Doing Bad
March 20, 2023
(four-minute read)
We have slipped off onto a siding from the main line of our Jeremiah series to explore the life of Samson in the Book of the Judges. Yes, we are using his story as a pretext for looking at some crucial Hebrew terms (like YASAPH and ASAH). We’re Word Nerdy that way. But we will also draw out some theological significance that can hopefully make your study of the Text more rewarding and meaningful for you. Because we are Bible Geeky that way.
Some of the Judges are genuinely admirable and heroic (Deborah comes to mind). And some of them are flawed, like Samson. Our siding from the main starts in chapter 13 of Judges, which opens with, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD…”
Whenever I read thru the Book of Judges, I mentally hear the thumping 4/4 drums of the Dave Clark Five. You remember them, right? The second band to make landfall in America during the British Invasion of the 1960s, not long after the Beatles. They had a string of chart-making hits during their heyday, all of them noticeable for their namesake’s consistent quarter-note beats. Maybe you can hear them in your audio memory, too. Their biggest hit was “Glad All Over”. Great song, yes. But Judges does not leave anyone glad all over. Rather, it’s the equally catchy, but perhaps now-ruined, Bobby Day classic, “Over and Over”.
Because in the Book of Judges, Israel is doing evil in the eyes of the LORD…over and over and over and over again. This theme runs throughout the Judges. In fact, it’s why Israel needs Judges to begin with.
Samson’s story, told in Judges 13 to 16, begins with this refrain. From verse one of Chapter 13, we have already looked at the words “again” (YASAPH) and “did” (ASAH). Now we will finish our triplet by exploring the fraught term “evil”. Once again, Israel did EVIL.
The word translated to “evil” is RA (רַע). Fundamentally, it’s an adjective that means “bad” or “evil”. It occurs 667 times in the Hebrew Bible. So far, so good. But you know where this is going, right? Because like so many, many other Hebrew words, RA offers itself for service in a range of other meanings, which we aim to explore. Let’s cover the plain meaning first.
“…In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and EVIL.”
Genesis 2:9
Right there on the second page of the Bible, G-d sets the stage for the rest of the story. And for the rest of the story, G-d does GOOD (TOWB (טוֹב)), and man does EVIL (RA). It gets so bad that by the time Genesis 6 arrives, G-d sees that mankind’s inclinations are completely toward RA, and He’s ready to pack it all in with the Great Flood.
RA, however, does not just mean bad or evil from a moral standpoint. It can also mean “natural” bad or evil. That is, it can mean what we might call a misfortune or tragedy in English. A tornado flattening your house would be RA. The evil scientist who invented the tornado machine to send that tornado would also be RA.
In Pharaoh’s nightmares, the cows and corn representing the years of famine are described as RA (Genesis 41). In Genesis 47, Jacob tells Pharaoh that his years of life have been few and RA. In Numbers 11, the tribes of Israel complained to G-d of their hardships (RA). In Deuteronomy 7:15, G-d promises Israel that if they do (ASAH) what He commanded them, they will not suffer the HORRIBLE (RA) diseases they knew in Egypt.
In the Hebrew Bible, RA can mean mischief, misfortune, calamity, sorrow, distress, misery, displeasure, adversity, wretchedness, as well as evil. Given that the children of Israel are DOING (ASAH) the EVIL (RA) AGAIN (YASAPH), it seems clear that the Text implies the moral sense of RA.
What are we to do with this thought?
Mankind’s pattern – forget Israel’s – is captured in Proverbs 26:11: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.” (Interestingly, the word for “folly” is the Hebrew word EVIL (אֱוִיל), a coincidental irony that should make both terms more memorable for you.) We all “do evil in the eyes of the LORD” over and over and over again. And the rescuers we crave may look the part, but they are still corrupted and flawed (as Samson is). What then? Who will save us from the coming calamity our RA has earned us? We leave you with the words of St. Paul who confronts this human condition, and our cries for rescue:
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Romans 7:24-25
May the Lord keep you from RA.
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