All: The inner life in Scripture's own words

The inner life in Scripture's own words

yare: one root, and it means both terror and reverence

What the lexicon says. יָרֵא (yare) is glossed "to fear, revere, be afraid". Its Qal senses are listed as "to fear, be afraid", "to stand in awe of, be awed", and "to fear, reverence, honour, respect". Strong's: "To fear; morally to revere; causatively to frighten."

Both senses in one verse. "And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before you, that ye sin not" (Exodus 20:20, ASV). The tagged text shows two related words: "Fear not" is the verb H3372G, and "his fear" is the noun יִרְאָה (yirah, H3374), which Strong's derives from the same root. ⚠️ They are not two senses of one lemma but a verb and its noun, which is a smaller claim than "the same word twice" and is the accurate one. Deuteronomy sets fear beside love without any sense of contradiction: "to fear Jehovah thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him" (Deuteronomy 10:12, ASV).

The counts. The verb H3372 splits two ways, 201 verses for the sense tagged H3372G and 107 for the other, 308 in all. The noun H3374 is in 45 verses.

Sources: Exodus 20:20; Deuteronomy 10:12; TBESH entries H3372G and H3374; Strong's Hebrew Dictionary (1890), entries H3372 and H3374; Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906), entry H3372.

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  • Exodus 20:20bsb

    “Do not be afraid,” Moses replied. “For God has come to test you, so that the fear of Him may be before you, to keep you from sinning.”

  • Deuteronomy 10:12bsb

    And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

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yare: one root, and it means both terror and reverence · Bubble Bible