The Most Cowardly Word

Introduction

The Most Cowardly Word

Welcome back everyone to Torah Today Ministries and our series The Hebrew Key, where we bring out some things that only reveal themselves in the Hebrew — little, sometimes little red flags that come up, and patterns that you only see in the Hebrew.

So this teaching I call “The Most Cowardly Word.” What is the most cowardly word in the Torah (תּוֹרָה)? And the rabbis have often commented on this one word — where it’s found, in this one passage. So we’ll get to that in just a moment. But here’s how this teaching came to be.

Davar (דָּבָר), Devash (דְּבַשׁ), Dibbah (דִּבָּה) — Three Words

This insight — I was reading through a section of Numbers, chapter 13, and as I was reading through it in Hebrew, I came across three words that are very similar. And I tend to notice patterns. And here are the three words:

The word davar (דָּבָר), which is a very common word in Hebrew. It’s the word that means “word,” and it can also mean “a report.” And we use the word “word” the same way, as when you say, “Well, I just got word that you got a new job,” or “I just got word that you’re going to have a new addition to your family.” So what it means is, “I just got a report. I got information. I got news.”

Then reading a bit further in the passage, I saw the word devash (דְּבַשׁ). Now, notice — all three of these words begin with dalet-bet (דב). That’s what made me kind of notice — there’s a pattern here. Three three-letter words that all begin with dalet-bet (דב).

Now the word devash (דְּבַשׁ) means “honey.” It’s not nearly as common a word as the word davar (דָּבָר).

But as I read on a bit further, I came across the word dibbah (דִּבָּה), which means “an evil report.” And this is a much rarer word. So as we go from davar (דָּבָר) to devash (דְּבַשׁ) to dibbah (דִּבָּה), these are words that occur fewer and fewer times — less frequent.

Resh (ר), Shin (שׁ), Tav (ת) — The Last Three Letters

So here’s what also caught my attention. If we take these three words — davar (דָּבָר), devash (דְּבַשׁ), dibbah (דִּבָּה) — look at the last letters. Because these are the only letters that differentiate them from one another. They are: resh (ר), shin (שׁ), tav (ת).

These are the last three letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The alphabet begins with aleph-bet-gimel (אבג)… as you go on through, it ends with resh-shin-tav (רשת).

So I thought — well, there’s some kind of a pattern here. You have three very similar words, and their only difference is their final letter, and those final letters are found in alphabetical order — the last three letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

So I began to dig a bit more to see what’s going on here. Now “report” — davar (דָּבָר) — that’s considered a good word. “Honey” — devash (דְּבַשׁ) — is definitely a sweet word. But what happened? What happens in here that it goes from being something positive to an evil report — to dibbah (דִּבָּה)?

Numbers 13:26–32 — The Story of the Spies

Well, let’s look at the passage. Here it is — Numbers 13:26 to 32. And those three Hebrew words — I have their English equivalents here in bold. And now, this is the story of the spies. The twelve spies who went into the Promised Land. They spent 40 days there, and Moses had given them a laundry list of questions to find answers to, and then to bring back their report. And when they brought back the report, well, this is what happens:

They brought back word (davar / דָּבָר) to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey (devash / דְּבַשׁ), and this is its fruit.” — Numbers 13:26–27

“But (efes / אֶפֶס) the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there — the giants. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negev. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan.” — Numbers 13:28–29

Well, the people get a little worked up by this, because it says:

Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” — Numbers 13:30–31

So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report (dibbah / דִּבָּה) — an evil report — of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.” — Numbers 13:32

Efes (אֶפֶס) — The Most Cowardly Word

Did you catch the most cowardly word? The rabbis comment on this one word that takes place between devash (דְּבַשׁ) — honey — and dibbah (דִּבָּה) — evil report. And it’s right here — the first word of verse 28. It’s the word “but.” Or “however.”

