CHAPTER 1
א בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא
:הָאָרֶץ וְאֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם אֵת אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא בְּרֵאשִׁית א
HA-A-RETZ V’ETH HA-SHA-MA-YIM ETH E-LO-HIM BA-RA B’REI-SHITH
1. EARTH THE * AND HEAVENS THE * E-LO-HIM CREATING BEGAN WHEN
תְהוֹם פְּנֵי עַל וְחֹשֶׁךְ וָבֹהוּ תֹהוּ הָיְתָה וְהָאָרֶץ ב
T’HOHM P’NEI AL V’CHOH-SHEKH VA-BHOH-HOO THO-HOO HA-Y’THAH V’HA-A-RETZ
2. MASS (ITS) THROUGHOUT OPAQUE AND INERT AND UNIFORM WAS EARTH THE AND
:הַמָּיִם פְּנֵי עַל מְרַחֶפֶת אֱלֹהִים וְרוּחַ
HA-MA-YIM P’NEI AL M’RA-CHEH-FETH E-LO-HIM V’ROO-ACH
WATERS THE SURFACE ON DOWN BLOWING E-LO-HIM (OF) WIND AND
DECOMPRESSED TRANSLATION
When E-LO-HIM initiated the processes that transformed earth and its celestial regions into a habitat for man, it was an inert, amorphous mass covered with ice and permeated by darkness. A “wind of E-LO-HIM” impelled particles down to the surface, their energy generating heat to melt the ice layer.
This mechanism required a supernaturally induced pressure differential - the only way particles could be propelled straight down - that manifested the Divine acting in, and through, nature. Nothing in the text indicates how long this lasted, what had occurred prior to it - whether in this locale or elsewhere in the universe - or how far back time reached. Nor are there references to the creation of the ice and water, the mass of material beneath them or the gas particles in the atmosphere above them. Scripture’s lens is phenomenological, not ontological, conveying the impact of His actions, not His essential nature or that of any physical entities.
EXPOSITION
1. B'REI-SHITH (WHEN [HE] BEGAN): ROHSH (HEAD - root "Reish-Aleph-Shin") with “Yud-Taph” suffix is REI-SHITH (“start/onset” of a period or sequence). It does not mean “In the beginning”; that is BA-T'CHEE-LAH (cf. GENESIS 41:21; JUDGES 1:1; ISAIAH 1:26). Jeremiah declaimed against Elam (JEREMIAH 49:34 - 35 in the Hebrew) B'REI-SHITH MA-L'CHOOTH TZID-QEE-YA-HOO (AT THE START OF ZEDEKIAH'S REIGN); history did not begin when he took the throne. REI-SHITH GO-YIM A-MA-LEK (AMALEK WAS THE FIRST OF THE NATIONS - NUMBERS 24:20) does not mean it originated nationality; it was the first to attack the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt. The correct translation is “When [He] began” (see theisraelbible.com, Common English Bible). Those loath to give up the enshrined phrase propose variations like “In the beginning of…/when…”; these are fine as long as it is understood that the text posits no unique inception point to the unfolding events.
Some who insist B'REI-SHITH is an absolute noun and translate it “In the beginning” point to its “Tifcha” cantillation that a novice might think a transcription error, for if this verse is a complete sentence with subject and predicate, which it would be if B'REI-SHITH is absolute, the first three words should be punctuated "Pashta-Zaqef-Qatan". The verse is instead spilt by a full stop "Ethnachta" on E-LO-HIM, telling the reader it is not a sentence but an introductory composite phrase; to balance its two halves, the "Ethnachta" separates the first three words from what follows, and makes B'REI'SHITH a construct noun. Furthermore, an absolute B'REI-SHITH requires a “Qomatz" vowel on the “Beth” (cf. CHRONICLES I 16:7; CHRONICLES II 13:12 – or the more appropriate BA-RI-SHOH-NAH, cf. NUMBERS 10:14; JOSHUA 8:33; JEREMIAH 7:12); the "Sh’va" clearly makes it construct.
