Wildbranch Hebrew Word of the Week: SANE'

This section will be devoted to Scriptural words and their meaning. We will not only establish the etymological roots of these words, but we will reveal how many English words are actually Hebrew words. Everything and anything you might want to know about the Hebrew language will be discussed and presented in this section.
E-mail us if you want to know what a particular word is and we will be happy to post it here for all to read. If you are interested in it, maybe many others are, too.

SANE'

Love and hate are two words truly misunderstood and extremely overused. Love is used for everything from fried chicken to YHVH himself. The word hate is equally spread out from broccoli to Osama bin Laden. Scripturally, this word is from the Hebrew sane'
(saw nay). It is most notably seen in the several occasions of YHVH's feeling toward Ya'akov and Esav. "Ya'akov I have loved, but Esav I hated." Romans 9:13 (also Mal'akhi 1:2-3). Do you think that YHVH hated Esav in the same way that I hate celery or horseradish? I think not. This word means to 'distance oneself' or to 'not prefer'. The context of its scriptural meaning becomes more obvious when seen from its Hebrew meaning. When Yahshua says that a true disciple is one who 'hates' his father and mother (Luke 14:26), he simply means one who prefers the Messiah over his parents. YHVH preferred Ya'akov over Esav because Esav despised his birthright. In Mizmor 81:15, we read of 'haters of YHVH'. It is simply those who do not prefer YHVH to the rest of what life has to offer and they distance themselves from Him. There are many other Hebrew words that would correspond better to our modern understanding of hate: bazah (despise), ma'as (to loathe), to'evah (abominable). So ask yourself, "Do I really hate my little brother?"

Shalom Alecheim!