Hebrew Word Study – Siege – Chanah – Cheth Nun Hei 

 Psalms 27:3: “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this [will] I [be] confident.”

 

Every modern translation I look at says the same thing, a host encamped against me. Who knows what a host is?  To me, a host is someone in charge of a party or event. That sounds like a good thing.  There are some modern translations that, thankfully, recognize the old English is not familiar to everyone so they render the word machaneh as an army rather than a host.  That is more understandable and more sinister sounding.  But even then, when I hear the word encampment I picture an army sitting outside their tents, their weapons laid aside, a campfire in front of them drinking coffee and singing I Wish I Was In Dixie.   Being an old Civil War buff, I hear the word encampment and I am thinking of something serene, soldiers in quiet meditation over an impending battle, maybe sitting around the campfire buried in their thoughts.  Encampments are not very threatening when I read that an army is encamped against me, so long as they stay peaceful.  

The word encampment is chanah.  This is the word for siege.  A siege in my mind is much different than an encampment. Their camp is empty and the soldiers are attacking a fortress while the inhabitants are fighting for their lives defending their ground.  Many translators go for a scientific rendering of a word and need to remember the emotional context. What baffles me is that every modern translation I read says encampment. Only one says deployed. For me being deployed first the emotional context of chanah is best. If a soldier is deployed it means he is positioned and ready to fight, although not necessarily fighting the soldier could be in battle at any moment. Deployed gets it better than an encampment.  

I would like to use the word siege only if there is a better understanding of the English word itself. Unless you have really studied history your only concept of a siege is from those phony Hollywood movies where the enemy storms the castle, puts up ladders climbs up the ladder to the top, and falls when they get shot by arrows.  Those that make it to the top are greeted by the defenders dumping cauldrons of hot cream of wheat and oatmeal on top of them as they scream – ahaaaaaaaa and fall.  Eventually, the ones laying siege enter the city and burn the survivors of the city at the stake. 

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That is not exactly what a siege is, it could be but generally, a siege is a war of attrition. The enemy would surround the city, cut off all avenues into the city so no food or water can get in and then they just sit down and wait to starve them out.  In a few weeks with everyone starving the king is ready to talk turkey (literally) and negotiate some sort of surrender.  The whole purpose of the siege was exactly that, to bring people to the point of surrender.  Sometimes the food would run out and they would force the weak, sick, and elderly outside the city so the food supply would last longer.  You have the story in II Kings 7:3 where four lepers were forced to starve outside the city of Samaria which was under siege by King Benhadad of Syria.  The starvation was so bad we learn in II Kings 6:25 that people were paying five pieces of silver for one four piece of a dove’s dookie. I have two pet doves and I would pay more than that to have their dookie removed from the cage. It doesn’t look very appetizing.  In verses 27-28 of chapter 6, we learn that two women agreed to boil their babies and eat them because they were so hungry.   That my friend is what a chanah is all about, not just a simple encampment with soldiers sitting drinking coffee and singing camp songs.  A siege was a war of attrition, holding not only soldiers but the whole population of a city hostage. 

In a modern context, we would use the word chanah for what Hamas is doing in Israel right now and that is holding hostages and threatening to chop their heads off if their demands are not met.  That is a little heavier than a simple encampment. 

I don’t know about you but lately, I felt the enemy has had me under chanah, siege and I need this verse.  Do you ever feel that way, the enemy is just slowly cutting off your life support and wearing you down?  It is just the little things, no big disasters or crises, but just little things that keep building, like the proverbial water dripping on your head until you can’t take it anymore and you are ready to surrender just get some relief. 

To those of us under siege from the enemy we have the promise that our hearts will not fear.  It is interesting that the word for fear is not paqad a fear of terror but it is yara’ fear out of respect. The people living in a city under siege have respect and awe for the enemy.  If they did not they would just march out and get rid of them. Instead, they respect their enemy which is powerful enough to do them in. They have both paqad and yara’.   However, if you do not have yara’ respect or awe for your enemy you will not have paqad or fear of terror and bodily harm from your enemy. 

When the enemy has you under siege bringing one bit of bad news after another, it begins to wear down. The war of attrition is beginning to do its work and you are beginning to feel some yara’ for the enemy, respect that he is more powerful. But Psalms 27 tells us that the Lord is our light and salvation and our hearts will have no respect for anyone but the Lord.

You may think an enemy can sit forever and wait out the city, but the army laying siege has its problems too.  When Sennacherib had Jerusalem under siege the Assyrian army came down with the trots and Sennacherib had to abandon the whole siege.  Sometimes, like in the story of the four lepers in II Kings 6-7 they got spooked out by the four lepers approaching the enemy army believing the illusion that God sent that it was an invading army.  The army laying siege panicked and ran thinking that the crazy king in Samaria must have gotten word to the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Parasites and they were about to get slaughtered.  Kings whose cities were under siege often managed to get word to allies and they would attack the besieging army and literally surround them.  Every besieging soldier had that constant fear in the back of his mind. 

Also, the very siege created such poor sanitation that disease would start to spread throughout the city.  Then the city rulers would catapult the dead bodies into the besieging army so they would come down with the very disease they were causing. Biological warfare is nothing new. 

When the enemy has us under siege, God will prove that He is superior and will catapult whatever the enemy throws at us back to him.

 

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