"MEH" (ISAIAH 1:11)

I am not a real fan of most newly minted words being added to English vocabulary. However, I must admit that I enjoy this particular addition. It is a prime example of onomatopoeia in which the sound of the word echoes its meaning. The other night as I was lying in bed waiting to go to sleep, this word happened to pop into my head for no reason at all. And then the following day, I ran across it again unexpectedly. Such coincidences (a missionary friend calls them God-incidences) are sometimes tip-offs to me that it is something God wants me to pursue.

So I began with the dictionary definition of the word as an exclamation expressing a lack of interest or enthusiasm, indifference or boredom. It is equivalent to the expression “so-so.” You may be surprised to know (courtesy of Wikipedia) that the word is even in the dictionary; Collins English Dictionary added it in 2008. And that was due to the popularization of the expression in two episodes of The Simpsons (1992, 1994). But the writers of that show cannot take sole credit since “meh” previously appeared as a Yiddish word in two editions of the standard Yiddish-Hebrew-English Dictionary published in 1898 and 1928.

The oldest of these sources spells the word with the Hebrew letters corresponding to our “m-e” and associates it with the bleating “baa” sound of sheep. Since Yiddish is mainly an amalgam of Hebrew and German, in this case it is a safe bet that it originally came from a Hebrew source since I know a little German and am doubtful that is its origin. If so, then was there a similar Hebrew word, and did it appear in the Old Testament? Looking at an exhaustive concordance of the Bible, I did find a listing for mh, vocalized as either mah or meh.

The Hebrew word meh is one of those “small” words found in any language which can be variously translated according to the context. In the Old Testament, it or its compound words appears roughly two dozen times and is rendered by an interrogative word such as how, why, what, or when. Many of these appearances occur in the general context of a speaker who is confused, which is not surprising considering that interrogative words appear at the start of a question that the speaker wants answered. However, the difference here is that meh usually precedes rhetorical questions which expresse more the speaker's own conflicted state of mind rather than requesting any real information from someone else. Excluding the later post-exilic uses of meh, the earlier occurrences demonstrate a great deal of similarity in meaning.

Genesis 27:45-46 gives us two examples of meh that demonstrate Rebekah's mixed feelings toward letting Jacob flee town. On the one hand, she doesn't want him to be killed by his brother Esau. On the other hand, if he goes to live with relatives elsewhere, she is afraid that he will marry a Hittite woman who will make her own life miserable. She demonstrates a decided lack of enthusiasm for either option.

When the two brothers are eventually reunited in Genesis 33, Jacob is still suspicious of Esau's motives. So when Esau proposes to leave some of his men with Jacob to escort him to his own home in Seir, Jacob replies (in v. 15), “Why (meh) should my lord be so kind to me?” and dismisses the men so that he can flee in a completely different direction undetected. As Hamilton states, “Esau...fails to perceive Jacob's hesitancy and lack of excitement about going to Seir.”

Even less enthusiasm is expressed by the prophet Balaam when he is trying to earn a commission from the Moabite King Balak for cursing the Israelites, but all God will allow him to pronounce is blessings instead. Balaam complains in the middle of his oracle, “How (meh) can I curse whom God has not cursed” (Numbers 23:8). He is not too excited about whichever way he proceeds.

Lamentations 2:13 has the prophet rhetorically asking the grieving Israelites, “To what (meh) can I compare you that I may comfort you?” He dearly wants to help them deal with their feelings but is frustrated since “the task is beyond him.” (Provan) Hillers notes, “the questions of vs. 13 are rhetorical, for there is no adequate comparison for the present wretchedness of Zion.”

Song of Songs 1:7b has the maiden asking her shepherd lover, “Why (meh) should I be like one veiled beside the flocks of your friends.” The exact significance of the veil here has been much debated, but Gledhill is able to make some generalities of the content of the passage: “The elements of uncertainty, tension and shame which we encountered in verses 5-6 are carried through here in verses 7-8. But, whereas in the previous verse the girl's uncertainties were expressed in regard to her relationship to the daughters of Jerusalem, to her brothers, and to her own inner-self, here her fears are concerned with her lover and his companions.”

The prophet Amos asks the people of Israel rhetorically, “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why (meh) do you want the day of the LORD? It is darkness, not light.” They were definitely looking forward to the Judgment Day when all their enemies would be punished by God. But Amos tells them that their feelings should instead be ambivalent regarding that event since they might very well find themselves as the party who is on the receiving end of His wrath.

I realize that none of the above examples of meh exhibits anything but a rough correspondence to our current usage of the word other than expressing uncertainty or confusion regarding one's inner feelings toward a situation. And the same is true regarding the appearance of the word in passages such as Genesis 20:10; Joshua 7:25; Judges 8:1; Ezra 4:22; and Psalm 4:2. But my final example comes quite a bit closer to fitting the bill.

In Isaiah 1:11, God says, “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices” says the LORD.

                        I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened beasts.

                        I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or of goats.”

The first line can be slightly paraphrased to read:
“As for me, meh to your multitude of sacrifices, says the LORD.”

Oswalt says, “The repetition of terms throughout the passage contributes to the general atmosphere. The reader (or listener) gets the impression of an endless round of activities all repeated continuously to no effect. The weariness of God becomes palpable.”

And remember that this is God's attitude toward activities which He Himself instituted to begin with. The problem was that the Israelites were going through the appropriate motions while totally ignoring or abusing those who were less privileged than they were or who did not quite fit their definition of a “proper” Israelite.

So if God was indifferent to their carrying out of institutions that He had required, one can only imagine His attitude toward the ceremonies He had not required or desired of them. Actually, we don't have to imagine at all since His attitude is described in the following verses:

“When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation --- I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them.”

God's disgust stems from their practices hinted at in the phrase “with iniquity.” He defines the nature of that iniquity in verses 16-17:

    “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

Conclusions

So what can we learn from all of the above, if anything?

1. Wikipedia may not always be correct (although my own proposed etymology may also be faulty).

2. The next time that your children or grandchildren accuse you of being out of date and old fashioned, you can inform them that one of their favorite memes, meh, was in fact not invented on The Simpsons but originally came from the Bible, written thousands of years ago.

3. Most importantly, it points to a key Bible passage that is just as applicable today as when it was originally addressed to “God's people” of that time. And that passage is just as “woke” as any ever written. It is not only up to date and informed, but also preaches love and justice to all, not just those we may feel are worthy of our attention.