Hebrew Word Study – New Beginning – Yiphasechu – Yod Pei Sade Cheth Vav

Isaiah 55:12: “For you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace.  The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you with singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

Summer and winter, springtime and harvest

Sun moon and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. 

Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

– Thomas Chisholm,  “Great is Thy Faithfulness”

Have you ever been filled with the joy of the Lord such that it seems like all nature joins with you in praising God? I really believe that this is what the prophet Isaiah is trying to express here. I recall years ago when I was working as a caregiver I was sitting with a client on his porch.  As a caregiver, I had a client who was pretty unresponsive and so I was just looking out over his backyard when a chipmunk ran up on the porch. You know how they are, once they see you they stop, get up on their hind legs, and twitch their nose at you as if to say: “Hello Chaim, mighty fine day we’re having” and then they run off.  Only on this occasion, I suggested to my furry chipmunk friend, that he join me in a little worship session with our creator. As if to answer he started giving a little chirp and then ran off. I took that as a “Praise the Lord.”  

Sounds crazy, No? Well, what do expect from a dusty 73-year-old professor who finds spiritual insight under every rock he overturns? I know Isaiah 55:12 is just a metaphor and a personification. The mountains don’t sing nor do the trees clap their hands – do they?

Actually, in the Hebrew the word for breaking forth is yiphasechu which could have two possible roots. It could be pasach which is to break forth with a loud joyful noise.   Another possible root would be paras which is the word used when a child is born or breaks forth through the womb for a new beginning. Both words have the idea of breaking forth either with a loud joyful noise or a new beginning or both. This breaking forth is done with rinah which is simply a joyful noise. This would lead me to assume the root word is paras (a breaking forth as in a child breaking forth from the womb) rather than pasach as a breaking forth with a joyful noise. So, if we would say that the root word for yipasechu is paras, then we would render this as “the mountain is breaking forth with the joy of a new beginning.”

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So at 73 years of age, I wonder how this verse would apply to me. I would love a new beginning. I began this day feeling the joy of the Lord, almost like a new beginning.  Then the old back started hurting and I checked my bank account and this new beginning quickly deteriorated into the same old same old. I didn’t find anything in this supposed new beginning to rejoice about. As I pondered this thought I suddenly heard someone say; “Oh yeah?” I looked around and there I saw my Hebrew letter friends Pei Resh and Sade, paras (breaking forth in a new beginning) sitting on my desk next to my Hebrew Bible waving at me. I warned you that I was just an eccentric old professor. I looked at Pei Resh and Sade and saw they were dressed in military fatigues and each wore sergeant stripes. Pei, (which represents mouth) shouted “Tend hut!” “Who am I tending to?” I asked. Resh (which represents following a path with an unknown destination) shouted “Forward March!” Sade (which represents performing a humble task) began a cadence  “One, Two, Three, Four, One Two Three…” Well, I played along and I was marching through my “Looking Glass” where I found myself in the midst of a field filled with hundreds of holes that have been dug by many other Christians this day. I was ordered by Pei, Resh, and Sade to start digging.   

“Why am I digging a senseless hole?” I asked. Pei, Resh, and Sade didn’t answer me but only began to sing: “You’re in God’s army now, to satan you will never bow. You grow a little bit by digging God’s ditch, you’re in God’s army now.” “Huh?” I asked. “I still don’t get it, what does digging a ditch have to do with a new beginning?”

Pei, (mouth, speaking) said that Lamentations 3:23 tells us that God’s mercies are new every morning. The mountains and hills break forth with joy every morning as every morning brings new mercies. You come forth in joy and lead in peace because every day is a new day. This joy in Isaiah 55:12 comes from the newness of God’s mercies every day.” “I get it,” I replied scornfully: “So what am I digging for?” Pei said that he is the number 100, Resh said he is 200 and Sade said he is 90. I added this up and found it totaled 390. Suddenly I struck something solid. I pulled out Mem, Shin, Kap, and Lamed, (masekel) which means understanding. “Boy, it was hot down there, thanks for digging us up.” Said Mem. I looked Masekel over and said: “Why you are “understanding.“ “Right and hey and over there is our numerical counterpart, Pasach, how you guys doing?”  They went over and shook each other’s hands. “Numerical counterpart?” I asked. “Sure nuf,” said Paras, we both have a numerical value of 390.

I returned Paras to my Hebrew Bible, but before they jumped in Pei, Resh, and Sade snapped to attention and saluted me, and said: “Nice digging, you really found yourself a blessing.”  

I thought about that. I just dug up understanding. I was having one miserable day, but when I dug through that day I found a moment of understanding where God had given me a real blessing, in the form of a new beginning which I had never realized was a new beginning, a simple beginning, one I would not have recognized but for my friend Paras.  For you see, every day is a new day with God, a new beginning.  If I can’t rejoice as the mountains and hills over this new day or beginning, then I must dig to find out the blessings that God gives each day if I am to fully comprehend the meaning of Isaiah 55:12 in my life. 

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