The language of ivrit ( עברית ) Exodus 12, Post #8
Welcome to my Hebrew reading & language series.
Exodus 12:34-37
We saw Israel being freed from, or rather kicked out of, Mitsraim (Egypt) after the first born of every living thing had died last week, as foretold. It was a jam packed passage that we read.
This week is similar, in that, everyone is hurrying to get out as fast as possible. They are leaving with their partially made bread, and they are asking the Mitsraim (Egyptians) to give them semaLoat (clothing), zaHav (gold), Kesef (silver) and jewelry as they get ready to leave. Remember that they are in a hurry because the people of the land thought they were going to die because of the death we saw last week.
The English says that they asked for Jewelry, but the Hebrew says, "objects of" gold and silver. Those could have been breast plates or bowls for all we know. It says that the Almighty had given the people of Israel "favor" in the eyes of the Mitsraim, the people. In other words, He gave them the idea that they should be generous to the Hebrews.
The favor that God gave them allowed them to plunder Mitsraim, the country.
Lastly, we see the number of people leaving Mitsraim was "about 600,000 men on foot" not counting the women and children. Now that is what you call a mass exodus, after all it has an entire book of the scriptures named after it. You could easily double, if not triple, that number since most men had wives and children are not limited to one per household. I am guessing well over 2,000,000 including the elderly women whose husbands had died in slavery.
The verse for today is very short, but it contains a lot of information and the reason for that is partially because short words can contain a lot of information. Let's look at just one Hebrew word and how the letters can be fewer since vowels are dots and dashes like morse code.
If you look just six lines down from the top in the Hebrew scripture below, you will see a seven letter word, vayash'eeLoom, which contains all of the following words in it...
so that they gave what was asked of them
My English phonetic spelling looks long, but here is how it looks when I read it in Hebrew (using English vowels below consonants).
- v - y - sh - * - L - - m
ah ah -a - ee - - oo
Or, va ya sh' ee Loom - the asterisk denotes a silent letter and the a and ' denote a shuah which is a short, almost non, vowel sound. Whenever I write a Hebrew word's pronunciation, I put one capital letter in each word, which lets you know where the accent or 'stress' is when saying it.
You can guess the root word by asking yourself, "What Hebrew word do I already know that has these sounds in it SH L M.
Let me give you an hint, it means hello, goodbye, peace, health and to pay off a debt.
Today's reading
English
So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And YHVH had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.
Hebrew
Next week, they leave Egypt...
Info on each letter starting at the beginning
If you are just starting, my lessons are all here starting at Alef, adding vowels (the dots and lines) as we go. I explain the meaning of each letter and its numerical value. Just go to my blog and scroll to the bottom or click here
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Thanks for reading.
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