BA-RA (CREATING): The root "Beth-Reish-Aleph" is not“bring into existence” (that is HOH-TZEI – cf. EXODUS 8:18 {14 in the Hebrew}; NUMBERS 17:23; PSALMS 104:14) but extraction from a mixture or exposure after material is stripped away (cf. JOSHUA 17:15, 18; EZEKIEL 23:47). ISAIAH 45:7 has Y-H-W-H YOH-TZER OHR U-BHOH-REI CHO-SHEKH OH-SEH SHA-LOM U-BHOH-REI RA (FASHIONS LIGHT AND CREATESDARKNESS, MAKES PEACE AND CREATES BAD). Darkness is the absence of light; peeling away a component of light “creates” darkness. SHA-LOHM (PEACE) is cognate to SHA-LEIM (WHOLE); RA (BAD) is not “evil” but something which cannot function because it lacks a part or is broken. Peace is “made” by a synthesis of the whole, bad “created” when an ingredient is removed, rendering an entity dysfunctional. Had BOH-REI meant bringing into existence from nothing, the order of the two linked phrases in each pair of this verse would be reversed. When Korah and his followers were swallowed by an abyss (NUMBERS 16:30), the text doubles BOH-REI into B'REE-AH YIBH-RA (A CREATION HE WILL CREATE) but retribution came through abatement – the “creation” of a huge hole. BOH-REI thus suggests one or more eliminations. {The claim that BA-RA has dual meanings, one of which is “bringing into existence”, retroactively imputes a meaning it never had.} E-LO-HIM “created” by initiating stages of substance separation and purification by physical forces, similar to evolution by natural selection, with mutations, trait variations and environmental pressures impelling adaptations that shaped populations and yielded speciation. Cognates include BOH-REH (CHOOSE), BOH-RER (SORT) and BA-REE (HEALTHY - free of disease), as well as the Arabic BA-RA-A (EXCISION, RENUNCIATION). Goliath challenged Israel (SAMUEL I 17:8) to B'ROO (CHOOSE [a man]).
E-LO-HIM: The only Divine name in the chapter is associated with the rule of law (it can also mean courts, judges or rulers - cf. EXODUS 21:6; SAMUEL I 2:25; PSALMS 82:1), including natural ones. It is one of a handful of nouns that have only a plural form, like MA-YIM (WATER) and PANIM (FACE/FRONT) because they denote entities for which a distinction between singular and plural is inapplicable. E-LO-HIM, whether deity, court, ruler or sovereign, conveys authority. Some claim the plural E-LO-HIM evidences a pantheon in the belief system of the Hebrews and theologies that emerged in Roman Palestine and thereafter postulated a tripartite manifestation. Scripture abounds with the theme of His uniqueness and indivisibility, reinforced by the prophets for more than a millennium; by the time the Old Testament was canonized, this perception was firmly entrenched in the Hebrew psyche, as evidenced by passages throughout the Talmud and in the works of Philo of Alexandria and Josephus. It is this community, the one which produced Scripture, that is our frame of reference for determining how its earliest readers understood it - and they would never countenance any hint of multiplicity or bifurcation in the Deity.
ETH HA-SHA-MA-YIM V'ETH HA-A-RETZ (THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH): ETH ("Aleph-Taph"), the most ubiquitous word in the Old Testament, is peculiar in the annals of language – its omission would not alter most passages in which it is found; ETH HA-SHA-MA-YIM V’ETH HA-A-RETZ (THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH) could read HA-SHA-MA-YIM V’HA-A-RETZ. Its intrinsic meaning, “with”, alludes to proximity (cf. GENESIS 13:5; EXODUS 1:1; JUDGES 1:16) but its primary role is designating nouns that follow it as direct objects. When it is used this way, we do not translate it but insert an asterisk in its place. HA-SHA-MA-YIM (THE HEAVENS) and HA-A-RETZ (THEEARTH) have denotative “Heh” prefixes. Their significance is illustrated if we imagine the lad, perched in the crow's nest of the Santa Maria as she neared the Western Hemisphere, yelling “Land!”. He would not shout “the land”; that would mean it was a known destination. Scripture tells of a particular “earth” and its “heavens”. Without the "Heh" prefixes and ETH direct object indicator, the verse would refer to the creation of the universe. This form is used when the heavens and earth are meant in a generic sense (cf. ISAIAH 65:17; JEREMIAH 33:25; PSALMS 121:2). With these modifiers, the text narrows the locale to where we find ourselves (cf. DEUTERONOMY 4:32; ISAIAH 45:18; HOSEA 2:20)and which has remained, from that moment, our sole venue.
2. V'HA-A-RETZ HA-Y'THAH (AND THE EARTH WAS): Scripture relates what our world was like before He began the creation process. This verse has been interpreted metaphorically, allegorically and mystically; these inevitably turn esoteric, with deep meanings only initiates are privy to. We do not dispute such renditions but insist that, first and foremost, the text has a plain, overt meaning that was readily perceived by its early audiences.