And in Hebrew, that word is efes (אֶפֶס). However. “But the people who dwell in the land are strong.” Efes (אֶפֶס).

The rabbis agree — this is the most cowardly word in the entire Torah (תּוֹרָה).

And I’ve heard this word — its English equivalent — used by cowardly people many times. And to my regret, I have used the word as well, to express cowardice. You talk about the things that are good and wonderful, then you say, “But…”

And we have a rather crude saying here that I’ve debated using in this teaching — I’m going to anyway. And the saying is this: “Everything before ‘but’ is B.S.” Because no matter what you say that’s glowing, the moment you say “but,” you’re erasing everything from before. And what you say afterward — that is what’s going to stand. And that is what the hearer is going to hear, and that’s what’s going to stay with them.

It’s like the employer who calls an employee and says, “No, you’ve been a great employee. We really appreciate your work and your dedication.” And the employee is just sitting there waiting for the “but.” Because the moment the word “but” is spoken, then they’re going to find out what they’re really there to hear. “But we have to cut back.” “But you’re fired.”

Efes (אֶפֶס) = Zero, Nothing

So efes (אֶפֶס) is a word that means “but” or “however.” But it has another meaning. It means “zero” or “nothing.” It is the modern Hebrew word for zero — for nothing. Efes (אֶפֶס). Because when you say this word “but,” it erases everything that went before it. It makes it nothing.

In fact, let me give you a few places in Scripture where it is used so you can get a feel for how this word efes (אֶפֶס) appears.

The Money Is Efes (אֶפֶס)

The first place it’s found is in Genesis 47, verses 15 and 16. This is when Joseph is selling the grain that he stockpiled for seven years, and he’s selling it to the people of the land. And it says:

When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan (כְּנָעַן), all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is efes (אֶפֶס)” — it’s gone. It’s disappeared. It’s zero. — “And Joseph answered, ‘Give your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money is efes (אֶפֶס).’” — Genesis 47:15–16

So we see here — the first two times this word is used, it doesn’t mean “however,” doesn’t mean “but.” It means “gone.” Zero. Zilch.

Isaiah — Efes (אֶפֶס) as “Nothing”

Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is efes (אֶפֶס) — no room — and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. — Isaiah 5:8

There is no one there to call it a kingdom, and all its princes shall be efes (אֶפֶס) — nothing. — Isaiah 34:12

And I love this one:

That people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is efes (אֶפֶס) besides me. I am Adonai (אֲדֹנָי); there is no other. — Isaiah 45:6

In other words — there is nothing besides me. So this word efes (אֶפֶס), which is the word for “however” or for “but,” means “zero.” Because the moment you speak this word, everything before it is nullified.

What the Rabbis Say About The Word Efes

I want to share some comments from some of the great rabbis about this word.

The Bamidbar Rabbah (בַּמִּדְבָּר רַבָּה) — this is the Midrash Rabbah about the book of Numbers — says: “Such is the way of those who speak malicious speech: they open their mouths with good and they conclude with evil.” And when you conclude with evil, the good is removed. The good that you said.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch comments on this word efes (אֶפֶס) in this passage, and he basically says: when they used the word efes (אֶפֶס), what they’re saying is, “All is nothing. It loses all value to us, for the people are too strong for us.” So all this good stuff we said — it’s all nothing. It’s lost its value. Because the people are too strong for us.

And of course, the people were too strong for Israel — but God said, “I’ll be with you. I’ll go before you. I’ll wipe them out. You just come mop up, basically.” They left God out of the picture, and they became cowards.

The Ramban (רמב”ן) — Nachmanides — brilliant commentator — says: “It was completely appropriate for them to say that ‘the people who dwell in it are powerful, the cities are fortified,’ for they were expected to answer words of truth to the one who sent them — for after all, this is what Moses commanded them to explore. However, their iniquity was in using the word efes (אֶפֶס).” The moment they said that, they wiped out all the good that they did. They wiped out the truth that they had spoken.

