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[JLG]

Exodus 6:7


I will take

וְלָקַחְתִּ֨י (wə·lā·qaḥ·tî)

Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - first person common singular

Strong's 3947: To take


you

אֶתְכֶ֥ם (’eṯ·ḵem)

Direct object marker | second person masculine plural

Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case


as My own

לִי֙ (lî)

Preposition | first person common singular

Strong's Hebrew


people,

לְעָ֔ם (lə·‘ām)

Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular

Strong's 5971: A people, a tribe, troops, attendants, a flock


and I will be

וְהָיִ֥יתִי (wə·hā·yî·ṯî)

Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - first person common singular

Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be


your

לָכֶ֖ם (lā·ḵem)

Preposition | second person masculine plural

Strong's Hebrew


God.

לֵֽאלֹהִ֑ים (lê·lō·hîm)

Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural

Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative


Then you will know

וִֽידַעְתֶּ֗ם (wî·ḏa‘·tem)

Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine plural

Strong's 3045: To know


that

כִּ֣י (kî)

Conjunction

Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction


I

אֲנִ֤י (’ă·nî)

Pronoun - first person common singular

Strong's 589: I


am the LORD

יְהוָה֙ (Yah·weh)

Noun - proper - masculine singular

Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel


your God,

אֱלֹ֣הֵיכֶ֔ם (’ĕ·lō·hê·ḵem)

Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine plural

Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative


who brought

הַמּוֹצִ֣יא (ham·mō·w·ṣî)

Article | Verb - Hifil - Participle - masculine singular

Strong's 3318: To go, bring, out, direct and proxim


you

אֶתְכֶ֔ם (’eṯ·ḵem)

Direct object marker | second person masculine plural

Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case


out from under

מִתַּ֖חַת (mit·ta·ḥaṯ)

Preposition-m

Strong's 8478: The bottom, below, in lieu of


the yoke

סִבְל֥וֹת (siḇ·lō·wṯ)

Noun - feminine plural construct

Strong's 5450: Porterage


of the Egyptians.

מִצְרָֽיִם׃ (miṣ·rā·yim)

Noun - proper - feminine singular

Strong's 4714: Egypt -- a son of Ham, also his descendants and their country in Northwest Africa

 

[JLG]

Exodus 6:8


And I will bring

וְהֵבֵאתִ֤י (wə·hê·ḇê·ṯî)

Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive perfect - first person common singular

Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go


you

אֶתְכֶם֙ (’eṯ·ḵem)

Direct object marker | second person masculine plural

Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case


into

אֶל־ (’el-)

Preposition

Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to


the land

הָאָ֔רֶץ (hā·’ā·reṣ)

Article | Noun - feminine singular

Strong's 776: Earth, land


that

אֲשֶׁ֤ר (’ă·šer)

Pronoun - relative

Strong's 834: Who, which, what, that, when, where, how, because, in order that


I swore

נָשָׂ֙אתִי֙ (nā·śā·ṯî)

Verb - Qal - Perfect - first person common singular

Strong's 5375: To lift, carry, take


to give

לָתֵ֣ת (lā·ṯêṯ)

Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct

Strong's 5414: To give, put, set


to Abraham,

לְאַבְרָהָ֥ם (lə·’aḇ·rā·hām)

Preposition-l | Noun - proper - masculine singular

Strong's 85: Abraham -- 'exalted father', the father of the Jewish nation


Isaac,

לְיִצְחָ֖ק (lə·yiṣ·ḥāq)

Preposition-l | Noun - proper - masculine singular

Strong's 3327: Isaac -- 'he laughs', son of Abraham and Sarah


and Jacob.

וּֽלְיַעֲקֹ֑ב (ū·lə·ya·‘ă·qōḇ)

Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - proper - masculine singular

Strong's 3290: Jacob -- a son of Isaac, also his desc


I will give

וְנָתַתִּ֨י (wə·nā·ṯat·tî)

Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - first person common singular

Strong's 5414: To give, put, set


it

אֹתָ֥הּ (’ō·ṯāh)

Direct object marker | third person feminine singular

Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case


to you

לָכֶ֛ם (lā·ḵem)

Preposition | second person masculine plural

Strong's Hebrew


as a possession.

