{"id":78273,"date":"2020-07-30T11:26:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T08:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=78273"},"modified":"2020-07-30T11:26:33","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T08:26:33","slug":"devote-dedicate-destroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/devote-dedicate-destroy\/","title":{"rendered":"Devote, Dedicate, Destroy"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"78273","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64450,"related_cahpter":"536","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"They\u2019re closer than you think\r\n\r\n","content":"

In chapter 4, Micah predicts a time when nations will attack Israel, only to discover that God will bring their defeat:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed, many nations Have assembled against you who think, \u2018Let our eye Obscenely gaze on Zion.\u2019 But they do not know the design of the LORD, they do not divine His intent: He has gathered them like cut grain to the threshing floor.\u201d (Micah 4:11-12)<\/span><\/p>\n

But to show that this is not a war for profit, Israel is commanded to give all the spoils to God:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUp and thresh, Fair Zion! For I will give you horns of iron and provide you with hoofs of bronze, and you will crush the many peoples. You will devote their riches to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.\u201d (4:13)<\/span><\/p>\n

The verb translated here as \u201cdevote\u201d is peculiar. The root is <\/span>ch-r-m<\/span><\/em> and it appears 51 times in the Bible. In almost all of them it means \u201cto destroy.\u201d Only in our verse, and in Leviticus 27:28, does it refer to dedication to God. Apparently the original meaning was something like \u201cto separate\u201d, and it diverged into the positive sense of \u201cdedication, consecration\u201d on the one hand, and \u201cto destroy, to forbid\u201d on the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both senses are reflected in a number of words in Hebrew and other Semitic languages.<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of forbidding, we have the Hebrew word <\/span>cherem<\/span><\/em>. In Biblical Hebrew it meant something (usually spoils of war), banned for use, and designated for total destruction. In Talmudic times it began to refer to a severe censure of a person from the Jewish community, a form of excommunication (in this world). This was a powerful tool, because while the Jews did not have political independence, they lived closely together and were dependent upon one another.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some scholars say that the tallest mountain in Israel, Mount Hermon, gets its name from this meaning as well \u2013 it was inaccessible and unapproachable. This sense is also ultimately the origin of the English word \u201charem\u201d \u2013 it comes from the cognate Arabic word, meaning \u201cprohibited place.\u201d The women in the harem were prohibited to anyone on the outside.<\/span><\/p>\n

The root in Arabic can also mean \u201csacred,\u201d as in <\/span>Al-Haram ash-Sharif<\/span><\/em> – the Arabic name for the holy Temple Mount.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the meaning of the word as Micah uses it. While \u201cto devote\u201d and \u201cto destroy\u201d might seem like opposites, they both represent a similar goal: to keep captured bounty out of human hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

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