Drawing Wisdom from the Wells of Salvation

With joy ye shall draw water (wisdom) from the wells of salvation." (Isaiah 12:3)


I want to show you what I have found about the Hebrew word "Dalah" -to draw out.

"Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out." (Prov.20:5).


DALAH-  To let down a bucket (for drawing out water); figuratively, to deliver, draw out,  lift up - Hebrew  Dictionary:

Yahshuah  said, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day". (John 6:44)  The Father draws you to Yahshuah by providing a well of wisdom for humans.

Augustine, of Hippo Africa,  in the Fourth Century A.D.,  interpreted these words to mean that God (Yah) picks those he will bring to heaven,  and those he will condemn to hell. Augustine said it  is all predetermined before you are born. It is called Double Predestination. Augustine was a forceful man and  had all opponents condemned as heretics,  and thus his view has held sway and has cast a  shadow over Christian thought for 1600 years.

The shadow grew darker when many Protestant Reformers of the Sixteenth Century began expounding it, primarily Jean (who killed heretics) Calvin. According to Calvin, there is nothing anyone can do to about salvation, we are either elected to heaven or hell. There is no sin, nor good deed, you can do that can change your destination. It has all  been predetermined by Yah before the world began; billions of people will fry and a handful of the elect, who according to Calvin, are just as utterly depraved as those going to hell, will gain paradise. 

This erroneous doctrine of predestination, comes from trying to express Hebrew ideas in the Greek language. My rule for interpreting the Gospels is to ask yourself,  “what would the Hebrew word be for this”?

In Hebrew there are 12 words for draw depending on the action.

sha'ab    -to draw water

qarab  -to draw near

mashak -draw out   (to drag  out a sheep)

ruwq  - draw a sword

nathaq  -draw them to the highway

giyach  -  draw up leviathan

dalah  -  the wise draw out counsel from  other wise people

puwq  -draw out thy soul to the hungry

cachab  -  to tear out

chalats   -draw out the breast to nurse

antlema  -to draw with a bucket

chasaph   -draw out 50 shekels

Our oldest Gospel manuscripts in the West are in Greek and  the weak Greek word the 1st Century translators used in their limited vocabulary was Helko which is a word of violence like drawing a sword, or dragging someone, or something. No wonder Augustine and the Reformers thought there was nothing you could do about resisting your election to heaven. In New Testament Greek, Yah drags sinners into his kingdom.

                                                                              DALAH

I think the The Hebrew word that best describes the action Yahshuah is talking about is Dalah . It  means to work at  understanding  something, as in

“Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out." (Prov.20:5).

Dalah can also mean to lift something up  as in,

Psalm 30:1 " I will extol You,O LORD, for You have lifted me up (dalah), And have not let my enemies rejoice over me."

Yah's goal is to lift you up by making his wisdom and counsel available to those who seek it with  diligence. His wisdom is available to all  who seek, knock, ask, hunger, thirst for it, and strive to get it.  His plan is to give everyone a chance. Yahshuah quotes Isaiah and says "it is written in the prophets They shall all be taught of Yah."

Augustine/Calvin looked at the Gospels and saw  the good seed and bad seed, the good soil and bad soil, the wheat and the tares, the sheep and the goats, the children of Yah and the Children of the devil, and concluded you were born one or the other, and nothing could change it.

However, in John Chapter 8 Yahshuah is addressing a crowd of assassins and tells  them that Satan is their father. But Yahshuah clearly believes they can change. He says “you will die in your sins UNLESS you believe I am”  the Messiah (John 8:24).

Yahshuah told a story about a land owner who wanted to cut down a useless fig tree, but his gardener convinced him to give it one more year. The gardeners said, “I will prune it, dig around it, water and fertilize it, and perhaps it will produce figs.” Augustine/Calvin would say the tree was born bad and will end bad. But this parable indicates that the bad tree can change into a good tree.  Every bad person can change into a good person, even bad trees can change into good trees.

Yah is not willing that any should perish. He loves the world so much that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him might not perish.

Does that mean all people will be saved? No, but it means every lucid adult will have  opportunities to draw  wisdom from the Father; buckets of wisdom from the well of salvation 

Yah’s goal is to lift up fallen humans with his wisdom, not to drag them kicking and screaming into his kingdom. Perhaps if the First Century Greek translators had been more conversant with the Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament), they would have used the older Greek word exantlesel (from exantleo) found in Proverbs 20:5:

 "but a man of understanding will draw it out" (exantlesel) (Septuagint 250 B.C.) .

Socrates used exantlesel  when he said education is about drawing out what is already within the student.

Yahshuah said, "Every man therefore that has heard, and has learned (become educated) of the Father, comes to me."

Yah does not drag you, or force you, it is a life long learning process. You first open your ears and then you educate your mind.

Yahshuah said, "They shall all be taught of Yah". How many? All. Who teaches you?