The second letter in Father’s alphabet is beyt, which, in the Original Hebrew script, was a picture of a house.
In particular, this letter represents Father’s House, but it’s also used to represent any person’s home.
As people live in and inside of houses, the letter beyt is used in Hebrew words to mean in and inside. We see an example of this in Genesis 1:1, which says, “In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth.”
The Hebrew word for beginning is resheet:
ראשת
To say in the beginning in Hebrew, you add the letter beyt ב to the front of resheet.
| ראשת | ב |
| resheet (beginning) | b (in) |
B’resheet is the Hebrew word for the phrase “in the beginning.”
The Household of GOD
The letter beyt and the word bayit (Strong’s Concordance #H1004) are used throughout the Bible to mean house and household.
A house is a physical structure, but it’s also used in Hebrew to refer to people of the same family. If you’re from the House of David for example, it means you’re related to David and part of his family.
In English we refer to GOD’s temple, but in Hebrew HE simply calls it His house (bayit). Our GOD has the heart of a Father, and His desire has always been to dwell among those HE loves – we are His house.
In YASHUA, HE made a Way to adopt us as sons and daughters so we could become part of His household (bayit).
Not surprisingly, the Hebrew words for son and daughter both have the letter beyt in them.
Son in Hebrew is בן ben and daughter is בת bat. Children in Hebrew is בנימ banim (it’s the plural form of ben).
The B’banim Prophecy (Jeremiah 3:19)
We mentioned earlier that as you live in your house, the letter beyt is added as a prefix in Hebrew words to mean in. It’s also true that as you live among those in your household and with them in your house, the beyt prefix is used to mean among and with.
In the days of Jeremiah, Father was thinking about how the people of Israel had fallen away from Him. Despite their sin, HE still wanted to make a way to give those HE loved an inheritance as part of His household.
So HE asked Himself:
“How shall I put you b’banim and give you a pleasant land?”
The word b’banim means among (b) the children (banim).
| B’banim (among the children) | ||||
| ם | י | ן | ב | ב |
| (m) | (i) | (n) | (b) | (b) |
| the children | among | |||
“How shall I put you among the children?” HE asked. And HE answered Himself, saying:
“’My Father’ you shall call Me.” (Jeremiah 3:19)
In that simple verse, we see a glimpse of YHVH’s plan to adopt an entire generation of children (banim בנימ) who, through YASHUA, would be placed into ב the House ב of Av אב (Father).
A Picture of Father’s House
We think Father had His Temple (His bayit) in mind when HE designed the letter ב beyt. Below are a few illustrations of Father’s house:
Houses of Men
Besides pointing us to the House of GOD, the letter beyt and the word bayit are used in Hebrew to represent the homes and households of men.
Bayit is the Hebrew word for house.
Bet is the word for house of.
Bet David means House of David.
Bet Yisrael means House of Israel.
Bethlehem means House of Bread.
Pronouncing the Letter Beyt
You may have heard the Hebrew word tov which means good. The v in tov is actually a b (beyt). Today, the letter beyt is pronounced as a b sound, as a v sound, and as a combo bv sound, all depending on the word and depending on where you learned Hebrew.
In the modern Aramaic script, they use a dot called a dagesh in the middle of their letter beyt to distinguish the b sound from the v sound.
However, Original Hebrew didn’t have pronunciation markings, and the original pronunciation for Biblical words has been lost over time.
We believe, based on Zephaniah 3:9, that one day Father will teach us the proper way to speak His words. In the meantime, your pronunciation of letters and words will largely depend on who you learned Hebrew from.
Some say Shabbat and some say Shabbos as one of the many examples of how Hebrew pronunciation varies around the world.
The Word Sabbath
Shabbat is the Hebrew word for what we call Sabbath in English. On Sabbath days, Father instructed Israel to stay in their homes (Exodus 16:29). In other words, HE wanted everyone to stay in their beyt ב. Is it any surprise that HE put the letter beyt in the word Shabbat?
| Shabbat (Sabbath) | ||
| ת | ב | ש |
| Tav (t) | Beyt (b) | Shin (sh) |
Recap
Letter Name: Beyt
Letter Picture: Father’s House ב
Sound(s): B, V
Common Letter Meanings: In, Inside, Within, House, Household, Father’s House (temple)
Closest Hebrew Word: Bayit: House
Precursor to: the Greek Letter Beta and the English letter B
Grammatical Use: The letter Beyt can be added as a prefix to the beginning of words to mean in, inside, with, and among.
Words We’ve Learned:
בית (bayit) means house / (bet) means house of
בן (ben) is a son (part of a household)
בת (bat) is a daughter (part of a household)
בנימ (banim) means children (part of a household)
בראשית (b’resheet) means in the beginning
שבת (Shabbat) is the Hebrew word for Sabbath (a day when Israel rests at home)
👉 Next: Lesson 3 Gimmel
