Bible Geek Word Nerd - Hope: the waiting

Hope #3

July 1, 2022

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5 

 

In the previous two posts, we have ruminated (now, there’s a word whose etymology is worth a post or two…and there’s even a Hebrew link to be found, but we digress) on the Biblical word HOPE in its various Hebrew forms.

 

There four terms which English translators render as “hope”: YACHAL (יָחַל), SABAR (שָׂבַר), and QAVAH (קָוָה), with a wildcard fourth word, NABAT (נָבַט). In our previous two posts, we discussed QAVAH and SABAR. Today, we are going to jump to the wildcard, NABAT.

 

NABAT occurs 69 times in the Hebrew Bible and it primarily and most often means “to look”.

 

 In Genesis 15:5, G-d has Avraham NABAT to the Heavens in order to count the stars. In Genesis 19, Lot and his family were told by the Angel to not NAVAT back toward Sodom, but Lot’s wife did NABAT. In Exodus 3, Moshe hides his face from G-d in the Burning Bush because he is afraid to NABAT upon Him. In Psalm 13, the Psalmist asks G-d to NABAT on him and to answer his plea.

 

How in the world, etymologically speaking, does “look” become “hope”? How does any word get re-purposed and re-defined? Just consider how a cockney English speaking man refers to his best friend as his china. Or how he complains of his slabs being sore after a long day walking on hard pavement. The journey of “look” to “hope” is not nearly so strange, especially when one looks in expectation.

 

The use of the verb NAVAT as a noun requires a modification to MABAT (מַבָּט) – so the N (נָ) gets swapped for an M (מַ). In that noun form, it is used twice in Isaiah and once in Zechariah:

 

• Isaiah 20:5-6: “Then they will be terrified and ashamed because of Cush their hope (MABAT) and Egypt their pride. So the inhabitants of this coastland will say on that day, ‘Behold, such is our hope (MABAT), where we fled for help to be saved from the king of Assyria; and how are we ourselves to escape?’” (NASB)
  

• Zechariah 9:5 “Ashkelon will see it and be afraid. Gaza too will writhe in great pain; also Ekron, because her hope (MABAT) has been ruined. Moreover, the king will perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon will not be inhabited.”

 

Interestingly, the prophets have used this noun form of home to express a negative outcome. The “hope” is disappointed because it is misplaced (contra Paul’s observation in our Romans verse at the top). Looking with expectation for deliverance from a source who cannot deliver you will lead to that hope being ruined. Hope that does not disappoint derives from G-d alone.

 

Next, we look at my favorite word for hope: YACHAL.