Give Gracious Praise

Bible Study

Proverbs 16:24 NIV

The modern thought about gracious words (at least in some circles) can be misleading.

In Proverbs 16:24 we are told: "Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."

The Hebrew translation to English is interesting. Looking it up made me do a “double-take”. I expected the Hebrew word ‘debar’ which is ‘word’. But the translated word is ‘debash’ which means ‘honey’.

Some translators chose the verse to say ‘honeycomb words like honeycomb.

I did a double take because I expected the beginning phrase to be SWEET words but it was instead honeycomb words are like honeycomb.

The element we must remember is that Proverbs is mostly attributed to King Solomon who reigned from 970-931 B.C.

More than likely the first word in Proverbs 16:24 used at the time it was written was HONEYCOMB.

We have to remember at that time they did not have granulated sugar. Sugar cane wasn’t widely used until 640 C.E. when China discovered crystals they could grind and use for various purposes.

Much later the sweet treat was ‘known’ when Crusaders discovered the sweet salt in the 11th Century.

Solomon’s reference to sweet did not come from sugar. It came from honeycomb.

It’s no wonder early references to Solomon’s words in Proverbs 16:24 say ‘honeycomb words are like honeycomb.

The verse reference was a great reminder for me. One of the first lessons in Seminary when studying ancient texts was context. We learned in order to connect to the text we have to ‘step into their shoes’ so to speak.

We cannot effectively translate words written thousands of years ago until we remember and think what the world was like thousands of years ago.

We remember context is king when reading ancient texts.

(https://www.sugar.org/blog/a-brief-history-of-real-sugar-the-story-of-sugar-cane/)

Deborah

acrazyjourneycom.com