Fishing for Yourself

 

The ancient adage of the Karaite sages declares: "Search well in the Scriptures and do not rely on anyone's opinion". In this regard the Karaite sages taught: "He who relies upon any of the teachers of the Exile without personal investigation, it is as if he has engaged in idolatry."

 

Step 1 – Find all occurances of the English word burn in the Tanakh.

 

Step 2 – Using an Interlinear or Hebrew Tanakh to Find the strong’s number for the word translated as Burn.

 

Step 3 - Using an Interlinear or Hebrew Tanakh to Find the Hebrew letters for the word translated as Burn.

 

Here is a list from what I did in the first three steps:

 

8313 SARAPH (Sin-resh-Fey sofit) Verb

 

1197 BA’AR (Bet-Ayin-Resh) Verb

 

398 ‘AKAL (Aleph-Kaf-Lamed) Verb

 

3555 K’VIYAH (Kaf-Vav-Yod-Hey) F.N. from verb KAVAH 3554 (Kaf-Vav-Hey)

 

4348 MIK’VAH (Mem-Kaf-Vav-Hey) F.N. from verb KAVAH 3554 (Kaf-Vav-Hey)

 

6999 QATAR (Qof-Tet-Resh) Verb

 

2734 CHARAH (Chet-Resh-Hey) Verb

 

3314 YIF’AH (Yod-Fey-Ayin-Hey) N,F. from the verb YAFA 3313 (Yod-Fey-Ayin)

 

3350 Y’QOD (Yod-Qof-Dalet) Verb equal to the verb YAQAD 3344 (Yod-Qof –Dalet)

 

Now we need to find all the nouns that are associated with these Hebrew words.

 

Step 4 – Use a Concordance or Lexicon to find related words to the verbs listed here.

 

Step 5 – Organize them together and look at the different groupings.

 

Lets take Ba’ar (1197)

 

Ba’erah NF 1200

 

Tavaerah N Pro. Loc. 8407

 

We take these groupings and work on all the scriptures that are associated with them.

 

Grammatical Concepts:

 

Active: Subject is the “agent” or “actor”

 

The dog ate the homework

“The dog” = subject/actor; “ate” = active verb; “the homework” = direct object

 

Passive: Subject is what is acted upon

The homework was eaten

“The homework” = subject/acted upon; “was eaten” = passive verb

 

Passive with agent

The homework was eaten by the dog.

 

Reflexive: Action directed back onto the grammatical subject

The homework ate itself.

 

Transitive: Verbal action takes a direct object (action is transferred from subject to object)

(See active example above.)

 

Intransitive: Verbal idea is complete without taking a direct object

The homework disappeared.

 

Verbs are broken into Classifications and Names

 

Names and Classification of the Patterns

Type of action

Active

Passive

 

Simple

QAL

PIEL

HIPHIL

 

NIPHAL

PUAL

HOPHAL

Intensive

Causative

Reflexive

HITHPAEL

 

You can learn more about Binyanim (“building, structure”) in plural form by getting the book 501verbs.

 

At this point you have gathered the information about the words and the related words as shown below:

 

Kal – Past Tense (Preterite)

 

Num. 11:3

Judges 15:14

2 Sam 22:9, 13

Ester 1:12

Ps. 18:8(9)

Isa. 1:31, 9:18(17), 10:17

Jer. 4:4, 7:21, 21:12

 

Kal – Future Tense

 

Exo. 3:3

Num. 11:1

Job 1:16

Ps. 2:12, 39:3(4), 79:5, 89:46(47),106:18

Isa. 42:25, 43:2, 62:1

Jer. 10:8, 44:6

Lam. 2:3

 

Kal – Participle (adjective)

 

Ex. 3:2

Deu. 4:11, 5:23(20), 9:15

Ps. 94:8

Isa. 30:27, 33, 34:39

Jer. 20:9

Eze 1:13, 21:31(36)

Hos 7:4,6

Mal 4:1 (3:19)

 

Niphil – Preterite (past tense)

 

Jer.10:14, 21, 51:17

 

Niphil – Participle (adjective)

 

Isa 19:11

 

Piel - Preterite (Past tense)

 

Exo. 22:5(4)

Lev. 6:12(5)

Deu 13:5(6), 17:7,12, 19:13,19, 21:21, 22:21-22, 24, 24:7, 26:13-14

2 sam 4:11

I kings 14:10, 21:21, 22:46(47),

2Kings 23:24

2 Chron 19:3

Isa. 3:14, 50:11

Eze. 20:48 (21:4), 39:9

Piel – Infinative

 

Num 24:22

2Chron 4:20, 13:11

Neh 10:34(35)

Isa. 4:4, 5:5, 6:13, 40:16, 44:15

 

Piel – future

 

Ex. 35:3

Deut 21:9

Jud. 20:13

I king 14:10

Eze. 39:10

 

Piel – participle (adjective)

 

Jer. 7:18

 

Pual – Participle (adjective)

 

Jer. 36:22

 

Hiphil – Preterite (past tense)

 

Nah. 2:13

 

Hiphil – Future

 

Ex. 22:5(4)

Jud, 15:5

2 Chron 28:3

Eze 5:2

 

Hiphil – Participle

 

Ex. 22:6(5)

I Kings 16:3

 

Step 6 – Read each reference and look to verify where the word is consistently translated as Burn.  This requires reading the verses to see what the main usage of the word is.  This is the most time consuming part of doing a study.  You are looking for common everyday usage of the word. This is the simple meaning.  Most times the Kal or Piel forms of the verb give the basic meaning of the Hebrew word.  Here you may also find other words, which are related to the term(s) you are studying that you may want to study also.  Read for context, Think about what would an Israelite think from hearing this word.  The key here is context.

 

Step 7 – Elimination – here you start dropping the parts, which are translated as burn but don’t really mean burn in the sense we are looking for with the other words.  You will notice that we have not used a dictionary, or looked up a meaning so far.

 

Step 8 – unclear meanings – Some words may have a meaning that is unclear.  This is where the BDB comes in handy.  In the beginning of the meaning for each word it relates the Semitic words related to Hebrew word and give their meaning.  This can sometimes help in gaining the knowledge for the word meaning. 

 

Step 9 – Document all the words studied so far to see if they link together or if there is a link.

 

Step 10 – Organize them into a logical grouping of usage.

 

Step 12 – Write up the paper

 

Step 13 – incorporate the Hebrew words in the English Verses.

 

You have a completed study