Eve is a Deliverer (ezer עֵ֫זֶר)?

Question

For most of my life I read Eve's role in Genesis 2:18 as suitable helper:

Genesis 2:18 (NASB) Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable (ezer עֵ֫זֶר) for him.”

But, doing a word study on the (ezer עֵ֫זֶר), the word often translated as helper or companion, I have come to see this word to better translated as deliver.

Looking at Strong's concordance, it appears the word ezer עֵ֫זֶר is only ever used to describe Eve and God. It shows up 21 times in the hebrew bible. Two times in Genesis 2:18 & 20 that refer to Eve, and when read in context the rest seem to speak to God's protection, deliverance, shielding, etc.

That said, Eve was clearly not a deliverer or even a helper (Gen 3:6), at least in the biblical account that we have.

Given this, I have two questions:

1. Is deliverer indeed a more suitable translation than helper and
2. Is ezer עֵ֫זֶר more appropriately a scoped to a woman's relationship to men, biblical women's relationship to biblical men, Eve's role to Adam, or a mix?

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Reference Passages (NASB Translation):

1. Genesis 2:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
2. Genesis 2:20 The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
3. Exodus 18:4 And the other was named Eliezer, for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.”
4. Deuteronomy 33:7 And this was regarding Judah; so he said: “Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, And bring him to his people. With his hands he contended for them, And may You be a help against his adversaries.”
5. Deuteronomy 33:26 “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, Who rides the heavens to your help, And the clouds in His majesty.
6. Deuteronomy 33:29 Blessed are you, Israel; Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, The shield of your help, And He who is the sword of your majesty! So your enemies will cringe before you, And you will trample on their high places.”
7. Psalm 20:2 May He send you help from the sanctuary, And support you from Zion!
8. Psalm 33:20 Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.
9. Psalm 70:5 But I am afflicted and needy; Hurry to me, God! You are my help and my savior; Lord, do not delay.
10. Psalm 89:19 Once You spoke in vision to Your godly ones, And said, “I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people.
11. Psalm 115:9 Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.
12. Psalm 115:10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield
13. Psalm 115:11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.
14. Psalm 121:1 I will raise my eyes to the mountains; From where will my help come?
15. Psalm 121:2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
16. Psalm 124:8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
17. Ezekiel 12:14 And I will scatter to every wind all who are around him, his helpers and all his troops; and I will draw out a sword after them
18. Daniel 11:34 Now when they fall they will be granted a little help, and many will join with them in hypocrisy. 35 And some of those who have insight will fall, to refine, purge, and cleanse them until the end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time.
19. Hosea 13:9 It is to your own destruction, Israel, That you are against Me, against your help.
20. Psalm 146:5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
21. Isaiah 30:5 Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who do not benefit them, Who are not a help or benefit, but a source of shame and also disgrace.”

Answer 1

I enjoyed the OP’s proposal: that the translations might find a better word in place of helper.

It reminded me of בָּרָ֣א=bara, the second word of the Bible. That thing that only God does that means something like to make, but because hardly anyone else ever does it we perhaps can’t be too confident. (iirc: Blenkinsopp, 2011) It could often be translated as “to God” without much further decreasing our comprehension. When our grasp of ancient words is so tenuous, arguments that have the courage to begin from how little we know are commendable as reminders and cautions.

I am an amateur in Ancient Hebrew, so will only present this as a line of reasoning, which I think offers a shortcut to keeping the current word.

I submit there is are two differences between a helper and a deliverer in English:-

1. A “helper” is purposively prospective: the action’s fulfilment is anticipated in the speaker’s future; whereas a “deliverer” is purposively retrospective: the action’s fulfilment is in the speaker’s past. We may say someone “was” our helper and someone “will be” our deliverer, but this purposivity remains.

2. A “helper” helps towards the end and is (by one of its available converses) partial. The helper often is not the action’s fulfiller, they are a helper with reference to a main agent. There is a familiar ‘lazzo’ in TV sitcoms, where a man struggles to open a stubborn jar, and he passes it to his wife who opens it instantly: the man says “I must have loosened it for you.” That is a helper.

