Online Bible Studies : Study #1 : Silent Night

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#1:

Go Right to God
A Hebrew word study on what it means to SEEK God

"And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the LORD; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD." 2 CHRONICLES 20:3-4

Do we truly know what it means to SEEK THE LORD?

While reading the Bible, there are many times when I'll come across a word or phrase that sparks my interest to investigate further and gain a deeper understanding of what it means the way it was originally written. With PC Study Bible's easy-to-use original language tools, this kind of in-depth study is a snap.

To get to the heart of what it means "to seek" the Lord like the people of Judah in 2 Chronicles 20, I was able to use Strong's Dictionary and Brown, Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon as a starting point:

How PC Study Bible helped this portion of my study:

Wherever you see this icon, click it to view a screen shot from PC Study Bible of the item described.

	From my initial Bible window, I went right to my Strong's Greek-Hebrew Dictionary.
	From there, I could cycle between the other Hebrew tools in my library to get even more information about the topic of my word study.
	My Englishman's Concordance showed me every place in the Old Testament that the verb "to seek" appears.

REFERENCE WORK

DEFINTION OF "TO SEEK" (STRONG'S #1245)

Strong's Greek & Hebrew Dictionary

baqash (baw-kash'); a primitive root; to search out (by any method, specifically in worship or prayer); by implication, to strive after...KJV - ask, beg, beseech, desire, enquire, get, make inquisition, procure, (make) request, require, seek (for).

Brown, Driver & Briggs Hebrew Definitions

baqash — to seek, to require, to desire, to exact, to request

a) (Piel)
	1) to seek to find 2) to seek to secure 3) to seek the face 4) to desire, to demand 5) to require, to exact 6) to ask, to request
b) (Pual) to be sought

From there, I clicked on my Englishman's Concordance

, which opened a new window that displayed every Old Testament occurrence of the Hebrew verb I was studying. This allowed me to compare similar passages and get a much clearer picture of how this verb is used in a variety of contexts (see examples below):

VERSE REFERENCE	EXCERPT (KJV -- emphasis added)
2 Chronicles 7:14	"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
Psalm 105:3-4	"Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore."
Proverbs 28:5	"Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things."
Jeremiah 29:12-13	"Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

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•	THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.
•	Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.
•	The Online Bible Thayer's Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright © 1993, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Ontario, Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research.
•	Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers.
•	The King James Version Electronic Database. Copyright © 1988-2003, by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.