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(
, 4599), “spring.” This word appears 23 times in the Old Testament. In
Lev. 11:36,
means “spring”: “Nevertheless a fountain or pit, wherein there is
plenty of water, shall be clean: but that which toucheth their carcase shall be unclean.”
Another example is found in Gen. 7:11: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the
second month, … the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and
the windows of heaven were opened.”
F
FACE
(
#
, 6440), “face.” This noun appears in biblical Hebrew about 2,100 times
and in all periods, except when it occurs with the names of persons and places, it always
appears in the plural. It is also attested in Ugaritic, Akkadian, Phoenician, Moabite, and
Ethiopic. In its most basic meaning, this noun refers to the “face” of something. First, it
refers to the “face” of a human being: “And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with
him …” (Gen. 17:3). In a more specific application, the word represents the look on one’s
face, or one’s “countenance”: “And Cain was very [angry], and his countenance fell”
(Gen. 4:5). To pay something to someone’s “face” is to pay it to him personally (Deut.
7:10); in such contexts, the word connotes the person himself.
8
can also be used of
the surface or visible side of a thing, as in Gen. 1:2: “The Spirit of God moved upon the
7
of the waters.” In other contexts, the word represents the “front side” of something:
“And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselvesand
shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle” (Exod. 26:9). When
applied to time, the word (preceded by the preposition ) means “formerly”: “The Horim
also dwelt in Seir [formerly] … (Deut. 2:12).
This noun is sometimes used anthropomorphically of God; the Bible speaks of God as
though He had a “face”: “… For therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the
face of God” (Gen. 33:10). The Bible clearly teaches that God is a spiritual being and
ought not to be depicted by an image or any likeness whatever (Exod. 20:4). Therefore,
there was no image or likeness of God in the innermost sanctuary—only the ark of the
covenant was there, and God spoke from above it (Exod. 25:22). The word
, then,
is used to identify the bread that was kept in the holy place. The
KJV
translates it as “the
showbread,” while the
NASB
renders “the bread of the Presence” (Num. 4:7). This bread
was always kept in the presence of God.
FAITHFULNESS
A. Noun.
$
(530), “faithfulness.” This word occurs in Punic as
(“certainty”).
In the Hebrew Old Testament, the noun occurs 49 times, mainly in the Book of Psalms
(22 times). The first occurrence of the word refers to Moses’ hands: “But Moses’ hands
were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron