The Hebrew of Judah

Hebrew fascinates me. There is usually so much more going on under the surface of the text, in part because of the deep meanings of the letters. Our English translations simply miss all the amazing nuances and word plays that are going on.

When Jacob blesses his sons in Genesis 49, there is definitely more going on than meets the eye.

Let's look at the blessing he gave Judah in verses 8-11:

Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father’s children shall bow down before you.

Judah is a lion’s whelp;
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?

The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.

Binding his donkey to the vine,
And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
He washed his garments in wine,
And his clothes in the blood of grapes.

His eyes are darker than wine,
And his teeth whiter than milk.

First of all, the word Judah means praise... Literally giving thanks. The prophecy starts out with his brothers doing just that.  Someday, the brothers of Yeshua are going to thank and praise Him for what He did for them.

I have previously written about the connection between the name of God  (Yehovah) and the name of Judah.  You can read it here if you wish.

Shiloh is considered to be a synonym for the Messiah, even by the ancient Jewish scholars.  The meaning of Shiloh is He whose it is.

It is interesting to note that in Jacob's entire prophecy to Judah, every single Hebrew letter can be found, except the zayin.  Every Hebrew letter carries a meaning, and the original meaning of the letter zayin is a sword or sharp weapon.

The zayin even looks like a sword.
Just zayin'

At the time of Yeshua, the Jewish people were looking for a man of war, a mighty Messiah who would deliver them from Rome's oppressive rule. 

Just as the zayin was missing from the prophecy, perhaps this is why so many missed His first coming. They wanted the physical, visible sword!  They did not want the invisible, spiritual sword by which Yeshua conquered sin and death through His suffering.

Yeshua is returning soon. But He is no longer the suffering servant with the invisible sword.  The second time around, He will be arriving with the zayin as a mighty conquering King, and will vanquish His enemies. Are you ready?

Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations.
And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron.
He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Revelation 19:15

A Stunning Geneology

I have said it before... nothing is in scripture by mistake.  There are so many levels to God's word that we can spend our whole lives digging out truths and never find it all.

God has placed a beautiful account in the geneology of the first people.  Have you ever skipped over Genesis 5, thinking that it's just a bunch of ancient names?  I know I have.  But Genesis 5 is, in truth, a gold mine.

 The name of the first human being, Adam, means man.  That is pretty basic, and it makes sense.  Adam had a son, and named him Seth.  Seth means appointed.  OK, an unusual name to be sure.  "Hey appointed!  Can you bring me that flint rock so I can start a fire over here?"

Seth grew up and became father to Enosh, which means mortal.   Enosh named his son Kenan, which means sorrow.  I don't even want to think of the taunts poor Kenan must have received from his peers.  Kenan grew up and fathered Mahalael, which means the blessed God.

Mahalael became father to Jared (which does not mean I lost 400 pounds eating Subway sandwiches).   Jared means to come down, or he who descends.  Jared named his son Enoch, which means teaching. 

*Update!  I have studied the name Enoch (Hebrew chanak), and have discovered that it really means to dedicate, or inaugurate.  In other words, watch out, a new thing is coming.  The word Hanukkah is a form of the name Enoch, and it is the Feast of Dedication.  It commemorated the restoration and opening of the Jewish temple.

Enoch became father to the oldest man on record, Methuselah, which means his death shall bring.  (And guess what happened the very year Methuselah died?  The flood.)

Methuselah named his son Lamech, which means despairing (another great one for the school yard taunts).  Having grown up with that name, Lamech gave his own son the name Noah, meaning comfort or rest.

None of these names are accidental.  When put together, they read something like this:

Man [is] appointed mortal sorrow, [but] the blessed God shall come down, to inaugurate [that] His death shall bring the despairing comfort and rest.

Coincidence?  I think not. 

I wonder if there could be a message in the full geneology of Yeshua in Luke 3?  Hmmm.... stay tuned!

The Door

Hebrew is an amazing language.  I have just begun studying it in the last year.  The letters and words have such meaning to them!  Here is a great example. 

The name of the LORD is yod heh vav heh - YHVH.  Also called the tetragrammaton, it is called "the unpronounceble name" in Judaism.  The vav can made an O, U, or V sound, allowing for numerous pronunciations..  There is no "J" in the Hebrew language, so the rendering "Jehovah" is an English misnomer (along with many other names in scripture - Joseph should be pronounced Yosef,  Jacob - Ya'acov, Jerusalem - Yerushaliyim, Jesus - Yeshua, etc).

This is how the tetragrammaton appears in Hebrew (reading right to left):

In order to make the name Judah (Yehuda), you would place a dalet between the vav and the last heh, like this:

יהודה

The letter dalet in Hebrew symbolically represents a door - through which we can be open to the hope of our dreams or to remain closed off and alienated.  Yehuda is the door through which God will send the promised Messiah, Yeshua.  It is a picture of our future redemption - the only door to the Father!