Image from The Cripplegate
[First posted in 2012. Timed for our current series on spooks timed for Halloween and All Souls Day. Note: the Resource Person mentioned here, “Benmara” no longer maintains his website referred to here, i.e. hearoyisrael.net. Still there is much to learn from this old post; read and you’ll discover what we mean.—Admin1]
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NASB [New American Study Bible, Christian translation]:
Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD terrorized him. Saul’s servants then said to him, “Behold now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you. Let our lord now command your servants who are before you. Let them seek a man who is a skillful player on the harp; and it shall come about when the evil spirit form God is on you that “he shall play the harp with his hand, and you will be well.” So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me now a man who can play well and bring him to me. Then one of the young men said, “Behold I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is a skillful musician, a mighty man of valor, a warrior, one prudent in speech, and a handsome man; and the LORD is with him.” So Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David who is with the flock.” Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread and a jug of wine and a young goat, and sent them to Saul by David his son. Then David came to Saul and attended him; and Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer. Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David now stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight.” So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him.
AST [ArtScroll Tanach, Hebrew Bible]:
The spirit of HASHEM departed from Saul, and he was tormented by a spirit of melancholy from HASHEM. Saul’s servants said him, “Behold now! a spirit of melancholy from God torments you. Let our lord tell your servants [who are] before you [that] they should seek a man who knows how to play the harp, so that when the spirit of melancholy from God is upon you, he will play [the harp] with his hand and it will be well with you.” So Saul said to his servants, “Seek now for me someone who plays well and bring him to me.” One of the young servants spoke up and said, “Behold! I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who knows how to play, is a mighty man of valor and a man of war, who understands a matter, and is a handsome man; and HASHEM is with him.” Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, “Send me David your son who is with the sheep.” Jesse took a donkey [laden with] bread, a jug of wine, and one kid, and sent it with his son David, for Saul. David came to Saul and stood before him. He loved him very much, and he became his armor bearer.Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my eyes.” And it happened that whenever the spirit [of melancholy] from God was upon Saul, David would take the harp and play [it] with his hand, and Saul would feel relieve and it would be well with him, and the spirit of melancholy would depart from him.
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This verse was brought up by a young bible student who asked one of us, Sinaites, to teach him ‘messianic theology’. Having been steeped in the the re-examination of Christian teaching through the lens of Messianic Judaism (still a Christ-centered religion in Jewish dress), this was not a problem for us. . . . except that we had already left that “religious sect” and moved back to the original path to the Sinai Revelation, i.e., the TORAH of YHWH.
So, this young man got a teaching broader than what he originally bargained for but to his credit, unlike others he has returned for more hard-to-swallow teaching and brings up questions that are raised in his bible study group when he shares with them what he learns from us.
Naturally, his group are not even lukewarm to what he delivers to them but at least, they’re checking out the teaching in their Christian “scriptures.” That is always a good thing; challenge the teaching but do your homework; the Bereans in the book of Acts got special mention because of this scholarly attitude; every bible reader/student/truth-seeker will do well to cultivate that curiosity.
As we say, every turtle has to get out of his comfortable shell to travel a little distance from where he was last stuck.
Notice the difference between the NASB Christian translation and the ArtScroll Hebrew rendering of the same text. It is to be expected that the interpretation of any verse springs from the rendering of the verse as well as the theological background that influences the reading and interpretation of the verse.
- If the translator(s) believe in the Christian doctrine of evil — that angels have free will and could therefore choose to sin, rebel against their Creator and fall from grace, and be condemned to hell but not before wreaking havoc on earth and oppressing hapless humanity before their destined end comes to pass — then this text is interpreted consistent with the belief there are indeed such beings who stand between God and man to interfere with that relationship and even wield some power over humankind.
- If the translator(s) do not believe in the devil and evil spirits, then Saul is depicted to be undergoing a depression due to the circumstances surrounding his life and kingship at that particular time.
Actually the text needs no further explanation. The translations are consistent with the doctrinal stands of two opposing beliefs,
- Christianity and its OT/NT Scriptures,
- and Biblical faith based solely on TNK, the Hebrew Scriptures.
If one applies the simple reading rules of checking out the context before and after, chapter context, and the overall teaching based on the totality of Scripture, the message of the text comes through.
As we reminded this young bible student, if you’re looking at one tree, do not mistake the tree for the whole forest. One text that mentions “evil spirit” does not overrule the general context.
So are we done with this text? No, because of one more curiosity: when we checked out another Hebrew rendering of the same verse, His Name Tanakh [HNT] by Benmara, our non-rabbi consultant, we were surprised!
See for yourself why:
We do know that the HNT translation is a work in progress, his 7.3 version posted on his website [hearoyisrael.net] has already been updated but not finalized; he is reworking problematic verses [for gentile readers like us who don’t get the whole meaning of key Hebrew words like ruwach or “spirit”]. Instead of figuring out his translation, we did the first best thing, asked him to explain.
