The meaning of Navel in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
na'-v'l (shor. The Septuagint in Proverbs 3:8 suggests a different reading, namely, instead of shorrekha, sherekha = she'erkha, "thy flesh")): The King James Version translates the Hebrew sharir in the description of Behemoth (Job 40:16) by "navel," where modern translators have substituted "muscles"; similarly in the translation of shorer (Song of Solomon 7:2) it has been replaced by "body.", There remain two passages of the Revised Version (British and American) where "navel" is retained as the translation of shor. Thus we find the word used, pars pro toto, for the whole being: "It (the fear of Yahweh) will be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones" (Proverbs 3:8). The uttermost neglect which a new-born babe can experience is expressed by Ezekiel: "In the day thou wast born thy navel (i.e. umbilical cord) was not cut neither wast thou washed in water to cleanse thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all" (Ezekiel 16:4).
H. L. E. Luering
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