TOH-HOO VA-BHOH-HOO (UNIFORM AND INERT): The standard "formless and void" cannot characterize any physical entity. If Scripture meant the earth’s shape did not conform to a specific configuration or condition, that provides no useful information. The same goes for “void”, which is a space emptied of what was previously there, not a pristine state. The possibility, premised on the words having different connotations in old English {but not supported by Hebrew grammar and syntax}, that the text refers, not to the earth, but what should be on it explains why some expositors resorted to “desolate/empty/waste/chaos” or similar bleak portrayals but their Hebrew analogues,SHOH-MEIM (ABANDONED/FORLORN - cf. ISAIAH 49:8; LAMENTATIONS 1:4; DANIEL 8:13), TZ'CHEE-AHCH (BARE - cf. EZEKIEL 24:7, 26:4: NEHEMIAH 4:7), CHOR-BAH (RUINED/WRECKED - cf. LEVITICUS 26:31; ISAIAH 51:3; DANIEL 9:2), HA-ROOS (DESTROYED – cf. KINGS I 18:30; JEREMIAH 1:10; PSALMS 58:7), NISH-MAHD (ANNIHILATED/LAID WASTE – cf. JOSHUA 11:20; ZECHARIA 12:9; ESTHER 3:6), REIQ (EMPTY – cf. GENESIS 37:24; JUDGES 7:16; KINGS II 4:3) and NIM-CHEH (BLOT OUT/ERASE – cf. EXODUS 17:14; KINGS II 14:27; PROVERBS 31:3), are far better suited then TOH-HOO VA-BHOH-HOO and still do not work because they relate to prior states or conditions that were destroyed or eroded, not those at the onset of creation. Such adverse situations, commentators aver, were meant to be brought to mind but Scripture does not indulge in circumlocutions - if that was its intent, the text would use unambiguous vocabulary rather than such obscurity.
TOH-HOO, the letter “Taph” (“spot/mark”) with HOO (IT), implies no point in a body or on its surface is distinguishable from another. In SAMUEL I 12:21, TOH-HOO appears as a noun and then an adjective. Samuel exhorted Israel to abandon alien beliefs and practices, not because they no longer conferred benefits, but because they never did, which tells us how TOH-HOO differs from its extant translations. They all point to the past, recounting what destruction wrought; TOH-HOO looks to the future, one without prospects for recovery or restoration and tells us unequivocally there was no possibility of any change in the earth’s initial condition. This point was accentuated by Isaiah when he declared LOH THOH-HOO BH'RA-AH (ISAIAH 45:18), usually translated "He did not create it a waste", which is doubly flawed (besides the accusative object and prepositional phrase in reverse order) - it incorrectly turns an adjective into a noun and evaluates a condition which has no precedent for comparison. (Other renderings, like "in vain/to be empty", wander even further afield, since they require a dative "Lamed" prefix on TOH-HOO). Rather, He B’RA-AH (CREATED IT) by altering its state to LOH (NOT) TOH-HOO, making change possible.
Of the 19 times TOH-HOO appears in the Old Testament, it is paired with BOH-HOO again only when Isaiah’s QAV (LINE) TOH-HOO was weighted with ABH-NEI (STONES) BHOH-HOO (34:11). {JEREMIAH 4:23 is a poetic reprise of GENESIS 1:2}. BOH-HOO, BOH (IN IT) and HOO (IT [IS]), suggests what is touched or felt is the same throughout, affording no tactile recognition – “it is what it is”, homogenous and amorphous. The “weight” of any of Isaiah’s stones was “in it”, effectively making it weightless, with no heft emitted beyond its confines to allow its use in a plumb line, rendering the apparatus useless. Similarly, the earth’s BOH-HOO characterized a body with self-contained essence, nothing radiating outward. It was not “void” but “devoid”, for just as weightlessness precludes the natural impetus for motion, so the earth lacked the energy necessary to effectuate any change or movement.
Embedded in TOH-HOO VA-BHOH-HOO is a modern concept - the earth was totally entropic; the energy divinely infused negated TOO-HOO, its uniform symmetry, and BOH-HOO, its dormancy. Those who read TOH-HOO as “waste/void” were possibly influenced by ISAIAH 24:10, where QIR-YATH TOH-HOO is typically rendered “city of destruction/waste”. This requires QIR-YAH (cf. ISAIAH 1:21; PROVERBS 11:10; LAMENTATIONS 2:11). The construct QIR-YATH indicates Isaiah decried the city’s institutions as morally vacuous due to its residents’ behavior. This was the pristine globe – not land areas, as the translators see it, for we have been told nothing about them, not their structure, composition or contents. There can be no “desolation/waste” unless there is a prior structured condition. The claim that this was the intent, that we are told our world was not like that at first, is a classic logical fallacy - circular reasoning - and there is no better way to say that then CHA-REIBH VA-REIQ (DESOLATE AND EMPTY - cf. CHAREIBH: JEREMIAH 33:10; EZEKIEL 29:10 – REIQ: GENESIS 37:24; NEHEMIAH 5:13). Some treat this phrase as onomatopoeia, the second word a nonce term rhyming with the first and reinforcing it. For that, the punctuation on the first four words in the verse should be “Mahpakh-Pashta-Zaqef-Qatan.” In fact, “Pashta-Qatan” separates TOH-HOO from VA-BHOH-HOO, implying distinct meanings. The JEREMIAH 4:23 passage does the same, the “Tifcha” on TOH-HOO [rather than on V’HI-NEI {AND BEHOLD}] separating it from TOH-HOO.
V’CHOH-SHEKH AL P'NEI T'HOHM (AND OPAQUE THROUGHOUT ITS MASS): T’HOHM is not "the deep"; that is MA-A-MAH-QIM (DEPTHS – cf. ISAIAH 51:10, EZEKIEL 27:34; PSALMS 69:2 [3 in the Hebrew]). Other possibilities are M’TZOO-LAH (SUBMERGED – cf. EXODUS 15:5; JONAH 2:4; MICAH 7:19), TACH-TITH (BOTTOM – cf. DEUTERONOMY 32:22; LAMENTATIONS 3:55; NEHEMIAH 4:7) or MISH-QA (SUNKEN – cf. JEREMIAH 51:64; EZEKIEL 32:14; AMOS 8:8). Furthermore, "the deep" would be equivalent to HA-MA-YIM (“the water") at the verse’s end but as biblical Hebrew does not use synonyms, the text would then use the pronoun AH-LEH-HAH (UPON IT - cf. GENESIS 28:13; LEVITICUS 10:1; NUMBERS 19:2). The overriding difficulty with the standard translation is the one that beset the conventional ones of the verse’s opening passage - it makes no sense. The reader was just informed of the barren, austere condition of the EH-REHTZ (“land”). If "darkness" sat astride something else called T'HOHM, what was the state of the region above EH-REHTZ? And if T'HOHM is the whole planet’s surface, it should be AL KOO-LAH (UPON ALL OF IT - cf. EXODUS 14:7; SAMUEL II 2:9; EZEKIEL 29:2) or the more concise V'HA-AH-REHTZ HA-Y'THAH ... V'CHAH-SHOOKH (AND THE EARTH WAS... AND DARK – cf. AMOS 5:8; PROVERBS 22:29; DANIEL 2:22). A collateral problem is that CHOH-SHEHKH is the dark quality of other elements; darkness itself is AH-PHEI-LAH (cf. EXODUS 10:22; DEUTERONOMY 28:29; PSALMS 91:6).
