Gird your loins like a man
- roberttippett97
- May 21, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 28, 2021
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[Note: This is one of a series listed under the heading: Wordie Post." It was originally posted on the Word Press blog entitled "Our Daily Bread," found at rtippett97@wordpress.com. The changes at Word Press are similar to those on Twitter and Facebook, where I was posting to an empty space. That was because I began and maintained that blog as one of their free offerings. When their force to change to a paid blog website did not move me, they cancelled their "Reader," so posting on Word Press has become like a caged animal at the zoo, where only workers occasionally toss the animals a bite to eat. Word Press [et al] is like what I imagine life was like in the satellite countries of the Soviet Union: meager, bleak, spiritless. So, I am transferring those forty articles here.]
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One of the top search terms for Biblical commentaries I have posted here has been, “What does ‘gird loins’ mean?” Those seekers have been led to read a couple of articles I posted about the meaning of Job 38. In those articles, I expressed my opinion based on the English translations provided by the New Revised Standard Version [NRSV]. I now want to add some new insights that have come to me, through analysis of the Hebrew text.
The NRSV translates Job 38:3a as Yahweh saying to Job [from a whirlwind], “Gird up your loins like a man.” This is like how a coach tells high school [and older] athletes, “Put your athletic supporter on [or ‘jockstrap’], so you testicles will not be an easy point of attack by opposing players and loose balls.” Unfortunately, Job was not playing a sport and God was not physically present when He spoke to Job.
The Hebrew written is this: “’ĕ·zār-nā ḵə·ḡe·ḇer ḥă·lā·ṣe·ḵā,” which is rooted in “azar,” “geber,” and “chalats” or “gird now like a man loins.” Because Yahweh was not talking to the physical “man” that was Job, there should be nothing physical being the advice here. The soul of Job is masculine essence, simply because we know Job was an “upright” man. That says he was masculine in essence, not in physicality. Therefore, Job was not a physical “man,” his soul had no “loins,” thereby his soul could not wear clothing of any nature, including tightly drawn cloth or hard plastic cups. This reality means one needs to see the spirituality that comes from those word in Hebrew.
The flexibility of Hebrew says many words cannot only translate to one English word. In the case of “azar,” it has the flexibility to translate as: “encompass, equip” (Strong’s), with the figurative possibility meaning, “girded with might.” (Brown-Driver-Briggs) The BibleHub Interlinear shows the usage to be “prepare,” which gives the impression to protect.
The Hebrew word “geber” has the flexibility to mean: “every one, man, mighty.” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance) That source says the word comes from “gabar,” which means “a valiant man or warrior,” with “warrior” being one translation found elsewhere in Scripture.
The Hebrew word “chalats” has the flexibility to mean, “the loins (as the seat of vigor). (Brown-Driver-Briggs). Still, it reflects “strength,” as a “seat of virility” in men and a “seat of pain” in women experiencing labor pains in childbirth. BibleHub Interlinear translates this word as “yourself,” presumably because a “self” is a “soul” and a “soul” is the “seat” or “loins” of a human body of flesh.
This flexibility means the same words that have been translated as “gird up your loins like a man,” equally says, “protect your soul like a warrior.” This means the Holy Spirit of God is the “warrior supporter,” when the “warrior” is an Apostle or Saint.
The reading from Job is an optional reading on the fourth Sunday after Pentecost, where the two other Old Testament readings are of David facing Goliath and David eluding the spear of Saul, after he became possessed by an evil spirit. The soul of David was protected like a warrior of Yahweh; and, that is the new insight I want to share.
The same advice Yahweh gave to Job was the same advice given to David and it is the same advice God gives to anyone [male or female] who wants to serve Him. With that protection worn, then no one worries about getting hit in the groin; so, fear stops nothing.
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