"Worship"

[cizz]

http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/emagazine/013.html

By: Jeff A. Benner
 

Webster's Dictionary defines "worship" as;

1. The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object.

2. The ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed.


As I have stated many times but worth repeating, when we read the Old Testament/Tenach we must define our words from a Hebraic perspective, not English. Unfortunately, when we see the word "worship" in the Bible we automatically assume the above definition causing miss-interpretation of the Biblical text.


If I asked the average Christian/Jew/Messianic, "Is it okay to worship a man?" The answer would be, "Absolutely not, we are only to worship God.".


The first question we must ask is, "What is the Hebrew word behind the English word ?worship? and what does it mean?" Below are a couple of verses in English using the word "worship".


Genesis 24:26 And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the LORD.


1 Samuel 15:31 So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the LORD.


Psalm 29:2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.


In each of these verses the Hebrew word behind the English word "worship" is "shahhah" (the hh is pronounced hard like the ch in the name Bach). This Hebrew word appears 172 times in the Biblical text but is only translated as "worship" 99 times in the KJV. Below are some other translations of this same word.


Gen 27:29 Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee


In this passage other nations will bow down/worship the descendents of Jacob.


Exo 18:7 And Moses went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of [their] welfare; and they came into the tent.


In this passage Moses bowed down/worshiped his father-in-law.


1 Kings 1:53 So king Solomon sent, and they brought him [Adonijah] down from the altar. And he came and bowed himself to king Solomon: and Solomon said unto him, Go to thine house.


In this passage Adonijah was found righteous when he bowed down/worshiped Solomon.


Whenever the Hebrew word "shahhah" is used as an action toward God, the translators translate this word as "worship". But, whenever this same Hebrew word is used as an action toward another man, the translators translate this word as "obeisance", "to bow" or "bow down". As you can see, the translators are preventing the reader from viewing the text in its proper Hebraic context. The literal meaning of the Hebrew word "shahhah" can be seen in Numbers 22:31 - "and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face". "shahhah" means to bow down with the face to the ground.


The concept of "worship" as defined by Webster?s dictionary is not Hebraic in any way and is not found in the Bible. We would be better off to remove the idea of "worship" from our Biblical vocabulary and replace it with "bow down". The only true way to bow down/worship God or a man from a true Hebraic perspective is to bow down with the face to the ground. Of course, this concept of bowing is an eastern custom that is not practiced in our western culture.
 

[cizz]

There are two more words in the Old Testament translated as "worship";

Strong's # H6087 atsab'

Verb that means to hurt, pain, grieve, displease, vex, wrest
(there is only one verse that it is translated as 'worship')

Jer 44:19   And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men? 


Then in the book of Daniel there is Strong's # H5457 cegid' which is not a Hebrew word but Aramaic

Verb which means to prostrate oneself, do homeage

This word corresponds to the Hebrew word Strong's # H5456 cagad'

A verb used 4 times in the book of Isaiah tranlated as "fall down"