Category Archives: Study Helps

God, Lord God, Lord – Psalm 68

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When you open the Book, Father God will open the Word for you.

This strange study-help started because of verse 20, I saw four different “God” words there and did a text analysis in Bible Hub. Then the large number of God, Lord, and other references in Psalm 68 needed a look. If you have a translation that capitalizes pronouns these are not included but are the work of the translators (God bless those people) making it easier for us to read and comprehend.

The Holy Spirit used the words He wanted where He wanted them. My point is, I counted 78 entries/forms of the Name Elohim (H430); so, study. As I said in God, Lord God, Lord our concordances list the root word. Many other forms of the word may be used, and they carry with them some part of grammar. Bible Hub has these in the column marked Morphology.

Some verses and words that caught my attention: verses 20 and 26 Yahweh. Verses 4 and 18 two forms of Yah.

This is the verse number, the Hebrew “God” word, and a link if it was the first time it was used.

Psalm 68

There are other reference tools, find the one that helps you. An analogy about different translations: Bible translations are like pepper products, find the one for you.

God, Lord God, Lord

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How David and the other writers of the Psalms introduce and address their work started this post. About 130 Psalms have God, Lord God, or Lord at the very beginning (verse 1). I compared this to Jesus addressing our “Father in Heaven” in the Lord’s Prayer; Jesus left no doubt Who He was talking to and where the Father was.

I noticed someone trying to denounce Hebrew because the word for God was also used with demon deities in Aramaic. No, I could not bring myself to listen to the video, but it made me think about the abuse the world heaps on the name of God/Jesus and how we Christians use the name of our Savior. Now, we can add in spellcheck, writing styles, and AI that will influence the casual writer/reader to question how we acknowledge God. The devil has diluted the name of Jesus by causing it to become associated with cursing; and adding an initial H in between Jesus and Christ does not make it or you more powerful. Ask for wisdom on how to challenge yourself and others who do that and stop it. Why should others honor His Name when His own children do not?

The thought that prompted this inquiry was – Did David start his Psalms with a particular name of God for what he was writing about? So, I started by listing all of the Psalms that were addressed to Yahweh and Elohim. I counted 48 addressed to Elohim (H430) and 87 that began with Yahweh (H 3068, 136, 113). About 20 of those use a combination of the two names. My leaf and ink Strong’s only list words by their main root word. Online text analysis and concordances will help you find specific forms of words for God and Lord, some of those are below.

My “overload” alarm went off, and I realized; if I could do my first idea that it would require more than one post. Since David was a writer and a musician, I realized he may have used various names for rhyming or musical benefits. Not being fluent in Hebrew or music, I am rethinking how to explore my question.

Here are my beginning notes. The verses are the ones that had Yahweh and Elohim. The links will take you to Bible Hub. There are other on-line reference works. Yes, I did use my leaf and ink Strong’s in finding all of the verse 1’s.

OTHER VERSES THAT FOUND ME

H410  Strong’s Hebrew: 410. אֵל (el) — God, god, mighty one  God, gods, mighty, Mighty One, God’s, power

H430  Strong’s Hebrew: 430. אֱלֹהִים (elohim) — God, gods, divine beings, judges  God, gods, God’s, judges, goddess, great

H3069  Strong’s Hebrew: 3069. יְהֹוִה (Yhvh) — LORDzzz  God

Yahweh = H3068  Strong’s Hebrew: 3068. יְהֹוָה (Yhvh) — LORD, GOD, LORD’Szzz 1. (the) self-Existent or Eternal 2. Jehovah, Jewish national name of God

H136  Strong’s Hebrew: 136. אֲדֹנָי (Adonay) — Lord, Master  Lord, lords

H113 Strong’s Hebrew: 113. אָדוֹן (adon) — Lord, master, owner  lord, master, master’s, lord’s, masters, lords

Assyria, Our Forgotten Enemy – A Little Background

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Spiritualizing the influence of Egypt and Babylon has been done many times, I really cannot remember a sermon about the evils of Assyria. From my background studies I will say they were not nice and taking populations captives or razing whole cities to the ground was common, Assyria did it to Babylon twice.

Assyria/Ninevah and the Books of the Bible that cover that time period.

This would be my order of reading for a timeline.

Kingdoms

There was history going on outside of Israel. Some of these major players are in the story of God’s People some are not. There were many other kingdoms that do not make it into Scripture, but they were there. This is just a list, their interactions and treaties were complex and changed through the years.

Counting God’s People

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Counting God’s People started as I was reading through Numbers. In Numbers, God has Moses count His people twice; once in Numbers 1 and then in Chapter 26. Many things were done with these totals, but I will focus on camp/marching order and then division of the land. These are at the beginning of their journey and then before they crossed the Jordan.

