Ervah: Hebrew Word Study Is Beautiful!For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee. (Dt. 23:14) The Lord expected holiness from his people, as you can see in the verse above. There was not supposed to be anything in the Hebrew camp/community that would displease God and cause him to turn away from the people instead of bless them. Impliedly, from the context, one thing that could turn him away would be if he saw an ervat davar (something showing a nakedness or an occurrence of something contrary to holiness). The Hebrew word ervat comes from the word ervah, meaning generally “nakedness”. The word davar seems to mean an “event” or “occurrence” in this context. Both words ervat davar generally give the meaning “nakedness of a matter” (“unclean thing” KJV), something that would expose moral incompleteness and perhaps be repulsive. The same two Hebrew words together are also used in the next verse (translated “some uncleanness” KJV) : When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. (Dt. 24:1) Whatever the situation, the man had the right to divorce her if he found something in the woman that was not holy to him, something that seemed repulsive to him. As in the former chapter, even as hypothetically the Lord could have turned away from the camp if he found something repulsive, likewise in this verse, the man could turn away his blessing from the woman through divorce. Both verses reveal repulsiveness and turning away or divorce which may be a result of something found naked or unclean. However, even though divorce and remarriage was tolerated in the old covenant, and so was polygamy, the latter two expired in the new covenant. Today, divorce/annulment is permitted and expected due to fornication (uncleanness). Christianity does not tolerate the passing of a woman with "some uncleanness" to another man. God desires the Christian community to be without ervat davar, the women proven chaste (hopefully without a court session) as those who were dowry brides, who were not allowed to be voluntarily divorced, that our families be morally and sexually clean. Links: Hosea and Gomer: Old Covenant Permission Passivity and Indecision Unacceptable Beware of Adultery Wolves in Sheep's Clothing Provisional Helps: Voluntary Homogeneous Community
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