You Don't Say SAPHAR
July 11, 2022
In the NIV translation of the Hebrew Bible, words related to “to say” occur about 6200 times. These run the gamut of the synonyms for “say” and “speak”. Beyond various formulations of those two are, inter alia, “declare”, “answer”, “proclaim”, and “tell”. Someone perhaps word nerdier than we are can add to this hastily cobbled together list. But even if they can add to it, the word count is astounding. (On the other hand, for some context, the NIV version of the Hebrew Bible comprises more than 750,000 words. So “to say” is less than 1% of that total.)
We are in the midst of looking at the various ways the Hebrew uses to express this. “Speak”, “spoke”, “say”, and “said” comprise more than two-thirds of the 6200 occurrences we mentioned. But while the English text may simply tell us that “G-d said”, the Hebrew uses one of several different words, each having a slightly different meaning. Sometimes that difference is trivial. After all, what does it matter whether it’s “say” or “state” or “mention”? On the other hand, there is a very large difference between “say” and “announce”, as any to-be-married couple will happily announce to you. So this mini-series intends to explore those various ways of describing “to say” that appear in the Hebrew Bible, perhaps opening your eyes to read the Text with a slightly different appreciation.
Previously, we looked at the word MALAL, primarily meaning “speak, utter, say”.
Today, we discuss SAPHAR (סָפַר), which means “count, recount, or relate”.
SAPHAR is used 160 times in the Jewish Scriptures; 35 of those occurrences are used to represent counting or numbering, as in Genesis 15, when G-d is giving His great promise to Avraham (well, at that time Avram):
“[G-d] took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and COUNT the stars – if indeed you can count them.’ Then He said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’”
Also, Leviticus 23:15 says, “From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, COUNT seven full weeks.”
Twenty-nine times, SAPHAR is used for “scribe” or “secretary”, as in 2 Chronicles 34:13: 
“…had charge of the labourers and supervised all the workers from job to job. Some of the Levites were SECRETARIES, scribes, and gatekeepers.”
Nehemiah 13:13 says, “I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the SCRIBE, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms…”
Using SAPHAR in this way is not surprising, given that the verb is a denominative from the noun SEPHER (סֵפֶר), which means “book, scroll, bill, learned letter, or evidence”. As early as Genesis 5:1, it says: “This is the WRITTEN ACCOUNT of Adam’s family line.”
In Esther 1:22, SEPHER is “dispatch”: “He sent DISPATCHES to all parts of the kingdom…”
In Psalm 69:28, we are introduced to a concept familiar to Christians who read the Revelation of John: “May they be blotted out of the BOOK of life and not be listed with the righteous.” (And now you also understand why we included the promo pic from one of the best animated films of the previous ten years, not to mention the icon from an ancient anonymous Greek iconographer.)
In Jeremiah 3:8, we read, “I gave faithless Israel her CERTIFICATE of divorce and sent her away…”
And finally, in Malachi 3:16, the Text explains, “A SCROLL of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honoured his name.”
Moreover, modern Hebrew's use of the word is found in Jewish education: BETH SEPHER (house of the book) is a Hebrew-language elementary school.
The remainder of SAPHAR’s occurrences in the Hebrew Text are rendered as tell, declare, recount, or similar words.
First used in this way in Genesis 24:66, the Text says, “Then the servant TOLD Isaac all he had done.”
Staying in Genesis, verse 29:13 tells us, “So he TOLD Laban all these things.
In Job 12:8, we read, “or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea INFORM you.”
Psalm 19:1 has one of our favorite occurrences because it is one of our favorite verses: “The heavens DECLARE the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Psalm 26:7 offers, “proclaiming aloud your praise and TELLING of all your wonderful deeds.” We understand the poetic parallel with “proclaim”, but one does not have to strain too hard to render this SAPHAR as “count” or “number”: counting off the wonderful deeds of the LORD.
The prophets use SEPHER in all its facets, from “scribe” to “count” to “tell”. Joel 1:3 gives us, “TELL it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.” In Hebrew, there is only one verb, but the NIV translators added repetition for clarity’s sake. The literal reading of the Hebrew text (which sounds like Yoda) goes something like: “about it your children tell and your children their children and their children generation another.”
עליה לבניכם ספרו ובניכם לבניהם ובניהם לדור אחר
As this verse in Joel indicates, and as the other examples make plain, the work of translation is very, very difficult. Most English versions of Scripture are excellent and effective renderings of the original text. None are “literal translations” because that is a literal impossibility. Hebrew simply cannot be rendered into English mechanically. And if one could do that, it would be almost unreadable.
We like the NIV, and we read it. We like the NKJV, and we read it. The NLT, the ESE, the NASB, the ESV, the HCSB…these are all excellent translations. But each is the work of humans with biases, preferences, and occasionally, agenda. The point to derive from all this is that modern western readers of the Hebrew Bible are reading an ancient set of documents that a modern western scholar has attempted to put into language we can apprehend.
If all you take from this mini-series – indeed, even from this page – is a heightened awareness of this fact, perhaps your reading of the Sacred Text will be enhanced. And maybe you might be inspired to pull out a Hebrew or Greek dictionary to look behind the English to find out what else might be lurking behind the words. Just don’t get any funny ideas about starting your own page; we do not want the competition…
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