you did. This was not your group. This was a group that had some interest in the Hebrew origins of their Scriptures. These are people who wanted to understand the original language, history, and context. And you stayed true to who you are. You didn’t compromise who you are as a non-Messianic, non-Christian, Karaite Jew. You came to them and you were able to bring them – and this is not the only group, don’t get me wrong. This particular group of people - this is not you, this is me - what I’ve had a problem with is they tend to look at the people I’m trying to reach, and they hit them over the head and say, “Look, you’re not saying it right. You’re not pronouncing it right. You don’t know what the issue is.” And I’m thinking, where did they come from? In the context that I come from, people know this Bible that I’m reading, and this is a big jump for them because most of them are KJV people, you know, vows - they think that’s the holy language of Scripture. When the NIV came out.

Nehemia: If it was good enough for Moses, it should be good enough for you.

Keith: Exactly. And when the NIV came out, it was shocking for people in the church because they’re like, “Wait, you’ve taken away the original language of Scripture.” So again, my point is, I want to say this, I’m continually trying to reach people who don’t know all that information, but as they get the information, which you’ve been awesome in sharing, it’s like bringing them along. It’s like, honey. “Wow, I’ve learned this. I know this little thing.” Versus, bam, they don’t know it, hitting them over the head. You know what I mean?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: So that’s what I’ve had some struggles with and I’ll kind of stay in that place. Sometimes I’ll use the name Jesus, sometimes I’ll say Hosea because that’s what a lot of the people…

Nehemia: And I don’t have a problem with that. If you want to say Moses instead of Moshe.

Keith: Moshe – there’s a good one.

Nehemia: I’m fine with that, but my point is we’re talking about this book and Hosea just doesn’t sound right to me.

Keith: Yes. I’m glad that you did this.

Nehemia: I think that’s just my thing.

Keith: That’s the thing. That’s what I love about this is that you…

Nehemia: And it’s not like it’s a difficult name to pronounce, like for some people…

Keith: Nehemia, they wouldn’t know how to read Hoshea.

Nehemia: You know, Jonathan, Yehonathan, that might be difficult for people. But come on, Hoshea?

Keith: They wouldn’t even know that it is Hoshea. They can’t, all they see is the English. So this is what’s beautiful about this program and about what we’re doing. So let’s go to Hosea, Hoshea, chapter 12 verse 12. It’s funny - we start in the middle of the chapter, 12 verse 12, and we’re going to 14 verse 9.

Nehemia: One of the things we’ve pointed out is the chapters aren’t an original part of the Hebrew texts, but here it’s a different story. Here the prophetic section doesn’t begin in verse 13, it actually really begins in chapter 11 verse 1.

Keith: Isn’t that something?

Nehemia: So why do they cut it in here to chapter 12 in, you call it, verse 12?

Keith: Yes, verse 12; 13 in the Hebrew.

Nehemia: 13 in the Hebrew, right.

Keith: So we’re going to have some challenge back and forth.

Nehemia: Keith will be a verse off, and I’ll be in the right…

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: If you look in Hebrew, you’ll see my verses.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: So what you call verse 12, I call verse 13, is in the middle of a prophecy, and it really doesn’t make a lot of sense in the middle of this prophecy. Meaning if we just read these last few verses of chapter 12, it’s like, what on earth is he talking about?

Keith: Well, let me read it and then I want you to comment, okay?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: “Jacob fled to the country of Aram; Israel served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep. The LORD used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt, by a prophet He cared for him. But Ephraim bitterly provoked him to anger; his Lord will leave upon him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt.” So when you saw that, you’re saying you didn’t…

Nehemia: Well, this is a message that goes back, like I said, to chapter 11 verse 1, where he starts off and he’s saying, “Israel was a young boy and I loved him, and from Egypt, I called him my son.” So there’s this constant reference back to the ancient history of Israel, starting in chapter 11 verse 1 going all the way to the end of chapter 12, and actually, throughout 13, as well. The message there is, “Look, I was your God from this ancient time. You’ve had no other God. I’m the only God and you’ve rebelled against Me.” And it’s this constant cycle. He constantly goes back to saying, “Here’s what’s going on today - you’re rebelling, you’re worshipping idols, you’re persecuting the weak and the poor. You didn’t appreciate what I gave you.” That’s kind of like the Jewish mother guilt trip. And so what is this in verses 12 and 13, or in the Hebrew 13 and 14? What message are you getting?

Keith: Well, for me, when I read it, immediately I was brought back to why are we reading this as far as in connection to…

Nehemia: Right. That’s clear, yes.

Keith: …to that portion, which people can read actually in Genesis chapter 28:10 through 32:3.

Nehemia: And that’s the portion of Vayeitzei, and of course, they can listen to the original Torah Pearls on nehemiaswall.com and bfainternational.com.

Keith: Absolutely, and they can have a whole, who knows how long it would be, a couple hours there, an hour here.

Nehemia: An hour, yes.

Keith: So when I read the verse, Nehemia, the first thing that happened for me is that I just saw the parallelism between, “Now Jacob fled to the land of Aram.” It made me stop when he says, “And Israel worked for a wife.” I thought, wait a minute, and it sounds like a really simple thing for you. You might be, “Of course, that’s the case.” But when I see Jacob and then Israel, I’m reminded of the story. The first time when the word Israel is used was when? In Genesis 32:29, and it says this is the first time that Israel as a name is given to Jacob. And when I read this verse I’m just reminded again about how amazing God is that He gives this name to Jacob. We talked about Hoshea being given the name Yehoshua. Here Jacob is given the name Israel. And when he’s given that name there’s meaning in the name. So what I wanted to do if we could is just to be reminded again who Jacob is and why it is that his name is represented, what he’s going to be talking about. Because its progression - Jacob to Israel and he talks about the whole situation of him working for a wife…

Nehemia: Right. So let’s go back to verses 3 and 4 of the same chapter. Can you read those in your NIV?

Keith: Sure.

Nehemia: Chapter 12 verses, in the Hebrew, verses 4 to 5. And it’s strange, because I don’t know - if I were choosing the haftarah section…

Keith: You’d have picked this?

Nehemia: I would have included this, because it’s part of the whole story of Jacob and Esav, Esau, and they’re fighting, and yes, go ahead.

Keith: Okay. So it says in 12 verse 3. I’m sorry. Let me start here. “In the womb, he grasped his brother’s heel."

Nehemia: And the word there is “akav.”

Keith: Akav.

Nehemia:Akav,” he grabbed the heel, and his name is, therefore, Yakov, Jacob. Yakov from “akav.”

Keith: "And as a man, he struggled with God." Speaking of this image of battle.

Nehemia: Yes. And the word there is “sara,” which is the word of Israel, meaning he strove, he fought with God, “sara.” So, we’ve already got a reference here to Israel if you read it in Hebrew.

Keith: “He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there — the LORD God Almighty, the LORD is his name!”

Nehemia: Of course, in Hebrew, it says, "Yehovah the God of Hosts, Yehovah is His mention." That’s what it says in Hebrew. So there we have it. We have Israel this is referring back to what happened in Genesis and struggling with the angel. Although, actually those are events that happened after he fled to Aram, meaning that was when he returned, so it’s not chronological. But it’s continually referencing back to this ancient history of Israel.

Keith: You know something, Nehemia, when I was looking at the verse, and I want you just to check the Hebrew, this is one little small thing. I’m actually going to do this a couple of times during the show. I want to bring up something that’s, what I just call, just simple biblical tools or whatever. In English, they will italicize a word that’s not in Hebrew. So for example, it says here, “And Israel worked for a wife and for a wife he kept.” And then there’s no word. Now, can you check, just to see at the end of verse 13 for you, if there’s a word for sheep?

Nehemia: There is not.

Keith: And by context...

Nehemia: And it’s actually really important that you bring that up, because there’s a connection between verses 12 and 13 which I think is lost in the English. So let me read you literally what it says. It says, “And Jacob fled to the field of Aram,” which is Aramia. “And Israel worked for a woman, and for a woman he guarded.” That’s what it says, that he guarded. And then it says, “And through a prophet, Yehovah brought up Israel from Egypt, and through a prophet, he was guarded.”

