I just listened to this episode today and I’m sort of laughing at the timing. I’ve been fascinated by the word “humble” for years and yesterday morning I looked at Numbers 12:3 for the umpteenth time. I was curious about what Hebrew word was used there because I had just discovered in some Hebrew studying I’ve been doing that there are 2 possible Hebrew words, “shach”(humble or low) and “anav” (humble or afflicted). When I was baptized I was given the (old) NIV translation and still have that concordance and I discovered that the NIV translates “anav” as humble 7 times, including the reference to Moses. As I thought about the fact that the NIV translates the same word as “afflicted,” “poor” and “oppressed” a total of 10 times I decided to replace the word “humble” with “afflicted” (NIV uses this word 4 times) in those 7 verses. Of the 7, 5 still made sense with “afflicted” instead of “humble.”

We think of Moses as “humble,” but wasn’t he also “afflicted?” Numbers 12:3 is written as an aside while describing the grumbling against him by Miriam and Aaron. Most of the nation had grumbled against him during the time in the wilderness at one time or another; I can certainly see him as “afflicted.” It was the one time he allowed his “affliction” to get the best of him that he lost his place in the land.

So perhaps it’s not just the nebulous idea of “humble” that we need to think about, but our behavior during affliction. Perhaps what makes us “humble” is how we react when things don’t look the way we think they should, or we’re “being afflicted” by circumstances. Those who inherited the land were those who trusted Yehovah to do what He said He would do even when circumstances looked bad (think Caleb and Joshua). Perhaps a more complete definition of “humble” is “trusting Yehovah to bring about the best possible outcome even during affliction.” When we are fully trusting Avinu we are truly “humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of [Yehovah].”

Thoughts?