Hidden in the Hebrew

The Word of God is not a collection of miscellaneous writings. It was prepared under the influence of the Holy Spirit, according to the great Will of God. The names, numbers and spellings of words are not there by coincidence; they were placed there in accordance with a wonderful Plan.

The Prophet Isaiah speaks of a palace steward named Shebna in chapter 22. Apparently Shebna was a usurper, gathering privileges to which he was not entitled. In verse 18 the Lord said that He “would roll you [Shebna] up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country. There you will die . . .”

The name Shebna (Strong’s 7644) in Hebrew is spelled shin-beit-nun-hay. The first and last letters, shin and hay, form the “body” of this word according to rabbinical studies. Shin-hay (Strong’s 7716) means a member of a flock. Shebna was a member of the flock of the Lord. Again, according to rabbinical studies, the letter nun stands for faithfulness. If you remove the nun from Shebna, it spells shaba (Strong’s 7617) which means to carry away to captivity. This is exactly what was prophesied regarding Shebna. Amazingly, the prophecy about Shebna was even contained within his name.

Another example is in one of the scriptures frequently read at Christmastime – Isaiah’s prophecy of the Coming Messiah, the Anointed One, Jesus. It is found in chapter 53 of Isaiah. In verse 3 it begins, “He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief . . ” Verse nine speaks of the death of Jesus – “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”

Verse nine contains the Hebrew word for death. But it is a unique word, and is only found in the Old Testament in this one verse. The usual Hebrew word used is maveth (Strong’s 4194), which is spelled mem-vav-tav. In this one instance in the Old Testament another form of the word death is used, bemotaw or bemotav, spelled beit-mem-tav-yot-vav. This is an unusual word and in an irregular form, therefore the plural of it would also be irregular. Please see http://www.concordances.org/hebrew/bemotav_4194.htm

There is much discussion over whether this word is plural, or not. It most certainly is a unique variation of the word for death. Brother Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic rabbi, states that in Hebrew when a plural form is used for a word indicating a singular event, “it speaks of something of such great intensity or magnitude that a singular word cannot contain it.” Such is the death of Jesus on the Cross. In this event, Jesus died for you and for me, and for millions of other souls. The singular word death cannot contain the marvelous, miraculous meaning of the death of the Son of God.

Praise the Lord for His unparalleled, matchless, unsurpassable Word. Praise the Lord for Jesus. Praise His name because the Lord resurrected Jesus from the dead. Jesus, the Firstfruits of the grave, was the first and we have the wonderful promise of following Him. Praise God for the Hope we have because of Jesus.

BACK to Lesson Archive.