Keith: So do you think I don’t have that note, Nehemia? I wanted to talk about this.

Nehemia: Okay. So go ahead.

Keith: No, I want to talk about it with you because when it says, “and he guarded.” And so when I saw that word, I thought immediately - so the word is “shamar,” I think. I don’t know how we’re reading… I’m looking here at the English. You’re looking at the Hebrew and we’re having to go back and forth. I wrote a note that it was that he guarded. But when I went to, and a prophet, it says here, “But by a prophet the LORD brought Israel from Egypt.” The first thing I did is I stopped and asked myself, “Which prophet?” Now, this sound like a simple question, but it’s a kind of question that people should ask. Who is this prophet?

Nehemia: Well, that’s a given.

Keith: No. Listen to what I’m saying. It’s a given for you. But for the people that are reading - what we want them to do is ask the question, which prophet?

Nehemia: It’s a good question, yes.

Keith: And then the question becomes, where does it give us a verse that shows us that Moses was the prophet? So what I’m saying is, that was an example of where I wanted to be able to say, I think it is… Deuteronomy 34:10. “Since that time, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses,” or Moshe, “whom the Yehovah knew face to face.”

Nehemia: And what’s going on here is, you know, so he guarded, and we know from the story of Jacob. If we didn’t read from the story of Jacob, we would say, “And for a woman he guarded,” we wouldn’t know what he guarded.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: Maybe he guarded the storehouse. Maybe he guarded the fields of wheat. But we know he guarded sheep because we read the story, and goats. And then Moses was a shepherd. And so Jacob starts out as a shepherd, and then there’s a prophet that comes and becomes a shepherd for all the descendants of Jacob. And that’s the message here.

Keith: So that’s why what I want to say… let me say this again, so sometimes you’ll say, “Well, it’s obvious.” “Well, of course, everyone knows.” And your background - and I challenge you on this all the time - your background is you heard it week after week, year after year. And for the people that are listening to Prophet Pearls for the first time, there will be like a light that goes on. Can I be honest? For me, I come at this fresh every time, and a light comes on and I’m like, “That’s who he’s talking about!” If I just read it out of context, what prophet is he talking about?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: If I read it in context, of course - it’s Moses, and of course, there are verses. So let’s go back to the verse if we can, and let’s get into the nitty-gritty here. That’s the nitty-gritty. Excuse me. 13. That’s all right, folks, we’re not even going to edit that out. “When Ephram spoke, men trembled; he was exalted in Israel.” Can we stop for a second?

Nehemia: Sure.

Keith: Why this name? Why Ephram? Why is that the name that’s used?

Nehemia: So there were two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel, and the Kingdom of Judah. And the most powerful tribe in Israel was Ephraim and the capital was in the territory of Ephraim, the city of Jezreel at the time. It’d be like saying today, you know, we can talk about the United States of America, or we can talk about Washington.

Keith: That’s it, great job. So in other words, Ephraim is the…

Nehemia: And it may be a better example, actually, for those who are my age or Keith’s age, remember when we used to have this country that doesn’t exist anymore called the Soviet Union? And sometimes we called them the Russians, right? They weren’t all Russians. There were Armenians, and there were Uzbekis, and there were Ukrainians, but the Russians were the most powerful one. And that’s really a better analogy. So Ephraim is the most powerful tribe in Israel. They have the capital. They have the nation by the reins. So Hoshea, especially, refers to the nation of Israel as Ephraim.

Keith: And so, again, the connection between Ephraim and Israel that basically that’s what we’re talking about.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: In other words, that’s what we’re dealing with. So he says here, “When he spoke, men trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died. Now they sin more and more, and they make idols for themselves from their silver, and cleverly fashioned images, all of them are the work of craftsmen.” Now, when I read that, the first thing I think about is the images that they created in the Northern Kingdom. And I know we’re going to talk about it a little bit later. But there’s something about this that’s kind of, how can I say it? In 13:2 for me, “they sin more and more; they make these idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, ‘They offer human sacrifice.’” And then this verse, Nehemia…

Nehemia: Wait. You’re going to skip over the sacrifice?

Keith: No. Hold on.

Nehemia: Let’s stick with that.

Keith: It’s the same verse. I’m in the same verse.

Nehemia: Oh, okay.

Keith: Yes. “All of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, ‘They offer human sacrifice.’” And then it says, “They kiss the calf idols!”

Nehemia: So let’s look at the King James. It says, “They say of them, ‘Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.’” So are the men sacrificed or are they doing the sacrifice? And there’s no question, in my mind, in Hebrew it says, “zovchei adam,” slaughtering of men. They’re sacrificing men. Why did they want to say it was men that sacrifice? Maybe it was so shocking to them that there would be human sacrifice that they switched it around. But it’s clearly referring to human sacrifice.

Keith: And it’s interesting, because it says here, in the NIV anyway, it says they offer human sacrifice. You’re saying that the King James version says what?

Nehemia: It says, “Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.”

Keith: Okay.

Nehemia: The men are kissing the calves they are about sacrifice instead of the men are actually being sacrificed. It says, “zovchei adam.” Here’s how I would translate it, “To them,” meaning to these gods, “they say,” and the word say can actually mean to plan or to give an order, in this case, “plan, or give order, to sacrifice those who sacrifice men and they kiss calves.” So in honor of their gods, they’re performing human sacrifice. Which we know happened in ancient Israel. The Torah mentions that it was one of the abominations of the nations, human sacrifice. God hates human sacrifice, and He warned them repeatedly - Deuteronomy 18, Leviticus 19, I think it’s in there. No, Leviticus 18:20 - it’s all over in the Torah. God hates human sacrifice. And here He’s accusing them of human sacrifice and kissing calves, meaning they worship these calves and they sacrifice men. And the implication here is that they’re supposed to be sacrificing the calves and kissing the men.

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: Instead they’re sacrificing men and kissing calves.

Keith: Yes. Right. Well, it’s interesting the verse…

Nehemia: And the King James has completely switched it.

Keith: Yes. Well, verse 3 says, “Therefore they will be like the morning mist…” And I have to just, I said this before, when I hear verses like this, “like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke,” I’m always reminded, and this is my perspective - I’m always reminded of the verse, I think it is in James, it says it’s like a mist that appears for a little while and it’s gone. It’s like in the big picture of things, it’s just going to be like a mist. And that’s certainly here, they’re going to be like a morning mist. They’re not going to be there forever. It’s going to disappear.

Nehemia: Right. And that’s actually an image that Hoshea uses in other places. He really likes the image of something that’s just very transient, just there for a second, and then it’s gone.

Keith: Well, I have to tell you, Nehemia, when I get to verse 4 is when I get… I want you to tap-tap on your computer here. Folks, we’ve got this great tool. I’ve got a couple of Bibles open on my computer. Nehemia has got just his computer. But it’s amazing because he’s got the Hebrew there.

Nehemia: Just my computer?

Keith: Just his computer.

Nehemia: It’s like 20 Bibles in it.

Keith: You know what I mean. It’s just a computer. But you’ve got all this information, and it’s really powerful. But what I love about it is how fast we can do some things to check and I’m going to get to one and kind of push you just a little bit. In verse 4 it says in the NIV, “But I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt.” Now, I think it is in the JPS…

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: It says, verse 13… one second here.

Nehemia: 4.

Keith: 4? Let me just get to that. It says, “Only I the LORD have been your God ever since the land of Egypt.”

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: Now if you go into the Hebrew, there is this phrase that is one of my favorite phrases in all of the texts. It says, “ve’anochi Yehovah elohecha.” And when I hear that, I’m reminded of the most important introduction that ever took place in history, where God brought the people to the mountain and He introduced himself. And He could have said anything. But He said, “anochi,” He didn’t say “the.” He said, “anochi Yehovah elohecha.” Well, that phrase, if you could check for us real quick, how many times do we see the exact phrase without the vav there.

Nehemia: The exact phrase?

Keith: Yes. In other words, where He’s using…

Nehemia: Or almost the exact phrase, you mean?

Keith: Yes, almost the exact phrase.

Nehemia: Let’s see. I pulled up on my search, eight times.

Keith: That’s right. It shows up eight times in Scripture.

