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Oath

Devarim 29:12-14
So that you should enter into the covenant of YHWH your Elohim, and into His oath (וּבאלתוֹ ), which YHWH your Elohim is making with you today; so that He may establish you today for a people to Himself, and He Himself will be your Elohim, as He has spoken to you, and as He has sworn to your father, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Ya’aqov.  And I am not making this covenant and this [the] oath (האלה ) with you alone, but with him who stands here with us today before YHWH your Elohim; and also with him that is not here with us today.

In the paragraph Devarim (Deuteronomy) 29:10-23, the word אלה (alah) appears five times.  This is Strong’s number 422.  Three of those times (verses 14, 19, 20), it is with the definite article ה (the) – האלה (remembering that Hebrew is read from right to left).  Please note that “alah” אלה in verses 12 and 14 above is translated both places as ‘oath’.

Verse 19
And it shall be when he hears the words of this curse (האלה ), that he will boast, saying, “I have peace though I will walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered with the dry.”

The first phrase of this verse could just as easily be translated as follows:

And it shall be when he hears the words of the oath, that he will boast saying,

In fact, this actually helps to clarify what is actually happening.

Verse 20
YHWH shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of YHWH and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse (האלה ) which is written in this book will rest on him, and YHWH will blot out his name from under heaven.

Likewise, the corresponding phrase in this verse could be translated as:

“and the oath which is written in this book will rest on him,”

The meaning of the word “alah” is “oath”.  From the context of the above passage, we can see that if one does not fully enter into His “alah” (oath), it will be as a curse to him; or rather this particular “oath”, literally:  “the oath” of YHWH our Elohim, it will become a curse to us.

The adding of an additional letter “L” into the word “alah” to make it read “Allah” changes the pronunciation (albeit only slightly) from “ah-LAH” to “ALL-ah”; this is poor scholarship.

All Yisrael has transgressed Your teaching and deviated so as not to heed (shema) Your Voice; and poured out upon us were the curse (האלה ) and the oath which is written in the Torah of Moshe, servant of Elohim, for we have sinned against Him.
Dani’el 9:11

It seems clear upon examination of the text, that the passage in Dani’el 9:11 is referring back to this passage in Devarim; and Rashi agrees with that assessment.

Rashi also includes in his assessment of Dani’el 9:11, the following passage from the Torah.

Vayyiqra 26:18
If also after these things, you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

What this shows to us, is that the cause and the result of our disobedience are of our own doing, not someone or something else.

I do find it interesting to note the similarity between the name of the false deity of Islam (Allah) and this Hebrew word (alah).  However, I would not build doctrine upon it, as that seems rather shaky and perhaps stretching it a bit.

I find it quite enlightening to note that this oath becomes a curse according to Dani’el because of failure to hear and obey (shema) His Voice.

The bottom line in all this is that it is one’s personal choice whether “the oath” is a blessing or a curse to one individually and/or collectively.

ABBA YHWH, please cause each and every one of Your children to live according to Your Torah that we might have Your blessings from The Oath, rather than the curses from The Oath; in the Name of Yeshua our Mashiach, Amein.

Zerubbabel ben Emunah
www.onetorahforall.com
zerubbabel@onetorahforall.com

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