T’HOHM (TOH-HOO with appended “Mem”)adds information about the quiescent earth. It is not the location of CHOH-SHEKH (DARKNESS). That is expressed with MEI-AL (OVER - cf. GENESIS 1:7; EZEKIEL 1:19; ESTHER 3:1), MI-MA-AHL (FROM UPON - cf. GENESIS 22:9; EXODUS 20:4; KINGS I 6:3) or MI-L’MA-LAH (ABOVE - cf. EXODUS 25:21; NUMBERS 4:25; EZEKIEL 1:11), all indicators of position or areas of diffusion. Nor is its root “Heh-Vav-Mem” [“rushing sounds”]; that requires T’HOO-MAH (cf. SAMUEL I 4:5; MICAH 2:12; RUTH 1:19). Because T’HOHM is often used in conjunction with water, it is usually rendered “the deep/abyss”; that does not apply here. When Scripture implies depth (of water or otherwise), it uses the root “Ayin-Mem-Qoph” (cf. PROVERBS 18:4; JOB 11:8; ECCLESIATES 7:24). T’HOHM is a large mass; it can be a body of water but not necessarily - here it is an ice layer. When the Israelites praised Him at the sea crossing (EXODUS 15:8) with QO-PH’OO TH’HOH-MOHTH B’LEBH YAM (PILLARS CONGEALED IN THE HEART OF THE SEA), they saw a miraculous ice formation below the sea surface, instead of its normal place on top of it. This is also a logical translation of some other passages (ISAIAH 51:10, EZEKIEL 26:9, PSALMS 104:6) and a more sensible reading of GENESIS 7:11, where rendering NIBH-Q’OO KOL MA-Y’NOHTH T’HOHM RA-BAH as “the fountains of the great deep burst forth” makes no sense - the ancients did not think there were fountains in the deep seas and oceans. If the text is referring to waters that burst forth, the proper verb is NIPH-R’TZOO (cf. JUDGES 5:17; SAMUEL II 13:25; JOB 28:4). It is far more likely that the “great” T’HOHM was a glacier that calved in a number of places to produce torrents of melted water that inundated the surrounding area. PSALMS 33:7 is another definitive example: KOH-NEISS KA-NEID MEI YAM NOH-THEIN B’OH-TZA-ROHTH T’HOH-MOHTH, normally translated “He gathers the waters of the sea; He sets the deep in storehouses”. The second phrase, however, has a plural noun following a prepositional clause, a reversal of the proper order, which should have been NOH-THEIN T’HOHM B’OH-TZ’ROH. The correct reading is “He congeals the waters of the sea like [into] a column and [then] deposits [them] as glaciers in His storehouse”. This substratum was everywhere impenetrable - indicated by AL P’NEI (ON THE FACES OF) - and covering the earth’s innermost material (cf. JOB 6:16, where ice presented total darkness even at its top-most points, and JOB 38:29-30, where a like phenomenon is exhibited AL P’NEI [on the face of] the ice formations). Israeli Hebrew uses QEH-RACH for “ice” but biblical usage reserves it for climate (cf. GENESIS 31:40; JEREMIAH 36:30: PSALMS 147:17). AL P’NEI adds a dimension of observer or observed (cf. GENESIS 16:12; SAMUEL I 15:7; ECCLESIATES 11:1 and note that AL PAH-NEYE [EXODUS 20:3] is not “before Me” {physical proximity} but His omnipresence). “Darkness” was not an entity somewhere over and above the T’HOHM but the perception of a hypothetical spectator.
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The narrative opens with earth, of some material substance, covered with ice. It does not explain how it came to be. The Scholastics, trying to reconcile Greek translations of BA-RA (v. 1) with Hellenistic ideas, postulated CREATIO EX NIHILO (CREATION OUT OF NOTHING), later adapted by Jewish thinkers as YEISH MEI-A-YIN but we do not force a dogma into a text that neither needs nor sustains it. We therefore can infer nothing about how far back time reaches. Creationists seek support in the “Big Bang” cosmic origin model but scientists’ use equations to extrapolate the universe's expansion rate to a singularity, which is not the same as a beginning. Nor can they assert that an induced quantum fluctuation triggered a burst; these are inherently random. Scripture focused solely on how a hostile locale was transformed into a suitable human habitat.
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V’ROO-ACH E-LO-HIM (AND [HIS] WIND): “Spirit of the Lord/Divine Presence” have overtones the Hebrew lacks; the more neutral “Mighty Wind” fails to capture it and such expressions omit divine names (cf. EXODUS 14:21, KINGS 1 19:11, JOB 1:19, 8:2). ROO-ACH (WIND) is not an entity but a condition causing movement or a force that impels action. A husband has a ROO-ACH of jealousy (NUMBERS 5:14) when he sanctions a wife he suspects of infidelity. Caleb’s ROO-ACH (NUMBERS 14:24) moved him to praise the Promised Land. And His ROO-ACH spurs leaders or prophets (cf. JUDGES 6:34). When Pharaoh said (GENESIS 41:38) Joseph possessed ROO-ACH E-LO-HIM, he did not mean the divine was in him; no Egyptian of that time would say that. He praised his ability to find the right directionor direct others (cf. NUMBERS 27:18; SAMUEL I 16:12-22; PSALMS 51:10-11 [12-13 in the Hebrew]). ROO-ACH E-LO-HIM is the only element in this chapter with a godly assignation, not an object but a manifestation of His force employing physical (and sometimes supernatural) mechanisms within nature to produce a phenomenon ordinarily impossible.
