I wrote a blog recently about Yehovah’s admonition that the sons of Israel are to wear tzitzit / tassels on their garments and added a link to that blog on my Facebook wall. In it I suggested that it might just be possible that if a woman were to wear tzitzit that she just might actually be breaking Yehovah’s instructions by wearing something that pertained to a man. Needless to say this is not a very popular opinion to hold but it is an opinion, none the less, that can be supported by Yehovah’s words.

But while I have the ladies mad at me already; let me be bold enough to suggest that, it may be possible, that not every man who has joined himself to Israel as a citizen, is a son of Israel either, even if he is circumcised in his heart; for this son of Yehovah comes from a supernatural birth in being obedient to the covenant that Yehovah made with His people. We will see below that all the males who were born of Jacob before they went into Egypt were called benai, sons of Israel. But the offspring’s of Joseph were referred to as  nephesh (souls) born to Joseph, not sons. But later these men also would become sons, benai of Israel.

I believe this confusion comes because we, those who call ourselves Yehovah’s people, do not understand the two types of people who make up Israel. (This became very clear to me this past Sabbath as we looked at the two sticks that make up Israel in Ezekiel 37.)

The first type is the ger. This is that precious man who has repented, left the kingdom of his birth and joined himself to Yehovah’s “born in the land” people, His ezrach. Once a year the ger may become an ezrach at Passover. Paul hints at these two groups when he speaks to the Corinthians about not being unequally yoked together with unbelievers (unrepentant people and systems of government). He says, quoting Jeremiah and then Hosea:

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith Yehovah Almighty. (2Co 6:16-18)

Notice, we can move from being Yehovah’s people to becoming His sons and daughters.

One law shall be for the native-born (ezrach) and for the stranger (ger) who dwells among you.” (Exo 12:49)

The ger and the ezrach make up the citizenry of True Israel, but only one of them is a “born in the land,” son of Israel.

Let’s ask ourselves a question. Do we believe that Yehovah chooses His words carefully? Is He haphazard in His choice of vocabulary? He says many times, “Speak to the sons of Israel ….”

The people who Moses is to speak with are the בני,^H1121 the benai of Israel. בני comes from the root בנ^H1112 meaning son. My favorite lexicon is Jeff Benner’s Ancient Hebrew lexicon of the Bible. In it he writes the following about the word and root-word בנ.

Note: I was not able to render the picture language font correctly in this blog. The ב, beth, look like a primitive “floor plan” and the נ, nun, looks like a sprouting seed.

H1121
Strong’s #1121: AHLB#: 1037-A (N)

1037)  (בנ BN) ac[tion]: Build co[ncrete]: Tent panel ab[stract]: Intelligence: The pictograph ב is a picture of the tent. The נ is a picture of a sprouting seed and represents continuity as the seed continues the next generation. The combined meaning of these letters mean “the continuing of the house”. The tent was constructed of woven goat hair. Over time the sun bleaches and weakens the goat hair necessitating their continual replacement. Each year the women make a new panel, approximately 3 feet wide and the length of the tent. The old panel is removed (being recycled into a wall or floor) and the new strip is added to the tent. Since the tent is only replaced one small piece at a time the tent essentially lasts forever.

A)  (בנ BN) ac: ? co: Tent Panel ab: ?: There are many similarities between building a tent out of goat hair panels and the building of a house out of sons (The idea of building a house with sons can be seen in Genesis 30.3). Just as the tent panels are added to continue the tent, sons are born to the family to continue the family line. Just as the tent is continually being renewed with new panels, the family is continually being renewed with new sons.

N^m)  (בנ BN) – Son: One who continues the family line. [Hebrew and Aramaic; Transforms to rb when used in the possessive] [freq. 4925] |kjv: son, children, old, first, man, young, stranger, people| {str: 1121, 1123, 1247}

I use many resources in my studies but the one thing that NEVER leaves my mind is this. Translations, lexicons, concordances, dictionaries and of course commentaries (which I never use) are produced, for the most part, by people who have never repented and turned to our Father’s eternal and unchanging ways. These resources can all be great tools to help the seeker of the Father’s ways discover the truth, BUT THEY ARE NOT AUTHORITATIVE!

