Hope #4
July 2, 2022
“Never take your word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my HOPE in your laws.” Psalm 119:43
In the previous three posts, we looked at several Hebrew words that English translators render as “hope”..These four terms are YACHAL (יָחַל), SAVAR (שָׂבַר), and QAVAH (קָוָה), with a wildcard fourth word, NAVAT (נָבַט). In our previous two posts, we discussed QAVAH, SAVAR, and NAVAT. Today, we close this mini-series with a look at our favorite: YACHAL. (To be candid, it’s our favorite primarily because of its sound – classic guttural Hebrew because of the consonant “ח” – pronounced with that famous throat-clearing sound).
Like QAVAH, YACHAL has the primary meaning of “to wait” or “to await”. In the Hebrew Bible, YACHAL occurs 40 times.
In Genesis 8, Noah WAITED seven days before sending out the dove for the second time (WAITING seven days also occurs in 1 Samuel 10:8 and 1 Samuel 13:8). In Job 29:23 “They WAITED for me as for showers and drank in my words as the spring rain.”
YACHAL is translated as “hope” about 14 times in the Hebrew Bible (16 if you include “wait expectantly”, which feels an awful lot like “hope” to us). For instance, here is Psalm 33:18 and 33:22: “But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose HOPE is in his unfailing love… May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our hope in you.” One of our favorite occurrences is in Job 13:15: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him…”
YACHAL’s noun form is THOCHELETH (תּוֹחֶלֶת). (Pro tip: the Hebrew consonant “תּ”, transliterated as “TH”, is not pronounced like the English “th”, at least not fully. It is pronounced like the “th” in the spice “thyme” with the semi-hard “t” sound.) Here it is in Psalm 39:7: “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My HOPE is in you.” In Proverbs 11:7, we are reminded of where we ought to place our expectant hope: “HOPES placed in mortals die with them; all the promise of their power comes to nothing.” And again in Proverbs, we have 13:12: “HOPE deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”
Let’s end this little Hebrew word miniseries on “hope” with Micah 7:7, which is not only an encouragement to those who follow the LORD and His Messiah, but an example of how challenging the Hebrew concept of “hope” is to render in English.
ואני ביהוה אצפה אוחילה לאלהי ישעי ישמעני אלהי
The YACHAL in question is “אוחילה”, the fourth word from the right.
The NLT has this verse as: “As for me, I look to the LORD for help. I WAIT CONFIDENTLY for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me.”
In the NIV, it’s “But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I WAIT for God my Saviour; my God will hear me.”
In the HCSB, Micah 7:7 says, “But I will look to the LORD; I WILL WAIT for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.”
The RSV renders it: “But as for me, I will look to the LORD, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”
The Orthodox Jewish Bible (which I love, but seldom read) is “ Therefore I will look [in hope] for Hashem; I WILL WAIT for Elohei Yishi (the G-d of my Salvation); Elohai (my G-d) will hear me.”
The Jewish Publication Society’s new English translation is “Yet I will look to the LORD, I WILL WAIT for the G-d who saves me. My G-d will hear me.”
The Amplified Bible, which is a sort of “I give up trying to decide; here are all the ways the words can be translated” version: “But as for me, I will look expectantly for the LORD and with confidence in Him I will keep watch; I WILL WAIT [WITH CONFIDENT EXPECTATION] for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.” But the version does the best job of catching the full sense of YACHAL.
In our next posts, we will dive down the Greek rabbit hole of “hope”.
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