And then I love this — Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, who’s a more recent rabbi, another brilliant man, he said: “Without that word efes (אֶפֶס), Jewish history would have been entirely different.” Jewish history would have been entirely different. Boy, we know that is for sure.

141 & No’ef (נֹאֵף) = Efes (אֶפֶס) — “Commits Adultery” 

It’s interesting that this word efes (אֶפֶס) has a numerical value of 141, which is also the numerical value of the Hebrew word no’ef (נֹאֵף), which means “commits adultery.”

We find this word used two times in Leviticus 20:10:

If a man commits adultery (no’ef / נֹאֵף) with the wife of his neighbor, both the one who commits adultery (no’ef / נֹאֵף) and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. — Leviticus 20:10

You see, when we fear anything more than we fear God, we elevate that thing to God’s status. That’s called spiritual adultery. We are told to fear God. We’re not told to fear anything else. Because our fears have belonged to him alone.

And if we have a healthy fear of God — and fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; it’s not the end point, but it is the beginning — if we have fear of God, we will have wisdom. And that wisdom will tell us there’s nothing else to fear.

But if our fear of God is low, fear of other things grows. And that is why these men said efes (אֶפֶס) — “But we can’t do this. But we can’t go up there. These people are bigger than we are. They’ll kill us. The cities are too well fortified. Our children will all be killed if we try to go in there.”

So what happened? God allowed that entire generation of faithless cowards to die in the wilderness. And their children — they went in, and they did what their fathers said couldn’t be done.

A Challenge: Fear Only God

My concern for this generation that I see — the generation I live in, and especially the one coming after me — is the lack of courage. The lack of real men. And it seems like people are afraid of everything except for the one thing — the one entity — that they should fear above all. And that’s God himself. I see little fear of God. There’s still some. But it seems like it’s diminishing. And as fear of God diminishes, obedience to God diminishes right along with it. And people become fearful of more and more and more things that my parents’ and grandparents’ generation would never have feared.

And Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) prophesies in Luke 21:26 that in these end days:

Men ready to die through fear — or as the King James puts it, “men’s hearts will fail them for fear” — fear will become this incredible enemy, this destructive enemy. Many are ready to die through fear and expectation of what is coming on the habitable earth, for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. — Luke 21:26

Proverbs 31 — She Laughs at the Future

So I want to close with a verse from Proverbs 31 — the chapter about the woman of valor — the Eshet Chayil (אֵשֶׁת חַיִל). And this woman, it says of her:

Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the future. — Proverbs 31:25

So you can be one of these who say, “Oh, I love God and I have faith in him — efes (אֶפֶס) — but — oh, it’s getting bad out there.” “Yeah, I believe that Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) is coming back — but — I don’t know when. We better panic. It’s time to panic.”

If we clothe ourselves with strength and dignity — as the woman of valor, which is actually a description of the bride of Messiah, the true bride — we will be fearless. We can laugh at the future, because we know how the story ends.

Now, whatever we have to go through between here and that happy ending — it’s fine. Because like Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ), who focused on the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. We could endure anything if we will fear only God and set our spiritual focus on the joy that’s ahead.

If we can do that, we can exercise valor in this life and in this world. Because this world certainly needs to see some models of valor and courage. So I challenge you to be one of those pictures of courage — of true courage — in a time when people are so afraid.

So there’s a challenge for you. And until next time, I wish you shalom (שָׁלוֹם) and God bless.