מוֹרָשָׁ֖ה (mō·w·rā·šāh)

Noun - feminine singular

Strong's 4181: A possession


I

אֲנִ֥י (’ă·nî)

Pronoun - first person common singular

Strong's 589: I


am the LORD!’”

יְהוָֽה׃ (Yah·weh)

Noun - proper - masculine singular

Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

 

[JLG]

Somebody says:

There is no Hebrew word "weh." There is however the word "wah."


The two parts of God's name can be found in the Aramaic.


God's name is Yahwah, originally spelled Yahuah.


Yahwah means: "Life Began."


The Hebrew language was changed by the Rabbi's so God's name could be pronounced.

 

[JLG]

My answer:

- Your fifth sentence tells about man's tradition or man's corruption!

- Man's tradition can't be trusted!

- On the contrary!

- Through all the Bible, religious leaders have opposed Yah.weh!

- They replaced God's name by tasteless titles!

- Thus we can't know the exact pronunciation of God's name because vowels used to be spelled and not written!

- They did it intentionally!

- What a crime!

- They opposed Yah.weh and completely rejected him by denying Yah.weh's will according to Exodus 3 and 6!

 

[JLG]

- Your fourth sentence tells about man's tradition or man's corruption!

- Exodus 3 and 6 explain the meaning of Yah.weh!

- It is the God of the promise or of the promises!

- The one that always keeps his promises!

- When the Big One occurs, he will restore the earth and make it a paradise as it has always been his promise since the beginning!

-Man's tradition has always turned Yah.weh's message into a dead end!

 

[JLG]

The Tetragrammaton (/ˌtɛtrəˈɡræmətɒn/; from Ancient Greek τετραγράμματον (tetragrámmaton) '[consisting of] four letters'), or the Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym יהוה‎ (transliterated as YHWH or YHVH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are yodh, he, waw, and he.[1] The name may be derived from a verb that means "to be", "to exist", "to cause to become", or "to come to pass".[2] While there is no consensus about the structure and etymology of the name, the form Yahweh is now accepted almost universally, though the vocalization Jehovah continues to have wide usage.[3][4][5]


The books of the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible except Esther, Ecclesiastes, and (with a possible instance of the short form יה‎ in verse 8:6) the Song of Songs contain this Hebrew name.[4] Observant Jews and those who follow Talmudic Jewish traditions do not pronounce יהוה‎ nor do they read aloud proposed transcription forms such as Yahweh or Yehovah; instead they replace it with a different term, whether in addressing or referring to the God of Israel. Common substitutions in Hebrew are Adonai ("My Lord") or Elohim (literally "gods" but treated as singular when meaning "God") in prayer, or HaShem ("The Name") in everyday speech.

 

[JLG]

Etymology​

The Hebrew Bible explains it by the formula Ehye ašer ehye ("I Am that I Am"), the name of God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14.[6] This would frame Y-H-W-H as a derivation from the Hebrew triconsonantal root היה (h-y-h), "to be, become, come to pass", with a third person masculine y- prefix, equivalent to English "he",[7][8] thereby affording translations as "he who causes to exist",[9][10] "he who is",[8] etc.; although this would elicit the form Y-H-Y-H (יהיה‎), not Y-H-W-H. To rectify this, some scholars proposed that the Tetragrammaton represents a substitution of the medial y for w, an occasionally attested practice in Biblical Hebrew as both letters function as matres lectionis; others proposed that the Tetragrammaton derived instead from the triconsonantal root הוה (h-w-h), "to be, constitute", with the final form eliciting similar translations as those derived from h-y-h.


As such, the consensus among modern scholars considers that YHWH represents a verbal form, with the y- representing the third masculine verbal prefix of the verb hyh "to be", as indicated in the Hebrew Bible.

 

[JLG]

Vocalisation​

YHWH and Hebrew script​

Like all letters in the Hebrew script, the letters in YHWH originally indicated consonants. In unpointed Biblical Hebrew, most vowels are not written, but some are indicated ambiguously, as certain letters came to have a secondary function indicating vowels (similar to the Latin use of I and V to indicate either the consonants /j, w/ or the vowels /i, u/). Hebrew letters used to indicate vowels are known as אִמּוֹת קְרִיאָה‎ (imot kri'a) or matres lectionis ("mothers of reading"). Therefore, it can be difficult to deduce how a word is pronounced from its spelling, and each of the four letters in the Tetragrammaton can individually serve as a mater lectionis.


