Meaning, origin and etymology of the name Dabar YHWH

Dabar YHWH

1. a group of words that pertain to speech and specifically intelligent discourse.
   
2. a group that pertains to being behind or coming later or as a consequence.

	dabar (A); as verb this word generally denotes the producing of whatever the same word means as noun, hence: to speak, declare, warn, threaten, command, promise, sing...etc. The noun always denotes a message or at least a verbal unit that came from contemplative thought, or (according to TWOTOT ) "most matters pertaining to moral and ideal values." The verb dabar should be distinguished from (amar 118), to say or talk, or rather the activity that brings about strings of these: (omer 118a) 'word,' such as those found in dictionaries. The verb amar brings the focus on what is spoken, but dabar brings the focus on the actual speaking. Amar always comes with what was said (i.e.:and then he said, "fine morning, ain't it?"), while dabar may occur without content (i.e.: and, after clearing his throat, he spoke.) Dabar occurs in Psalm 18:47b: "And subdues people under me[NAS]," but in the 2 Sam 22:48 parallel the verb (yarad, bring down; see Jordan) is used. Finally it should be noted that 400 out of 1100 occurrences of the verb dabar are in the formula 'and God said/promised/commanded/etc.'
	dabar (A); as noun this word denotes a unit that was made to come about. It can be a single word, but it can also be a whole sentence or statement like the ten Words (a.k.a. the ten Commandments) which by sheer fact of their decree brought about people who didn't steel and murder etc (and before you send us protest emails, please read our article on Romans 7). Dabar can be an 'act' such as the acts of King David (1 Chr 29:29; we suggest: the things that David 'made to come about'), and it can be a whole literary corpus (a book as a physical object or a general account is called seper) such as the book of Samuel the Seer who recorded the acts of David, or Chronicles, which was originally titled: , "Events of the Times." Dabar may be as general as to mean 'thing.' Together with (kol, all) it becomes 'everything,' and with certain negations (such as , lo, not or no) it means 'nothing.' Note how this relates to Matt 4:4, "Man shall not live by bread alone by by every word that comes from the mouth (Hebr: midbar, see next) of the Lord." In conjunction with YHWH, the word dabar denotes either any word spoken by God, or a specific Person of the Godhead who is talking. In the inaugurate usage (Gen 15:1), the Word of the Lord comes to Abram in a vision (; mahazeh from the verb ; haza, look, see) indicating that he was seeing the Word of God. Where the Word of the Lord actually addresses Abram to say His first recorded words ever, namely, (don't be afraid), the verb (to say) is used. In the New Testament the Word of the Lord is recognized as Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven to bring about the will of God (John 6:38). And there's that theme again.
	deber (B); pestilence, a very common word but nearly always in the sense of punishment sent by God as a result of sin. Deber denotes any kind of pestilence that results in death.
	dober (B); pasture/ fold. A mere two times does mean pasture: Mica 2:12 and Isaiah 5:17, both as feeding ground for lambs (Isa) and a flock of sheep (Mica). Possibly the idea of a pasture is related to that of the midbar (see next), but maybe the two prophets placed the sheep utopically in their 'element,' (lambs grazing in their thing) a concept so difficult to translate that later, translated texts speak of pasture (because that's how Scripture Theorists figure that the same word dbr means something else this time). Contemporary generations may want to translate these instances of with groove. Perhaps not.
	dobrot (B); floats. Once the dbr root shows up as something that's made out of logs in order to transport them over water, like a floating raft (1 Ki 5:9). Most likely these floaters were towed by regular vessels.
	dibra (A&B depending on context); cause, reason, order, matter. Dibra occurs seven times: Job 5:8: NAS, NIV: cause; Ps 110:4: NAS, NIV: order [of Melchizedek], NEB: succession [of Melchizedek]; Eccl 7:14: NAS, NIV: anything; Dan 2:30: NAS: for the purpose of; NIV: so that may; Dan 4:17: NAS: in order that; NIV: so that may. dibra in Eccl 3:18 and 8:2 results in an obstructing redundancy in English and is generally omitted. But 3:18 reads something like, "I said in my heart concerning the matter of the sons of man." Surely most translators seek to reflect some sphere of archaicism, or else (since dabar = logos) the most apt translation of the phrase "the matter of the sons of man" would be: anthropology.