Here are the major points of his response:
- The main problem gowy [gentiles] have is a failure to comprehend the TOTAL definition of the words. That being said, those verses [referring to 1 Samuel 16:14-23] have only had the major words (‘Elohiym, Sha’uwl, Dauiyd, etc) done— this is why there are periodic new versions and it’s free. I realize this is an inconvenience to many who read it, but it’s the best I can do without more help.
- Ruwach, essentially means POWER/existence, even motivation or thought processes…
- Yahh has/uses ruwach to “do”–
- it is also considered the emotional part of a being…a being is a nephesh. You, me dogs, trees (believe it or not, to a minor extent— rocks,) are all nephesh (essentially ALIVE Dabariym 12:23; do not eat the blood [the alive part]), but our ruwach governs our creativeness (poetry, creating music [or enjoying it], medicine, science, even working with our hands– building things or wood-carving for example, etc, etc).
- We have limited ruwach in the physical– that is we can think of something but need to physically do it. We need a dam to hold back water (build it with our hands), but Yahh manipulates atoms via His ruwach to hold up the water (parting red sea). We have been limited by our disobedience. We ruwached (chose) to have a self-interested self-rulership ruwach.
- We have the ability to adjust our ruwach by seeking Yahh’s ways (doing right vs. doing evil). This is why we are to “train up a child”. Sha’uwl had already disobeyed Yahh. He was already adjusting his own ruwach and for lack of a better phrase was getting a swelled-up head. Yahh just pushed it along.
- Why would he do that? 2 reasons, in my opinion–
- 1a. Yisra’el was at war. A ‘bad’ king does foolish things and there is no telling how many innocent lives could have been lost.
- 1b. Yahh did not want Yisra’el to be subjugated this time.
- 2. To move Sha’uwl more quickly, so he could be deposed.
I want to point out that Yahh never took an “innocent” nephesh (alive adam [man]) and made them “go bad”. Atheists like to complain that Yahh is a mean, vicious g-d Who “forced Par’oh to do evil” by ‘hardening his heart’. Not so. . . Yahh merely pushed him all the way to punishment for enslaving Yisra’el and killing our children. Par’oh was already “gone bad” by his own choices and upbringing.
1 Shemuw’el 16:14 tells us the ruwach of Yahh left Sha’uwl referring to the “righteous” support He had previously given the king. But, Yahh sent another ruwach of evil to the king. Note that Yahh possesses BOTH. Shocker, huh?
In Shemoth 3
14. And ‘Elohiym said to Mosheh: אהיה אשר אהיה ‘Ehyeh ‘Asher ‘Ehyeh [To Be As I Choose To Be]. And He said: This you will say to the sons of Yisra’el, אהיה ‘Ehyeh [I Will Be] has sent me to you.
15. And ‘Elohiym also said to Mosheh: thus you will say to the sons of Yisra’el, “יהוה, ‘Elohiym of your fathers, ‘Elohiym of ‘Abraham, ‘Elohiym of Yitschaq, and the ‘Elohiym of Ya’aqob, has sent me to you: this is My Name forever, and this is My appellation, designation and titled memorial to all generations.”
Yahuwah CHOOSES to be righteous, but will USE evil (badness/punishment) against those who choose to do evil.
In the Tanakh, the Hebrews authors use a “pointer-dash” called a maqaf much like the English hyphen. It definitively points to the phrase/word being referred to. In this verse it clarifies the ‘badness’ sent by Yahh to envelope, if you will, the king vs His (Yahh’s) own righteous ruwach state-of-being. H7451 is ra’ah which means bad or evil. You can have a ra’ah storm. An apple can be ra’ah (sour/bitter) in taste, but still be edible or just ra’ah (spoiled).
Mankind can be ra’ah (murders, liars, rapists, etc). Depending on it’s usage you can be righteous but have ra’ah occur to you…sickness, your house burns down…hurricanes, etc, etc.
While “melancholy” is TECHNICALLY correct, it leaves a bit to be desired, in my opinion. After all I can be melancholy if my most loved dog dies, with-out wanting to kill anyone. Melancholy does not seem to have the general hard core definition of depressed, though, again technically it is the same.
This is one of those verses that needs the entire story…merely “having-the-blues” alone would not necessitate the king’s wanting Dauiyd dead, but added with his jealousy of Dauiyd’s battle prowess and popularity growth among the people– well, it all adds up. Xtians erroneously believing ruwach to be the/an actual being rather than the “stuff we’re made of” is the problem here. The verse merely means Yahh’s righteous favor being withdrawn in support of Dauiyd made Sha’uwl depressed [even consumed in evil]. No red-suited horned-dude involved. I need to reflect that in the next version.