Several centuries later, between the 5th through 10th centuries CE, the original consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible was provided with vowel marks by the Masoretes to assist reading. In places where the word to be read (the qere) differed from that indicated by the consonants of the written text (the ketiv), they wrote the qere in the margin as a note showing what was to be read. In such a case the vowel marks of the qere were written on the ketiv. For a few frequent words, the marginal note was omitted: these are called qere perpetuum.


One of the frequent cases was the Tetragrammaton, which according to later Rabbinite Jewish practices should not be pronounced but read as "Adonai" (אֲדֹנָי‎/"my Lord"), or, if the previous or next word already was Adonai, as "Elohim" (אֱלֹהִים‎/"God").Writing the vowel diacritics of these two words on the consonants YHVH produces יְהֹוָה‎ and יֱהֹוִה‎ respectively, ghost-words that would spell "Yehovah" and "Yehovih" respectively.[12][13]


The oldest complete or nearly complete manuscripts of the Masoretic Text with Tiberian vocalisation, such as the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, both of the 10th or 11th century, mostly write יְהוָה‎ (yhwah), with no pointing on the first h. It could be because the o diacritic point plays no useful role in distinguishing between Adonai and Elohim and so is redundant, or it could point to the qere being שְׁמָא‎ (šəmâ), which is Aramaic for "the Name".

 

[JLG]

Yahweh​

See also: Yahweh and Jehovah


The scholarly consensus is that the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was Yahweh (יַהְוֶה‎): "The strong consensus of biblical scholarship is that the original pronunciation of the name YHWH ... was Yahweh."[14][15] R. R. Reno agrees that, when in the late first millennium Jewish scholars inserted indications of vowels into the Hebrew Bible, they signalled that what was pronounced was "Adonai" (Lord); non-Jews later combined the vowels of Adonai with the consonants of the Tetragrammaton and invented the name "Jehovah".[16] Paul Joüon and Takamitsu Muraoka state: "The Qre is יְהֹוָה‎ the Lord, whilst the Ktiv is probably יַהְוֶה‎ (according to ancient witnesses)", and they add: "Note 1: In our translations, we have used Yahweh, a form widely accepted by scholars, instead of the traditional Jehovah."[17] In 1869, Smith's Bible Dictionary, a collaborative work of noted scholars of the time, declared: "Whatever, therefore, be the true pronunciation of the word, there can be little doubt that it is not Jehovah."[18] The use of the then traditional form "Jehovah" as title for its article on the question showed that the present strong consensus that the original pronunciation was "Yahweh" had not yet attained full force. Mark P. Arnold remarks that certain conclusions drawn from the pronunciation of יהוה‎ as "Yahweh" would be valid even if the scholarly consensus were not correct.[19] Thomas Römer holds that "the original pronunciation of Yhwh was 'Yahô' or 'Yahû'".[20] Max Reisel, in The Mysterious Name of YHWH, says that the "vocalisation of the Tetragrammaton must originally have been YeHūàH or YaHūàH."[21]


The adoption at the time of the Protestant Reformation of "Jehovah" in place of the traditional "Lord" in some new translations, vernacular or Latin, of the biblical Tetragrammaton stirred up dispute about its correctness. In 1711, Adriaan Reland published a book containing the text of 17th-century writings, five attacking and five defending it.[22] As critical of the use of "Jehovah" it incorporated writings by Johannes van den Driesche (1550–1616), known as Drusius; Sixtinus Amama (1593–1629); Louis Cappel (1585–1658); Johannes Buxtorf (1564–1629); Jacob Alting (1618–1679). Defending "Jehovah" were writings by Nicholas Fuller (1557–1626) and Thomas Gataker (1574–1654) and three essays by Johann Leusden (1624–1699). The opponents of "Jehovah" said that the Tetragrammaton should be pronounced as "Adonai" and in general do not speculate on what may have been the original pronunciation, although mention is made of the fact that some held that Jahve was that pronunciation.[23]


