God’s meaning of Blessing compared to our concept.
Baruch Haba B’Shem Adonai
ברוך הבא בשם יהוה
Barukh atah Adonai
bah-ROOKH at-TAH ah-doh-NIGH
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יהוה
Words that begin Hebrew blessings, are commonly rendered in English as:
Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe.
This phrase is sometimes called the
Shem umalkhut;
it includes the name and the sovereignty, affirming that God is King over the entire universe.
Messianic blessings are recited in Hebrew with the intent of remaining true to the Jewish identity of Yeshua as the Mashiach/Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world.
God Bless You, Bless You and Blessings to you; are probably some of the most familiar sayings yet, what are we really saying?
The scripture says:
Blessings like showers in
Jeremiah 3:3 I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. And I will cause showers to come down in their season; they will be showers of blessing.
This word shower in the Hebrew is geshem, which means: to rain violently, pour down in heavy shower, according to Strong’s Concordance.
There are two main Ancient Hebrew words for rain used in the Hebrew Bible:
גשם geshem and מטר matar;
they are used for different types of rain.
Geshem: rain, shower, גשם, in the Bible is usually associated with a heavy rain.
Strongs#1653. גֶּ֫שֶׁם (geshem)
— rain, shower.
geshem -gheh’-shem; a shower: rain, shower
geshem, used of gentle rain in Job 37:6:
shower of rain, KJV small rain; and
used of the flood in Genesis 7:12.
Figuratively of blessing: showers of blessing (Ezekiel 34:26 );
Figuratively of destruction:
There shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in wrath to consume it. (Ezekiel 13:13).
Ezekiel 34:25-26 (NIV)says, “I will make a covenant of peace with them and…I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.”
This word shower in the Hebrew is geshem.
Transliteration: geshem
Phonetic Spelling: (gheh’-shem):
which means to:
rain violently, pour down in a heavy shower,
as showers from heaven cause the earth to become fruitful and produce abundantly.
Deuteronomy 32:2. Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.
The best place to live is with the blessing of the Lord, and the Lord has already poured out the shower of blessing in Messiah. Eph. 1:3!
Deuteronomy 28:2 (AMP) says, “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you heed the voice of the Lord your God.”
We know what we mean, when we speak it out to an individual, or over a nation or even when we say, Bless God, or, We Bless You Lord.
It’s probably one of the more common words in the scriptures in the English translations
but what does it really mean?
A blessing, according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, is:
the act or words of one that blesses, or
a thing conducive to happiness or welfare.
What was the original meaning according to the scriptures?
In the Bible, there are several words that are usually translated as blessing or bless. The Hebrew word most often translated bless is barak, which can mean to praise, congratulate, or salute, and is even used to mean a curse.
Genesis 1:22 is the first occurrence, when God blessed the sea creatures and birds, telling them to be fruitful and multiply in the earth.
Likewise, in verse 28, God gave the similar blessing to Adam and Eve, adding that they were to exercise dominion over creation.
The Hebrew Word for blessed in the paleo Hebrew script:
The word is translated as bless krb.
בָרַךְ
and blessed looks like this:
Strongs #1288 to kneel, bless
When this Hebrew script is directly translated into English, we get the spelling of Barak.
Barak (pronounced Baw-rahk) is the Hebrew pronunciation for the verb bless and the past tense word blessed.
When written in this form it means to show respect (usually translated as bless) as seen in Genesis 12:2.
A related Hebrew word is berakhah meaning a gift or present. This shows that behind the paleo form of the verb barak there is a concrete meaning.
That is: to bring a gift to another while kneeling out of respect.
(Think Magi as they found Jesus/Yeshua after following His star!)
Barak ברך Bet/beyt/beit – resh/reysh – Kaf
It could also be interpreted as the son of tenderness –
to treat as a mature son, with tenderness.
ר ב – ב Bet/beyt/beit – ר resh/reysh – son
רך – ך Kaf – ר reysh /resh – Bless/Tenderness
So what are we saying when we say, God bless you?
Strangely ..it would seem we are saying, God kneel to you!
It’s interesting that the saying, take a knee has become more popular! Is that taking a blessing? Well.. it depends on who or what you are kneeling to!
When the scripture speaks of blessings and curses, in the literal translation it’s saying:
God will bless/kneel to those who are obedient and will give His lightnings to those who are not!
The Lord responds in mighty power, riding upon the Cherubim as He comes to help David.
In Psalm 18:14 David declares The Lord sent out His arrows and scattered the foe, lightnings in abundance.
In Psalm 144 David again speaks of warring against his enemies and states in verse 6 that he is liberated when the Lord’s lightnings come. We do know that lightnings and thunderings proceed from the throne of God.
Also in Exodus 19:16 when the Torah was first given to Israel during Shavuot/Pentecost:
On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud shofar blast (קל שׁפָר חָזָק מְאד),
We should not take lightly the curses for disobedience!
Looking at the ancient Hebrew pictographs that make up the word bless, more specifically to bless.