Nehemia: So we’ve got where He says, “I am Yehovah your God.” Exodus 20 verse 2; Exodus 20 verse 5. Those are in the Ten Commandments. Deuteronomy 5:6 and Deuteronomy 5:9. Those are the Ten Commandments repeated. So that’s really the same time. Isaiah 51:15, it says, “And I am Yehovah your God.” Hoshea 12:10 that’s what – no, is that what we’re reading? Yes, that’s what we’re reading. Hoshea 13:4 again has, “I am Yehovah your God from the land of Egypt.” Wait, that’s the one we’re reading?

Keith: That’s the one we’re looking at.

Nehemia: So 12:10 is just before the section we started.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And then Psalm 81:11, which in the English is verse 10, says again, “I am Yehovah your God who brings you up from the land of Egypt.”

Keith: So one of the reasons that I like it is because He ties the issue of the introduction with what He does. That’s of course even the situation here. “I am this God. I am the one and only God.” And He says, “And you are not to know any God except Me.” You can check this and this. And then this phrase that I have to get to…

Nehemia: Can I read this?

Keith: Yes. Go ahead.

Nehemia: It says, “ve’anochi Yehovah elohecha mi’eretz Mitzrayim.” “I am Yehovah your God,” literally, “from the land of Egypt.” And that’s why the NIV adds the words, “Who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” And the JPS says, no, “from” means “ever since.” Both of those are possible in Hebrew. And he says, “veElohim zulati lo teda,” And a God beside me you will not know.”

Keith: And then?

Nehemia:vemoshia ayin bilti,” and there is no savior beside me.

Keith: So why do we get excited about that, He says, “and there’s no savior beside Me.”

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: One of the things that I like to do is to go back, and I want to push you again; tell me the first time that that word moshia is used, and then what the context is?

Nehemia: That was our Word of the Week once, wasn’t it?

Keith: Yes, it was. So tell me what the context is. I think you’re going to go back to, I don’t know. It would be probably…

Nehemia: So that I have to do a little bit more complex of a search, give me a second.

Keith: Okay. Well, while you’re doing that. Again, the idea is that I…

Nehemia: That’s Ezekiel, participle.

Keith: I want to do a quick glance at the word, the first few times it’s used…

Nehemia: Yes. The word moshia appears 31 times in the Tanakh, and the first one is Deuteronomy 22:27.

Keith: That’s right. Can you read the verse?

Nehemia: “For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her.” Literally, “There was no savior for her.” It’s talking about a man who rapes a woman, and she cries out, and there’s no savior so help her.

Keith: Now, can I move back to Hosea or Hoshea?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: When I hear this verse in Hoshea, I went back, I looked at that actual verse in Deuteronomy, and I thought again about this. What is the practical meaning? What is the practical meaning of that word? That someone needs help. Someone needs rescuing. Someone needs, if I can use the word, to be saved from distress, from despair, and this person comes along who is going to do it.

Nehemia: What you’re referring to is that in Christianity there is this idea that savior is this theological term, which refers to saving from sin. And almost exclusively in the Tanakh with, I believe, two exceptions off the top of my head, in most places in the Tanakh when it talks about saving, it means saving from some kind of harm or destruction or danger. And there are a couple of places, specifically in Ezekiel, where it does talk about salvation from sin. But most of the places in the Tanakh, where it speaks about salvation or savior, it’s saving from some kind of destruction.

Keith: And so that’s why I wanted us to take a look at that actual word.

Nehemia: And then can I pull up Isaiah 54:21?

Keith: Absolutely.

Nehemia: Sorry, 45:21, He says, “Tell ye, and bring them near; yea,” I can’t read this King James. It’s just so bad. I can’t even read it. Here I’ll skip. In Hebrew, in the middle of the verse, He says, “Ha’lo ani Yehovah?” “Am I not Yehovah?” “ve’ein od Elohim milbaladai.” “And there is no other God beside Me.” “El Tzadik,” “a righteous God,” “umoshia ein zulati.” “And there is no moshia, no savior beside Me.” So that’s almost verbatim what’s in Hoshea 13:4, is in Isaiah 45:21.

Keith: So He says here - now can I do this?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: It’s verse… “I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of drought.”

Nehemia: Are you reading from Hosea?

Keith: Yes, I’m reading from Hosea.

Nehemia: Hoshea.

Keith: Hoshea. And it says, “As they had their pasture, they became satisfied, and being satisfied, their heart became proud; therefore, they forgot Me.” And when I read that, Nehemia, again, and I guess maybe I’m getting used to this enough, I’ve read through it enough times - immediately I thought about, check me on this, Deuteronomy chapter 8, I believe it is. And Deuteronomy chapter 8, you can find it on your computer, but this idea that when things get good, when you build fine houses - I’m not quoting, this is off the top of my head - when you built fine houses and your sheep and your herds and your flocks go well, do not come to a place where you will then say, what? I am the one that has done this. I become…

Nehemia: Right. So, what you’re saying is when everything is good we kind of forget about God. So Deuteronomy 8:11, and this is a theme throughout Deuteronomy and really what we call the former Prophets, says, “Beware that you forget not Yehovah your God, in not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, that I command you this day; lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built good houses, and dwelt therein; and when your herds and flocks,” etc. when everything’s good, I’m skipping ahead to verse 14, “then your heart will be lifted up and you will forget Yehovah your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt.” So isn’t that amazing that this prophet Hoshea, who lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, he wasn’t from Judah, and he’s basically quoting or paraphrasing the book of Deuteronomy?

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: Meaning that this is a consistent message throughout the book. “When things are good, you forget Me.” And then we can look at the book of Judges and that’s a central theme. Every time things are okay, they forget Yehovah, meaning they stop being faithful to Him. It reminds me of a saying, I think from World War I, where they used to say, “There are no atheists in the foxhole.” When you’re in the foxhole and you’re being shot at and your life is in danger, everybody believes in God, and that’s the point here. The challenge is to believe in God and be faithful to him when things are going good.

Keith: Yes. Well, I’m going to let you do this because I’m actually excited about a verse, and I can’t wait to get to it. So would you go ahead and read the next section here? We’re talking about caring for the desert, verse 7, “So I will become upon them like a lion,” Is there something in that you just want to…?

Nehemia: Well, that’s referred to at the end of, I believe it’s at the end of chapter 5 in Hoshea. But let’s go forward.

Keith: Okay. So here’s what kind of excited me. I got to verse 9, and excuse my excitement. I’m going to talk a little bit about this a little bit later in the program. One of the things that’s been really concerning me, Nehemia, is that when it comes to Bible study, sometimes with the technology that exists today, and I’m not speaking of your situation, this takes biblical knowledge to use the program that you’re using, you’ve got to understand what you’re looking for. But there are so many programs that you can use where you can push a button and get that the Strong’s number or get this number, get that number. And I am going to talk a little bit about this and give a great example.

But what I got excited about when I saw this verse in verse 9. Why did I get excited, Nehemia? It says, “You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me, against your helper.” Why would I get excited? Because I went to the word “helper” or help, and immediately I thought, “Wait a minute, aren’t there some examples where God takes His name and puts it connected to this idea of being a helper?” So there are, let’s see, if you do this, so then who is your helper? If you take the word yud hei vav hei and the word…

Nehemia: Ezra.

Keith: Ezra. You find these verses over and over and over again. He will be my helper. He is our helper. And when I saw the verse in Hoshea, thinking the people that are reading this are surely reminded He is the one who is the helper. He is the one who helps us. In fact, His name is connected to being the one...

Nehemia: There was even the king of Judah named Azariahu, Yehovah is my help.

Keith: So anyway, I got stuck on that verse and I was doing a little bit of worship. It’s funny - in the back of my book His Hallowed Name Revealed Again, I did this cute little thing that really became one of the highlights of the book, where there’s a CD with 80 different names and descriptions using the name Yehovah or the title Elohim. And then descriptions of what it is about His name. One of them is this idea that Yehovah is my helper. So I would quote that, pray that, sing that. And again, it’s just an amazing experience because people can kind of have this devotional life where you’re speaking back to Him, who He is. He is our helper. Okay. That’s my thing there. “Where is your king, that he may save you?”

Nehemia: Whoa. Whoa.

