This story fleshes out what tov in action looks like. Let’s explore the story of Solomon receiving the gift of extraordinary wisdom and exercising it with the two-prostitutes-and-the-one-living-baby predicament. Scripture, on the other hand, is significantly choosier when it comes to applying the label “good” to something. In our day and age, it’s not uncommon to hear good being used to describe a new craft beer or an entertaining sitcom or the latest pithy tweet by a celebrity. The difference between how modern society uses the word good and how YaHuWaH uses the word good is staggering. It means capable of, presently engaged in the process of, and destined for, completely fulfilling the Divine purpose for which it was created. The Hebrew word tov does not mean merely ‘pleasant’ or ‘pleasurable’. Or, more practically speaking, think of a conversation or story that stirred you to bring forth life from inside of you and offer it in a way that had the potential to call forth life in another. So what would YaHuWaH call good? Anything that produces life and contains the potential for more life within it. The reason why the plants and trees must have seeds inside of them is so that in due time those plants and trees will drop their seeds into the earth and further the cycle of creating life and produce life. If we drop seeds and some of them grow and become trees of their own but none of them have seeds of their own…no tov. Metaphorically speaking, if we are trees and we drop seeds but none of them grow…no tov. In these two verses, there is a beautiful progression of movement: YaHuWaH calls forth the seeds he has embedded in creation, creation brings forth those seeds with the seeds of future life in them, and YaHuWaH sees the process as tov. And the earth brought forth grass, the plant that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. YaHuWaH’s use of tov in Day 3 of creation does a spectacular job of unveiling for us what tov is.Īnd Elohim said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the plant that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth.” And it came to be so. It’s the word YaHuWaH uses to describe what YaHuWaH sees after completing various acts of creation. Tov first arrives on the scene in the creation story-the first story detailed in scripture. The explosive power in tov can be felt right from the beginning. Today’s native English speakers may be vaguely familiar with tov only because of hearing the Jewish/Yiddish saying “Mazel Tov”, but it’s arguably one of the richest words out there. Tov is an almost ludicrously small but infinitely expansive Hebrew word. Let’s take a look at the Paleo Hebrew definitions from the AHLB and Strong’s for better understanding:įrom H2895 good (as an adjective) in the widest sense used likewise as a noun, both in the masculine and the feminine, the singular and the plural (good, a good or good thing, a good man or woman the good, goods or good things, good men or women), also as an adverb (well): – beautiful, best, better, bountiful, cheerful, at ease, X fair (word), (be in) favor, fine, glad, good (deed, -lier, liest, -ly, -ness, -s), graciously, joyful, kindly, kindness, liketh (best), loving, merry, X most, pleasant, + pleaseth, pleasure, precious, prosperity, ready, sweet, wealth, welfare, (be) well (). While “ra” is often translated as evil it is best translated as “dysfunctional”. These two words, tov and ra are used for the tree of the knowledge of “good” and “evil”. In contrast to this word is the Hebrew word “ra”. When YaHuWaH looked at his handiwork he did not see that it was “good”, he saw that it was functional, kind of like a well-oiled and tuned machine. The word tov would best be translated with the word “functional”. It should always be remembered that the Hebrews often relate descriptions to functionality. What does “good” mean? The first use of this word is in Genesis chapter one where YaHuWaH calls his handiwork “good”.
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