As always, with the xtians, FIRST they believe in j-dude and fictitious demons THEN they mistranslate/misuse our Tanakh to support it.
Incidentally Bere’shiyth 2:7.
And יהוה ‘Elohiym formed man of the dusty soil of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the neshama; and man became a nephesh that is living neshama
–not ruwach (one of those “replace all” mistakes I made early on and am still correcting).
Neshamah == a combination of the two (a very very basic explanation)
Hope this helps.
P.S. I forgot to add that in verse 16 the king’s servants say that Dauiyd’s playing will make him well…uh, can getting rid of demons be that easy? Got a possessed daughter? Play a little Barry Manilow (can you get any more syrupy?) or some Bach?
See? When there is a CLUE in the verse the kool-aid makes one miss it. Sha’uwl will be made well A PHYSICAL (illness) MENTAL/EMOTIONAL problem. Again, no devil-dude other BEING is mentioned.
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Here is an updated translation of the text/07/10/12; [word clarifications in parenthesis by Benmara]:
1 Shemuw’el 16
And יהוה said to Shemuw’el: How long will you mourn for Sha’uwl, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Yisra’el? Fill your horn with oil, and go: I will send you to Yishaiy the Beyth hal-Lakmiy; for I have provided Me a king among his sons.
2. And Shemuw’el said: How can I go? If Sha’uwl hears it, he will kill me. And יהוה said: Take a female-heifer with you, and say: I have come to sacrifice to יהוה.
3. And call Yishaiy to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you will do: and you will anoint to Me him whom I name to you.
4. And Shemuw’el did that which יהוה spoke, and came to Beyth Lechem. And the elders of the city came to meet him trembling, saying: Do you come with shalowm [health, well-being and prosperity] ?
5. And he said: In shalowm [health, well-being and prosperity] ; I have come to sacrifice to יהוה: Make yourselves Qadash [to make/become set-apart righteously] , and come with me to the sacrifice. And he made Qadash [to make/become set-apart righteously] Yishaiy and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.
6. And it came to pass, when they arrived that he looked on ‘Eliy’ab, saying: Surely יהוה’s mashiyach [anointed one] is before him.
7. But יהוה said to Shemuw’el: Do not look on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him; for יהוה does not see as man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance, but יהוה looks into the heart.
8. Then Yishaiy called ‘Abiynadab, and made him pass before the face of Shemuw’el. And he said: Neither this one has יהוה chosen.
9. Then Yishaiy made Shammah to pass by. And he said: Neither has יהוה chosen this.
10. And Yishaiy made seven of his sons to pass before Shemuw’el. And Shemuw’el said to Yishaiy, יהוה has not chosen these.
11. And Shemuw’el said to Yishaiy, are here all your children? And he said: There remains yet the youngest, and, behold, he is keeping the sheep. And Shemuw’el said to Yishaiy: Send away for and bring him; for we will not sit down till he comes here.
12. And he sent away for, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with pleasant eyes, and handsome appearance. And יהוה said: Arise; mashach [anoint with olive-oil; dedicate] him; for this is him.
13. Then Shemuw’el took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and it pushed heavily, the Ruwach [breath of life/power] of יהוה, upon Dauiyd from that day forward. So Shemuw’el rose up, and went to Ramah.
14. Now the Ruwach [breath of life/power] of יהוה left from being with Sha’uwl, and a distressing mind-set of bitterness came over him from יהוה.
15. And Sha’uwl’s servants said to him: Behold now, a mind-set, from ‘Elohiym, of dejection comes to you and distresses you.
16. Let our sovran now command your servants that are before you, to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp: and it will come to pass, when the mind-set of bitterness from ‘Elohiym is over you that he will play with his hand, and you will be well.
17. And he said, Sha’uwl, to his servants: Provide now a man that can play well, and bring him to me.
18. Then answered one of the young men, saying: Behold, I have seen a son of Yishaiy the Beyth hal-Lakmiy that is skillful in playing, and a mighty man of valor, and a man of war, and prudent in speech, and a handsome man; and יהוה is with him.
19. Wherefore Sha’uwl sent messengers to Yishaiy, saying: Send to me Dauiyd, your son, who is with the sheep.
20. And Yishaiy took a male-ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a young female-goat, and sent them by Dauiyd, his son, to Sha’uwl.
21. And Dauiyd came to Sha’uwl, and stood before his face and he was very fond of him; and he became his armor bearer.
22. And Sha’uwl sent to Yishaiy, saying: Let Dauiyd, I ask you, stand before my face; for he has found consideration in my eyes.
23. And it came to pass, when the mind-set of bitterness from ‘Elohiym was over Sha’uwl that Dauiyd took the harp, and played with his hand: so Sha’uwl was refreshed, and was well, and the mind-set of bitterness left from being with.