HEBREW WORD STUDY – WATCHTOWER – MIZPAH – מפה  

Genesis 31:49:  It was also called Mizpah, because he said, “May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.

I remember watching an old movie made during World War II called “Stage Door Canteen.”  It was about celebrities who gathered together at an old theater set up as a nightclub to give soldiers about to embark on the war overseas an evening of relaxation and food.  At one point a soldier commented that as he and his wife parted they said “Mizpah” to each other. Another soldier overhearing the conversation ask what “Mizpah” meant. Francis Langford then went into the lengthy explanation that it meant a tender, emotional bond between two people when they are separated either physically or by death.  She went on with a few more paragraphs in her definition. My first thought was: “All that from one word?”

When you look at this word in the Bible and your lexicons you will find it only means a place or a watchtower. Yet, this word, like so many Hebrew words, has a broad range of meaning.  This is a prime example of how lexicographers use the context a word from a dead language to determine the meaning. The problem is that in looking at this verse to apply the meaning of Mizpah they only went as far as “the Lord watch between you and me” and concluded that it meant a watchtower.   They overlooked the last phrase “when we are away from each other.” The Jewish sages included that in their definition as well and we find the word mizpah now used as a form of prayer, a word used by two lovers who are separated from each other, a word used on jewelry, often printed on a necklace in the shape of a heart and the heart split in two where each lover wears a half of the heart around their necks as a memorial to their bond with each other while separated.

Yet, we in our Christian Western thought have to be so cold and scientific that we see only the meaning that the Lord will keep a watch over us and totally neglect the rest of the meaning that He will keep watch over those of us He has bonded with like two lovers keep a watch over their hearts while they are separated.   When that soldier went off to war his wife would pray for him, think of him, keep a special place in their home ready for him, and send him letters, packages of cookies and anything else to be a watchtower over his heart. In turn, that husband would remain faithful to his wife while separated, send letters, money, words of encouragement, anything that will keep him as a watchtower over her heart.

When I leave a worship service where God and I have shared an intimate time together, we say: “Mizpah” to each other.  In that emotional word God is committed to protecting me, watching over me, providing for me, keeping a special place ready for me for the next time we come together in worship.  He is promising to be a watchtower over my heart. In return when I say: “Mizpah to Him I am promising to be faithful to Him as my only God, to support his desires and do what He desires and never to be unfaithful to Him.  I am promising to be a watchtower over His heart.