HEBREW WORD STUDY – AN INFUSION OF POWER – CHAZAQ חזק  Cheth Zayin  Qop  

Isaiah 41:13: “For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” 

Various translations will say that God “upholds” your right hand, some will say he “takes’ your right hand and some will say “strengthen” your right hand.  You know, this is one of those verses from which I could draw a lot of comfort and I would really like to know if God is upholding my right hand or strengthening my right hand or just holding it.  I tell, I need more than God holding my hand or even upholding my right hand at this point. Anyways, why just my right hand, I do have another hand that could use a little holding you know. Obviously my right hand is a metaphor?  

So if we are speaking of a metaphor, then the right hand in Hebrew culture represent strength and power.  The word in Hebrew is yamen and means, get this, right hand. I tell old Strongs or the lexicons can give you a revelation a minute.  Actually, this word for right hand is spelled Yod, Mem Nun which suggests a revelation from heaven (Yod) received by faith (Nun) which will give you strength and power (Mem).  That helps. 

The word hold is chazaq which means to strengthen, confirm or restore. I like the word restore. God will restore my strength and power. Still, that does not fully explain chazaq.  Chazaq is to have your strength restored or renewed by the addition of His strength.  Today I was helping a rather large person into my disability bus and she started to become disoriented and she started to go down.  I cried out (in my heart, not outloud, I didn’t want to look like a fool) “Oh Lord, send the power.”  I know many will say it was a just a surge of adrenaline on my part as well as hers, but she didn’t go down. Still, that is an illustration of chazaq.   

Yet, the passage says the “Lord your God.” The word lord is Jehovah or YHWH. You have God addressed as YHWH and Elohim. As I indicated in prior studies YHWH is in a feminine form and Elohim is in a masculine form. So both the feminine and masculine traits are present when he restores our strength. Plus, the word for hold or strengthen is a Hiphal participle.  So it is not that He will, but he is at this moment bringing about events that will strengthen and encourage us. At the moment my charge started to fall God’s hand was also there ready to give that extra ummph! We are receiving a continual infusion of strength and power from God but in a gentle YHWH motherly way and in the “On your feet be a man, give it all you got,” Elohim fatherly way. 

God knows just what it is we need, when we need it and how much we need. Sometimes we get so beaten down that He needs to come to us in a tender way, wipe our tears away and speak gently to us to restore our strength.  Other times we just get to feeling so sorry for ourselves and start rolling around in our selfpity that God has to slap us across the face in a “thanks I needed that” way. 

Either way, we need not fear for he does promise to “help” us.   Every translation will translate azar as help which is right in line with the lexicon.  However, the word means more than helping out. When I think about help I picture someone working away and then someone else comes along and gives a little assistance and then moves on. ‘Azar, is more than that, it is someone partnering with you in a project and working with you each step of the way from start to finish. ‘Azar is in a Qal perfect form, actually, those in my Hebrew class will understand, you could say it is past, present and future.  He has been, He is and He will be helping us.  

No matter what we are going through, sickness, financial difficulties, relationship problems, he has promised in Isaiah 41:13 to join with us, partner with us in that struggle and to give us chazaq a continual infusion of His strength and power. If we really believe this, and meditate on it, why should we ever be afraid.