Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear James,

> JCR: Yes. Dr Davila once told me his view of this 'wind 
> of God'. He believed the expression to be a hebrew idiom 
> which basically meant 'massive wind' or 'strong wind' or 
> something like that. Unlike his circular reasoning for 
> the meaning of barah he actually had quite a convincing 
> arguement for this idiom. He drew from other examples 
> of similar constructs in other parts of the tanak where 
> the meaning is clearly an idiom for great size. I can't 
> remember exactly where in the tanak it is but he gave 
> the example of a place where it talks about 'mountains 
> of god' where the meaning is something like 'great 
> mountains' or 'big mountains' or something like that.
>
>  
HH: But even where )LHYM modifying a word like "mountain" could suggest 
something like "big mountain" by connotation, the word "God" does not 
lose its meaning. It is the bigness of God that implies the mountains 
are big. However, the logic for "big wind" in Gen 1:2 seems extremely 
weak. This same phrase RWX )LHYM has the Holy Spirit as its referent 
almost always the OT (I will give the other 15 occurrences at the bottom 
of my e-mail). Furthermore, God's Spirit is associated with acts of 
creation and new life elsewhere in the Bible, and Genesis 1 is 
describing the creation of the world. It is wholly appropriate that the 
Spirit of God would be present:

Psa. 104:30 When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew 
the face of the earth.

Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives 
me life.

Is. 32:15 till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert 
becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.

Ezek. 37:14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will 
settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have 
spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”

HH: Here are the verses with the phrase RWX )LHYM elsewhere in the 
Bible, all pointing to God's Spirit or a spirit from God.

Gen. 41:38 So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one 
in whom is the spirit of God?”
Ex. 31:3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, 
ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts —
Ex. 35:31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, 
ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts —
Num. 24:2 When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, 
the Spirit of God came upon him
1Sam. 10:10 When they arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met 
him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in their 
prophesying.
1Sam. 11:6 When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God came upon him 
in power, and he burned with anger.
1Sam. 16:15 Saul’s attendants said to him, “See, an evil spirit from God 
is tormenting you.
1Sam. 16:16 Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone 
who can play the harp. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes 
upon you, and you will feel better.”
1Sam. 16:23 Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would 
take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel 
better, and the evil spirit would leave him.
1Sam. 18:10 The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon 
Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the harp, 
as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand
1Sam. 19:20 so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of 
prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the 
Spirit of God came upon Saul’s men and they also prophesied.
1Sam. 19:23 So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came 
even upon him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth.
Ezek. 11:24 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in 
Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God. Then the vision I 
had seen went up from me,
2Chr. 15:1 The Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded.
2Chr. 24:20 Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada 
the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: 
‘Why do you disobey the LORD’s commands? You will not prosper. Because 
you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.’”

Yours,
Harold Holmyard