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Chapter 15

Genesis 15:6

RBT Hebrew Literal:
And he caused to be trusted562 in Yahweh, and he is interweaving563 her to-himself a just-one.564
RBT Paraphrase:
And he has become trustworthy within He is, and he is interweaving/counting herself a just one to himself.
Julia Smith Literal 1876 Translation:
And he believed in Jehovah; and it shall be reckoned to him justice.
LITV Translation:
And he believed in Jehovah. And He counted it to him for righteousness.
ESV Translation:
And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Brenton Septuagint Translation:
And Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.

Footnotes

562

The Dual Role of the "Pillar of Support"

Strong’s #539, ha-aman. cause to be trusted, entrust, cause to trust. As pillars are trusted, and as pillars support. This construct האמן only occurs twice (Gen.15:6 and Num 11:12 ישא האמן את־ הינק ). In Numbers 11:12 it is understood as a noun. There, it has been interpreted as "the guardian" or "the nurse."

If a verb, we have only the Hophal Passive Causative form האמן which means to "to be confirmed, entrusted," if we don't seek to add any additional letters where there aren't any:

The Niphal Passive Infinitive form:

The Niphal Infinitive clearly doesn't work, and the noun construct "the Nurse/Support" doesn't work either. If this was meant to be the normal Hiphil causative and the author simply left out a stroke of the pen, it is not the concern of this translation methodology to "fix" what is written. For us, every stroke matters, every iota and yod, matters.

Thus האמן has been generally treated as the Hiphil causative and then translated as "he trusted." It is missing the typical Hiphil letter "י" where it would be written האמין as happens elsewhere (e.g. Genesis 45:26). If it is Hiphil, the proper meaning would be "cause to support/trust/believe." This is an important distinction as attested by the so called "word-play" of Isaiah where the single letter י makes all the difference:

אם לא תאמינו לא תאמנו

"if you are not trusting, you are not being trustworthy"

Isaiah 7:9 RBT

In the Hophal, אמן means:
"to be confirmed," "to be supported," "to be established as trustworthy," or "to be regarded as reliable/faithful."

We could also refer to Romans 4:3 and the word used there, as a reference to this saying, "Ἐπίστευσεν" "he entrusted/trusted" + dative "the God" which would properly translate to "He trusted/entrusted to the God" as it deviates from the typical NT preposition "into" used with the verb (cf. LSJ under πιστεύω).

The notion of trusting doesn't seem like a causative action, but the Hebrew often puts it in the Hiphil causative, revealing something about a causative nature of "trusting/believing."

The primary/primitive Qal meaning is to support/uphold/nurse. Thus the causative action could be construed as dual— supporting is both causing something to be supported, and supporting at the same time. Trust is a two way street.

In this phrase it is also followed by the preposition ב "within/in" which is different from what is used elsewhere by Yahweh himself, such as in Isaiah 43:10,

ותאמינו לי

"you all are trusting to myself"

Generally the לי preposition construct signifies an accusative sense, "to me." It certainly does not mean "within me."

This is the primary, literal, non-figurative meaning:

"A primitive root; properly, to build up or support; to foster as a parent or nurse; figuratively to render (or be) firm or faithful, to trust or believe,"

(cf. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, BDB, etc.)

The metaphor of a pillar is powerful here because it conveys the dual nature of the action — to support and to be supported at the same time. In the Hebrew root אמן, there is an intricate relationship between the supporter (the one who believes or trusts) and the supported (the object of that belief or trust).

When you "believe" within/into something or someone:

  1. You establish trust — You affirm that the object of your belief (whether it is a person, a cause, or a truth) is reliable, firm, and stable.

  2. You act as a pillar — You are supporting this object by upholding it in your mind as truthful, trustworthy, and secure.

563

Strong’s #2803, chashab. think, account, devise.  "A primitive root; properly, to plait or interpenetrate, i.e. (literally) to weave or (gen.) To fabricate; figuratively, to plot or contrive, count, calculate"

564

He is regarding her to himself a just-one. The Hebrew יחשבה, yachshevehah (#2803) has a feminine direct object suffix denoting a “her”. We find this same verb construct in Genesis 38:15, “And Judah is seeing her, and he is regarding [yachshevehah] her for a harlot” and in 1 Samuel 1:13, “and Eli is regarding [yachshevehah] her for a drunk.”

The noun “justice” (#6666) is in the feminine, tsedaqah. “Righteousness” is an abstract interpretation of what is really an objective concept—just or justice. This is the “Bride” of Heaven. Justice in the feminine appears in the Proverbs and Prophets and also in Genesis 18:19, Deuteronomy 24:13, Psalm 33:5, 106:3, and Job 37:23.