Basic HTML Version
occurrences,
(or
) appears with the preposition This construction is weaker
and less dynamic in emphasis than the previous phrase, insofar as it envisions a “simple
duration.” This difference emerges in 1 Kings 2:33, where both phrases occur.
6
is
applied to the curse set upon the dead Joab and his descendants. The other more dynamic
phrase (
), applied to David and his descendants, emphasizes the ever-continued,
ever-acting presence of the blessing extended into the “indefinite future”: “Their blood
shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever [
]: but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne,
shall there be peace for ever [
] from the Lord.” In Exod. 21:6 the phrase
means “as long as one lives”: “… And his master shall bore his ear through with an
awl; and he shall serve him for ever.” This phrase emphasizes “continuity,”
“definiteness,” and “unchangeability.” This is its emphasis in Gen. 3:22, the first biblical
occurrence of
(or
): “… And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of
the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.…”
The same emphasis on “simple duration” pertains when
(or
) is used in
passages such as Ps. 61:8, where it appears by itself: “So will I sing praise unto thy name
for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.” The parallelism demonstrates that
(or
) means “day by day,” or “continually.” In Gen. 9:16, the word (used absolutely)
means the “most distant future”: “And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon
it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living
creature.…” In other places, the word means “without beginning, without end, and ever-
continuing”: “Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength” (Isa. 26:4).
The plural of this word is an intensive form.
TO BE EXALTED
A. Verb.
$
(
, 7311), “to be high, exalted.” This root also appears in Ugaritic (with the
radicals
/
), Phoenician, Aramaic (including biblical Aramaic, 4 times), Arabic, and
Ethiopic. In extra-biblical Aramaic, it appears as
!
The word occurs in all periods of
biblical Hebrew and about 190 times. Closely related is the rather rare (4 times)
, “to
rise, go away from.”
Basically,
$
represents either the “state of being on a higher plane” or “movement
in an upward direction.” The former meaning appears in the first biblical occurrence of
the word: “And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and
bare up the ark, and it was lifted [rose] up above the earth” (Gen. 7:17). Used of men, this
verb may refer to their “physical stature”; for example, the spies sent into Canaan
reported that “the people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to
heaven …” (Deut. 1:28). The second emphasis, representing what is done to the subject
or what it does to itself, appears in Ps. 12:8: “The wicked walk on every side, when the
vilest men are exalted.” The psalmist confesses that the Lord will “set me up upon a