H7200

• {"n":"Genesis 18:1-2","s":"The LORD appeared unto him. He lifted up his eyes, and lo, three men stood by him.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=genesis-18-1-2","r":"Genesis 18:1-2","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Every version reads the LORD appeared and then three men, correctly, but English readers often smooth the transition into an assumption, three angels, or three men who turn out to represent God, without registering how directly the Hebrew text itself equates the first sentence's subject, the LORD, with one of the figures who then eats a meal."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"Imagine a story that opens **the president visited the office**, and the next sentence says **three people walked in and sat down**, with no further comment distinguishing which one was the president. English narrative would flag that explicitly. This chapter does not, and the ambiguity is the point."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"The chapter's subject through the meal and the questions about Sarah's laughter remains the LORD in the singular, even while two of the three figures leave for Sodom and are called angels there, while the LORD continues speaking with Abraham alone. The text does not explain the mechanics; it simply narrates a scene in which God, in some form Abraham can host at his table, is present alongside two other beings later identified as angels."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English readers, trained by later theology to expect God's appearances to be marked as visibly supernatural, glide past how ordinary and physical this scene is in the Hebrew: sitting, eating, conversing, with no special visual marker distinguishing the LORD from the other two until the narrative itself tells you two of them go on to Sodom."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a Hebrew narrative names God as the subject and then describes ordinary human action, do not assume later theological categories, angel, theophany, appearance, were doing organizing work for the original audience the way they do for later readers. Let the plain narrative sequence stand before importing the categories used to explain it."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"The wording itself draws no disagreement among translators. The theological question, whether this scene depicts God directly in human form, an angel acting with full divine authority and identified as the LORD by convention, or some combination, is a live one this text raises but does not itself resolve any more than Genesis 16 or Genesis 32 do."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05d5\u05b7\u05d9\u05b5\u05bc\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0 \u05d0\u05b5\u05dc\u05b8\u05d9\u05d5 \u05d9\u05b0\u05d4\u05d5\u05b8\u05d4 vayera elav YHWH \u00b7 H7200 + H3068"}],"src":["The two who depart for Sodom are called angels: Genesis 19:1","The LORD continues speaking with Abraham alone after the two depart: Genesis 18:22, 33"]}
• {"n":"Genesis 22:14","s":"The LORD will provide. The Hebrew verb is see, and the chapter has been using it all along.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=genesis-22-14","r":"Genesis 22:14","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"All versions read provide in verse 8 and in the name, and most read seen or provided at the end of verse 14. The King James keeps seen at the end, which preserves half the pun."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"A story where a character keeps saying **we'll see** and then names the place **Seen** is a story with a spine. Translate half the occurrences as **we'll sort it out** and the spine disappears while every sentence stays accurate."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Ra'ah means to see. In certain forms it extends to see to something, and from there to provide, the same way English see to it works. Verse 8 has God will see to it for himself a lamb, verse 13 has Abraham lifting his eyes and seeing a ram, and verse 14 names the place on that verb twice."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English see and provide are different words. The chapter's repetition of one verb across seeing, being seen and providing cannot survive into English without a footnote."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"Hebrew narrative builds by repeating a single root across a passage. When a chapter feels like it is circling something, look for the root rather than the theme."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Provide is clearer and breaks the pattern. See is opaque in English and keeps it. Every version compromises somewhere in the chapter, and none keeps all four occurrences visible."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0\u05b8\u05d4 ra'ah \u00b7 H7200"}],"src":["The verb at Genesis 22:4, 8, 13, 14 twice","ra'ah extended to provide: 1 Samuel 16:1, I have provided me a king, literally seen","The name Yahweh-yireh preserves the imperfect form of the same verb"]}