Keith: Okay. You want to say? Go ahead.

Nehemia: So now that you said, “Where is your king?” In verse 10, now we’ve got to go back and read verse, can you read verse 7 for me?

Keith: Sure. Absolutely. “So I will come upon them like a lion, like a leopard.”

Nehemia: Okay. That’s enough. “So I will come upon them,” and literally, it says, “I will be to them like a lion.” “Va’ehi,” and the word is “ehi,” which is a shortened form of "eheye." They call it the cohortative. Anyway, not important, grammar. So “ehi” is “I will be,” it’s a form of “eheye.” 13:10, what’s the first word in 13:10?

Keith: In English?

Nehemia: In Hebrew. It’s “ehi.” So why do they translate it as “where”? It’s not “where.” “Ehi malkecha efo.” “I will be your king, therefore. And He will save you in all your cities. And your judges, of which you said: ‘Give for us a king and officers!’” So here Yehovah is saying, “I’m the king. You don’t have any other judges or kings or officers; it’s Me.” So where did they get this “where”? For example the King James, I give it credit here. “I will be your king. Where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities?” And that’s actually a mistranslation as well, but okay, I’ll give them credit because they didn’t know Hebrew well enough to know the difference between eifo and efo. But it doesn’t say “where.” He says, “I am your king therefore.”

So why did they have “where”? So some of the Hebrew grammarians say “ehi” is a variant from the northern kingdom for “ayeh,” which is means “where.” So it’s not completely wrong, meaning it’s possible. I just don’t see any reason to… this would basically be the only place in the Tanakh that has that along with our nice little verse up ahead, which we’ll get to or maybe we can do it now? So verse 14 - can we do that?

Keith: Yes, we’re getting right to verse 14. Are they going to stop me now?

Nehemia: No.

Keith: I love this verse. So this is the Word of The week verse, do you understand?

Nehemia: Is it?

Keith: Yes. So what I’d like to do is first read it and then I want to challenge…

Nehemia: Can we talk about verse 11, though, real quick?

Keith: Do you want to go to 14 or not?

Nehemia: No, we’ll go to 14. But remember that word “ehi,” which some people are saying means “where,” but really it’s just the simple word for “I will be.” And that’s what it meant in the other verse, in verse 7 that we read. He says, “I give you a king in My anger and I take away in My wrath.” So what does that mean, “He gives us a king in anger.” What’s that about?

Keith: Well, it’s pretty clear to me.

Nehemia: So tell the people.

Keith: It’s history. We’re talking about…

Nehemia: The people who didn’t read the book of Genesis or Samuel.

Keith: Yes. Or they didn’t know the history of Israel, that they said, “Give us a king,” so He gives them a king. And that’s why I want to get to the next verse.

Nehemia: And then He’s angry. He says, “But they’ve rejected Me because I’m really their king.”

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: And that’s the significance of that verse where He says, “ehi lecha melech.” “I am your king.”

Keith: Yes, absolutely. Now can we do verse 14?

Nehemia: Yes. Okay.

Keith: OK. “I will ransom them from the power of the grave: I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?” Now, you’re going to have to really…

Nehemia: That’s not what it says.

Keith: No, now, hold on. I’m going to tell you here. You’re going to have to really work hard on this in verse 14.

Nehemia: Oh, I am.

Keith: Okay. So if you go to verse 14, and I want you to open up the Hebrew, and this is where I want to… it’s not the bully pulpit. I just want to give an example.

Nehemia: I don’t know what a bully pulpit is.

Keith: You don’t know what that is?

Nehemia: No.

Keith: Sometimes preachers - we get behind the pulpit and use the authority and use what we want, banging, and saying this is what it’s got to be…

Nehemia: I was on this radio program with these people in Kentucky and they used this expression about how somebody was chopping corn. Have you heard that?

Keith: No.

Nehemia: And in Kentucky, to really preach the Bible, like, fiercely, is called chopping corn. That’s like the bully pulpit.

Keith: Okay. So verse 14 in English, verse 13 for you, is that right?

Nehemia: It’s the same verse as in this chapter.

Keith: Oh, it is? Okay. “I will ransom them from the power of the grave.” Is what it says. Now, here’s where I give the NIV credit. They have a little note, a little A, and it goes down and it says “Hebrew, she’ol.

Nehemia: She’ol.

Keith: And so she’ol, I want this to be the Word of the Week because I think there’s an impact. So the word of the week, I’m going to use this three-letter root. So if we say we’re going to go to the three-letter root of sheol, it’s actually a little bit confusing, Nehemia. And why is it a little bit confusing? The shin and the aleph and the vav and the lamed. There are four letters there. So I’m looking at this, there are these four letters. So what does this mean that there’s a three-letter root? What’s the three-letter root of she’ol?

Nehemia: The three-letter root is shin, aleph, lamed.

Keith: Okay. So why are there four letters?

Nehemia: So the vav is what’s called matres lectionis, or basically like a vowel helper.

Keith: I’m very excited about this. So what I want you to do. I want to tell you. Okay, let me slow down. So here’s what happened for me. I’m looking at this and something jumps off the page. He’s talking before about who? He’s talking about the king. “I gave you a king.” How do you spell the king’s name, just the letters of the king’s name, of the king he speaking of? Shaul! How do you spell it?

Nehemia: Shin, aleph, vav, lamed, the same four letters.

Keith: The same four letters. Now here’s what’s getting exciting. And so then He gets to this and He says, now we’re dealing with this word, the she’ol. We get to this, and He says, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave,” from she’ol, “I will redeem them from death.” And I’m going to talk about this in a second.

And then I think it is in verse Samuel… is it Samuel? Yes, it’s Samuel. So what I want you to do for me is here’s where I think there sometimes becomes an issue. If I don’t have the ability to know what the word is. In other words, if I just have a concordance, just a concordance, and I want to say, “Okay, I’m going to look for the word she’ol - shin, aleph, vav, lamed.” There are sometimes when the exact same spelling is used like the word “to ask”. Why is that?

Nehemia: In Hebrew very often you’ll have the same exact letters with many different meanings, and what distinguishes them is the vowels. So the same word, if I didn’t have vowels and I didn’t have a context, if I didn’t have a context I could read that word is Shaul, the name Saul; I could read it as the name she’ol, the place you go when you die, the realm of the dead. Or I could read it as sha’ol, which means to ask as an imperative.

Keith: We won’t go into great depth because we don’t have a long time.

Nehemia: Absolutely.

Keith: I think it’s really funny that He says, “You wanted to ask for a king?” And they use the word, shin, aleph, vav, lamed. What’s the name of the king? Shin, aleph, vav, lamed.

Nehemia: Shaul, yes.

Keith: I mean, these are the kind of things when you’re reading it in the language, I don’t even know how to put it. It’s like a moment.

Nehemia: It jumps off the page.

Keith: It just literally jumps off the page. "You ask," shin, aleph, vav, lamed.

Nehemia: It’s flavor of the texture of Hebrew. It’s lost in translation.

Keith: You ask for a king, and I’m going to give you a king, and the first king’s name is?

Nehemia: Shaul.

Keith: I could call him “Ask”. No, but I’m just saying by spelling, I could say he’s a shin, aleph, vav, lamed.

Nehemia: And sha’ul actually means the one who was asked for.

Keith: You see what I’m saying?

Nehemia: It’s the “beinoni paul,” the passive participle, “the one who was asked for”, Shaul, Saul.

Keith: Can you excuse my excitement? You can’t do that if you’re just clicking with the concordance. If you’re like using the Blue Letter Bible, it’s not…

Nehemia: You won’t find that in the Blue Letter Bible.

Keith: You’re not going to find that.

Nehemia: I’ve never used the Blue Letter Bible so I don’t know.

Keith: You’re not going to find it in the Blue Letter Bible. You’re not going to be able to find that even in the concordance. The difference between a concordance and a lexical aid – they’re completely different. And so what I’ve really appreciated is to have to slow down, and again, sometimes it’s very difficult, but to slow down and like what you say, “It’s obvious that such and such… It’s obvious.” Well, for folks like me, it’s not. But when we get a little bit of the tools, some of the tools, so the Word of the Week is she’ol, which also can be, if you spell that vav differently it could be sha’ul, and it could be sha’ol, right? “To ask.”

