Exo 20:17 “You do not covet your neighbour's/reya.” house, you do not covet your neighbour's/reya. wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, or whatever belongs to your neighbour/reya.”
The Abary word for neighbour is reya
It has the root word ‘rah’ which means ‘companion/friend/lover/brother/husband/ shepherd/neighbour
Psa 23:1 יהוה is my shepherd/rah H7462; I do not lack
There was a learned in Torah who wanted to declare himself righteous for obeying Torah and asked Yahusha ''And who is my neighbour?"
Luk 10:25 And see, a certain one learned in the Torah stood up, trying Him, and saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit everlasting life?”
Luk 10:26 And He said to him, “What has been written in the Torah? How do you read it?”
Luk 10:27 And he answering, said, “ ‘You shall love יהוה your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ Deu_6:5 and ‘your neighbour as yourself.’ ” Lev_19:18.
Luk 10:28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly. Do this and you shall live.”
Luk 10:29 But he, wishing to declare himself righteous, said to יהושע, “And who is my neighbour?”
Luk 10:30 And replying, יהושע said, “A certain man was going down from Yerushalayim to Yeriḥo, and fell among robbers, who, both stripping and beating him, went away, leaving him half dead.
Luk 10:31 “And by a coincidence a certain priest was going down that way. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Luk 10:32 “And likewise a Lěwite also, when he came to the place, and seeing, passed by on the other side.
Luk 10:33 “But a certain Shomeroni, journeying, came upon him. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, Footnote: See Luk_17:18
Luk 10:34 and he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And having placed him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn, and looked after him.
Luk 10:35 “And going out on the next day, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Look after him, and whatever more you spend I shall repay you when I return.’
Luk 10:36 “Who, then, of these three, do you think, was neighbour to him who fell among the robbers?”
Luk 10:37 And he said, “He who showed compassion on him.” Then יהושע said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
The 2 greatest commandments quoted by the learned man were : 1st To love Yahuah with all your heart, being, strength and mind and the 2nd command " You shall love your neighbour/reyah as yourself" and these are the 2 commands Yahusha Himself taught us in summarizing the ten commandments.
In reply to who is my neighbour/reyah Yahusha quoted a parable. In the parable Yahusha spoke of a certain man going down from Yerushalayim to Yericho. We must understand the etymology of Yericho before understanding the parable and its spiritual contents.
Yahuah told Abraham that in the fourth generation his seed would return back to the land for the sins of the Amorite is not yet complete.
Gen 15:13 And He said to Aḇram, “Know for certain that your seed are to be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.
Gen 15:14 “But the nation whom they serve I am going to judge, and afterward let them come out with great possessions.
Gen 15:14 “But the nation whom they serve I am going to judge, and afterward let them come out with great possessions.
Gen 15:15 “Now as for you, you are to go to your fathers in peace, you are to be buried at a good old age.
Gen 15:16 “Then, in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the crookedness of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
While the reference of the sins/crookedness was for the Kenanites dwelling in the land, Yericho was part of Kenan. We need to look closely at certain judgments Yahuah brought on cities/nations where He asked Yasharal to kill the women, children, infants, pregnant women and even the animals. While Yahuah in His judgment may seem to be harsh, yet He is righteous in meting out His judgment. Consider these passages.
Lev 18:21 ‘And do not give any of your offspring to pass through to Moleḵ. And do not profane the Name of your Elohim. I am יהוה.
Lev 18:22 ‘And do not lie with a male as with a woman, it is an abomination.
Lev 18:23 ‘And do not have intercourse with any beast, to defile yourself with it. And a woman does not stand before a beast to mate with it, it is a perversion.
Lev 18:24 ‘Do not defile yourselves with all these, for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am driving out before you.
Lev 18:25 ‘Thus the land became defiled, therefore I punished it for its crookedness, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
The land had become defiled by men lying with men, men and women having sex with animals etc which is why Yahuah wouldn’t spare even the animals of the land
In Yericho only Rahab the innkeeper(note our translations say whore), her household and her goods, silver, gold and bronze were to be spared
Rahab because she hid the Yasharalite spies and sent them the other way and silver, gold and bronze were to be brought into the treasury of Yahuah. Rest men, women and beasts were to be utterly destroyed
Jos 6:21 And they put under the ban all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.
Jos 6:22 And to the two men who had spied out the land Yehoshua said, “Go into the house of the woman, the innkeeper , and from there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her.”
Jos 6:23 And the young men, the spies, went in and brought out Raḥaḇ, and her father, and her mother, and her brothers, and all that she had. So they brought out all her relatives and set them outside the camp of Yisra’ěl.
Jos 6:24 And they burned the city and all that was in it with fire. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the House of יהוה.
The word here is zunah (female inn keeper) and not zanah (a harlot), the hey at the end makes the word feminine. The translators got it wrong. Moreover, its clear with the word shakab which means to lodge/take rest/lie down. She hid the spies on her roof top with the stalks of flax , what were stalks of flax doing on her roof top if not to feed those in her hotel/inn?
Jos 2:1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an innkeeper's house, named Rahab, and lodged /shakab H7901 there.
