DUTY...NOT!

For those who do not already know, I have been working on a translation of the scriptures, taking the words back to their original meaning, and showing all the connections that the original words shared.

This morning, while working through Deuteronomy, I came across a word, which is translated as 'perform the duty', in verse 5. This sounds so cold, does it not?

I had been struggling with this word from it's first use back in Gen 38:8 where it is rendered in most translations something along the lines of 'perform your duty'. I decided, for the time being, to translate it as 'wed', but put a question mark there because I knew there was a more concrete meaning to this word.

Well, this morning I found it. Through researching again, I found out that it is related to the word for 'cattle' in Genesis 1:24. I had translated that as 'large mute four footed animal', so when I saw they were related, I realized I had a problem. I found another word that I saw connected to these 2, and it is this word that provided what I needed. it is the word translated as 'high place', such as you find throughout the books of Samuel and Kings.

So here they are:

yabam = brother in law, perform duty

behemah = cattle

bamah = high place

the shared 2 letter root word is the b and the m. Bet and Mem. It means to be high, or better yet, exalted. And that is the beautiful relationship I see which unpacks the meaning of yabam.

A behemah is an exalted animal, one that is high or tall. They represented the wealth of the one owning them, so they are an exalted creature, one very valuable and precious.

A bamah is a high place, where worship was performed by means of sacrifices. Although it is mostly used to speak of negative places that Yehuwah did not approve of, it is still an exalted place, treated as valuable by those who go there.

So now we come to yabam. Far from the horrible translation to 'perform a duty', it speaks of that which exalts the woman who has just lost her husband so that she may bear children. Yes, this act of kindness is with reference to a woman who did not have children at the time of her husband's death. For a woman back then, a primary purpose in her life was to bear children, and so to lose her husband before that happened was a very serious thing in her eyes.

Think of it. Would you as a woman want your brother in law to look at this as something he is duty bound to do, or as something that he wants to do to exalt you? I think the answer, in the original language, is clear. :)

Ron