Almost two centuries after the 17th-century works reprinted by Reland, 19th-century Wilhelm Gesenius reported in his Thesaurus Philologicus on the main reasoning of those who argued either for יַהְוֹה‎/Yah[w]oh or יַהְוֶה‎/Yahweh as the original pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, as opposed to יְהֹוָה‎/Yehovah. He explicitly cited the 17th-century writers mentioned by Reland as supporters of יְהֹוָה‎, as well as implicitly citing Johann David Michaelis (1717–1791) and Johann Friedrich von Meyer (1772–1849),[24] the latter of whom Johann Heinrich Kurtz described as the last of those "who have maintained with great pertinacity that יְהֹוָה‎ was the correct and original pointing".[25] Edward Robinson's translation of a work by Gesenius, gives Gesenius' personal view as: "My own view coincides with that of those who regard this name as anciently pronounced [יַהְוֶה‎/Yahweh] like the Samaritans."[26]

 

[JLG]

Hebrew Bible​

Masoretic Text​

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia it occurs 5,410 times in the Hebrew scriptures.[55] In the Hebrew Bible, the Tetragrammaton occurs 6828 times,[33]: 142  as can be seen in Kittel's Biblia Hebraica and the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. In addition, the marginal notes or masorah[note 1] indicate that in another 134 places, where the received text has the word Adonai, an earlier text had the Tetragrammaton.[56][note 2] which would add up to 142 additional occurrences. Even in the Dead Sea Scrolls practice varied with regard to use of the Tetragrammaton.[57] According to Brown–Driver–Briggs, יְהֹוָה‎ (qere אֲדֹנָי‎) occurs 6,518 times, and יֱהֹוִה‎ (qere אֱלֹהִים‎) 305 times in the Masoretic Text.


The first appearance of the Tetragrammaton is in the Book of Genesis 2:4.[58] The only books it does not appear in are Ecclesiastes, the Book of Esther, and Song of Songs.[33][4]


In the Book of Esther the Tetragrammaton does not appear, but it has been distinguished acrostic-wise in the initial or last letters of four consecutive words,[note 3] as indicated in Est 7:5 by writing the four letters in red in at least three ancient Hebrew manuscripts.[59][original research?]


The short form יָהּ‎/Yah (a digrammaton) "occurs 50 times if the phrase hallellu-Yah is included":[60][61] 43 times in the Psalms, once in Exodus 15:2; 17:16; Isaiah 12:2; 26:4, and twice in Isaiah 38:11. It also appears in the Greek phrase Ἁλληλουϊά (Alleluia, Hallelujah) in Revelation 19:1, 3, 4, 6.[62]


Other short forms are found as a component of theophoric Hebrew names in the Bible: jô- or jehô- (29 names) and -jāhû or -jāh (127 jnames). A form of jāhû/jehô appears in the name Elioenai (Elj(eh)oenai) in 1Ch 3:23–24; 4:36; 7:8; Ezr 22:22, 27; Neh 12:41.


The following graph shows the absolute number of occurrences of the Tetragrammaton (6828 in all) in the books in the Masoretic Text,[63] without relation to the length of the books.

 

[JLG]

Somebody says:

There is no Hebrew word "weh."

The Masoretic text uses seven different variations of the Name in order to hide the true pronunciation.


יְהוָֹה - Y'howah (ē - ĕ - hō - wä), example found in Genesis 3:14


יְהוָה - Y'hwah (ē - ĕ - wä), example found in Genesis 2:4


יֱהוִֹה - Yehowih (ē - ĕ - hō - wĭ), example found in Judges 16:28


יֱהוִה - Yehwih (ē - ĕ - wĭ), example found in Genesis 15:2


יְהוִֹה - Y'howih (ē - ĕ - hō - wĭ), example found in 1 Kings 2:26


יְהוִה - Y'hwih (ē - ĕ - wĭ), example found in Ezekiel 24:24


יֲהוָה - Yahwah (ē - ă - wä), example found in Psalms 144:15


As you can see, the last one is "Yahwah". However, we do not see "Yahweh".

 

[JLG]

My answer:

What is the real name of God? YHWH, Jehovah, Yahweh?

