Ezra the Helper

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us (azar) against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him.

Ezra 8:21f (Spoke 15, Cycle 1)

The Divine integration of the symbolic meaning of Samek with the books on Spoke 15 is extremely plain and obvious. It all begins with Ezra, the name of the Fifteenth Book, which is a simple variation on the noun ezer (help), from the root verb azar (to help). God presented these words in parallel with samak in two verses:

And I looked, and there was none to help (azar); and I wondered that there was none to uphold (samak).

Isaiah 63:5

Behold, God is mine helper (ezer): the Lord is with them that uphold (samak) my soul.

Psalm 54:4

The meaning of ezer as help is also presented in the plain text of Scripture when Moses explained the name his second son Eliezer, saying "for the God (El, BW book, pg 122) of my father, said he, was mine help (ezer)" (Exo 18:4). Aaron, the first High Priest and brother of Moses, gave his son a similar name, Eleazar, which differs only by a Yod (and vowel points) and has the same meaning of "God is my helper." There seems to have been a family tradition of names based on this root since Ezra was the direct descendent of Aaron’s son Eleazar, and the related name Azariah, meaning "the Lord (Yah) has helped," also appears twice in his genealogy, for a total of four occurrences of names based on the azar root. Given this family tradition, it is little wonder that Ezra would be "ashamed" to rely on anything but God’s help (azar), as he stated above in Ezra 8:21. Reliance on God's help is the essence of his name and his heritage. God also used ezer in parallel with the Samak KeyWord and synonym, sa'ad, in Psalm 20:2

The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; Send thee help (ezer) from the sanctuary, and strengthen (sa’ad) thee out of Zion.

Psalm 20:2

In sum: God presented samak and sa'ad as Keywords in the Alphabetic Verses and used them both in parallel with azar and ezer, cognates of Ezra's name. We have, therefore, a threefold convergence of the meaning of Samek, the Fifteenth Letter, with the name and the dominant theme of Ezra, the Fifteenth Book! Such is the incomparable Wisdom of our God who "upholds all things by the word of His Power."

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