ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Lexicon

H5828 - ezer

ezer, 'ezer, עֵזֶר, H5828, ezer kenegdo, help meet, helpmeet, helper, help, suitable helper

Strong's: H5828 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: AY-zer Part of speech: masculine noun Root: from the verb azar (H5826, "to help, succour"), which occurs in 77 verses of the Strong's-tagged KJV, rendered "help" 44 times and "helped" 18 times OT occurrences: 21 verses in the Strong's-tagged KJV, rendered "help" 19 times and "meet" 2 times. The two "meet" tags are Genesis 2:18 and 2:20, where the tagger attached the number to the second word of the phrase "help meet"; in both verses ezer is the word behind "help" Greek equivalent (LXX): boēthos (G0998, "helper") at Genesis 2:18; the same noun appears once in the New Testament, of God: "The Lord is my helper" (Heb 13:6) Key phrase: ezer kenegdo (עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ), "a help corresponding to him" (Gen 2:18, 2:20)

Semantic range

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  1. Help, rescue, support given by one party to another who cannot manage alone. The word names the help, or the one who gives it.
  2. God as the help of His people (the dominant use). About 16 of the 21 verses either call God Israel's ezer or speak of help that comes from Him.
  3. Human help, often failing. Help from allies or retainers that turns out to be useless or is scattered (Isa 30:5; Ezek 12:14; Dan 11:34).
  4. The woman as the man's help (Gen 2:18, 2:20), qualified by kenegdo, "corresponding to him."

The word says nothing about rank. It names a need met. Who stands higher is decided by the context, and in most of the Old Testament the ezer is the stronger party.

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Theological force

Who is called ezer

The distribution of the 21 verses, measured on the Strong's-tagged KJV:

The pattern is striking. The noun is mostly reserved for the help God gives when His people are in danger, and when it is used of human allies it usually describes help that collapses.

Ezer as God's rescue

  • "The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh" (Exod 18:4). Moses names his son Eliezer, which the KJV margin glosses "My God is an help."
  • "There is none like unto God, O Jeshurun, Who rideth upon the heavens for thy help" (Deut 33:26).
  • "Our soul hath waited for Jehovah: He is our help and our shield" (Ps 33:20).
  • "Thou art my help and my deliverer; O Jehovah, make no tarrying" (Ps 70:5).
  • "My help cometh from Jehovah, Who made heaven and earth" (Ps 121:2).
  • "Our help is in the name of Jehovah, Who made heaven and earth" (Ps 124:8).
  • "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help" (Ps 146:5).
  • "It is thy destruction, O Israel, that thou art against me, against thy help" (Hos 13:9).

In these verses the ezer is the one with power, and the one helped is the one in need.

Human help that fails

  • "They shall all be ashamed because of a people that cannot profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach" (Isa 30:5), of Egypt as an ally.
  • "I will scatter toward every wind all that are round about him to help him" (Ezek 12:14).
  • "They shall be helped with a little help" (Dan 11:34).

The contrast with God's help is part of the word's message: human help is real but limited, and God's help does not fail.

Ezer kenegdo: the help that corresponds

"And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him" (Gen 2:18, ASV).

  • "Meet" is old English for "fitting." It is not part of a compound "helpmeet." The KJV margin on the word reads "Heb. as before him."
  • Kenegdo is ke- ("as, like") + neged (H5048) + "him." Neged is a preposition and noun of position, "in front of, opposite, over against." In the Strong's-tagged KJV, where H5048 is tagged in 23 verses, its most frequent rendering is "before" (6), followed by "against" (4). The phrase pictures a counterpart who stands face to face with the man, matching him.
  • Other public-domain renderings agree. The YLT has "an helper, as his counterpart"; the WEB has "a helper comparable to him."
  • The narrative explains the phrase. No animal answers to the man (Gen 2:20, "there was not found a help meet for him"). When the woman is brought, the man says, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh" (Gen 2:23). Kenegdo is about sameness of nature with difference of person: one who is like him and yet other than him.

What ezer does not settle

The noun answers one question and leaves another open.