What is the real name of God? YHWH, Jehovah, Yahweh?​

The real name of God is YHWH, the four letters that make up His name found in Exodus 3:14. However, there is no correct pronunciation for the name of God because the letters are only consonants, no vowels. So we cannot tell what the “real” name of God is. However, in Exodus 3:13-14 it says, “Then Moses said to God, ‘Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you.” Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” 14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” When God says “I AM” he is speaking his name. In the Hebrew language that this verse was written in, the letters are yod, he, vav, he, from which we get YHWH. These four letters were very loosely translated into the English ‘Jehovah.’ However, there is no ‘j’ sound in the Hebrew. So, a better approximation of the name of God would be Yahweh.


To reiterate, the pronunciation of God’s name is difficult because when the Jews wrote His name in Hebrew Scriptures, they did not use vowel designations. They only used consonants. Therefore, the phrase “The name of God is YHWH” would appear as “th nm f gd s yhwh.” This wasn’t a problem with the Hebrews because they knew what the words were and how to pronounce them. It was not until many hundreds of years later that the Jews started to insert what was called ‘vowel points’ into the copied texts of the Hebrew Old Testament.


But unfortunately for us, we still don’t know exactly which vowel sounds are the correct ones. Nevertheless, from the text above the proper name of God is “I AM,” which we transliterate into the English YHWH.

 

[JLG]

Is Jehovah the true name of God? | GotQuestions.org

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the name of God is recorded as YHWH. So, where did the name “Jehovah” come from? Ancient Hebrew did not use vowels in its written form. The vowels were pronounced in spoken Hebrew but were not recorded in written Hebrew. The appropriate vowel sounds of words were passed down orally. As a result, when ancient Hebrew is studied, scholars and linguists often do not know with absolute confidence how certain Hebrew words were pronounced.


This particularly becomes an issue when studying the Hebrew name of God, written in the Hebrew Scriptures as YHWH, also known as the tetragrammaton. Despite much study and debate, it is still not universally agreed upon how the Hebrew name for God YHWH was pronounced. Some prefer “Yahweh” (YAH-way); others prefer “Yehowah,” “Yahuweh,” or “Yahawah”; still others argue for “Jehovah.”


As you can see, virtually everything is up for debate. Should YHWH be pronounced with three syllables or two? Should the vowels be borrowed from Elohim or Adonai? Should the W be pronounced with more of a W sound or more of a V sound? It is not the purpose of this article to settle the debate. Rather, it is the purpose of this article to discuss the use of “Jehovah.”

 

[JLG]

We shouldn't take God's name in vain. But what is it?

We Shouldn't Take God's Name in Vain. But What Is It?​

The true pronunciation of YHWH has long been lost, partly because 2,500 years ago, Jews decided it was too sacred to say aloud, and failed to preserve the way it was said

God goes by many names in the Bible, but he only has one personal name, spelled using four letters - YHWH. It truly has become an ineffable name: we know neither how it was pronounced in antiquity, or what it meant.

The practical reason for the mystery of its original pronunciation is that Hebrew is written without vowels. Technically, almost any combination of vowel sounds could have been used with those consonants, thus many different pronunciations are possible.

The other reason is more spiritual. The pronunciation of other biblical words were meticulously preserved for us by an unbroken chain of tradition passed on orally from generation to generation, until eventually it was put down in writing in Tiberias in the 10th century C.E. by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, who refined the system of diacritic marks that Hebrew still uses to indicate vowel sounds.

But, this was not the case with the name of God.

This may seem odd. Why would the Jews preserve the pronunciation of all other words in the Bible but neglect to preserve the pronunciation of the one most important word, which appears in the Bible some 6,600 times - the name of God himself?

The reason is that during the Second Temple period, most likely in the early 5th century B.C.E., Jews decided that that name was ineffable, too holy to be uttered aloud. This was based on a particular interpretation of the third commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”

The commandment probably intended, at its origin, merely to prohibit inappropriate invocation of God’s name, when swearing and the like, but during this time it began to be viewed as a prohibition against uttering the name in all but the most solemn of circumstances.

According to the Mishnah (redacted in 200 C.E. but containing ancient traditions going back hundreds of years), the sacred name was only to be pronounced in the Temple in Jerusalem, and only in very specific occasions - by the High Priest on Yom Kippur and when the priests sanctified the crowds with the Priestly Blessing.