Jos 2:6 But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid out on the roof.
When she was saved on the day of Yericho's fall, she was saved along with her father, mother and her brothers and all that she had, which harlot does harlotry with her father, mother and brothers being in the house.
Yahuah had made a vow that He would blot out Amalek and will be at war with them from generation to generation. In the instructions given to king Shaul through Shemuel, Shaul was asked to blot out men, women, infants and beasts of Amalek
1Sa 15:2 “Thus said יהוה of hosts, ‘I shall punish Amalěq for what he did to Yisra’ěl, how he set himself against him on the way when he came up from Mitsrayim.
1Sa 15:3 Now go, and you shall strike Amalěq and put under the ban all that he has, and you shall not spare them, and put to death from man to woman, from infant to nursing child, from ox to sheep, from camel to donkey.’ ”
Exo 17:15 And Mosheh built a slaughter-place and called its name, יהוה Nissi,
Exo 17:16 for he said, “Because a hand is on the throne of Yah, יהוה is to fight against Amalěq, from generation to generation.”
Deu 25:19 “Therefore it shall be, when יהוה your Elohim has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you blot out the remembrance of Amalěq from under the heavens. Do not forget!
King Shaul disobeyed Yahuah. While his intention seemed right in man’s eyes yet it was a grave sin in Yahuah’s eyes.
1Sa 15:8 And he caught Aḡaḡ sovereign of the Amalěqites alive, and put under the ban all the people with the edge of the sword.
1Sa 15:9 But Sha’ul and the people spared Aḡaḡ and the best of the sheep, and the cattle, and the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not put them under the ban. But all goods despised and worthless, that they put under the ban.
Shaul spared Agag the king of Amalek and the best of the sheep and cattle which he later tells Shemuel that he kept them to slaughter to Yahuah
1Sa 15:14 But Shemu’ěl said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the cattle which I hear?”
1Sa 15:15 And Sha’ul said, “They have brought them from Amalěq, because the people spared the best of the sheep and the cattle, to slaughter to יהוה your Elohim. And the rest we have put under the ban.”
The sheep, cattle were to be killed with all the people because we read in Leviticus 18:21-25 that these nations defiled their animals by having sexual intercourse with even the animals. Here was king Shaul with his intention to slaughter these sexually abused animals to Yahuah as slaughter offerings.That’s how grave his sin was.
So whenever a command came to not spare men, women, infants, animals it was because of these grave sins the nations had committed. Yericho was one of these.
Yericho comes from two root words:
1. yareach: moon
2. ruach: breathe/spirit/smell
While the word Yericho means fragrant these two root words ruach which apart from spirit also means ‘ to breathe or smell’ it also has the word ‘rach’ in which means travel/path
The picture is of the traveller travelling the path (rach) of the full moon (yareach) to smell/breathe (ruach) the fragrance. It’s a deceptive fragrance and that’s why Yahushua/Joshua cursed Yericho.
What was the curse he put on it?
Jos 6:26 And Yehoshua warned them at that time, saying, “Cursed is the man before יהוה who rises up and builds this city Yeriḥo – he lays its foundation with his first-born, and with his youngest he sets up its gates.”
Yahushua’s curse came to fulfilment
1Ki 16:34 In his days Ḥi’ěl of Běyth Ěl built Yeriḥo. He laid its foundation at the cost of Aḇiram his first-born, and at the cost of his youngest son Seḡuḇ he set up its gates, according to the word of יהוה, which He had spoken through Yehoshua son of Nun.
Coming back to the parable of Who is my reyah/ neighbour?
The certain man was going astray from the place where Yahuah is worshipped i.e. Yerushalayim to Yericho i.e. a place of curse. And on the way was met by a band of robbers. The band of robbers stripped him, wounded him and left him half dead. Through the parable Yahusha was indicating the chastisement meted out to the Yahudite going astray from Him. The band of robbers are the accusers inflicting the wrath from Torah commands being broken. Remember Yahusha taught that the two greatest commandments are loving Yahuah with all your mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbour as yourself and on these hang the Torah and the Prophets. The man unnamed (certain man) was in a lost identity.
Luk 10:31 “And by a coincidence a certain priest was going down that way. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Luk 10:32 “And likewise a Lěwite also, when he came to the place, and seeing, passed by on the other side.
Yahusha doesn’t miss to tell us twice that a priest and a Lewite we’re going down that way. The priest’s were always Levite’s but not all Levites were priests (for there were Lewites who were gatekeepers, transporters of vessels of the house of Yahuah, bakers, singers etc and it’s an eye opener to see that they both were on the path from Yerushalayim to Yericho.
Luk 10:31 “And by a coincidence a certain priest was going down that way
Luk 10:33 “But a certain Shomeroni, journeying/halak , came upon him. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
The Hebrew text of Luke 10:33 w’hinneh Shom’roni hole’k badere’k
It’s translation “wa/ And hinneh/ behold Shomeroni/a Shomereon journeyed/holek ba/in derek/the way
Put together: And behold a Shomeroni journeyed in the way
The Greek word used here is hodeuo from G3598 hodos which means to travel or journey