Whereas a “deliverer” was the main agent, and notwithstanding there might have been helpers, it was them who resolved whatever matter, and they resolved it totally.

So before embarking into great research into עֵ֫זֶר=ezer, we can survey if the 21 occurrences (really 15 separate usages) in Strongs are prospective or retrospective, whether they are complete or partial, and lastly whether they are human or divine.

From my partial and prospective efforts, I find:-

Prospective:

Psalm 146:5 ; {Daniel 11:34} ; Ezekiel 12:14 ; Psalm 115:9-11 ; {Psalm 121:1-2} ; Psalm 70:5 ; Psalm 33:20 ; {Psalm 20:2} ; Deuteronomy 33:26-29 ; Deuteronomy 33:7 ; Genesis 2:18-20 (11)

Retrospective:

Isaiah 30:5 ; {Psalm 124:8} ; Psalm 89:19 ; Exodus 18:4 (4)

Neither or Unclear:

Hosea 13:9 (1)

Total:

Psalm 124:8 ; Exodus 18:4

Partial:

Daniel 11:34 ; Ezekiel 12:14 ; Genesis 2:18-20 ; Isaiah 30:5

Neither or Unclear:

Psalm 89:19

Divine:

Psalm 146:5 ; Hosea 13:9 ; {Daniel 11:34} ; {Psalm 124:8} ; {Psalm 121:2} ; Psalm 115:9-11 ; Psalm 89:19 ; Psalm 70:5 ; Psalm 33:20 ; {Psalm 20:2} ; Deuteronomy 33:26-29 ; Deuteronomy 33:7 ; Exodus 18:4 (13)

Human:

{Isaiah 30:5} ; Ezekiel 12:14 ; Genesis 2:18-20 (3)

In Psalm 33:20 and Psalm 115:9-11 the word is part of a formula: “my help and shield”

In Ezekiel 12:14 the Lord is referring to some soldiers of Zedekiah: (Gills Exposition of the Entire Bible) Either his bodyguards, the men of war that were with him when he fled, Jeremiah 52:7; or his auxiliary troops, the Egyptians, whom he had taken into his pay for his assistance and all his bands: or "wings" (w); the wings of his army. The Targum interprets it his army; these were all scattered from him when he was taken, Jeremiah 52:8. - - so the OP was mistaken when they said “the word ezer עֵ֫זֶר is only ever used to describe Eve and God”.

The Psalm 89 example apparently is part of an idiom. Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges has “Endowed him with the power and assigned to him the office of helping My people in their need. For laid = ‘conferred,’ of the Divine endowment of the king, see Psalm 21:5; and for help as a Divine gift to the king, see Psalm 20:2. The phrase is unusual, but the conjectures a diadem (cp. Psalm 89:39) or strength are unnecessary.”

The probable composition dates of these Psalms range from ~500BC to ~1000BC

Brown-Driver-Briggs divides these same passages between two senses as follows:-

[1] help, succour: Isaiah 30:5 , Daniel 11:34; Psalm 20:3; Psalm 121:1-2; Psalm 124:8; Deuteronomy 33:29. (6)

[2] one who helps Genesis 2:18-20; Ezekiel 12:14 ; Deuteronomy 33:7 ; Psalm 33:20; Psalm 115:9-11; Psalm 70:6 ; Exodus 18:4 ; Deuteronomy 33:26 ; Psalm 146:4. (9)

I have at this point gone back up to my list and {} bracketed the sense (1) examples, since those are less relevant to Eve

Lexicon Entry:- https://archive.org/details/hebrewenglishlex00browuoft/page/740/mode/2up?view=theater&q=

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This invites a hypothesis that:-

1. The word could be applied to God or humans. Word studies are never statistically-significant samples so the fact it’s used more of God in books about God is little evidence that using it of a human is marked. It’s a role people can conceive of themselves having in common with God, and I submit it’s more likely to have been extended up to God from a mortal adjective, than down to mortals from an adjective reserved to God. And most especially if God can be described in direct speech using this word of Zedekiah’s bodyguards before he routs them.

