Leftovers
There’s one word that caught my attention in the Hebrew in this week.
Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the Lord Almighty.
Jeremiah 8:3
I want to focus on the word translated “survivors”. Strangely, it’s two words in Hebrew which could be translated “the remnant [that] is remaining”. They are different forms of the same word, which feels redundant. The Hebrew word שְּׁאֵרִית֙ (she’arit; noun form) means that which remains or is left (over). The same root word is used in Isaiah 7:3 for the name of Isaiah’s son, Shear-Jashub, which means, “A remnant will return”.
There’s a town in northern Israel today called Shear-Jashub, which likely drew its name from the Isaiah passage. It highlights that they have returned to the land.
One time when I was in Israel, I was riding with someone local and remarked about the town’s name as we passed by. He was apparently not familiar with the Isaiah connection because he thought the name was strange because She’ar is used in modern Hebrew for leftovers! That would certainly make for a strange name for a town: “Leftovers will return”.
To Ponder…
- Have you ever read the Bible in different translation and compared them? Has a different wording brought new life to a familiar passage?