When the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 C.E. by Rome, to punish the Jews for their latest rebellion, there was no longer any context in which the uttering of God’s name was permissible. Since then, to this day, when the name YHWH arises during prayer or recitation outside the Temple, Jews read it aloud as 'adonai, meaning “my lord.” Thus the true pronunciation was eventually lost.

Still, linguists and biblical scholars have come up with a likely reconstruction based on ancient transcriptions, information gleaned from theophoric names, comparative material, and Hebrew grammar. The details of these analyses are too technical and frankly boring to even summarize here, but the upshot is that in all likelihood, in biblical times, the name was pronounced yah-weh, with soft a and soft (and slightly elongated) e.

The meaning of YHWH

Moving on from its missing pronunciation, what did the name YHWH mean?

Hebrew words, or words of any other Semitic language, usually have three-letter roots. Analysis of Semitic words starts with that trilateral root, which appears in other words with related meanings.

This is, at a very basic level, how Hebrew and other Semitic languages work. The root has a basic meaning, which gains specific meanings with the addition of other sounds (consonants and vowels).

Ancient graves found in Tiberias, where Jewish customs, and their pronunciation, were finally written downCredit: Gil Eliyahu

Take for instance the root SRK: masrek means comb, lehistarek means to comb (one's hair), saruk is the passive past tense, combed; srika means medical scan - combing through your innards, and so on.

In the case of god, the trilateral root seems to be HWH.

If this is true, and it probably is, the root HWH is likely a variant of the very common Hebrew root HYH. It is very common in Hebrew for W and Y to interchange. HYH simply means “being.”

Also, the format of the name YHWH is similar to that of causative verbs, verbs that indicate the subject is causing a change in the verb’s object, such as English’s spill or hire. So, if we accept the root as HWH or HYH, and assume it has causative structure - taken together, the name seems to mean “bring into being.” Or, “creator.”

This interpretation is supported to a certain extent by the Bible itself.

 

[JLG]

17) Genesis 17


Abram is now 99 and God tells him he will multiply him. And he changes his name to Abraham because God will make him a father of many nations. And he makes an everlasting covenant and his offspring will get the entire land of Canaan and God will become their God. And every male must be circumcised. Anyone who refuses must be killed. And Abram’s wife becomes Sarah. But Abraham begins to laugh because he is 100 and his wife 90. But God tells him he will have a son with his wife and he will be called Isaac. But Ishmael will also be blessed. So Abraham and all the men of his household get circumcised.


- Well, think about it: having a child at 100 for Abraham and 90 for Sarah!


- What a miracle!

 

[JLG]

18) Genesis 18


God appears to Abraham and he sees three men standing some distance from him. So he runs to meet them and bows down to the ground; And he offers them to wash their feet and some bread. So he tells his wife to make some bread and prepare a tender good young bull and also brings butter and milk and the three men eat. Then one of them tells Abraham that he will return to him next year and his wife Sarah will have a son. Sarah is listening and she begins to laugh to herself because her husband and she are too old to get a child. So God asks Abraham why Sarah is laughing because nothing is too extraordinary to God. But Sarah is afraid so she denies having laughed. God says that Sodom and Gomorrah behave really bad so he sends his angels there but he remains with Abraham! Then Abraham has an argument with God about possible righteous men there. And he tells God he can’t destroy these cities if there are righteous men there starting from 50 and going down to 10 (50,45,40,30,20,10). And each time God says he will not destroy the cities in case he finds righteous men.


- When we hear Abraham, he seems to be at the market trying to sell or buy a product and discussing the price!


- But in fact he speaks to God!


- And God answers patiently to Abraham!


- It seems to be unreal!


- A simple man arguing with god!


- But this man is special to God!


- He is so special to God that he can speak to him in such a way and God patiently answers him!

 

[JLG]

19) Genesis 19

The two angels arrive at Sodom by evening and they are received by Lot in his house. Before they can go to bed, the men of the city – the men of Sodom from boy to old man, all of them – surrounded the house in one mob. They want Lot to bring them so they can have sex with them. But Lot offers his two daughters because the two men have come under his shelter. The two angels take Lot into the house and shut the door. And they strike the men who are at the entrance of the house with blindness. Then they tell Lot to go out with his family because they are going to destroy the city. But his sons-in-law don’t listen to Lot. And they force Lot and his wife and his two daughters to go away and they tell them not to look behind them. But Lot’s wife doesn’t care and looks behind her and she becomes a pillar of salt. His two daughters decide to give wind to their father and then lie down with him to get children because there was no man available in the area. And Lot isn’t conscious of what is happening. So they become pregnant. The two children become fathers of the Moabites and of the Ammonites.