2. The word has a fairly strong prospective purposivity. The small number of retrospective examples makes it hard to tell if the prospective examples expect the action to be total or partial in the outcome. But certainly it could be either. And there is a lexical conundrum arising from the usages of God: if God is a partial helper purposively, the action will be complete in outcome!

So for now I must demur from the OP’s proposal, but I hope my efforts show what enthusiasm I had for it, and they will likely not have contributed so much to my conclusion’s accuracy that it's immune to challenge. I admit I haven't looked at a further 80 or so usages from the similar word azar (Strongs 5826) which ideally should be read through in their contexts.

If I may, I would like to revisit this in a few days time to also think about the ways “helper” is aiding or hindering comprehension. It may be slightly closer than “deliverer” but it's really how to read the usage in relation to Eve that matters.

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EDIT (09/09/2024)

About part 2 of the OP's question, the fact עֵ֫זֶר isn't always a concrete (one who helps) but can also be abstract (succour), suggests it probably isn't drawing attention to the masculinity or femininity of the agent.

There is one usage about a group of male human soldiers, one usage about the female human mother of humanity, one usage about a group of human officials who are presumably/historically male (but not necessarily), and thirteen usages about a male God.

To create a case for a term's being reserved to, or more associated with females than males would need more, and different examples.

Apart from Eve, none of the usages of עֵ֫זֶר concern woman-man relationships or co-operation. And it follows from this that perhaps it doesn't for Eve either. The word is most often used of survival, or general thriving: so it might differ from English "help" in being less task-focused.

Answer 2

The OP's question puts us in touch with an important aspect of Eve's role in relation to her male partner. She was not merely a helper or assistant, and was not originally subservient to him. She indeed rescued Adam from a state of aloneness. This state, while not sinful, was also "not good." So while "deliverer" may not be the best translation, it is important for readers to know that "helper" is not the only possible way of reading the text - or at least that it can carry the connotation of rescue as in Ps. 27:9, where God is called "my help." R David Freedman of the University of California at Davis points out:

The Hebrew word ezer is a combination of two roots, one (-z-r) meaning “to rescue,” “to save,” and the other ('g-z-r) meaning “to be strong.” .. So it is that God made up for the inadequacy of His original creation of man—an inadequacy that He admits to by saying “It is not good for the man to be alone”—by creating the female of the species, who is intended to be 'ezer k enegdô, “a power equal to him."

Conclusion: God indeed created Eve to rescue/save/deliver Adam from the state of "being alone" which God said was "not good." He also created her as Adam's helper, but not originally in a subservient role. The OP has done us a service by putting us in touch with this etymological issue here.

Answer 3

This spirit somehow seeks for a deeper wonder of the scriptures: Revelation 4:2-3 (EN-TL) And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

How many seateth in the throne? You are nearing to a mystery of God. While, creation of Eve as a companion of Adam has a basis. We read again?

Genesis 2:18 (EN-TL) And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

There was a time when Adam is alone, what does the Lord God declares before? And He said, "It is not good..." or bad, or evil.. that the man should be alone. That is why you people need to take care of our women, ladies, ma'am, madams, even our girls and grandma; because without them we are bad or evil or not good. The design of woman is for man to be good. Where will we find that design, it had been shown to John after he put his faith in Jesus upon cruxifiction. Jesus answered, i will take you with me in Paradise. This is the manifistation of the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ, the book of Revelations of Jesus Christ. There, John seen a throne of One which seemed like inseparable two. How it is proven by our Lord Jesus Christ is another topic as this is sensitive enough for any man to mock may instantly anger the Father. Women also is the enemy of Satan. Preachers elsewhere teaches fight for satan without them knowing how... of so many fantasies and stories amazing, women is the enemy of Satan.

Genesis 3:14-16 (EN-TL) And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

God placed enmity between women and Satan. The woman know how to crush Satan's head. This woman is also saved by conception, and this woman supposedly is submisive to her master, her husband. Who is this woman today that is having these properties? Is the most important answer for your question. Imagine our world if there is no Ruth, grandma of King David.

Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Love and care for our women to make us good men.