Our Father said through Isaiah,

“Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? [the answer is NO!] Those just drawn from the breasts? [again, NO!] For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, and line upon line, here a little, there a little.” (Isa 28:9-10)

Those immature in the faith will not understand the message that Yehovah has for His people. Only those that seek Him and his righteous way, actually find the gems in His word. If we think that we can simply go to something written by an unrepentant man like Strong’s to build our theology on, we will be lost. Precept is upon precept and line is upon line, here a little and there a little.

The best and only reliable tool for understanding Yehovah’s word is Yehovah’s word!

When Yehovah told the בני, the sons of Israel, to put tzitzit on their garments. Who was he speaking to?

Here is something that I have just recently seen in the scriptures. The plural of בנ [ben or son] is not בני [benai], it is בנים [benim or sons]. But all three word carry the same Strong’s number, H1121. Every male that has ever been born is a בנ [ben or son] but not all בנים [benim or sons] are בני [benai].

Interesting enough, Noah and His sons were בני [benai].

Now this is the genealogy of the sons בני  of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons בנים were born to them after the flood. (Gen 10:1)

Many, most, translations render this word as “children” to include the ladies. But if that is the case, why did he not say “speak to the עם, ^H5971 (am) people of Israel? Or the אדם^H120 (adam) man of Israel? Or the אישׁ^H376 (eesh) man of Israel? How about ילד^H3205 (yeled) young man of Israel? He did not say זכוּר^H2138 (zakar) male of Israel. Nor בּת^H1323 or אשּׁה^H802 (bath or ishshah) daughter or woman of Israel. Yehovah said בני (benai) sons of Israel!

I saw that there are several translations that do a more honest job of translating benai as “sons” instead of “children”; The New American Standard Bible, The Emphasized Bible, The Literal Translation, Modern King James and Young’s Literal Translation are all examples of this. On what basis can we decide to change what the Father says in some places but not all places. I have a problem with saying “here the Father means sons, but in this verse He must mean children.”

So I began my search to find evidence of what I already knew in my spirit and found some very interesting verses. To date I have spent in excess of 20 hours studying just these three words, ben, benim and benai. But these three variations only appear in the Hebrew. Remember, “line upon line, here a little and there a little.”

Now these are the names of the sons בני (benai) of Israel who came to Egypt; each man, (אישׁ^H376 eesh – there is no woman eesh either), and his household came with Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. (Exo 1:1-4)

All those בני (benai) that are named in this section are men.

It is the first-born sons that are set apart to Yehovah, never the first-born daughter.

… you shall set apart to Yehovah all that open the matrix, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males זכר (zakar) shall be Yehovah’s. But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man אדם (adam) [as opposed to animals] from your בני (benai) you shall redeem. (Exo 13:12-13)

The male opens the matrix because the seed to the next generation comes from him. The following, Gen. 46:7-27, lists Israel’s descendants.

His [Jacob's] בני (benai) and his בני (benai) בני (benai), his daughters (בּת – bath) and his בני (benai’s) daughters (בּת – bath), and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt. Gen 46:7

Gen. 46:8 actually says who the בני (benai) of Israel are.

Now these were the names of the בני, (benai) of Israel which came into Egypt, JACOB AND HIS בני (benai), who went to Egypt.  (Gen 46:8)

Next Yehovah spells out just who those בני (benai) of Israel are, and who they are not.

Gen 46:9-26
(9)  The בני (benai) of Reuben¹ were Hanoch², Pallu³, Hezron⁴, and Carmi⁵.
(10)  The בני (benai) of Simeon⁶ were Jemuel⁷, Jamin⁸, Ohad⁹, Jachin¹⁰, Zohar¹¹, and Shaul¹², the son of a Canaanite woman.
(11)  The בני (benai) of Levi¹³ were Gershon14, Kohath¹⁵, and Merari¹⁶.

Levi’s daughter Jochebed is not listed here.

(12)  The בני (benai) of Judah¹⁷ were Er, Onan, Shelah¹⁸, Perez¹⁹, and Zerah²⁰ (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan). The בני (benai) of Perez were Hezron²¹ and Hamul²².
(13)  The בני (benai) of Issachar²³ were Tola²⁴, Puvah²⁵, Job²⁶, and Shimron²⁷.
(14)  The בני (benai) of Zebulun²⁸ were Sered²⁹, Elon³⁰, and Jahleel³¹.
(15)  These were the בני (benai) of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Padan Aram, with his daughter (בּת – bath) Dinah³². All the persons, his בני (benai) and his daughters (בּת – bath), were thirty-three.

Note: This count of thirty-three is short by one; Jochebed, Levi’s daughter and Moses’ mother, is not listed here; but she has to be the 33rd offspring of Jacob. She was conceived in Canaan and born in Egypt.

Jasher 59:9 And the children of Levi were Gershon, Kehath and Merari, and their sister Jochebed, who was born unto them in their going down to Egypt.

And the sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. And the years of the life of Kohath were one hundred and thirty-three.  Now Amram took for himself Jochebed, his father’s sister, as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty-seven. (Exo 6:18-20)

This, incidentally, is a great biblical argument for anti-abortion. Jochebed was counted before she was born and named.

(16)  The בני (benai) of Gad³³ were Ziphion³⁴, Haggi³⁵, Shuni³⁶, Ezbon³⁷, Eri³⁸, Arodi³⁹, and Areli⁴⁰.
(17)  The בני (benai) of Asher⁴¹ were Jimnah⁴², Ishuah⁴³, Isui⁴⁴, Beriah,⁴⁵ and Serah⁴⁶, their sister (אחוֹת – achoth). And the בני (benai) of Beriah were Heber⁴⁷ and Malchiel^48.
(18)  These were the בני (benai) of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and these she bore to Jacob: sixteen persons.
(19)  The בני (benai) of Rachel, Jacob’s wife, were Joseph and Benjamin.
(20)  And to Joseph⁴⁹ in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh⁵⁰ and Ephraim⁵¹, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him.
(21)  The בני (benai) of Benjamin⁵² were Belah⁵³, Becher⁵⁴, Ashbel⁵⁵, Gera⁵⁶, Naaman⁵⁷, Ehi⁵⁸, Rosh⁵⁹, Muppim⁶⁰, Huppim⁶¹, and Ard⁶².
(22)  These were the בני (benai) of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: fourteen persons in all.
(23)  The בני (benai) of Dan⁶³ was Hushim⁶⁴.
(24)  The בני (benai) of Naphtali⁶⁵ were Jahzeel⁶⁶, Guni⁶⁷, Jezer⁶⁸, and Shillem⁶⁹.
(25)  These were the בני (benai) of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and she bore these to Jacob: seven persons in all.
(26)  All the persons [nephesh] who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from his body, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, were sixty-six persons in all.
(27)  And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two persons [nephesh]. All the persons [nephesh] of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy.

Here are some observations that I have made from Gen 46:9-26.

• All the בני, the sons of Israel are highlighted in green and each time a woman is mentioned they are distinguished from sons with the words “their sister” or “his daughter.”
• All the sons of Israel are men.
• Verse 26 and 27, very carefully says “all the nephesh.” The word used here for person, which includes all 66 and then 70 sons and daughters together that came from Joseph, is nephesh, not benai.
• This count of 66 of all who came with Jacob to Egypt and the full count of 70 souls who came from Jacob does not count Jacob’s wives or his son’s wives. I believe they are being include with their husbands as “one.” 

 

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Gen 2:24)

But, that said, being “one flesh” with a priest does not mean a woman serves in the temple, being “one flesh” does not make a woman a father. Nor does it make a women a בני of Israel. This is just one of the reasons why I now believe that if a woman wears tzitzit she is indeed wearing something which pertains to a man.

When we change our Father’s ways and make a woman equal to a son, we obscure Yehovah’s word in such a way that we will not be able to see greater truths in the future. Getting our foundations correct, without adding to or subtracting from Yehovah’s word, will allow us to see even greater truths in the future; and that is my hope for all of us.

“Thus says Yehovah of hosts: ‘In those days ten men^H376 (eesh) from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man (eesh), saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ‘ ” (Zec 8:23)

All of the above just cracks the surface; we all have much to learn. Here is even more evidence concerning who the sons of Israel really are.

Please share this blog with a friend, here is a link to a printable pdf!