In Numbers 1 is the totals for the first census. This, I believe, was for Marching Order and camp placement around the Tabernacle. Numbers 26 is the second census; this is at the end of the journey before crossing the Jordan. Some Tribes increased and some had a decline. Ephraim and Manasseh switch places in the Family List in the second census. (Manasseh was the oldest but Jacob switched the blessing to Ephraim.)

  • Ruben – 46,500.                       43,730
  • Simeon – 59,300.                     22,200
  • Gad – 45,650.                          40,500
  • Judah – 74,600.                       76,500
  • Issachar – 54,400.                   64,300
  • Zebulun – 57,400.                   60,500
  • Joseph/Ephraim -40,500.        32,500
  • Joseph/Manasseh – 32,200.   52,700
  • Benjamin – 35,400.                 45,600
  • Dan – 62,700.                          64,400
  • Asher – 41,500.                       53,400
  • Naphtali – 53,400.                   45,400
  • First census total – 603,550.    601,730

Levi

  • Gershon – 7,500
  • Kohath – 8,600 The NIV has a footnote for – 8,300. This number evens the total to the stated 22,000.
  • Merari – 6,200

In Numbers 26 there is no breakdown of the families of Levi, just a total of 23,000. The second census was for the allotment of land for the tribe’s inheritance (26:64). The Levities would receive towns from the other tribes as their inheritance was the Lord.

Toledoth or toledot is the Hebrew term for a family list. These censuses are a toledot of God’s family through Jacob. Seth, Adam’s son, has a toledot in Genesis. Terah is at the end of this list but has his own that features Abram. Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 have the same list for the men who returned to repopulate Jerusalem and the Land. Matthew and Luke also have toledots for Jesus. 1 Chronicles has family list and some interesting narratives mixed in; these lists are just one of the things that validate the Bible as history and not a nice story.

David in 2 Samuel 24:1 orders a count of the men of Israel. David should not have done this as the people are the Lord’s; in ordering the count he was “claiming” the people as his. We know that ended with punishment and the purchase of the land for the Solomon’s Temple.

Hard or Harden in Exodus 1 – 14

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This study help is for Exodus 911 (will be live 10/1) and The Wonders that Plagued Egypt. These listing from the Strong’s are for hard or harden, and several other words in the Exodus 1 – 14. The list of verses at the bottom are every time the Hebrew words were used. (God bless translators.) Not all of the listing will show “hard” I saw things like the staff being in the hand. I did put biblehub.com and blueletterbible.org listings; both are great, and I have no connection to either, they are just great study aids.

Looking at other references that use these words can give you an idea of the scope of what God did with Pharoah and how he reacted. you will notice that the Hebrew has good and bad side to each of these words.

H 2388 – chazaq: to be or grow firm or strong, strengthen

H3513 – kabad or kabed: to be heavy, weighty, or burdensome

H3515 – kabed: heavy

H7185 – qashah: to be hard, severe or fierce the word for Rachael’s labor Gen.35:16, before the plagues began Ex 7:3, and what the fathers told children about leaving Egypt13:15

qasheh: hard, severe

Exodus

  • 1:14 – 7186
  • 4:10 – 3515
  • 4:21 – 2388
  • 4:21 – 2388
  • 4:4 – 2388
  • 5:9 – 3513
  • 6:9 – 7186
  • 7:3 – 7185
  • 7:13 – 2388
  • 7:13 -2388
  • 7:14 -3515
  • 7:22 – 2388
  • 8:15 – 3513
  • 8:15 – 3515
  • 8:19 – 2388
  • 8:19 – 2388
  • 8:24 – 3515
  • 8:32 – 3513
  • 8:32 – 3515
  • 9:2 – 2388
  • 9:3 – 3515
  • 9:7 – 3513
  • 9:7 – 3515
  • 9:12 – 2388
  • 9:18 –3515
  • 9:24 – 3515
  • 9:34 – 3513
  • 9:35 – 2388
  • 9:35 – 2388
  • 10:1 – 3513
  • 10:14 – 3515
  • 10:20 – 2388
  • 10:20 – 2388
  • 10:27 – 2388
  • 10:27 – 2388
  • 11:10 – 2388
  • 11:10 – 2388
  • 12:33 – 2388
  • 12:38 – 3515
  • 13:15 – 7185
  • 14:4 – 2388
  • 14:4 – 3513
  • 14:8 – 2388
  • 14:8 – 2388
  • 14:17 – 2388
  • 14:17 – 3513
  • 14:18 – 3513