- The men of Sodom from boy to old man!


- Is it possible to be more explicit?


- The whole population is contaminated!


- That’s why God decided to destroy whole cities and to exterminate the populations!


- Only Lot and his two daughters survive because they follow scrupulously what is told to them!


- Lot’s wife doesn’t care, she makes her own cooking but it doesn’t work, on the contrary!


- Same for us, may we listen scrupulously or not, they won’t be any surprise!


- God has warned human beings in his Bible!


- When he cleanses the earth, it will be like in Sodom and Gomorrah!


- No excuse!

 

[JLG]

20) Genesis 20

Abraham moves his camp and says that Sarah is his sister instead of his wife. So the king Abimelech takes her but God tells him in a dream at night that he is nearly dead because he takes a woman whereas she is married. But God prevented him to touch her because he didn’t know she was married. And he tells him to return Sarah to Abraham because he is a prophet and Abraham will make supplication for him otherwise he will die, he and his household. So he does according to what God tells him. And Abraham explains he did it because he was afraid of being killed because of his wife. And in fact, she is really his half sister, so half sister and wife. After Abraham’s supplication for Abimelech, the women of his household can become pregnant again because God had made them barren because of Sarah.


- God protects Abraham!


- He calls him a prophet!


- Abraham always makes know that Sarah is his sister to save his life!


- Sarah is a beautiful woman!


- And God obliges the king to send her back to Abraham if he doesn’t want to die!


- And Abraham must make supplications so the king can be saved!


- And everything goes back to normal when everybody does his part according to God!


- And not according to man!


- In the Bible, this principle is always put ahead!


- But men don’t care, they keep doing according to their will and they get into trouble!

 

[JLG]

21) Genesis 21


As promised, Sarah becomes pregnant and gives birth to Isaac who is circumcised when he is eight days old. Hagar’s son keeps mocking Isaac so Sarah asks Abraham to take them away. And God tells Abraham to listen to Sarah. So he gives food to them and sends them away. And God will be with the boy as he grows.


- God always keeps his promises as far as the people concerned play their parts!


- God blesses Hagar’s son because of Abraham!


- And he does the same with Isaac!


- The Bible always tells about special relationships between God and faithful individuals!


- But of course, the two parts must play their parts!


- And the human part is often weak and more than weak!


- And it is even worse with the descendants!


- So giving a good education to a child based on the knowledge of God is important but not a guarantee!


- It’s always up to each individual to make the final decision!


- But if there is no good education based on the knowledge of God, you can’t expect anything!

 

[JLG]

22) About the creation:


- We are given a PROGRAM of God’s creation!


- Everything is well-organized!


- Each period ends when all the elements of the period are created!


- That’s the ESSENCE of the old testament: ORDER!


- Yes God is ORDER!


- And everywhere in the Old Testament is ORDER!


- That’s probably why it is so difficult for men to understand it!


- God is ORDER and man is DISORDER!


- And it is worse with modern society which is TOTAL DISORDER!


- And above all there is NO PILOT ON THE PLANE!


- In fact, I hate the words Testament, Old and New Testaments!


- Thus it presents the two parts of the Bible as if they were things of the past!


- But that’s not the case, we have GOD’s MESSAGE and this message is ALIVE!


- We are given INSTRUCTIONS TO LIVE FOREVER BUILDING UP A NEW SOCIETY WE CAN’T EVEN IMAGINE!


- A society based on GOD’S JUSTICE!


- BEING ABLE TO WORK UNDER GOD’S CONTROL EVERY DAY AND LEARN FROM HIM CONTINUOUSLY!


- THE CONTINUOUS FIREWORKS OF LIFE!


- PERPETUAL KNOWLEDGE!


- But for the majority, the Bible is just an old book covered with dust!


- Poor humanity!


- The waking up will be so brutal but logical for those who sleep spiritually!