In this blog series, I am going to share small, interesting things I find in the Old Testament.

Since I am not a scholar or specialist, I may be mistaken about some of the facts.

The connections that I draw here may seem tenuous to some, but this is because I will be utilizing a “Sensus Plenior” hermeneutic for my reading of the scriptures. That is, unlike the modern Historical Critical method and similar approaches that insist we read the Bible in some sort of mechanistic, reductivist fashion (as Historical Criticism’s 19th century Germanic founders did), I will be looking “to describe the supposed deeper meaning intended by God but not by the human author.” [1]

All Bible verses quoted in this series will use, unless otherwise noted, the Douay-Rheims English translation. All screenshots of Hebrew taken from BibleHub.

For this first post in the series, I am actually going to do a two-for-one post and share two interesting tidbits I found in recent reading.

1) Strike the rock, strike the shepherd

In Exodus chapter 17 verse 6, God instructs Moses to strike a stone in order to procure drinking water for the Israelites in the desert.

“Behold I will stand there before thee, upon the rock Horeb: and thou shalt strike the rock, and water shall come out of it that the people may drink. Moses did so before the ancients of Israel”

The Hebrew word for “strike” here is “wə·hik·kî·ṯā,” which Strong’s Hebrew Concordance tells us the root of which is “nakah.”



Please keep this word in mind as we go along.

There is an interesting parallel between God’s command to Moses to strike the rock, and the “Song of the Sword” in the book of Zechariah.

Zechariah chapter 13 verse 7 – 9 reads:

“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that cleaveth to me, saith the Lord of hosts: strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn my hand to the little ones.”

Once again the commandment is given to strike- however this time it is to “the man that cleaveth to me” (or “the man who is close to me” in other translations).

The word for strike here is “haḵ-” which once again, Strong’s Hebrew Concordance tell us has the root “nakah.”

Thus the etymologically related “haḵ-” and “wə·hik·kî·ṯā” are cognates.

I have to think that St. Paul was conscious of this parallelism. As he writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4,

“And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea:

And did all eat the same spiritual food,

And all drank the same spiritual drink; (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.)”

The piercing of the rock in Exodus forms a typological sequence that comes up again in Zechariah’s song of the sword striking God’s shepherd. And, finally,

St. Paul spells out explicitly what this all means when he says: “and the rock was Christ.”

2) I have graven thee in my hands, Yeshuah is ever before me

It may come as no surprise to many of my readers that the Hebrew word for “salvation” and the Hebrew name for Jesus are only one character apart.

The Hebrew word for “salvation” is “yeshuah” יְשׁוּעָ֥ה and the Hebrew name for Jesus is “Yeshua.” The spelling is identical, save for a final ה character.

And, of course, the two are etymologically linked, considering that the meaning of the name “Yeshua” is “God Saves.”

In Isaiah chapter 26 verse 1 (using the RSVCE translation this time) it says

“In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;

he sets up salvation[yeshuah]

as walls and bulwarks.”

This notion of “yeshuah” serving as the walls of a city is repeated in Isaiah chapter 60 verse 18 (again, using RSVCE):

“Violence shall no more be heard in your land,

devastation or destruction within your borders;

you shall call your walls Salvation [yeshuah],

and your gates Praise.”

Where this gets interesting, at least for me, is Isaiah chapter 49 verse 16, in which God tells Jerusalem he will not forget her:

“Behold, I have graven thee in my hands: thy walls are always before my eyes.”

However, these cannot be literal walls, as 26:1 and 60:18 make clear- the “walls” are “yeshuah” or “Salvation” as such.

Additionally, this may in fact be a prophecy of the crucifixion wounds which Christ sustained on the cross.

The word used for “graven” here is “ḥaq·qō·ṯîḵ,” which Strong’s Hebrew Concordance says the root of which is “chaqaq” or “A primitive root; properly, to hack, i.e. Engrave”

Brown Driver Briggs’ Hebrew Lexicon defines “chaqaq” as follows:

So the imagery of the “salvation” which is “graven” on YHWH’s hands is very much one of being “cut in” (not, as some translations say, “to draw” or “to write”)

One might be so bold as to emend Isaiah 49:16 to say “Behold, I have cut thee into my hands: thy walls (that is, thy salvation) is always before my eyes.”

※The above images taken from BibleHub.com’s various Hebrew Concordances:

https://biblehub.com/bdb/1.htm