Listen to the Hebrew rendering narrated by Christian. We include parenthetical English definitions for each Hebrew term, so you can understand it in modern English.
The Epistle to the Philippians – Continuous Narrative in Ancient Hebrew Concrete Thought (with Definitions)
From Sha’ul and Timotheos, bond-servants beneath the yoke of Yeshua ha Mashiach (Yahweh’s Anointed Deliverer), to the set-apart tents in Philippi, with their watch-keepers and table-servers:
May chen (gracious favor freely given) and shalom (wholeness, harmony, well-secured peace) flow to you from Yahweh (the Eternal One, who causes to be) our Father, and from Yeshua ha Mashiach.
We lift todah (thankful praise) to Yahweh whenever your faces rise again in memory, like embers stirred by a gentle wind.
In every prayer, our words rise with simchah (joy, radiant delight), because from the first dawn until now you have walked beside us in the good announcement.
I am sure of this: the Craftsman who began shaping His work in you will hammer it true until the day when Yeshua walks through the camp.
You share with me in this chen (freely given favor), whether I am bound in iron or standing guard at the gate.
Yahweh Himself knows my longing—it stirs like the deep compassion of Yeshua ha Mashiach within me.
I pray that your ahavah (covenant devotion, steadfast love) overflows like a spring, guided by daʿat (knowledge through experience) and binah (discernment born from understanding), so you may test what is solid, walk unblemished, and bear fruit of right-weighing through Yeshua ha Mashiach, bringing Yahweh’s radiance into the field.
And know this, beloved: what pressed me down has only cleared more path for the good news to run its course.
My chains for Yeshua have become known throughout the whole house, echoing His message of life.
Many brothers, hearing of my bindings, have found new courage—their stakes driven deep—and they speak the word without fear.
It is true, some proclaim Yeshua from jealousy and rivalry, others from ahavah (covenant love); the first strike sparks for themselves, the others guard the covenant.
Yet either way, His name rides the wind, and for this I rejoice—yes, I will rejoice again.
For I know this will turn to deliverance through your prayers and the breath of the Ruach ha Qodesh (the Holy Breath, the Life-Wind of Yahweh) filling me again.
It is my expectation, like a watchman leaning toward dawn, that I will not hang my head but that Yeshua will be made large in this body, whether through breath or through its release.
For to live is to walk His path, and to die is to reach the tent beyond the horizon.
If I remain in this flesh, there is still fruit to gather; yet I feel the pull of two worlds—to fold this tent and be with Yeshua, which is far better—but for your sake I will stay a little longer, to steady your steps in emunah (steadfast trust, covenant loyalty) and to increase your simchah (joy) in Him, so that your joy may rise when I return to your tents again.
Only let your walking match the good news of Yeshua—whether I see you or hear of you from afar—A covenant people standing side by side in the same wind of Yahweh — their lungs filled by the same breath, their movement coordinated like a single living body.
Do not fear your pursuers; their shadows mark their own end, while for you it is deliverance from Yahweh.
For this is your gift—not only to walk with Yeshua in emunah (steadfast faith-walk), but to bear His yoke of suffering—the same struggle you saw in me and now hear I still carry.
If there is any strengthening breath in Yeshua, any comfort flowing from ahavah (covenant devotion), any sharing in the Ruach ha Qodesh (set-apart life-breath), any deep mercy stirring in your inner parts—then fill up my simchah (joy) by being of one heartbeat, carrying the same ahavah, breathing together beneath one purpose.
Do nothing from rivalry or thirst for praise; bow low in spirit, counting the other closer to the fire than yourself.
Do not fix your eyes only on your own field but tend also your neighbor’s vineyard.
Let this pattern of heart and path be in you, the same that was in Yeshua ha Mashiach: though He bore the radiance of Elohim (the Mighty One), He did not grasp for the throne, but laid aside the royal robe and took the servant’s garb, becoming as one of us—a son of dust walking among tents.
Found in human frame, He bowed Himself low, walking obedience to the end—even to the stake on the roadside.
Therefore Yahweh lifted Him high and raised His banner-name above all banners, that at the Name of Yeshua every knee should bend—in heaven, on earth, and under the dust—and every tongue declare Yeshua ha Mashiach as Adon (Master, Lord), to the radiance of Yahweh the Father.
Therefore, my beloved ones, keep working out your deliverance—hammering the metal of your faith with reverent trembling—for it is Elohim who breathes and shapes within you both the desire to walk and the strength to do according to His delight.
Do all things without grumbling smoke or sharp disputes, that you may be pure covenant children, shining like stars in a crooked night, holding forth the word of life like a torch in darkness, that I may rejoice in the day of Yeshua, seeing that I have not run or planted in vain.
Even if my life is poured out like wine upon the altar of your faith, I rejoice and share simchah with you all—and you likewise rejoice with me.
I trust in Yeshua to send Timotheos soon, that I too may be cheered by your news.
For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will truly care for you; all others seek their own trail, not the things of Yeshua.
