The Three-Hundred-Twentieth (Cords)
It never ceases to amaze me how such seemingly simple things become so intricate, detailed, and versatile in scripture. One of those things is what we’re going to take a look at this week. In most translations I’ve read, the Hebrew word is translated to cord, but you could also call it a rope, and it’s very interesting how such a plain and ubiquitous item is used for so many different ideas in scripture.
In fact, there are actually quite a few verses where the Hebrew word chebel (Strong’s H2256) isn’t even translated to cord or rope. In one verse, it’s translated to coast, like the coast of the sea (Zephaniah 2:5). In another, it’s pain or pangs, as in birth pangs (Isaiah 26:17).
There’s even connections between this word and the idea of the spiritual rebirth that Yeshua presented to Nicodemus on that rooftop in the middle of the night (John 3:3-8). We’ll get to that in a moment, but first we need to remind ourselves of what ropes were used for in ancient times. To do that, we need to think about what a rope actually is and what things we use today that were not commonplace back then.
At the most basic level, a rope is a group of fibers that are twisted together. The intertwining and twisting together of these fibers gives strength to the material that makes up the fibers such that a material that is easily broken on its own is many times stronger based on the friction between each fiber. Ropes can be made of one strand of these twisted fibers or multiple strands, and I think most believers are familiar with the verse referring to the strength of a rope with multiple strands (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
Everyone is pretty familiar with how ropes are used today. They tie things together. They tie things down. They lift things up. They pull things. However, one use of ancient times that has been replaced by something new today is as a measuring device.
They didn’t have tape measures back then, and ropes were everywhere. As a result, they were used for measuring distances and marking boundaries. It was much easier to run a rope that can be coiled up to measure long runs rather than a giant measuring stick that could not collapse down in length.
All these uses are included in scripture and form the versatility of chebel in the physical and spiritual concepts presented. In a way, just as a physical rope is twisted together fibers that produce strength, these uses of chebel are twisted together to give strength to the imagery and ideas with which this word is used. It’s not as simple as a one-size-fits-all answer, though.
Similar to many other examples of scriptural word usage, this Hebrew word does not always represent something good or represent something bad. Sometimes, the rope is something that lifts up, while other times it’s something that pulls down. In some cases, it binds as a restriction, when in other cases it binds as a unification.
I’ve read this word many times in scripture, probably the same as you, and while there was a vague recognition in my mind that there is something more, it was reading a psalm that recently piqued my interest to take a deeper look. As I looked at more and more occurrences of the word, I realized that it’s more than just a rope. There’s deeper spiritual significance in this word.
One example of this is in a psalm that’s referenced by Matthew in his gospel. The disciples asked Yeshua why He taught in such a cryptic way, using parables. Matthew showed that His parables were actually another way of confirming He is the Son of YHWH (Matthew 13:34-35).
Later in the psalm Matthew quoted, after it turns into a rebuke of Israel and her unfaithfulness to YHWH, the psalmist talks about how YHWH drove nations out of the land so Israel could settle there. I bet you didn’t know that a rope was involved in that! The verse mentions apportioning, allotting, or dividing, the land as inheritance, and chebel is the word that’s translated to apportion (Psalm 78:55).
What’s interesting about that is the phrasing of the Hebrew there. While many of the English translations of this verse give the idea that Israel was given the inheritance, the Hebrew actually says it was the nations that lost their inheritance to the tribes of Israel. The literal translation is, “And He drove out before their face the nations and caused them to fall in the line of inheritance.” The phrase, “in the line,” in that statement is translated from chebel.
“Caused them to fall,” is translated from the Hebrew word naphal (Strong’s H5307), which means, “to fall.” While this word is certainly used in contexts that are neither negative nor positive, like when YHWH caused Adam “to fall” into a deep sleep (Genesis 2:21), in the context of Psalm 78 the negative usage can be the only proper reading. It doesn’t make sense for Israel, who was certainly given the land as a positive thing, as an inheritance which is specified in other verses (Genesis 12:7, Genesis 15:18-21, Psalm 105:11, etc.), to “fall” into such an inheritance. It does, however, make sense for nations that turned away from YHWH and worshipped other gods to “fall” out of their inheritance.
Either way, in the act of apportioning the land the concept of a rope is used. The same is true when scripture talks about setting aside YHWH’s people. Jacob is called His “allotted” (chebel) inheritance, and in that same verse we see a connection to the Hebrew root word chalaq (Strong’s H2505), which means “to divide” (Deuteronomy 32:9).
I want you to not miss the fact that this allotment idea is still intimately related to the idea of using a rope for measurement. Each portion of the land was measured out and divided according to the size of the tribe that would be living in it. The same is true for YHWH’s people being apportioned to Him, but in that case it’s a spiritual measurement of their heart and who they put their faith in. Those who are faithful are included and those who are not, aren’t included.
We see an example of this in a prophecy of judgment on Israel given during the first Temple period. Micah rebukes Israel for the oppressors that have grown in number among the people, taking other Israelites’ houses and depriving them of their inheritance (Micah 2:2). In a parallel typical of prophecy, and scripture in general, Israel’s judgment for allowing these people to do what they did was that they would no longer have anyone among YHWH’s assembly to have their lot “divided” among and given to, where “divided” is translated from chebel (Micah 2:5).
The fact that those oppressors transgressed YHWH’s commandments by devising ways to take inheritance from their fellow Israelites meant that their hearts were measured as being evil and their own inheritance was subsequently revoked. In a similar way to inheritance being given or revoked, we see scripture using the rope to spiritually bring people up or to bring people down. Depending on who is doing the pulling and what the purpose of the pulling is, the rope can be used either positively or negatively.