Nehemia:Lish’ol,” yes, to ask.

Keith: So there are three different possibilities for the constants. So here are the four consonants, folks: shin, aleph, vav, and lamed, and now you go do your work and find out how many different words you can come up with that Word of the Week.

Nehemia: Now, we’ve had to talk about what the verse actually says.

Keith: There it is. Here we go.

Nehemia: So read your verse again in your English translation.

Keith: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death.”

Nehemia: That’s fine. Keep going.

Keith: “Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?”

Nehemia: Okay. Except it doesn’t say “where.” It doesn’t say “where,” it says “ehi,” which is “I will be.” Let me read you what it actually says in Hebrew. “From the hand of she’ol, I will ransom them. From death I will redeem them. I will be your plague, O death. I will be your pestilence, o she’ol. Comfort will be hidden from My eyes.” What on earth is it saying? God’s going to be the plague to she’ol and the pestilence to death, or vice versa.

Keith: Maybe that’s why they changed the verse, Nehemia.

Nehemia: What does that mean? So I’ll tell you what it means. God’s going to defeat death, and He’s going to have no mercy on death. He’s going to destroy death, and there will be no comfort for death. Let me read you another verse that talks about the same thing. If you think what a crazy idea - God’s going to be attacking death, what is this? Isaiah 25:8, “He will destroy death forever. My Lord Yehovah will wipe the tears away from all faces and will put an end to the reproach of His people over all the earth — for it is Yehovah who has spoken it.” So there is this image in the Tanakh of death being defeated in more sort of allegorical, symbolic terms. The same thing appears in Isaiah 27:1, “In that day Yehovah, with His sore and great and strong wind shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent, and Leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”

Keith: Come on with that.

Nehemia: And in ancient mythology and symbolism, Leviathan was the symbol of death. And it was this sea monster that would swallow people up and they’d be dead. The point here is that Yehovah is going to defeat death. And so Yehovah is going to be like pestilence and plague to she’ol and to death. He’s going to defeat them, and there’ll be no comfort for death, it’ll be completely destroyed. And he’s going to redeem the souls of the people from she’ol and from death.

Keith: Do you believe it, Nehemia?

Nehemia: I do, 100%

Keith: I 100% do.

Nehemia: Now, this is talking about resurrection, aren’t you excited about that?

Keith: I’m very excited about it. Absolutely. And you’re telling me that it’s in Hoshea?

Nehemia: Hoshea chapter 13 verse 14, yes.

Keith: Wow. Well, I have to tell you when I get to that, when I hear that verse, and when I think about the concept under that verse, it’s hard for me to want to continue. I know we have to continue. And I know we don’t have hours and hours to do this, but there’s a really important verse…

Nehemia: So are we going to skip ahead?

Keith: No. I want to give you full reign for the next 30 seconds to see if there’s anything before we get to the really important verse. Go ahead.

Nehemia: Well, so if we’re going to talk about 15, we’ll read 15 in your translation.

Keith: Yes, I will do that. It says, “I will have no compassion, even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the LORD will come, blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures.”

Nehemia: So here I’ve got to take - can we take a Ministry Minute?

Keith: Absolutely.

Nehemia: Because here, literally, it says, “His source will dry up.” And the word there is makor, and that’s the name my ministry, Makor Hebrew foundation.

Keith: Come on. This is great.

Nehemia: We each have different ministries. I’m Makor Hebrew Foundation, my website is nehemiaswall.com, and I love this verse because in Jeremiah the verse that inspired me to call the ministry Makor, there’s this verse that says, “Israel has abandoned their makor, their source of living water,” which is a spring that gushes out of the ground, “and they’ve dug for themselves these broken cisterns,” and Yehovah is the makor, the source, of the living water. And what he’s saying here is because they didn’t choose Yehovah as his source, because he chose a different source, that the source will be dried up. Yehovah will come like a wind and blow it away. And so my prayer, and the purpose of my ministry, is that Yehovah will always be our makor, our source and that we look at the source of His words and their original language. That’s what my ministry is about - nehemiaswall.com.

Keith: Excellent. Well, if I’m going to do a Ministry Minute, this is Thanksgiving weekend. I am extremely thankful for all of the people who’ve decided to go to bfainternational.com and to become free members. And for those that went the further step to become a part of the Premium Content Library, you’re actually helping us prepare for this upcoming year. And I tell you, we’re going to have a push here during Thanksgiving into the end of the year to get as many people as possible that would be willing to be a part of the Premium Content Library. It does two things. One, it allows you to get access to everything we have, including the last count, I think it is now 50+ television-quality programs that are available free to watch, HD on demand. The second thing that that ten dollars or more per month does is allows us to plan for the other things that are in the queue. I call them they’re on the camera. They’re in the research. They’re ready to be brought to the world, but they can’t be brought out unless we have the provision for it.

So we believe we’ve got vision at bfainternational.com; God is always the one who brings provision. I am thankful this weekend for those of you that have signed up for the Premium Content Library, and in advance, I’m thankful for those of you that now hear this that will go to bfainternational.com, go through the process, look and see what we have there, and you’d be willing to become a part of the Premium Content Library. It’s going to really help us move into this next year to do some things that I think are going to be unprecedented, as far as what I’ve done before, what’s coming I think is even more amazing. So that’s the minute.

Nehemia: And just to wrap up, of course, nehemiaswall.com has the support team with some really powerful teaching there. But for both of our ministries, there are three things I want to ask people to do. Number one is both of us have the iTunes podcast. Keith has the bfainternational.com podcast, you can find it on iTunes. And my ministry has the nehemiaswall.com podcast. And here’s what both of us need. We need people to go to the podcasts, write reviews, and give ratings. And why do we want that? Because the way it works on iTunes, the more ratings and reviews you have, the more likely iTunes is to show it to people. If you don’t have a lot of ratings and reviews they just kind of bury you at the bottom of the pile. But this is a way for people to discover these podcasts, which include this, including Prophet Pearls and Torah Pearls.

Keith: And everything else.

Nehemia: And other material that each of us has put out. And then the other thing we’re looking for what I call the 70 Elders of Israel. We’re looking for 70 people to every week share this program, Prophet Pearls, on Facebook and on Twitter. This is the way that we can get this message out to people. Today social media is overthrowing governments and changing the world, and we want to overthrow the government of religion and change the world of faith to bring people back to the Hebrew sources of faith and to build a foundation for their faith. And so we need people. It’s not a small thing. If you share Prophet Pearls on Facebook or on Twitter, you are helping to get this message out. You are part of what we’re doing, and we appreciate it. And so please go and do that.

Keith: Okay. That’s two of three. What’s number three?

Nehemia: No, that’s it.

Keith: He’s a preacher, you guys. He’s got three points. I love it. There is so much more we could talk… We decided we’re going to take about a minute for our ministry. Hopefully, you will take seriously what we’re saying. In the end, it really means you coming alongside, and as Nehemia says it best, people that would blow that shofar and stand alongside…

Nehemia: Trumpeters on the wall.

Keith: Yes. Awesome. Be that. Can we now go to this…?

Nehemia: Yes. Can we speak skip ahead to Hoshea 14?

Keith: Yes. We have to. Go ahead and read it.

Nehemia: All right. So in Hebrew, it’s verse 2; in English, it’s verse 1. This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. I know I say that about a lot…

Keith: Why not? Have many favorites.

Nehemia: Okay. He says, “Shuva Israel ad Yehovah Elohecha,” “Return, Israel, to Yehovah your God,” “ki khashalta ba’avonecha,” “For you have stumbled in your iniquity.” He says in verse 2 in the English, 3 in the Hebrew, “kchu imachem dvarim,” take with you words, “veshuvu el Yehovah,” and return to Yehovah, “imru elav,” say to him, “kol tisa avon.” Now, what do you have for that?

Keith: It says here, “Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God,” verse 2, “Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to Him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.”

Nehemia: Oh, boy.

Keith: This is the verse.

