The Depth in the Aaronic Blessing.

"May the Lord bless and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace." We've all heard it, however, this amazing blessing was originally (and still is among certain groups) spoken in Hebrew. The Hebrew language is unique in that one word can mean multiple things and has numeric value. Let's transliterate this and explore the exquisite profundity in this transcribed blessing directly from YHVH.

"May the Lord bless," in this statement, we will transliterate the Hebrew word used here for bless: the word is "barak" which can also mean abundantly and kneel before.

"And Keep you, may the Lord make His face shine upon you." Here the word "keep" also means to keep, keeper or watchman. The word "shine" is yaer, which can also mean set on fire, or glorious.

"And be gracious to you," in this statement the word "gracious" can also mean "to stoop before an inferior" or beseech.

"May He lift up His countenance upon you" the word "lift" among many things, can also mean desire or marry, the word "countenance" could mean battle.

"And give you peace." The word for "peace" as many know, is shalom. Shalom doesn't just mean peace, it also means favor, prosperity, health and perfection.

Lastly, the word "may" is non-existent in the Hebrew text - this shows that it is a declaration and blessing rather than a petition.

So in doing a simply transliteration of this divine blessing directly from God's lips, a more concise translation would be:

The Name bless you abundantly,

The Name be your watchman,

The Name set you on fire and make you glorious,

The superior will kneel before the inferior and with desire,

Marry his battle like countenance with you,

And give you perfection.

-Julie Ann Espinoza