His Help?

The Bible is translated into English from its original languages. Something good to know about translating languages is that some words are not as easy to translate as it may seem. Sometimes there’s a word for a certain thing in one language and there is no such word in the other language. It may take several words to convey the same meaning of that one word. This is why we study the Bible using a bible dictionary which can help us better understand a word. Another way to get an idea of the meaning of a word is to look at the different ways that word is used in the Bible.

Genesis 2:18

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

Genesis 2:18 says that God made a help for the man. When we read this its easy to think that the woman is simply the assistant to the man. She is like an assistant to the boss. But the thing is God said to both Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over all the creatures (Genesis 1:28). This commission in God’s ideal world was to both man and woman. So, this makes me think that the way we think about the woman may be a bit off. So, let’s look at the meaning of this term. 

ʿēzer neḡeḏ (this is the hebrew)  – an help meet for him (this is the English translation)

Ezer – one who helps, an assistance and support in times of distress.

Neged – a counterpart – a person holding a function that corresponds to the other.

In the example of the boss and assistant, she is not a counterpart to her boss. Neged tells me that the woman is his counterpart, she has the same position as him but a different job.  

The following are some of the verses which use the word ezer (help):

And this is the blessing of Judah: and he said, Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people: let his hands be sufficient for him; and be thou an help to him from his enemies. – Due 33:7

Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; – Psalm 20:2

O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield. – Psalm 115:9

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. – Psalm 121:1

O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.  Hosea 13:9

These verses show that ezer is used to refer to help from God especially in times of distress. So, God is our help and he is the help we call upon when we need it and its this same word that God used to refer to the woman.

Now let’s look at a few verses with neged:

And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against (neged) him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? Joshua 5:13

For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before (neged) all Israel, and before the sun. 2 Samuel 12:12

And she went, and sat her down over against (neged) him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept. Genesis 21:16

So neged gives this idea of someone standing before someone else or opposite them.

God has given Adam a counterpart, one who is to carry the burden with him. She, in times of distress and trouble, will carry that load with him, making it easier. She is the one who is physically there with him through all the troubles they face in this world. She is a support who makes life easier. She is assigned by God to be his companion so that together they can fulfill God’s purpose for them.

She is God-sent and she is worth just as much as the man. She is a critical part of that perfect family unit that God created. She is more than an unequal assistant to the man in charge. She is his equal with a different role, designed to work with his role to fulfil God’s purposes.

I am reminded that God had a plan in his ideal world but this world is not ideal anymore and so we all tend to get carried away by the ways of the world and we go opposite to God’s plan. Many times, we don’t fill these roles as we should. But we, the children of God, must draw closer to Jesus each day, and then we will be able to get closer to filling that purpose that he has for us. I hope this helps us to consider the way we think of what the Bible says about the woman and her worth. I hope we can prayerfully consider this.