Teaching Material

Hebrew Word Studies

• Efes (אֶפֶס) — “But, however; zero, nothing”; the most cowardly word in the Torah (תּוֹרָה) according to rabbinic commentary. In Numbers 13:28, the spies said efes (אֶפֶס) — “but” — erasing their good report about the land flowing with milk and honey, turning it into a dibbah (דִּבָּה), an evil report. Also means “zero” or “nothing” (Genesis 47:15–16) — because saying “but” nullifies everything before it. The modern Hebrew word for zero. Gematria: 141 = no’ef (נֹאֵף), “commits adultery” — fearing anything more than God is spiritual adultery. — Strong’s H657
• Davar (דָּבָר) — “Word, report, matter”; the first of three dalet-bet (דב) words in Numbers 13. The spies “brought back word (davar / דָּבָר)” — a good report. Last letter resh (ר) — the third-to-last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. — Strong’s H1697
• Devash (דְּבַשׁ) — “Honey”; the second dalet-bet (דב) word. The land flows with milk and devash (דְּבַשׁ) — something sweet and positive. Last letter shin (שׁ) — the second-to-last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. — Strong’s H1706
• Dibbah (דִּבָּה) — “Evil report, slander”; the third dalet-bet (דב) word and the rarest. After efes (אֶפֶס), the good became evil. Last letter tav (ת) — the final letter of the alphabet. The three endings — resh-shin-tav (רשת) — trace the last three letters in order, mapping the descent from good report to honey to slander. — Strong’s H1681
• No’ef (נֹאֵף) — “Commits adultery”; gematria 141, same as efes (אֶפֶס). When we fear anything more than God, we elevate it to God’s status — spiritual adultery. The spies feared the giants more than God. — Strong’s H5003
• Eshet Chayil (אֵשֶׁת חַיִל) — “Woman of valor”; the Proverbs 31 woman who “laughs at the future” because she is clothed in strength and dignity. A picture of the bride of Messiah — fearless because she knows how the story ends. — Sefaria: Proverbs 31
• Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) — “Salvation”; who “for the joy set before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). The antidote to efes (אֶפֶס): focus on the joy ahead. — Strong’s H3442
• Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) — “Peace, wholeness, completeness.” — Strong’s H7965

Scripture References

Open All Scripture in Bible Gateway

• Numbers 13:26–33 — The report of the twelve spies: davar (דָּבָר), devash (דְּבַשׁ), then efes (אֶפֶס) — “but” — turning good into dibbah (דִּבָּה), an evil report
• Genesis 47:15–16 — “Our money is efes (אֶפֶס)” — gone, zero, nothing. The first occurrence, establishing its core meaning
• Isaiah 5:8 — “Until there is efes (אֶפֶס) room” — no room, zero room
• Isaiah 34:12 — “All its princes shall be efes (אֶפֶס)” — nothing
• Isaiah 45:6 — “There is efes (אֶפֶס) besides me” — nothing besides God
• Leviticus 20:10 — No’ef (נֹאֵף) — “commits adultery” — gematria 141, same as efes (אֶפֶס). Fearing anything above God is spiritual adultery
• Proverbs 31:25 — “She laughs at the future” — the Eshet Chayil (אֵשֶׁת חַיִל) who never says efes (אֶפֶס)
• Luke 21:26 — “Men’s hearts failing them for fear” — Yeshua’s (יֵשׁוּעַ) prophecy of end-days fear
• Hebrews 12:2 — “Who for the joy set before him endured the cross” — the antidote to efes (אֶפֶס)
• Proverbs 9:10 — “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” — healthy fear of God eliminates all other fears

External References & Further Study

• Efes: But/Zero — Blue Letter Bible Lexicon — Full lexicon entry showing dual meaning: “but/however” and “nothing/zero/end”
• Numbers 13: The Twelve Spies — Sefaria — The full passage with the three dalet-bet (דב) words and the pivotal efes (אֶפֶס)
• Bamidbar Rabbah on the Spies — Sefaria 
• Ramban on Numbers 13:27 — Sefaria — “Their iniquity was in using the word efes (אֶפֶס)”
• Eshet Chayil: The Woman of Valor — Chabad — “She laughs at the future” — the fearless bride who never says efes (אֶפֶס)
• Torah Today Ministries — Home of The Hebrew Key and other Torah-centered teachings