Page 45 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
24 24 COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW

• “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day …” (Deut.
4:26);
• “Here, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against
thee: I am God, thy God …” (Pss. 50:7);
• “Yet many years didst thou bear with them, and didst forewarn [literally,
“testify against”] them by thy spirit in thy prophets …” (Neh. 9:30).

Yet the central theme in the Bible, and the most frequent one to appear, is not
God’s testimony, but rather the other way around: the “people of Israel” serving as
a living testimony, witnesses to the nations of the existence of God. This recurring
theme finds its most explicit expression in the repeated utterances of the prophet

Isaiah:

• “Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and
commander of nations” (Isa. 55:4).
• “You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen:
that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before
me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I,
am the Lord; and beside me there is no deliverer. I have declared, and
have saved, and I have announced, and there was no strange god among
you: therefore you are my witnesses, says the Lord, and I am God. Yea,
from the first I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand:

I will work, and who shall reverse it?” (Isa. 43:10–13).

That the people of Israel are witnesses of God finds its way in many other
forms and shapes. One notable example is the way the most well-known Jewish
verse is written: “Here, O Israel: the Lord our God; the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4).
In Hebrew, it is written in the Bible thus:

דחא הוהי וניהלא הוהי לארשי עמש

The third and last letters (from right to left) are written in bold and in much
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larger fonts. Combined, these letters form the word ed, Hebrew for “witness.”
There is another word that carries with it a declaration of the special assignment
destined for the Jewish people—that is, being a witness to God. This is the Hebrew
word for congregation, or community. There are many words in Hebrew for
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community, like kehilah, tzibur, kahal, agudah, hammon, and numerous
others.