Nehemia: No, no. Let me read this passage then we’ll go back, okay? It says, "Take with you words and return to Yehovah. Say to Him, “kol tisa avon.” Which means, “forgive all iniquity.” “vekach tov,” and take good, “u’neshalma pharim sfateinu,” “and let us pay for the bulls with our lips.” Let me just finish, “Ashur lo yoshi’enu al sus,” “Assyria will not save us,” “al sus lo nirkav,” “upon a horse we will not ride,” “velo nomar od Eloheinu lema’ase yadenu,” “we will no longer say our God’s the work of our hands,” “asher becha yerucham yatom,” “because in you there will be found mercy for the orphan.” This is a prayer. The prophet actually teaches them a prayer in these three verses. I mean, that’s really powerful. It’s really the two verses, verses 3 and 4 in the Hebrew, 2 and 3 and English is a prayer.

Keith: Well, I think it’s interesting that you gave us the translation, but you didn’t stop and say anything about it.

Nehemia: Now let’s go back and talk about it.

Keith: Okay. Go ahead. You start.

Nehemia: So here we have this idea. For example, the JPS reads, “Instead of bulls we pay the offering of our lips.” Which is what it says, literally, “Let us pay for the bulls with our lips,” is what it says. But for example, in your, what is it, the NIV, you have “when we offer the fruit of our lips.” Where did they get fruit? Do you know where they got fruit? So the word for bulls is “parim,” pei, resh, yud, mem. And the word for fruit is “peirot,” pei, resh, vav, tav.

And they messed up. Honestly, I think they did it on purpose. Meaning, what they’re doing is saying, “This is a misprint in Hebrew. What does it mean to pay for the bulls of our lips? That doesn’t fit our theology. So we’re going to make it offering the fruit of our lips.” Which is not what it says in the Hebrew. In the Hebrew, it clearly says, “Let us pay for the bulls with our lips.” What that means is, they lived in the kingdom of Israel where they were not able to come to the Temple in Jerusalem. That was an enemy state. I mean imagine like you’re - and I hate to bring this analogy, but why not? - if you’re in North Korea and there’s something that’s happening in South Korea and just have to get there but you can’t get there. There’s a border, and it’s a very hostile border. So that’s what it was like for people in the Kingdom of Israel. Maybe not that bad. But they are living in this country where if you want to bring a sacrifice you’ve got to bring it to the golden calf at Dan or Bethel. You cannot bring it to Jerusalem. It’s actually a crime. It’s treason to go to the Temple in Jerusalem.

So he’s saying to them, “Look, I know you can’t bring sacrifices. But here’s how you can repent, take with you words, and return to Yehovah. So you have to pray, that’s number one. Number two is to take with you words…” sorry, and return to Yehovah, that’s repentance. So number one is prayer. Number two is repentance. And then you say to Him, “Forgive all iniquity.” So you have to ask for forgiveness, that’s number three. Number four, and receive goods. You have to do some good in place of the bad that you’ve done. And number five is you have to ask God to accept your prayer in place of the sacrifices that you needed to offer, that you were not able to offer. And then in verse 4, we have this strange statement, “Assyria cannot save us.” Why would you say that? Throughout the book of Hoshea, one of the central themes is that the people are trusting in Assyria and not in Yehovah. And so you have to denounce that false trust in Assyria and proclaim that you only trust in Yehovah. That’s what that means, “and upon horses, we will not ride,” meaning we’re not going to trust in our own military might. We’re going to trust in Yehovah. So we’ve got seven things there: prayer; repentance; asking for forgiveness; doing good in place of the bad you’ve done; asking God to accept your prayer in place of sacrifice; renouncing manmade might, and renouncing your own might.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: Don’t trust another man. Don’t trust only in yourself. Trust in Yehovah.

Keith: It’s interesting when I see that verse, I’m just reminded - people talk about a sacrifice of praise, something that my background we do, and actually, I asked where that came from. And I think it’s in Hebrews, the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that gives thanks to His name.”

Nehemia: So that’s where they got “the fruit of lips.” That’s hilarious.

Keith: No, what’s interesting about it from a devotional standpoint is the idea of going back to Hoshea that I would come to him and I would say, here’s my sacrifice, here’s what it is I am offering you with my mouth, which comes from my heart, which is my devotion to you that that’s like the cow. I’m slaughtering the bull. I’m coming and I’m doing that for you. And so it becomes a sacrifice of praise because it’s a conscious decision for me to say, “I can’t go and do that”, but what does it look from my life, my heart, my mind, my body, everything about to be offered to him as a living sacrifice. That’s just what jumps off the page for me when I read that.

Nehemia: Right. And of course, the eighth thing I didn’t mention, by the way, obviously, is renouncing their idols, that’s there as well. So this is really interesting. So what you’re saying they did is they looked at Hebrews and they said, “We believe that Hebrews is quoting or paraphrasing Hoshea. So let’s re-translate Hoshea based on Hebrews.” Isn’t that the tail wagging the dog?

Keith: Well, I’m not sure. I don’t know. I’m not sure. I’m actually looking at it on a positive note.

Nehemia: Right.

Keith: I’m looking at it as that when I’m reading Hebrews, I’m seeing a connection for what…

Nehemia: And this is a great message in Hebrews. I’m not bashing it.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: I’m saying as far as what the NIV translators did and the NRSV translators, is they reinterpreted Hoshea - and not that there’s a big difference of the message. But it is in the subtlety, because there he adds the word “sacrifices,” which the Hebrew doesn’t say “sacrifice.” Meaning, Hoshea doesn’t mention sacrifices, he mentions bulls, which we understand, in the context, are sacrifices.

Keith: Absolutely.

Nehemia: And then he says, “sacrifices and fruit of the lips”. So they misunderstood what he was talking about and said, “Oh, he must have read parim, bulls, as peirot, as fruit. That’s actually really fascinating to me. Let me just look at one other verse here in, I don’t know where this verse is. But there is this message throughout the Prophets, and especially in Hoshea, that God wants mercy and obedience, and not sacrifices. And of course, Psalm 51, we talked about it, I think last week, but now we’ve got to read it in more detail. Well, not too much detail because we’re running out of time. But here, I’ve got to read it.

So Psalm 51 is actually two different psalms. The first one is a psalm from the time of David. And the second one starts in verse 15 in the English, verse 17 in the Hebrew, and he says, “Adonai sefatai tiftach u’phi yagid tehilatecha.” “Lord, open my lips; and let my mouth speak Your praise. Because You do not want zevach ve’etena,” which is sacrifice and gift, “ola lo tirzeh,” whole burnt offerings You do not want or accept.” And it says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart; God, do not despise.” So there he’s saying what God wants isn’t these sacrifices. What He wants is to come before Him and that broken and contrite heart, that true prayer, that is the sacrifice of the lips. That’s the prayer you can offer.

Of course, then at the end, in verse 20-21, he then says, “Do good in your good pleasure unto Zion; build You the walls of Jerusalem. Then shall You be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then shall they offer bullocks upon Your altar.” So once Jerusalem is rebuilt, and apparently, this is talking about a time when they can’t offer sacrifices in Jerusalem. Imagine that. “Once Jerusalem is rebuilt and people can bring righteous sacrifices and the righteous bull sacrifices will be acceptable.” But until that time what God wants is the sacrifice of the heart, the sacrifice of the lips.

Keith: I think that’s the message. It’s the message for us today, that there’s no offering sacrifice today.

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: There’s no ability to go and say, “Here’s my bull.”

Nehemia: Not blood sacrifices.

Keith: Not blood sacrifice, but there’s a sacrifice for us of our hearts, and our minds, and our spirits, and with our mouth, what we say.

Nehemia: Now, 14:4, 14:5 in the Hebrew, Hoshea is really important for this whole issue. So then he says… what do you have there in 14:4?

Keith: “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.”

Nehemia: Yes. So you just gloss over those in English, but in Hebrew, that’s so full of meaning. He says, “I will heal their rebelliousness,” their backsliding, sometimes it’s translated, “and I will love them nidavah, as a free-will offering.” So this is really powerful. God can say, “Wait a minute, you didn’t bring the sacrifices; your repentance isn’t accepted.” And He’s saying, “No, I’m going to love them as a free-will offering.”

And this word "heal" is a really important word. What does this mean, He’s going to heal our backsliding, our rebelliousness? What is that? Do you ever think about what that means? So we’ve got this statement, of course, in Exodus where He says, “I am Yehovah who heals you.” “Ani Yehovah rof’echa." That’s Exodus 15:26. So we have this physical healing, but we also have this concept in the Tanakh that God will heal - when we can’t do the rituals the way we’re supposed to do the rituals, He’ll still accept it, and that’s called “to heal” in biblical Hebrew.

One of the great examples of this, and we don’t have time to go into the whole passage, but there’s this great scene in 2 Chronicles chapter 30 where they need to bring the Passover sacrifice, and the people are ritually unclean. And if you look at Numbers 9, you cannot bring a Passover sacrifice if you’re ritually unclean. But all the people have come to Jerusalem, and Hezekiah, who is the king, has called them to Jerusalem for the Passover sacrifice, which they have not done in a very long time, and he says to himself, “What do I do? Do I send everybody home because they’re not ritually clean? Or do we eat the sacrifice and ask God to accept it?” And he prays to God, and I just love this passage. This is so powerful.

You know, I deal with all these people all the time who I call the Torah police, who if you don’t do something exactly the way that they think it’s supposed to be done, then there’s no hope for you. And then I read this and I see there’s a different spirit here. Let me read this here. This is really powerful. This is chapter 30, it says, “They took their stations, as was their rule according to the teaching of Moses,” this is 2 Chronicles 30:16, “man of God.” Okay, hold on a second. “Since many in the congregation had not sanctified themselves,” meaning made themselves ritually clean, “the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the paschal sacrifices for everyone who was not clean, so as to consecrate them to Yehovah.” The sacrifices that is. “For most of the people—many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun—had not purified themselves, yet they ate the paschal sacrifice in violation of what was written.” Meaning no one is disputing this was a violation of the Torah.

And then it says, “Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “Good Yehovah will provide atonement for everyone who set his mind on worshiping God, Yehovah, God of his fathers, even if he is not purified for the sanctuary." So that’s his prayer. He’s praying, “God, accept it, even though they sinned. They did it because they wanted to serve You, even though it wasn’t exactly the right ritual.” And it says, “vayishma Yehovah le’Yehezkiyahu.” “And Yehovah listened to Hezekiah,” “vayirpah et ha’am,” “and He healed the people." And this idea of healing the people - and we’ll get to this one day when we do the section of Mount Carmel, where Elijah heals the altar. And that actually has a really powerful meaning which is missed I think by most people. But it ties back into this. That when you’ve sinned, and you can’t do all the rituals you’re supposed to do, you can’t bring the blood sacrifice you need to bring, He says, “I will heal the rebelliousness. I will love them as a free-will offering.” Hoshea 14:4. Wow.

Keith: Wow. That’s a lot. And I will tell you, there’s still a whole lot more. One of the things I really do want to challenge people to do is I want them to be a part of Prophet Pearls with us, even if they’re not a partner. Meaning if they’re not bringing the resources alongside. There’s so much information in these sections. There’s no way – now, I know if we didn’t have a time limit, you could probably go for…

Nehemia: Oh, we could go for the next two hours.

Keith: But here’s what I want to challenge people to do. I want to challenge people to read the entire section and ask the question, what do you see that it means? And I prayerfully would hope that people would consider sharing what they’ve come up with, because there’s so much... Last week, you know, Sherri what she was bringing. I didn’t even get to bring it up. Hopefully, she’ll bring it in the comments, and so many of the other people that actually do comment. But there’s so much here, and again, we’re trying to say… you know, with Torah Pearls, The Original Torah Pearls program, we didn’t have a time frame; we went on.

Nehemia: Yes, I think we did one episode of three hours. But I do want to invite people to come to both nehemiaswall.com and bfainternational.com and post your comments.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: You don’t have to just post questions. Post your thoughts. You read this passage, you’re part of this Prophet Pearls.

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: And I’ve had people who posted like whole long megillas.

Keith: Same. Don’t do that.

Nehemia: Yes, don’t do the 10-page thing, but if you can limit it to like a paragraph and say, “Hey, I read this verse they didn’t get to. I read this verse that they did get to. Here’s my take on it.” Can we just end with Hoshea 14:9, which is such a powerful verse?

Keith: Yes, absolutely.

Nehemia: Wow. It says, “Mi chacham veyaven ela,” “Who is wise that will have discernment in these things”, “navon veyeda’em,” “has wisdom and he will know them”, “ki yesharim darchei Yehovah,” “for the ways of Yehovah are straight”, “vetzadikim ilchu vam,” “the righteous shall walk in them,” u’phosh’im yikashlu vam,” “and the transgressors will stumble in them.” And it’s my prayer Yehovah, avinu shebashamayim, our Father in heaven, Yehovah let all those who call upon Your name in truth, let them understand Your word. Even if they don’t do all the rituals right; even if they don’t dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s. If they come to You with a true and contrite heart, Yehovah, heal their sacrifice and heal their offering of their lips and accept them as the free-will offering that You’re willing to do, Yehovah. And let them walk in Your straight ways. 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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Related Posts: The Original Torah Pearls - Vayeitzei (Genesis 28:10-32:3) Torah and Prophet Pearls Hebrew Voices Episodes Support Team Studies Nehemia Gordon's Teachings on the Name of God

The image above, is of a straight and narrow path in the Judean Desert, taken by Nehemia Gordon. This common sight was used as a metaphor by many of the prophets such as: "For the ways of Yehovah are straight; the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them." Hosea 14:9[10]. This particular path is in Nachal Perat, near Anatot, the home of the prophet Jeremiah. The prophet visited this river valley in Jeremiah 13:1-11 and used this type of path as a metaphor:

"They shall come with weeping, and with supplication will I guide them. I will lead them to streams of water, by a straight path where they will not stumble. For I am a Father to Israel, Ephraim is My first-born." Jeremiah 31:9

This type of narrow path also inspired the commandment not to turn from the way of God to the right or to the left. If you turn to the left you hit a wall and if your turn to the right you fall into the abyss, as in the verse:

"Be careful, then, to do as Yehovah your God has commanded you. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left." Deut. 5:29.

  • Buzz says:

    Thank you it’s like honey from the rock . Chris From the uk

  • Oscar Hernandez says:

    Excellent pivotal teaching from God’s word! It certainly opened my eyes to the definition of idolatry: when we, in effect, worship the work of our hands. Whatever that may be!
    Thank you, and keep up the good work that we may cleave to Him continually.

  • donald murphy says:

    its to bad u have to include the Christian stuff in your teachings. its so false.

  • Marti says:

    I know that our Father caused me and my friend to sit down at the same table at Dallas Love airport with Nehemia Gordon last week. What a blessing to meet you and share a few stories about our faith in our Father! Keith Johnson had told a long account in a video that I had watched with my husband some time ago. Immediately when I looked at your card I recognized that you are the one he talked about when buying his Torah.
    Now I’m listening to messages that are strengthening my walk with the Lord.
    Thankful!

  • Dale says:

    Shalom All,

    Awesome Wisdom that Abba is Revealing in this discussion!

    Does it Feel Right to you that our Abba Father YHVH – Who is Love – “hates” any matter?

    We have all Felt the vile destructiveness inherent in the hateful thoughts of others towards ourselves. Perhaps upon Reflection, some among us have even Felt this in thoughts directed toward another. Is our Abba Father like the adversary from whose mind these thoughts originate in his unquenchable lust for separation from His Creator? Is He two-faced and forked-tongued?

    May I offer for our consideration in Quiet Constant Prayer that our Abba Father does not “hate” as we have been taught by men to think Him to be via transviolated and interpreted Scripture, but in the Love that is He, is Steadfastly and Immovably Set Against all that is opposed to Him and His Love, including the thought of hate.

    May we continue to Share in our Abba Father’s Heartfelt Desire for us to Forever Rest in Him as One, Experiencing Him as He is and not how we have been taught to think Him to be.

    Todah Raba Abba YHVH !

  • Pam Custer says:

    How did I miss this one for the last few years? It must be that I needed to hear it this year. Most excellent men!
    Nehemia I have a totally unrelated question. It Hanukkah and I’m looking for a reference to the statement that so many teachers proclaim as fact. Where does it say that Antiochus stopped people from sighting the moon? I am looking for the actual historical reference. Can you point me in a direction please?

