About 28 years ago when I was still pursuing my dream in the organic farming business, I was in Israel for about 10 months. During that time, as a farmer and a new believer, I did not feel it was important to learn the Hebrew language or visit biblical sites. I thought that I believed everything in the Bible and in God, and that was enough for me.
Now, as a Bible translation consultant that prepares and leads Old Testament content checking workshops with national teams, I greatly feel the need to sharpen my knowledge of the Hebrew language and biblical geography. My national teams have raised questions about various things: how to pronounce Hebrew names to transliterate them precisely in target languages, what certain plants and animals look like, how big certain ancient cities and objects were, etc. I have learned some things by reading and academic training, yet I could learn more by being in the land of the Bible and seeing the things in person. During my nine-month Hebrew Immersion program in Israel, my main goal was to internalize the Scriptures through the language, culture, and geography.
In Hebrew studies, I took conversational classes in Modern Hebrew along with Old Testament classes according to different genres. Hearing the lectures in Hebrew, I began appreciating how the authors of the Hebrew Bible used different linguistic features to emphasize the intention of the message. In order to internalize the Hebrew language, the program required us to memorize certain portions of the Scriptures in Hebrew, such as Psalm 8, Psalm 23, the Ten Commandments (Exo. 20:1-17), and some songs of the Servant of the LORD in the book of Isaiah.
In Hebrew culture and geography studies, I visited museums and ancient biblical sites. These experiences helped my understanding of various biblical texts that had puzzled me for a long time such as a terebinth tree, a tamarisk tree, or a palm tree serving as a local landmark (Gen. 12:6; 21:33; Jdg. 4:5); livestock living within a household’s compound (Jdg. 11:31); how the city gate functioned in society (Jdg. 9:35; 2Ki. 23:8; 2Ch. 32:6); acacia trees in the wilderness being good enough for the tabernacle construction (Exo. 25-27); and producing the bronze serpent in the wilderness (Num. 21:8), etc.
Personally, the most memorable learning was having an experience like the Israelites in the wilderness as they had to wait for the cloud of the LORD (Exo. 40:36-38). My class was relocated from Jerusalem to outside of Athens, Greece, for a time due to Hamas’ attack on October 7. After that time, we kept adjusting to new school schedules in order to learn what God had for us to become better Bible translators. Remembering the Israelites’ struggles in the wilderness and hoping to avoid the same mistakes, I tried to internalize God’s promises daily. Though challenges existed everywhere, God was strong to deliver. This experience taught me not to look to my own timing, but to God’s.
-H.P.