  • It answers: is "helper" a demeaning title? No. The same noun is used of God more than of anyone else. A word that names God as Israel's help cannot in itself mark inferiority.
  • It does not answer: are there ordered roles in marriage? That question is addressed by other texts, chiefly Ephesians 5:21-33, 1 Cor 11:3 and 1 Peter 3:1-7, and by the shape of the whole Genesis 2 narrative. Some readers see an order in Genesis 2 (the man formed first, the woman made for the man's need); others see only partnership. Both readings have to be argued from more than the noun. Using ezer to prove either "the woman is the superior rescuer" or "the woman is the subordinate assistant" asks more of one word than it can carry.

The honest result is modest and solid: the woman is presented as the man's indispensable, matching counterpart, and the word chosen for her is one the Bible gladly uses of God.

A New Testament parallel: the Paraclete

Jesus calls the Holy Spirit "another Comforter" (John 14:16), the paraklētos, one called alongside to help. See G3875 - parakletos. The pattern is the same as with ezer: the one who comes to help is not lesser than the one helped. In both Testaments, "helper" is a title God wears.

Notable verses

The woman as ezer kenegdo

  • Genesis 2:18, "I will make him a help meet for him"
  • Genesis 2:20, "but for man there was not found a help meet for him" (see Genesis 2.19-20)
  • Genesis 2:23-24, "bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh... and they shall be one flesh", the narrative gloss on kenegdo

God as ezer

  • Exodus 18:4, Eliezer, "my God is an help"
  • Deuteronomy 33:7, 26; 33:29, "The shield of thy help"
  • Psalm 33:20, "He is our help and our shield"
  • Psalm 70:5, "Thou art my help and my deliverer"
  • Psalm 115:9-11, "He is their help and their shield", three times
  • Psalm 121:1-2, "My help cometh from Jehovah"
  • Psalm 124:8, "Our help is in the name of Jehovah"
  • Psalm 146:5, "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help"
  • Hosea 13:9, "against thy help"
  • Psalm 20:2; 89:19, help sent from the sanctuary and laid on the chosen one

Human help that fails

  • Isaiah 30:5, Egypt, "not a help nor profit, but a shame"
  • Ezekiel 12:14; Daniel 11:34

Greek echo

  • Hebrews 13:6, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear", boēthos, the noun the Septuagint uses at Genesis 2:18

Patristic note

The Fathers read Genesis 2:18 in two directions at once, as honor and as order:

  • Chrysostom sees both the man's leadership and God's care to keep the woman from being despised: "And in order again that He might not despise her as inferior, and separate from her, see how He honored her, and made them one, even before her creation. For, 'Let us make for man,' saith He, 'a help meet,' implying that she was made for his need, and thereby drawing him unto her who was made for his sake" (Homilies on 1 Corinthians, NPNF1 12, PDF p. 180).
  • Tertullian reads the singular as a mark of monogamy. After citing "It is not good for the man that he be alone; let us make an help-meet for him," he comments: "For He would have said 'helpers' if He had destined him to have more wives (than one)" (ANF 4, PDF p. 52).
  • Gregory Nazianzen, praising his parents' marriage, contrasts Eve, who "instead of an assistant became an enemy, and instead of a yoke-fellow, an opponent," with his mother, a true help to his father (NPNF2 7, PDF p. 152).

Apologetic significance

  • Against "the Bible calls women mere helpers." The objection assumes the English sense of "helper" as an assistant. The Hebrew noun is used of God in about 16 of its 21 verses. See Misogyny in the Bible Objection Defeater, Premise 7.
  • Against over-reading in the other direction. Some popular teaching says ezer proves the woman is the man's rescuer and therefore his superior, or that it rules out any ordered roles. The noun does not settle role questions either way; that discussion belongs to Ephesians 5 and the related texts. Claiming more than the word gives hands a critic an easy correction.
  • For a coherent anthropology. Ezer kenegdo together with Genesis 1:27 ("male and female created he them") presents man and woman as equal bearers of God's image who are not interchangeable. See Imago Dei.
  • For pastoral use. "Helper" is the name of God in the Psalms of distress. To be called ezer is to be described in God's own vocabulary.

Verses in this codex

See also