	deborah (via B to A) bee. Some commentators imagine that the bee was called "a speaker" because of its buzzing. But that can not be true for two reasons. First of all because the bee is not the only animal that makes sound. And secondly, because the bee doesn't speak with its buzzing. We suggest that the bee was named by means of the dbr root because it produces honey. Honey was the chief sweetener in the olden days, and although God's words are sweater than honey (Psalm 119:103), Ezekiel reports that the scroll full of lamentations that God gave him tasted after it. Manna tasted like honey-wafers; manna also showed the glory of the Lord (Ex 16:7) and Jesus compares himself to it (John 6:31-35). The promised land was a land of milk and honey (and Paul compares early learning to milk). Ergo, the bee brings forth the honey which in turn has a lot to do with the Word of God.
	= The name Deborah; identical to the previous word deborah, bee.
	debir (A, no B, no A!); hindmost chamber (BDB), inner sanctuary (NAS & NIV), oracle (KJV). This word, when it doesn't mean the town Debir (see next), is reserved as an alternative name of the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple and, because of the connection to dabar, was translated 'oracle' by the King James and others. Younger translations tend to lean towards group B and seek meaning in the location of the Holy of Holies; in the back. Most notably is its usage in Psalm 28:2, "...onto the debir of your holiness." Abarim Publications likes to suggest that since in the Holy of Holies the ark was kept, and in the ark the Law, which in turn is intimately related to the Word of God, a better translation of the word debir is 'place of the Word.' Also see next.
	= the name Debir; identical to the previous word. Debir is the name of a king of Eglon (Josh 10:3) and also the name of a few towns. One of those towns was also known as Kiriath-sepher. Kiriath means town, and sepher (), we saw earlier, means book. Some translators render this name 'oracle' and perhaps for the king's name this may be. But the town whose name was first Town Of The Book, may certainly have become known as Place Of The Word.
	midbar (A&B) mouth. Just once the dbr root denotes mouth (your mouth is lovely - SS 4:3), we may assume as source of speech. An apt translation would be 'your yap' if that hadn't had the negative connotation. Better is: 'You say nice things.' The other, more regular word for mouth (nearly 500 occurences) is . Since the words of God are often reported to come out of His mouth, it should be obvious at once that the Hebrews did not see the mouth as part of what we call a face (God doesn't have one) but rather as origin or well of words going one way and receptacle of food going the other. In its article on TWOTOT even states, "The mouth is the external manifestation of one's character and disposition."
	midbar (?); usually translated with 'wilderness' but that doesn't seem to do justice. Midbar is the only word from the dbr stock that doesn't immediately obviously fall into one of the two categories. But still it must be noted that where our English word 'wilderness' brings to mind something wild; something untamed, uncultivated, or unregulated, the word midbar brings to mind the word dabar; word, entity, thing. Like words 'live' in the mouth, so do things live in a midbar. A midbar is an ecosystem where entities exists in a larger system, just like words exists in speech. The word midbar does not denote a specific kind of terrain, and even the subdivision that some scholars list does not satisfy. Sometimes the word denotes lush stretches that are good for grazing (Psalm 65:12, Jer 23:10) but sometimes a midbar is deserted and empty. Job 38:26 speaks of a land (eretz) without people (ish) and a wilderness (midbar) without men (adam), and just like a land is not typically without people, so is a midbar also not typically without men. Sometimes the midbar even holds towns and peoples (Isa 42:11, Jos 15:61).Twice, however, the word is used metaphorically and typically negative: Hosea 2:5 and Jer 2:31, possibly valid by its ultimate association to wildernesses such as the deserts of Negev and Sinai.
	= Daberath, a town on the border of Zebulun (Joshua 19:12)
	= Dibri, a Danite whose grandson blasphemed and was executed (Lev 24:11).
	= Lo-Debar; Town in Gilead, in Manasseh mentioned in 2 Sam 9:4 and 17:27. Lo is a common particle of negation: No Word.
	= Lidebir (Josh 13:26), a town that may or may not have something to do with Lo-Debar. The way it is spelled here it means For The Word. But, the lamed may also be due to the structure of the sentence and the town's name is plainly Debir.