  • I love the comments here about 2Chron passage and I understand our Father has infinite mercy and love for His own. However, is the difference here between the people in 2Chron and Nadab/Abihu for example, their motivation or intention? Are you saying that as long as we intend to obey but knowingly are disobeying, then it is accepted? This is hard for me to believe its in the text because I read of others who knowingly disobeyed and were destroyed. So I’m guessing it is all in the attitude…..is that what you are saying?
    Do you think the people would be accepted and healed the following year for doing the same thing? What I mean is….is there a overlooking the first time but we should be pursuing the right way after that or am I assigning too much severity to the personality of YHVH?
    Someone help!

    • Dale says:

      Shalom Serving Faithfully,

      Awesome question which is worthy of our attention in Quiet Constant Prayer as we seek to Experience our Abba Father YHVH as He is, not as we have been taught by men to think Him to be.

      The whole of Scripture points to Presence and our Abba Father’s Heartfelt Desire to spend Eternity as One with All of His Creation.

      He Assures us throughout Scripture that it is He Who searches our hearts and gives to each according to what He finds there – Rest in Him as We Explore the Infinite Abundance that is the Storehouse of His Love – His Spirit or toil apart from Him with the adversary and his thoughts of separation as we wearily think upon same in our finite mind.

      In the Compassion and Kindness of His Love Abba has made Provision for All who Share in His Heartfelt Desire to Rest in Him as One, Healing us from the disease of separation, doing so not according to our ways but in His Unimaginably Beyond Awesome Ways – which are never severe, chastising and punishing but Always Tender and Peaceful, Simple and Sweet, Eternally Inviting in the Encouraging and Supportive Essence that is He.

      Here are some Scripture passages which speak to what is Shared here;

      1 Shemu’el 13:14 & 16:7, Yeshayahu 55:8-9, Yirmeyahu 17:5-10, Yehezqel 34, Tehillim 33:15 & 139:23, 1 Dibre HaYamim 28:9, Yohanan 17, and Rev 2:23

      Hope you find this of Help to on your Journey. ?

      Todah Raba Abba YHVH!

      • Lucile says:

        I really want to thank our Father Yehovah for you two and your families. Since I joined your program, for me this exposition is the most comprehensive and nourishing. I will listen again. I am so sorry that some christians feel in a certain way against Nehemia. Let me assure you that your sharing is more vsluable than some of those teachings. May you be blessed and guided more and more by the Ruach Hakodesh. Blessing

  • Wow thank you for the amazing information !praise YHVH

  • Wendy A. says:

    WOW. Awesome study! I’m speachless. 2 Chronicles 30 just floored me. How gracious and loving and merciful is Yah!

  • Hosea 14:3 – The Christian translators did not understand this verse. Perhaps because this verse removes the need for animal sacrifice when it is not physically possible, it may diminish the purpose of Jesus Christ in Christian doctrine. They decided to revert to the Greek version to translate it to English. For me personally, this verse does not impact my faith according the New Testament, and I see no reason why the Christian translators need to avoid the original Hebrew. We should accept the the Hebrew Scriptures completely and not shy away from possible textual difficulties. The Law and Prophets are the foundation of the faith of both the Jews and the Christians.

    Hosea 14:3 LXX
    λάβετε μεθ᾽ ἑαυτῶν λόγους καὶ ἐπιστράφητε πρὸς κύριον τὸν θεὸν ὑμῶν εἴπατε αὐτῷ ὅπως μὴ λάβητε ἀδικίαν καὶ λάβητε ἀγαθά καὶ ἀνταποδώσομεν καρπὸν χειλέων ἡμῶν

    Hosea 14:13 Brenton’s LXX translation
    Take with you words, and turn to the Lord your God: speak to him, that ye may not receive the reward of unrighteousness, but that ye may receive good things: and we will render in return the fruit of our lips.

  • Alex says:

    So much to say here….. But once again your teaching brings tears to my eyes as you bring close to my heart the mercy of the Lord. Reading the passage initially I understood that God has no mercy for idol worship or belief in self. But to really chew on the sweetness that we can come to him all a mess the wrong way but with a right heart, he will accept our offering and heal our mess! Ahhh, so sweet. And I love the prayer beginning ch. 14

  • Kevin and Brenda Paulson says:

    Nehemiah and Keith,

    TODA, TODA, TODA!

    We are 2 wandering sheep without an earthly shepherd. We so appreciate you two breaking the bread of the word for us so we can freely eat! We are so refreshed by you both bringing forth the truth of the word, the word says what it means and means what it says, without an agenda. During the studies, our eyes see and our ears hear, so the truth of Jehovah’s word sustains and uplifts us!

    As for the conversations at the beginning, we like them as we are learning the language and the context that are usually discussed, so now the Hebrew word pun is becoming more apparent to us and we are recognizing more and more words as Nehemiah reads the portion in Hebrew.

    Nehemiah, the prayer you offered up at the end of this session was so beautiful and touched our souls so very much. You are full of Jehovah’s spirit, like Elijah!

    Yah’s kids,
    Kevin and Brenda

  • Dawn Spallinger says:

    So amazing! Thank you! Thank you for the 7 steps explaining Hosea 14:2,3. That pearl is gold.

  • wordslea says:

    When you talked about the meaning of savior i was reminded of something our congregational leader says: There is No religious language in the Bible!
    This is a concept that needs to be reinforced among us believers — that the words of our God are straightforward in meaning.
    Thank you for the powerful concepts you brought out. Gotta listen again!

  • Paul says:

    I would agree with some on this post. Both Christians and Jews are exposed to the “Spiritual Interpretation” of the scriptures on a daily basis. I hunger for the original Text and the depth of the words. When both of you stay on topic and the Torah, the word comes alive. While I know that this is INFO, this is what His Children need since we forgot to follow the “Instructions” repeat this to our children and Sojourners amoung us.

    I especially was attentive to the discussion about ‘Greek Soteria and the Hebrew Hoshea – Salvation. I don’t think Nehemiah gets the depth of those words.

    My prayers continually…

    Paul – (Houston)

  • Kari B. says:

    I have been incorporating the KJU’s Abridged Karaite Prayers into my Shabbat prayer time. In it there is a section which states, “Take my prayer as an offering of incense, my upraised hands as an evening sacrifice.” After listening to this episode of Prophet Pearls (another winner!) I have an even deeper understanding of and appreciation for what it means to pay with the offering of my lips instead of bulls. I do not think my prayer time will ever be the same again. Toda Raba!

  • Dev says:

    Wow! SO powerful!! You guys did a great job!! The language, context and history is vital….to our very soul!!
    Thank you sponsers of this episode!!
    May Yehovah bless all!!

  • Kimberly says:

    My ESV has

    Take with you words
    and return to the LORD;
    say to him,
    “Take away all iniquity;
    accept what is good,
    and we will pay with bulls
    the vows* of our lips.
    (Hosea 14:2 ESV)

    the footnote for vows says “Septuagint, Syriac pay the fruit”

    So, I would say the book of Hebrews is quoting the Septuagint – I understand that happened a lot.

  • Mary says:

    Thank you Nehemia!
    Especially for your closing prayer!
    Shabbat shalom

  • T. Anidjar says:

    I wish you guys would do the Torah portion instead of discussing so much stuff that deviates from the teaching. As a Jew I really want the lesson and not all the conversations at the beginning, please do the Parashat.

  • Kimberly says:

    Most excellent study, by the way! Thanks!

  • yz2hear says:

    Wow such an affirming pearl !Yehovah will love is through the mess even if we are not perfection. When the intention and heart are right as we earnestly seek him and we are not puffed up but repentive wanting to change grow and get it right,Yehovah is faithful .I am a living testimony evidence A .I am so greatful and thankful .I so want to walk with love be gentle and really check my sledgehammer in once and for all .I surrender it to to Yah and ask in its place something more usefull and kind,then a tool to beat folks over the head ..so one dimensional and brutal,no one receives anything that way .Nehemias prayer was beautiful.Thanks. Keith and Nehemia and who ever sponsered it !May Yehovah bless you keep you and prosper you infinitely.!In Yeshuas name Amein.