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A.--It is bara, the very same word that is translated to "create".
B.--What then do you propose? that in every reference to creation we shall read "cut
down"?
"God cut down the heaven and the earth?"
"God cut down man in His own image?"
"I will destroy man whom I have cut down?"
A.--This is sheer nonsense!
B.--Well, perhaps we had better revise Josh. 17: 18 and read, "It is a wood and thou
shalt create it".
A.--I am afraid you are trifling with me.
B.--To be candid with you, I am seeking to put into practice Prov. 26: 5, which you
may consult at your leisure. Let us proceed. Lam. 3: 40 reads:--
"Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord."
What is the Hebrew word for "search"?
A.--It is chaphas.
B.--In II Chron. 35: 22 we read that the king "disguised himself". This you will find
is exactly the same word as that translated "search". I take it that seeing that this is the
language of inspiration, you will forthwith praise the Pharisee and the hypocrite, and call
upon repentant sinners to "disguise" their ways, and turn again unto the Lord, resting
assured that basing their action upon the language of inspiration, and being directed to the
pathway of truth by the Hebrew words themselves, that God Himself will never pierce
their disguise, or better still, has planned that it shall of itself be a sufficient covering for
sin.
A.--I am afraid you are not only trifling with me, and paying a very small compliment to
my intelligence, but you are saying things which if acted upon would make shipwreck of
faith.
B.--Precisely, my friend! for that is what I believe has been done to your intelligence,
and threatens your faith, by the teaching you have accepted concerning the Hebrew word
for sin.
A.--Let us come to that. These contradictory statements have rather unsettled me.
The Test Applied.
B.--When Joseph said, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"
(Gen. 39: 9), the Hebrew word used for sin is chata, and the fact that he calls this sin