Today a look at the Hebrew word translated “enough,” in the context of our ongoing conversation regarding the deep things the LORD protects and reserves for His use in ending controversy. We have recently looked at the word as it is twice used in Proverbs 30:15 & 16, and there gives us the best understanding of its meaning being, content or satisfied, as in achieving happiness. I use the word “happiness” in the same way the founders meant it in our Declaration of Independence when they wrote that among our God given rights, that governments are instituted to secure, are, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The word is hown: Strong’s #1952: hown (pronounced hone) from the same as 1951 in the sense of 202; wealth; by implication, enough:–enough, + for nought, riches, substance, wealth.
Here is the passage from Proverbs 30 where in the word is translated “It is enough:”
15 The horse-leach has two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:
16 The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that says not, It is enough.
Verse 15 tells us the subject is never being “satisfied” using a different Hebrew word, saba’, meaning to be filled to satisfaction. We see in the definition of the word hown it means riches, substance (things), and wealth. In seeing it also translated “enough” (only these two times) we see/understand the meaning being conveyed is of achieving a point of contentment. It is similar to the meaning we see in the Hebrew word shalam (the “salem” in Jerusalem).
Strong’s #7999: shalam (pronounced shaw-lam’) a primitive root; to be safe (in mind, body or estate); figuratively, to be (causatively, make) completed; by implication, to be friendly; by extension, to reciprocate (in various applications).
The fuller meaning of hown is found in the words it references in its definition above.
Strong’s #1951: huwn (pronounced hoon) a primitive root; properly, to be naught, i.e. (figuratively) to be (causatively, act) light:–be ready.
Strong’s #202: ‘own (pronounced one) probably from the same as 205 (in the sense of effort, but successful); ability, power, (figuratively) wealth:–force, goods, might, strength, substance.
In these words we see the meaning as being both readied and filled through an effort. In this we see it meaning both the “pursuit of happiness,” and attaining it. Shalam is the security in both the pursuit and once achieving. This is the way of peace and security found in this being generally afforded to all without exception, and is what the US Constitution means when it uses he term “general welfare.”
The perverted meaning of “general welfare” is as license to violate the security of one person’s peace and security (taking from them what they have achieved through effort), in order to provide for the welfare of someone else – in exchange for votes. This redistribution is without objective standard and lacking regard for actual necessity (need), and again the only standard is to create dependence that produces a vote: (secured by selecting representatives who promise to satisfy an insatiable call to, Give, give; rather than being secured and satisfied through effort and achievement, and under a government that provides an environment where all are equally secured in peace to enjoying the fruits of their labor).
The truth is – our country’s founding principles are a direct result of understanding all the above as the kingdom of heaven – the way to the most perfect form of government in which man can live in peace.
I have many times explained this from the perspective of what our Declaration of Independence means when it tells of the state we are “entitled” to live in, “under the laws of nature and nature’s God.”
There can be no peace in a society such as ours where demagogues, on one end of the spectrum, stir up grievance and encourage people to define themselves as victims in order to justify victimizing some other group the demagogue has defined as demons; while on the other end of the spectrum are the elites pillaging the national treasury and receiving favors in exchange for enriching and financing the same demagogues’ rise to become tyrants over the masses they have stirred and agitated. This is a system based on the opposite of peace and security, and is the antithesis of the kingdom of God.
These are the principalities and powers, the spiritually wicked in highest seats of power, in a totally corrupt world that must be overcome. The kingdom of heaven, on earth as it is in heaven, is the “end” the LORD has promised and knows is our “expected end.”
Now, back to Proverbs 30 and what it says: “15 The horse-leach has two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: 16 The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that says not, It is enough.”
The two daughters attached to the mouth of the horse, are the two leaches I mentioned above, both sucking the life out of the horse (achievers and producers) doing the work and carrying the burden, and will continue to drain the life until the host is dead. And they, as it is with all leaches, will never let go on their own; they must be forcefully removed and fire or the heat from it is what will cause them to release their grip.
How many times have you read in God’s word of peace and our being exhorted to preach and pursue it? Have you read of the false preaching of peace that is actually a harbinger of coming destruction?
1 Thessalonians 5
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the LORD so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, “Peace and safety;” then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
9 For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our LORD Jesus Christ,
10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you do.
12 And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the LORD, and admonish you;
13 And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.
14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
Ezekiel 7:25 tells of those claiming peace and instead comes destruction. They are the religious and civil rulers, who have defiled the holy places, governing over God’s people. The last verse of the chapter tells of their own ways being what are brought upon them. It is telling of those who are never satisfied and this insatiable lust for more power and more things is what eventually destroys them.
Ezekiel 7
1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Also, you son of man, thus says the LORD God unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.
3 Now is the end come upon you, and I will send mine anger upon you, and will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense upon you all your abominations.
4 And mine eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense your ways upon you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am the LORD.
5 Thus says the LORD God; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.
6 An end is come, the end is come: it watches for you; behold, it is come.
7 The morning is come unto you, O you that dwells in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains.
8 Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon you, and accomplish mine anger upon you: and I will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense you for all your abominations.
9 And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense you according to your ways and your abominations that are in the midst of you; and you shall know that I am the LORD that strikes.
10 Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning (an encircling crown) is gone forth; the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.
11 Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither shall there be wailing for them.
12 The time is come, the day has arrived: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
13 For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.
14 They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goes to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
15 The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.
18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity.
20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.
21 And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.
22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.
23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
24 Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.
25 Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon rumor; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.
27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
When verse 10 above say, “Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.” it is referring to Aaron’s rod that budded as an example for us to understand. It is referring to Numbers 17:8 where we are told of the LORD stopping the murmuring (from the Hebrew words luwn & teluwnah) in the camp. The words literally mean to stop or to stray, and in context meaning they are being obstinate and complaining about the way Moses and Aaron were leading. The LORD commands all the leaders to set their rods before the testimony in the tabernacle of witness, and whose ever rod budded would be who the LORD had chosen. Aaron’s rod not only budded but also blossomed and brought forth fruit. The LORD then commanded they keep the rod as a token against the rebels. This again is telling of life that shoots from what appears as if dead, and it being as validation.
Ezekiel is telling of this being the day come, as the crowning of the one God affirms. It then tells of it from the perspective of seeing (apocalypse) the pride in the rebels.
2 Timothy 2
1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit you to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
3 You therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4 No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.
5 And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.
6 The husbandman that labors must be first partaker of the fruits.
7 Consider what I say; and the LORD give you understanding in all things.
8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:
9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
13 If we believe not, yet he abides faithful: he cannot deny himself.
14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the LORD that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
19 Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The LORD knows them that are his. And, let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor.
21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the LORD out of a pure heart.
23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they produce strife.
24 And the servant of the LORD must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Hymenaeus is from Hymen the Greek god of weddings. It was said he attended all weddings and if he didn’t the marriage would be unsuccessful. In mythology he presided over weddings and there was a wedding song the Greeks sung called the Hymenaios.
Philetus is a false friend or someone who pretends friendship – as in those asking questions that will produce strife.
Daniel 6
3 Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.
4 Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.
5 Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.