The word bless in Hebrew is barak, and is comprised of the Hebrew letters
Bet– Kaf – Reysh
Barak ברך
Bet – reysh son
kaf – reysh tenderness
bet – a house household BET (the equivalent of our letter “B”, and represented in the ancient Hebrew pictographs as a house or tent, meaning house, as in lineage – e.g. the house of David).
kaf – open hand a palm to open allow cover KAPH (K) (pictured as the palm of a hand, meaning to bow or bless).
reysh – the head person the highest. RESH (R)(pictured as the head of a man, and meaning the first or highest person).
House – head of person – palm of hand
could be understood as:
the house inheritance is being given to the person whose head I place the palm of my hand on.
Genesis 48:13, 14 – 22
From earlier posts remember that the Hebrew/Aramaic word for son is bar (BET RESH).
Therefore the ancient Hebrew pictographs show that to bless is for the SON (Jesus/Yeshua) to extend the PALM OF THE HAND to, or to lay his hand on, you.
TO BLESS you!
Above shows the paleo word with a Vav added to the spelling, and its possible meaning.
Dabar means WORD: Messiah was and is the WORD made flesh.
Qodesh means Holy/Set apart.
Gen. 1:28: God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.
The Hebrew word translated blessed is v’ibarak, which is more appropriately translated
He will bless or He is blessing,
suggests an ongoing and future blessing, rather than a past blessing.
To form v’ibarak, two letters are added to the word barak shown below,
the letter VAV (similar to our letters V or W)(pictured as a tent peg or nail, and meaning a nail or hook),
and YOD (Y)(pictured as the arm from the fist to the elbow, meaning my hand or my works)….
therefore, v’ibarak, or
God’s first blessing to humanity
is prophetic of
God’s ultimate blessing to humanity:
the NAIL in the HAND of the SON is God’s BLESSING.
Most Hebrew roots consist of three letters and can be written as a noun or a verb, but both are related in meaning.
A good example is the root ברך which can be used as a noun, ברך berek [H:1290], meaning knee
or as a verb, ברך barak [H:1288], meaning to kneel.
Both the noun and verb form can be seen in the following passage.
and kneeled (barak) down upon his knees (berek) before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven 2 Chronicles 6:13 (KJV)
Additional nouns are developed out of the root by adding specific letters to the root, the most common being the addition of the letter ה to the end of the root, such as in the word:
ברכה berakah [H:1293]
(The כ and ך are both the same letter kaph.
The form ך is used when it comes at the end of a word.).
This word is a gift or present and is related to the root through the idea of: bending down to the knee and presenting a gift to another.
Each verb also has the ability to slightly change in meaning by changing the form of the verb.
The parts of speech can be confusing so, simply explained is that what is termed the Piel form is a stem formation in Biblical Hebrew from the verb, usually indicated by a speech mark called a daghesh.
The Piel stem is the most flexible in its use of all the various stem formations; it can express simple action, intensive action, resulting action, causative action, or other kinds of action (all in active voice) depending on the context and the specific verb.
This is why the piel form of the verb ברך barak [H:1288] literally means to bend the knee to present a gift.
These definitions are the original concrete meanings of these words, but we will recognize them more easily by the abstract words the translators usually use to translate them.
And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing (berakah), my father? bless (barak) me, even me also… Genesis 27:38 (KJV)
A more literal translation of this verse would read as;
And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one gift (berakah), my father? Kneel down and present me a gift (barak), even me also…
The Hebrew language is filled with abstract thought, but the difference between Hebrew and Greek abstracts is that Hebrew abstracts are related to something concrete, while Greek abstracts are not.
For further info. click link below:
https://www.minimannamoments.com/ancient-pictographic-hebrew-language/
A blessing from Greek thought is a pure abstract one, with no foundation in the concrete, but from a Hebraic perspective a blessing is any action or object that is presented out of respect to another.
Just as artwork may be created in the concrete or the abstract, words can also be created in the concrete or the abstract. A concrete word, idea or concept is something that can be perceived by the five senses. It can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched. An abstract is something that cannot be perceived by the five senses.
As the Bible was written from an Eastern philosophical perspective, it is important that we recognize that we cannot interpret it through our own Western philosophy. To do so, would place a meaning and interpretation that may not be that of the original authors.
The Aaronic Blessing given by the Priests is another familiar berakah:
Other Hebrew words for blessing are: ashrei/asre and esher, which are also translated as happiness.
It is said that David opened and closed his favorite Psalms with the word ashrei/asre.
This word has been translated as the praises, praiseworthy, or as happy, blessed, and fortunate. It can also mean enriched.
Psalm 1 begins with ashrei – ha’ish and
Psalm 2 ends with ashrei kol choso vo.
Job 5:17 declares “Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.”
This blessing is connected to the knowledge that God is at work to direct us in the right path.
God’s chastisement is actually a display of His love for us, like a parent who disciplines a child about to do something that would be dangerous.
Psalm 1:1-3 carries that theme further when it states,
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
The book of Psalms is full of references to this kind of happy blessing for those who love and fear the Lord God.
