WORD STUDY VINDICATE THE נקם נקמת VENGENCE Numbers 31:2: Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. This news has been filled lately with the recent terrorist attacks in France by radical Islamic groups not only against the Jews but against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The attack on Charlie Hebdo was an act of vengeance against the newspaper for their satirical depiction of Mohammad. Talk radio has been filled with comparisons between Christianity and Judaism where we quote Deuteronomy 32:35 where God says, Vengeance is mine says the Lord, I will repay. The art and entertainment community are constantly poking fun at the name of Jesus and of course we Christians would never, ever think of committing any act of violence against these artists. Our response is to pray for them and if there is any vengeance we leave it up to God. Even in Israeli whenever there is an attack against their nation there will be an act of retaliation not revenge. They
hit Israeli, Israeli hits back to let their enemies know that they will fight back but they will not call it revenge only a defensive measure meant solely to discourage any future attacks. We in Judeo Christianity teach that vengeance comes from the hand of God and not from us. Jesus taught us in Matthew 5:44: But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. Then what do we do with a passage in Scripture like Numbers 31:2 where God is not only seeking revenge against the Midianites, he is commanding Moses and Israel to be His hit men. Well, we can hide behind our Christian mandate that that is the Old Testament talking and not the New Testament, we live in a new day under the New Testament which commands us to love our enemies. Perhaps, but how do you explain the fact that the Jews who do not accept the New Testament, teach and embrace the Torah, the Old Testament and yet they too teach benevolence, forgiveness and mercy just as much, if not more than we Christians do? I think the answer lies in a little twist in the Hebrew text which is totally ignored by our Modern Christian English translations. I have found only one modern English translation that addresses the double terminology that is used in the Hebrew text. That word vengeance is repeated naqam naqamath and should be rendered as avenge the vengeance. A standard rule in Semitic languages is that when a word is repeated it is done so to express an emphasis or intensity. Thus, the NSAB renders this as take full vengeance whatever that means. A standard joke I would use when I introduced my first year
Hebrew class while teaching at the Bible College was that we would learn all the rules in the first semester of Hebrew and in the second semester we would study all the exceptions to those rules. It is true that when a word is repeated in a Semitic language it is done to show emphasis, but not always. There can be any number of reasons for a repetition of a word and many times we just don t know why the word is repeated. This is why the two words in the Hebrew text naqam naqamath is simply rendered as vengeance and not avenge the vengeance as we just do not understand reason for the double terminology. Another clue to aid us in attempting to understand this passage is the fact that God is commanding only an act of vengeance against the Midianites. This act of vengeance is in response to an action brought on by the Midianites who sent their daughters among the Israelites to seduce the men into committing adultery and drawing them into the worship of idols. This resulted in the slaying of 24,000 people. Yet, Scripture teaches that the Moabites also had a hand in this treachery, why were they not included in this war of vengeance? Christian commentaries try to explain this away by saying that two heroines of Israel would come out of the Moabites, Ruth and Naamah (wife of King Solomon). Others say Moab was speared because they only entered into the foray because they were terrified of military might of Israel (Numbers 22:2-6). Again, perhaps this is the case and perhaps this is more of an act of retaliation rather than vengeance as it is today in Israel. Moab was afraid of Israel to begin with so they did not need to have the fear of Israel s might instilled in them,
but Midian was defiant and did not fear Israel so they had to be taught to fear Israel. God could have sent a plague or earthquake to wreak his vengeance but they would not really interpret that as coming from God and would still feel militarily superior to Israel. God had to bring Israel into a war with Midian so they would know and understand you do not mess with a superior military power. But what about this double terminology naqam naqmath? Why do we not just go ahead and render it literally, avenge the vengeance? Well for one thing that is repaying evil with evil which is clearly contradictory to Proverbs 20:22, Say not thou, I will recompense evil; [but] wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee. The Jewish sages however, see this double terminology as an embodiment of the spiritual essence of Midian. Clearly, the act of Midian was an outright attempt to turn the people away from God. The whole purpose of this act by Midian was to draw the people away from God. This was a spiritual act, an attack by Satan himself, the Midianites were merely the pawns that he used to destroy the spiritual dynamic of Israel. The word vengeance in Hebrew is naqam which comes from an Akkadian word which means vengeance but not in the sense that we think of revenge, getting satisfaction over a wrong done to us. It is a vengeance of vindication, an act to bring out the truth. The Jewish sages teach that this double terminology indicates that before the nation of Midian could be defeated in the natural the spiritual essence, the demonic essence of the nation had to be vanquished. Defeat that enemy, natural war may not be necessary. Naqam Naqmath falls right in with the teachings of Jesus, not
contradictory to it. The sages are teaching that to avenge the vengeance is an Hebraic expression meaning deal with the spiritual first to vindicate the vengeance. If someone makes fun or mocks our Jesus we do not put on ski masks and wreak violence on the ones mocking our Lord, we following the command that God gave Moses naqam naqmath, we must vindicate the vengeance, show that we are not like them. We are to recognize that this is a spiritual battle and we must first pray and love those who mock our Lord. In extreme cases where our very lives are threatened, as with Israel, we must retaliate against the Midianites to protect ourselves as Israel is doing today. But if they are not a threat to our lives or those we care about but only making fun of God we simply pray that their eyes will be opened and that the name of our God will be naqam vindicated. WORD STUDY VENGENCE IS MINE Luke 12:20, But God said unto him, [Thou] fool, this night
thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? In reading this passage in my Greek New Testament I noticed something that does not appear in most English translations. The usual rendering is this night thy soul shall be required of thee Yet a literal rendering in the Greek is this night they require thy soul of thee. I find only one English version, Youngs Literal Translation, that renders it this way. I looked this up in my Aramaic Bible (Peshitta) and found the word tavlyn which literally means they will require. This comes from a Semitic root teva which means to seek satisfaction, to avenge. The question is, who are they? Who are these individuals who are seeking to avenge or are seeking satisfaction for this man s soul? In the ancient Semitic culture, as it still is in some parts of the Middle East, a man will work for months plowing and harvesting then store his oils, wheat and other grains in a family barn and then rest for the remainder of the year until it is planting time again. Every family raised their own food, there was little buying or selling in those days, transportation of goods was done by ships and caravans and these were mainly luxury items such as essential oils and spices. For most, their livelihood depended upon the goods they were able to raise on the land that was apportioned to them. Every year, by a sort of lottery, land was portioned out. If you drew a stone that fell on good ground you stood a good chance of getting a good harvest. Stones with a number for certain plots of land were put in a basket every year. Each farmer would draw a stone, called a lot, out of the basket. If your lot fell on poor or rocky ground, your
harvest would not be so plentiful. Even today we refer to a portion of property as a lot. We also speak of a person s lot in life as a reference to some who have had an easy life and some who have hard times. We say that the chips fall where they may. Obviously, this man draw a good lot and as a result had a very bountiful harvest. He was able to store his harvest in the event of bad times or one the good possibility of drawing a poor lot next time around. However, for those who had a bad lot, their harvest might not be enough to get them through the rest of the year and they would come begging to the ones who had a good harvest. Most were compelled to share their harvest with those who had the unfruitful lots. They would do this because they knew that the very next year this one who is begging for food may just end up with the good lot and the one with the good lot may end up with the bad lot such that he would be the one in need in the following year. Solomon most likely had this in mind when he said in Ecclesiastes 11:1, Cast your bread upon the waters for after many days you will find it. The person that comes begging to you for food may be just the person you go begging to for food in the future. If you share with this old boy now he will be more inclined to share with you when you are in need. The man in this story, however, chose not to share his wealth, but to horde it in barns and build bigger and better (more secure) barns. His intentions was to let his neighbors starve if there were hard times, but he and his family would enjoy luxury while others were dying of hunger. Yet Jesus calls this man a fool for that very night they will avenge his soul. Who are they? Many commentators believe the they are demons
who will demand your soul or angels who are summoned by God to take one s soul to heaven or hell. I do have a little problem with that as to why would these demons or angels be seeking vengeance. I tend to believe the they are all the neighbors who ended up with the bad lots and were now starving and would be pounding at this man s door to share his food. They may end up even killing this man to get his wealth of food. There is a booming business which sells freeze dried food that can last up to twenty years in storage. A years supply comes in just a couple canisters that can be stored in the basement. People are stocking up on these supplies for fear of some coming disaster. Not that this fear is not a real fear. Hurricane Katrina proved how quickly things could change and people could be left starving. One terrorist attack with an EMP weapon could shut down our transportation system making it impossible to restock supermarkets which would run out of food in just a matter of a couple days. There are those who not only have a supply of freeze dried food stashed away, but they have fires arms also stashed away to defend themselves from the starving masses who will seek to steal their supplies. The odds are, if you have a supply of food and you are surrounded by starving people you either share or you may not survive yourself. I can almost see a modern day version of this story of a man who has stocked his basement with freeze dried food, locked it away and sits back satisfied that he will ride out any storm. But Jesus would say to him, You fool this night terrorist are going to release an EMP which will shut down all the transportations systems, in three days starving people will require your soul or will avenge your soul. You are not as secure as you think.
Note what Jesus says in the following verse, Luke 12:21, So [is] he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. The word rich in the Aramaic is atira which is a spiritual richness, a richness in a relationship, in this case a rich relationship with God. Jesus is not condemning being rich, he is only saying that if you use your wealth as a form of security rather than your relationship with God, sudden disaster may fall upon you and your wealth will do you no good, but your rich relationship with God will carry you through. Jesus is referring to those who simply say, I am not worried about a terrorist attack or some other disaster, I have enough wealth so all I have to concern myself with is eating, drinking and enjoying the fruits of my material wealth. That very night a heart attack or stroke could put an end to all security and only if you were rich in your relationship with God would you be carried to safety. There is another point to the story. This man simply said, I will enjoy the fruits of my labors and not share with my neighbors. If they come with pitch forks or knives, I will deal with it at that time. If it should ever come to that I will cross that bridge when I get to it. Jesus is saying, That bridge is already falling down, get ready for the party is over and even before your neighbors rise up to avenge you, you have Me to deal with first, for vengeance is mine says the Lord (Deuteronomy 32:35).