In one verse, we see Rahab saving the Israelite spies using a rope (Joshua 2:14-15), and in other verses Jeremiah is lowered into a cistern with a rope because of the prophecies he was giving and then rescued from that cistern with a rope (Jeremiah 38:6, 11-13). In yet another verse, Hushai convinces Absalom, David’s son, to go against the trusted advice of Ahithophel by giving the imagery of pulling an entire city, in which David could be hiding, into the valley using ropes (2 Samuel 17:13). Clearly, that’s not physically possible, so it gives us the spiritual idea of using rope to bring something down into destruction.
One of the most interesting things along the line of rope pulling is that even YHWH is depicted as using them for this purpose. He talks about pulling, or leading, His people with rope in kindness and love out of Egypt (Hosea 11:4). On the other end of the spectrum, we see man pulling iniquity along using ropes of deceit (Isaiah 5:18).
We also see the idea of ropes being used as a sort of spiritual snare; a trap that’s used for the purposes of evil. The proud set these traps (Psalm 140:6), and the wicked get caught in them because of their actions (Job 18:10). However, while these are both examples of the negative, there’s another example in scripture of positive and negative: being bound by rope.
On the positive side, we see chebel being used to describe a group of people being bound together for a purpose. Samuel tells Saul, after anointing him king, that he will come upon a chebel of prophets and will join them in prophesying (1 Samuel 10:5-6). One of YHWH’s staffs, with which He pastured His people, was called Union (chebel), showing that Israel and Judah were bound together in brotherhood before being divided due to unfaithfulness (Zechariah 11:7, 14).
On the negative side, we see Death and Sheol having the ability to bind people, and this imagery is the one that always stood out to me when it comes to ropes, or cords, in scripture. David talks about the cords of death surrounding him and the cords of Sheol encircling him when referencing the efforts of Saul and other enemies to capture and kill him (2 Samuel 22:6, Psalm 18:4-5). Another psalm, not necessarily attributed to David, also uses this same phrasing (Psalm 116:3).
What’s interesting about the idea of Death and Sheol having cords that bind their victims is that when this imagery is used, the fact that YHWH has power over these cords also mentioned. In both the words of David and the other psalmist, if it wasn’t David, it talks about YHWH delivering from death (Psalm 116:8) and coming to save from death (2 Samuel 22:7, Psalm 18:6). In other words, the power and authority of YHWH is shown to be greater than that of death.
As we saw some number of studies ago, other groups of people in ancient times saw death as a sort of “final boss battle” that any god worth their salt had to be able to overcome. However, in those beliefs, the gods struggled to do so and some even needed the help of man, of the people’s king, in order to return from their trip to the underworld. In YHWH’s case, no help is needed because of His sovereignty over all things, including death.
This brings us to the last, most interesting use of chebel in scripture; the one I promised we’d get to! In this case, the word is translated to pangs, or pains. We see mountain goats bringing forth their young through birth pains (Job 39:3). We also see women crying out in birth pangs (Isaiah 26:7).
I can only guess at why the same word for rope is used for birth pains. Perhaps because birth pains feel like a rope tightening and loosening around the belly? I don’t know because I haven’t experienced them, but I do know secondhand that they can be quite painful!
Either way, through this imagery, death is also connected. In Isaiah, YHWH’s people gave birth to nothing because they had no power to do so, but YHWH’s power would raise His people from death (Isaiah 26:19). Israel had labor pains and failed to show up for the birth, but YHWH promised to ransom them from Sheol and redeem them from Death (Hosea 13:13-14).
In a prophecy almost assuredly predicting Yeshua and the birth of His kingdom (Daniel 2:34, 44-45), Isaiah talks about Jerusalem giving birth before being in birth pains (Isaiah 66:7). The fulfillment of this prophecy was that Yeshua came, ministered, and started His kingdom before Jerusalem, and the Jews in general, went through the judgment culminating in the destruction of the city and the temple in 70AD. The labor and birth began at the same time (Isaiah 66:8c) because Yeshua’s ministry involved a lot of consternation in the people and their established system at the same time as the disciples were being chosen and the number of Yeshua’s followers were growing.
While not specifically stated in scripture, this connection between birth and death has a parallel in the concept of being born again. As alluded to earlier, Nicodemus questioned Yeshua on how a grown man could enter into his mother’s womb to be born again, but Yeshua was referring to a spiritual rebirth; a birth from death which is caused by sin. The symbolic representation of this is baptism, as Paul states in his letter to the believers in Rome (Romans 6:4).
I can almost guarantee that you had no idea how often this idea of cords or ropes showed up throughout scripture! I know I didn’t before I looked into it! So, what does it all mean, and how can we use this?
Sometimes, a word study is just a way to find threads running throughout scripture that we didn’t know existed before. In this case, while the study of chebel certainly did that, I think there’s also an opportunity to meditate on what we learned in order to make sure we’ve identified all the spiritual intricacies of the concept and solidified those in our minds. That way, when we come across this idea as we read scripture, we can have a better idea of the depth of meaning that’s there.
We hope you have a great week! Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!
-Rob and Sara Gene
The Gospel
We are born sinful as a result of Adam and Eve's sin (Genesis 2:17, 3:6, 1 John 1:8)
The consequence of sin, which is unavoidable through our own works, is death (Romans 6:23)
Yeshua, the Son of YHWH, lived sinless and was put to death (Hebrews 4:15)
His death, therefore, cleanses us of sin that would have required our death
He rose on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:4)
Because of His resurrection, we are confident in our future resurrection and eternal life
Comments