Numbers 33:56

 Numbers 33:56

Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.

a. NLT: And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them.” [Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.]

b. ASV: And it shall come to pass, that, as I thought to do unto them, so will I do unto you.  [Thomas Nelson & Sons first published the American Standard Version in 1901. This translation of the Bible is in the public domain.]

c. YLT:  And it hath come to pass, as I thought to do to them -- I do to you.' [The Young's Literal Translation was translated by Robert Young, who believed in a strictly literal translation of God's word. This version of the Bible is in the public domain.]

d. Classic Amplified: And as I thought to do to them, so will I do to you. [Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation]

e. Stone Edition THE CHUMASH, Rabbinic Commentary: And it shall be that what i had meant to do to them, I shall do to you.  [The Artscroll Series/Stone Edition, THE CHUMASH Copyright 1998, 2000 by MESORAH PUBLICATIONS, Ldt.]

f. The Israel Bible: So that I will do to you what I planned to do to them.  [The English Translation was adapted by Israel 365 from the JPS Tanakh. Copyright Ⓒ 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society. All rights reserved.]

g. NIV: And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.’ ”  [THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.]

1. “Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.”

a. [Moreover it ] shall come to pass [Strong: 1961 hayah haw-yaw a primitive root (Compare 1933); to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary):--beacon, X altogether, be(-come), accomplished, committed, like), break, cause, come (to pass), do, faint, fall, + follow, happen, X have, last, pertain, quit (one-)self, require, X use.]

b. [that I shall] do [to you] [Strong: 6213 `asah aw-saw' a primitive root; to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application (as follows):--accomplish, advance, appoint, apt, be at, become, bear, bestow, bring forth, bruise, be busy, X certainly, have the charge of, commit, deal (with), deck, + displease, do, (ready) dress(-ed), (put in) execute(-ion), exercise, fashion, + feast, (fight-)ing man, + finish, fit, fly, follow, fulfill, furnish, gather, get, go about, govern, grant, great, + hinder, hold ((a feast)), X indeed, + be industrious, + journey, keep, labour, maintain, make, be meet, observe, be occupied, offer, + officer, pare, bring (come) to pass, perform, pracise, prepare, procure, provide, put, requite, X sacrifice, serve, set, shew, X sin, spend, X surely, take, X thoroughly, trim, X very, + vex, be (warr-)ior, work(-man), yield, use.]

c. as [Strong: 834 'aher ash-er' a primitive relative pronoun (of every gender and number); who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.:--X after, X alike, as (soon as), because, X every, for, + forasmuch, + from whence, + how(-soever), X if, (so) that ((thing) which, wherein), X though, + until, + whatsoever, when, where (+ -as, -in, -of, -on, -soever, -with), which, whilst, + whither(- soever), who(-m, -soever, -se). As it is indeclinable, it is often accompanied by the personal pronoun expletively, used to show the connection.]

d. [I] thought [Strong: 1819 damah daw-maw' a primitive root; to compare; by implication, to resemble, liken, consider:--compare, devise, (be) like(-n), mean, think, use similitudes.]

e. [to] do] [unto them] [Strong: 6213 `asah aw-saw' a primitive root; to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application (as follows):--accomplish, advance, appoint, apt, be at, become, bear, bestow, bring forth, bruise, be busy, X certainly, have the charge of, commit, deal (with), deck, + displease, do, (ready) dress(-ed), (put in) execute(-ion), exercise, fashion, + feast, (fight-)ing man, + finish, fit, fly, follow, fulfill, furnish, gather, get, go about, govern, grant, great, + hinder, hold ((a feast)), X indeed, + be industrious, + journey, keep, labour, maintain, make, be meet, observe, be occupied, offer, + officer, pare, bring (come) to pass, perform, pracise, prepare, procure, provide, put, requite, X sacrifice, serve, set, shew, X sin, spend, X surely, take, X thoroughly, trim, X very, + vex, be (warr-)ior, work(-man), yield, use.]