M’RA-CHE-FETH AL P'NEI HA-MA-YIM (BLOWING DOWN ON THE WATER [SURFACE]): This wind did not blow over the water; that is M’NA-SHEH-BHETH (cf. ISAIAH 40:7; PSALMS 147:18) or NOH-SHEIPH (cf. EXODUS 15:10; ISAIAH 40:24), with MEI-AL HA-MA-YIM as the prepositional phrase (cf. GENESIS 7:17; PSALMS 148:4; NEHEMIAH 12:37). {As in the preceding passage, AL P’NEI indicates an interaction, not just a location.} Some make do with the more prosaic “moved” but NOH-DEID (ROVE - cf. JEREMIAH 49:5; HOSEA 9:17; JOB 15:23) or NOH-AH (MOVE - cf. NUMBERS 32:13; ISAIAH 6:4; LAMENTATIONS 2:15) are more suitable. “Hovering” is better but ruled out by the nature of wind. Helicopters and humming birds hover; wind is the effect of forcefully impelled particles. These interpretations also ascribe neither a purpose to this wind nor any outcome of its presence. Scripture used an unusual diction because it had the precise meaning needed here. The root “Reish-Cheth-Pei” is associated with vibration (cf. JEREMIAH 23:9), like birds palpitating their wings over nests to create a downward draft (cf. DEUTERONOMY 32:11 – had that verse meant “hover”, it would have read MEI-AL {FROM OVER}, not AL {UPON}; that translation is another example of academic lassitude reinforcing collective error). The ROO-ACH E-LO-HIM did exactly that, propelling particles downward to the earth's surface, their kinetic energy converted to heat on their impact and melting the ice. This was no ordinary ROO-ACH, for only E-LO-HIM, acting through nature to power a physical phenomenon, could create a pressure gradient everywhere perpendicular to the earth's surface (winds, regardless of strength or origin, move across surfaces or in circular paths parallel to them).
There are passages that seem to imply ROO-ACH also means “spirit” or “soul”, such as ECCLESIASTES 12:7 – “the ROO-ACH returns to E-LO-HIM”. To see what this actually means, we look at ECCLESIASTES 3:21, where he asks, “Who knows the ROO-ACH of man [that] rises up and the ROO-ACH of the animal [that] descends”. MEE YOH-DEI-YA (WHO KNOWS) seems to pose a question but the “Heh” prefix on HA-OH-LAH (THAT RISES) and HA-YOH-REH-DEHTH (THAT DESCENDS) is not the interrogative but the indicative. Another riddle is that, throughout the book, the many references to individuals are all singular [A-DAM, ISH (MAN), CHA-KHAM (SAGE) or K’THIL (FOOL)]; B’NEI A-DAM is a group to whom one ROO-ACH belongs. ECCLESIASTES is a skeptical, pessimistic polemic on the futility of human planning. Plucking this passage out of context to place it into a theological mode renders it totally dissonant with that entire section. The author questions whether human plans are of greater consequence than that of a cow whose attention is to the grazing area from where she will obtain her next mouthful of grass. All are driven by a ROO-ACH, a disposition to act. Who is to say whether the “loftier” one is of more importance or abiding significance? This intrinsic meaning of ROO-ACH informs all its appearances in Scripture. When the Psalmist says B’YA-D’KHA APH-QID ROO-CHEE (PSALMS 31:5 [6 in the Hebrew]), he does not mean he is depositing his “soul” with the Almighty; such an interpretation is completely out of synchrony with that entire Psalm, in which David laments being beset by enemies. He will “invest” all his actions in His hand, put at His disposal, guided by His direction. The post-biblical ROO-ACH HA-QOH-DESH is associated with a “holy spirit” but that, in biblical parlance, is ROO-ACH QOH-DESH (HOLY WIND) or HA-ROO-ACH HA-QOH-DESH (THE HOLY WIND). ROO-ACH HA-QOH-DESH is a wind of that which is holy (i. e. impelled or motivated by holiness). ROO-ACH QOD-SH’KHA (PSALMS 51:11 – 13 in the Hebrew) is not “Your Holy Spirit” but the “wind of your holiness”, i. e. inspired by Your truth and immanence. The English “inspiration”, from the archaic “in-spirited”, means exactly that; people actuated to behave in a certain way were “in-spirited”. This led to “inspiration” as an agency of human endeavor or animation. In Indo-European languages, the word retained its original connotation of breath, later transferred to the more abstract “spirit” but deemed to be real. In ancient Palestine, the word retained its meaning of “wind” as a force prodding human movement; it never became an independent entity. אֱלֹהִים אֵת
הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ
