In this short video screencast I'll show you how to use STEPBible
to do some serious Bible study
looking at how a particular word might lead us through
1 Samuel Chapter 16 first go to STEPBible DOT org
when you get there,
your be landed on Genesis chapter 1 and the English Standard Version
although the English Standard Version is not my favorite translation for a variety of
reasons
it useful in this case because each of the words
is linked to the Hebrew word that stands behind it
when there is clearly one Hebrew word that stands behind it and
it display is down the bottom a brief
dictionary entry for the word so we'll stay with the ESV
you can change it if you want to display another version the instructions are over
there on the right
I do want to change the passage that's displayed
and the passage that's being searched and studied Not Genesis chapter one
but 1 Samuel chapter 16
type in 1sam 16
or as they prefer it 1sa 16
you have to press ENTER to make it move and once it goes your in 1 Samuel Chapter 16
as you can see
the words still light up because we're still in the English standard version
which has been coded like that
I'm interested in the way in which
the word for "seeing" might lead us through the chapter
It's not, at least, not very prominent towards the beginning here but
as we get further on it starts to become obvious
that word "looked" in v.6 for example
as you can see when I just mouse over the word
words that are from the same
verb are highlighted and words like "appearance" in verse 7
which are from a related word - a word from the same root
are highlighted in a different way if I want to keep that while I move
what I have to do is double click the word when I double click the word
you'll see that the vocabulary entries pops over to the right there
so that you can get other vocabulary entries while you're studying it
down the bottom there and you can then
follow the way in which the word traces you through the chapter
the only occurance
of a related word in the first few verses is where
God says to Samuel "I have provided for myself
a king among his sons" the word "provided" there is part of that verb ra'ah
ra'ah used to mean provide also in the story of
Abraham and the near-sacrifice of Isaac
it's the origin of the anglicized phrase
Jehovah Jirah Yahweh yireh
in hebrew but
when we get to
v.6 and the sons of Jesse are being paraded before
Samuel in order that he may choose the new king or rather
recognize the new king that God has chosen "he looked on"
and he thinks "surely the Lord's anointed is before him"
and then in the next verse
God says to Samuel "Do not look upon his appearance
it's not the same word but a related word
it's not the verb ra'ah but the noun ra'eh
and then God says "the Lord sees not as a man sees
man looks on the outward
appearance but God looks on the heart" and the story goes on and finally David
is brought
David is handsome
phrase "good to look at" in Hebrew
that's how you can use
this neat tool which is either online
or downloadable and totally free to get at how this word
"see" might lead you through
this chapter and perhaps
hope you to SEE one of the themes of the chapter
God bless