Read Exodus 2:23-35 at Bible Gateway.
Hebrew paragraph division
Exo 2:23-25 {s} Elohiym acknowledged the children of Israel
Exo 2:23 And it came to pass in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel sighed by reason of their bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God by reason of their bondage. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God saw the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them. {s}
Exo 2:23-25 {s} chiastic structure
Original Hebrew
Heard we have seen before: it is Strong’s H8085, shama, “to hear.”
Likewise with saw: it is Strong’s H7200, ra’ah, “to see.”
Remembered
Strong’s H2142, זכר zakar, a primitive root meaning, “to remember.” The ancient pictographs are zayin + kaph + resh:
zayin ז = the mattock, thus tool, food, cut, nourish
kaph כ, ך = the open palm, thus bend, open, allow, tame
resh ר = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
The story being told is of the covenant cut (zayin) wherein the open palm (kaph) of blessing was laid upon the head of the man (resh). The pictographs specifically identify that the remembrance is tied to the covenant.
Acknowledged
Strong’s H3045, ידע yada, a primitive root meaning, “to know, to teach.” The ancient pictographs are yud + dalet + ayin:
yud י = the closed hand, thus work, throw, worship
dalet ד = the door, thus enter, move, hang
ayin ע = the eye, thus watch, know, shade
The yud as the closed hand depicts the hand of activity, the action of working. The ayin, besides having the meaning of looking or watching, also carries the meaning of knowing or understanding. Even in English today we still say “I see!” when we understand something. Thus it is by doing (yud) that we enter into (dalet) knowing or understanding (ayin).
The structure coupled with the pictographs are telling us that God heard and saw what Israel was being put through – of course He knew of it; He had prepared Israel’s deliverer in Moses 80 years prior to this! – and in seeing and hearing, He recalled to mind His covenant that He had cut with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He had essentially laid His own open palm of blessing on their heads.
But the really astonishing bit is His acknowledgment of their cry by reason of their bondage. The Hebrew is teaching us that He understood their cry of groaning because He had entered into experiencing it! But how could YHVH Elohiym have entered into such a thing?
All who dwell on the earth will worship him [the beast], whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev 13:8
If the Lamb, Messiah Yeshua, has been slain from the foundation of the world, then from the foundation of the world:
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Heb 4:15
As He is outside of time and space, He has understood what it meant to become as one of us, to suffer, and to be slain as a Lamb for the sins of the world, from the foundation of the world. Mind blown!
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