Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
(Proverbs 18:1) KJV
Separates: נִפְרָ֑ד – nifrad
To divide, disperse, divide, be out of joint, part, scatter abroad, separate self, sever self, stretch,
divide, separate (intransitive), Genesis 2:10 (of river, dividing into branches); of one man separating from another, reciprocal Genesis 25:23 (of sons of Rebekah representing nations, i.e. divided (hostile) from birth); absolute Proverbs 18:1; of peoples separating from parent stock Proverbs 10:5,32.
be divided, separated, 2 Samuel 1:23; Nehemiah 4:13; of loss of friendship Proverbs 19:4.
The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.
(Proverbs 15:24) KJV
Sir Isaac Newton gave science the mathematical tools it needed to deny the existence of heaven and hell. Unfortunately the tools require two assumptions which just happen to be wrong.
He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
(Proverbs 13:24) KJV
As a single dad who’s been chewed up and spat out by by social services there isn’t anything more sickening than a Pastor preaching at full-tilt and yelling about how he beat his kids for any minor infraction of his authority.
Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Ramah, in his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the spiritists out of the land.
Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.”
And the king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What did you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.”
And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?
(1 Samuel 28:3, 11, 13, 15) KJV
You may be skeptical of the idea that there’s an underworld realm of the dead deep in the interior of the Earth, or that the souls of the Old Testament saints had to wait there for the messiah. That’s understandable.
O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
(Psalms 30:3) KJV
The direction of motion is a clue that we’ve used to put all of the puzzle pieces together. In this case a soul was brought up from the grave so that it didn’t have to go down to the pit. We could induce a meaning to a passage, or we could compare it to our model and deduce that the pit is lower than the grave.
Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?
(Job 11:7-8) KJV
All perfection: כֹּל – kol
The whole, all
to complete, Eze. 27:4, 11
Chald. Shaph. to complete, finish.
Istaph. to be finished, Ezr. 4:13, 16.
the whole, all
with following Genitive (as usually) the whole of, to be rendered, however, often in our idiom, to avoid stiffness, all or every:
the whole of their host,
the whole of living souls = every living soul,
the whole of what he had made,
all of thee !
the serpent was more subtil than all beasts of the field
Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
(Deuteronomy 5:8) KJV
The deep, of Genesis 1:2 became the great deep, the deeps and the depths of the created world. They’re all translated from the same Hebrew word, tehom. The deep became creation. The word became flesh.
When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
(Proverbs 8:24) KJV
The great deep is a feature of the internal structure of the earth, located in the mantle, which is why we are picking our way through this today in March. However, our featured passage speaks of a time when there were no depths. There was a time before the deep existed.
There’s a difference in usage between the English phrases the deep, (Genesis 1:2) and the depths (Proverbs 8:24) vs. the great deep (Genesis 7:11) which is contextual rather than based on nuance of translation. The phrase the deep is used to describe the body of water which was present in the beginning, when God said let there be light. The phrase the great deep, for instance, contextually is this water starting at the end of the 3rd day when it’s drained through the mantle into the great gulf as the earth was spread out over the waters.
To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever.
“When there were no depths,” can only refer to Genesis 1:1, because the first mention of the deep, “tehom,” is Genesis 1:2. The Bible uses “tehom,” to refer to the body of water from which the universe was made.
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Thought for the Day
If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
The Naked Prophet 