But you know his proven path—as a son beside a father, he has served with me in the field of the good news.
I hope to send him soon and trust through Yahweh that I myself will come as well.
But I send Epaphroditos, my brother and co-laborer—your messenger and helper—for he longed deeply for you and grieved that you heard of his sickness.
He nearly crossed the boundary of death, but Elohim showed compassion, sparing us sorrow upon sorrow.
I send him now so you may rejoice when you see him again and I may rest easier.
Receive him as one received in Yeshua, and honor such men, for he drew near to death for the work of the Master, risking his very breath to serve where you could not.
Finally, my beloved, rejoice in Yahweh; to say this again is no burden to me—it is a strong fence for you.
Be alert against the scavengers, the workers of crookedness, those who cut at flesh yet miss the heart.
For we are the true mark-bearers, serving Yahweh in the breath of the Ruach, rejoicing in Yeshua ha Mashiach, placing no trust in the outer shell.
If any could boast in fleshly marks, I could more: circumcised the eighth day, of Israel’s seed, tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee by study, zealous to the point of pursuit, blameless by human measure.
But what once weighed heavy in my pouch I cast aside as dust to gain Yeshua.
Indeed, I count all things loss compared with the surpassing worth of knowing (experiencing, walking with) Him—for whose sake I have flung everything to the refuse heap—that I may be found within His tent, not holding a right-standing of my own making but the right-weighing (true balance of justice) that comes through emunah (steadfast trust) in Yeshua, the balance Yahweh counts true.
My desire is to know Him by walking with Him, to feel the power of His rising (life-breath that lifted Him from the grave), to share the fellowship of His afflictions, to be conformed to His death, that somehow I may arrive at the rising from among the sleeping dust.
Not that I have grasped it yet, but I press on, stretching out toward the prize ahead, for Yeshua ha Mashiach has already taken hold of me.
Brothers and sisters, I do not claim arrival, but one thing I do: turning from what lies behind, I run toward what is ahead, climbing the path toward Yahweh’s upward call in Yeshua ha Mashiach.
All who are steady and mature, think this way.
If you see differently, Yahweh will make it plain.
Let us hold to the same trail, staying within the ancient stones.
Walk this path with me, and note those whose footprints match these steps, for many walk otherwise—enemies of the wooden stake of Yeshua.
Their trail leads to ruin; their belly is their god, their pride their shame, their eyes fixed on dust.
But our homeland is above, in Yahweh’s high encampment (His dwelling beyond the clouds); from there we await Yeshua ha Mashiach, our Deliverer, who will renew these frail tents into forms like His radiant dwelling by the strength with which He brings all under His rule.
So then, my dearly loved and longed-for—my simchah (joy) and my wreath of honor—stand firm in Yahweh.
I urge Euodia and Syntyche to walk in harmony in Yeshua, and I ask you, true companion, help these women who labored beside me for the good announcement, with Clement and the rest whose names are written in the scroll of life (covenant record of the living).
Lift your faces in Yahweh’s light always; again I say, lift them.
Let your gentle restraint be known to all; Yeshua is near—His footsteps already on the path.
Do not let anxious winds churn within you, but in everything spread your hands before Yahweh, laying your needs before Him and wrapping them in todah (thankful praise).
Then the shalom (wholeness, harmony, rest) of Yahweh—wholeness beyond what the mind can map—will guard your hearts and thoughts like watchmen circling the camp of Yeshua ha Mashiach.
Fix your minds on what is true, honorable, upright, pure, lovely, and worthy of praise—like travelers guiding their way by the north star.
Whatever you have learned, received, heard, or seen in me, walk in these ways, and the Elohim of shalom (God of wholeness and peace) will pitch His tent among you.
I rejoiced greatly in Yahweh that your care for me has blossomed again like spring after drought.
You always cared but lacked the chance to act.
I do not speak from want; I have learned to rest within whatever tent Yahweh gives—whether in plenty or need.
I know how to walk through hunger and fullness, through abounding and abasement; I have learned the secret of stillness.
I can bear and do all things through Yeshua who strengthens my bones.
Yet you have done well to share in my hardship.
You Philippians know—in the first days of the good news, when I left Macedonia—no other encampment shared with me but you alone; more than once you sent provision to my need.
It is not the gift itself I seek but the fruit (harvest reward) that fills your side of the scales.
I have received all; my pouch is full, having from Epaphroditos the gifts you sent—a sweet aroma (pleasing sacrifice), an offering well received, pleasing to Yahweh.
And Elohim will fill every lack of yours from the wealth of His radiance (glory, shining abundance) in Yeshua ha Mashiach. To Elohim our Father be radiance and praise through all generations.
Greet every set-apart one in Yeshua ha Mashiach.
Those with me send their shalom (peace, wholeness), and so do all the set-apart ones—especially those from Caesar’s household.
May the chen (gracious favor) of Yeshua ha Mashiach rest upon you all.
Amen (so let it be established).
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