• dabar is sometimes translated "promise" in the Bible--usually for the promises of God. As in English, in which 'word' can sometimes mean 'promise' ("I give you my word"), 'word' and 'promise' have some semantic ovelap in Hebrew; when "the word of the Lord" comes, it comes as a sure promise.
• In John 1, the incarnate Christ is revealed as the logos, the "Word" made flesh (and logos can be used to translate dabar in the Septuagint; while dabar is used in Hebrew translations of John 1).
• Rabbinic tradition contains some imaginative etymologizing, which in some cases holds little linguistic weight but can help us, with the rabbis, enter the text more deeply. Here's an example that ties 'erets to ratsah and ratsohn.
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