1). Many times in the Old Testament there are instances where God appears to be a stern God that makes people sick, destroys them and inflicts them. Some have described almost two different Deities in the Old and New testaments. The cause of this confusion is the often neglected Hebrew Idiom of Permission. In his book “God Is Said To Do What He Only Permits”, Troy Edwards cites a number of Hebrew scholars that teach the knowledge of this Hebrew Idiom.

a). John Foyster Goodge, Sermons (London: Ibotson and Palmer, 1826), p. 90: “In the language of Scripture, natural consequences are sometimes spoken of as though they were preordained and irrevocable decrees. What happens solely through the permission of the Almighty, in the ordinary course of his Providence, is described as though it had taken place through some special irresistible intervention of his hand. This is a mode of writing peculiar to the Hebrew idiom; an idiom which prevails everywhere throughout the New testament as well as the Old. Thus, when the sacred writers represent God as “blinding the eyes of men that they should not see, and hardening their hearts that they should not understand;” their meaning generally is, that he does not powerfully interfere to prevent those evils which are the natural fruits of our own folly, perverseness, and impenitence.

b). James Kendall, A Sermon, Delivered at the Ordination of Rev. Oliver Hayward (Samuel T. Armstrong, 1816), pp.7, 8.: “There is likewise an idiom peculiar to the language of every nation, more especially of the Eastern nations, which it is necessary, as far as may be, to learn; otherwise we shall make the sacred writers say more or less, then they intended to say; and shall be liable to wrest some things, which they do say, to their dishonour and our own destruction. For instance, in the language of Scriptures God is sometimes said to do what he only permits to take place under his moral government; to do what he gives power or opportunity to his  creatures to do themselves; to do what he foretells will take place by the agency of others; to do what naturally results from his having withdrawn those influences of his grace, which have long been abused, resisted, and quenched. Now to understand such passages literally and without any qualification would be to make a pure and holy God, with whom is no iniquity, and who cannot look upon sin; the principal and immediate agent in the most horrid crimes recorded in the inspired volume; and this, too, in the face of the most solemn prohibitions of the inspired writers themselves, who forbid any man to say, or even think, when he is tempted, that he is tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man.” 

2). Within the Hebrew language there is a permissive sense to verbs that imply a causative sense.

a). Elias De La Roche, A Treatise on the Peculiarities of the Bible: “The Hebrews, and indeed all the orientalists, often use verbs metonymically with respect to those who are not themselves the authors of any action, but who afford occasion of performing it by not preventing it. [Reprinted from Troy Edwards, The Permissive Sense]

b). E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech in the Bible. “Active verbs were used by the Hebrews to express, not the doing of the thing, but the permission of the thing which the agent is said to do.” [Reprinted from Troy Edwards, He Only Permits.]

(1) In Exodus 7:3, 13 God said He was going to harden Pharaoh's heart, and yet in Exodus 8:15, 32 it says Pharoah hardened his own heart.

(2) In Isaiah 6:9, 10 it refers to Israel, whose heart and ears are seemingly prevented from hearing and seeing and ultimately receiving conversion and healing. Yet Jesus said in Matthew 13:13-15 that these people hardened their own heart through disobedience.

(3) Finally in Romans 1:18-32 we see the laws, the boundaries, that God has ordained  and we see process of man's disobedience that causes these maladies because of man’s sin. Man persist in engaging in sin, and God not violating man's free will, allows it, and man descends into bondage to the sin. This process is described as God “giving man up to sin.”

3).  Don Costello: Included in the dominion given to man at creation (Genesis 1:26-28) were the principles of free will and choice. Mankind was given lordship over the earth.The engaging in this free will and choice and the consequences it results in also reveals the extent of the dominion given to man. Although this sacred responsibility became corrupted at the fall, it did not cease. Which is why when we see in human history and today, wicked men rise up to do the most horrible things to their fellow man and God does not jump in and say “OK Time out! Stop. I’m not going to allow you to do these things.” He allows it because it is part of the dominion mandate that was given to man. It seems that God takes a seemingly ‘hands off approach’ even allowing the fall of man and the horrible suffering that occurs as collateral damage. (Sowing and reaping principle and revelations of  permissive will in Hebrew language). But, in reality, it is not that God takes a hands off approach, but that the power to choose behavior and the consequences resulting from them were handed over to man at creation within the dominion mandate. Yes eventually everyone will answer to God for their deeds, and there is a sowing and reaping principle active in the life of man, but it will not be until the Great White Throne Judgment until true justice will be fully meted out. Whether it is sickness and disease or any of the other horrible calamities that plague human history from creation, it was what was included in the “dominion” the LORD gave to us at creation that explains these things and why we suffer under them.