From Structure to Meaning

A Biblical Case Study

The richness of the Hebrew Bible escapes many. Today, I wish to share a glimpse of it with you.

Let us take Proverbs 27:19 as our first case study.

First, the Hebrew—well, a transliteration of it:

ka-mayim ha-panim la-panim

ken lev ha-adam la-adam

Now for the English (my translation):

As water face to face

so heart of man to man

This verse is terse. To unpack it, we must first analyze the structure.

The first thing to note is that there are two halves (this is why I split the verse into two lines).

The next thing to note is the relationship between the two halves: it is comparative (“as this, so that”—i.e., the thing mentioned second is like the thing mentioned first). Knowing that the two halves are comparative will be very helpful: if there is any ambiguity in the first half, the second half could shed light on it, and vice versa (times two).¹

The next thing we can do is analyze the structure of the first half (we will get to the second half shortly): “As water face to face.” There is one “water,” and two “faces.” Next, we will do the same with the second half: “so heart of man to man.”² Here we have one “heart” and two “men.”

Now that we have dealt with the structure, we can move on to the meaning. This will take some thinking.

First, let us aim to decipher the first half: “As water face to face.” The first thing we should do is ask, “What is the relationship between water and faces, such that there could be one water yet two faces?” Well, this should be easy enough to answer—reflection! When one face looks into water—say, a still lake—the water will reflect the image of a face back to an actual face. So even though it is in a sense one face, it is in another sense two faces. The latter is the sense in which it is meant in our verse.

Now that we have the meaning of the first half of the verse, we can add an explanatory word to our translation: “As water [reflects] face to face.” This in turn sheds light on the second half of the verse: just as the subject in the first half—“water”—reflects, so does the subject in the second half—“[the] heart of man”: man’s heart reflects the “face”—the “countenance,” “stance,” “attitude,” “emotions”—one shows him back to him who showed it. In other words—and to put it really simply—if you love me, I will love you; and if you hate me, I will hate you. Just as if you smile at water it will smile back, so too if you smile at one’s heart it will smile back.

And just like that, we have gone from structure to meaning, truly unpacking the verse. This is the most natural way to read. This way, the verse opens up as a rose to the sun’s warmth.

For now, this case study will suffice to demonstrate the richness of the Hebrew Bible—particularly, in the original Hebrew. In the course of this study, I hope I more broadly taught you how to study: methodically, structurally, analytically.

1. If you, dear reader, understand what I mean by “times two,” I love you.

2. “Adam,” which I have translated as “man,” actually means “human.” I am using “man” in a broader sense, including women as well.