Basic HTML Version
hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite
me, and the mother with the children” (Gen. 32:11).
Used of a person in an exalted position,
connotes “standing in awe.” This is not
simple fear, but reverence, whereby an individual recognizes the power and position of
the individual revered and renders him proper respect. In this sense, the word may imply
submission to a proper ethical relationship to God; the angel of the Lord told Abraham:
“… I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son
from me” (Gen. 22:12). The verb can be used absolutely to refer to the heavenly and holy
attributes of something or someone. So Jacob said of Bethel: “How [awesome] is this
place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen.
28:17). The people who were delivered from Egypt saw God’s great power, “feared the
Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses” (Exod. 14:31). There is more
involved here than mere psychological fear. The people also showed proper “honor”
(“reverence”) for God and “stood in awe of” Him and of His servant, as their song
demonstrates (Exod. 15). After experiencing the thunder, lightning Flashes, sound of the
trumpet, and smoking mountain, they were “afraid” and drew back; but Moses told them
not to be afraid, “for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your
faces, that ye sin not” (Exod. 20:20). In this passage, the word represents “fear” or
“dread” of the Lord. This sense is also found when God says, “fear not” (Gen. 15:1).
'
can be used absolutely (with no direct object), meaning “to be afraid.” Adam
told God: “… I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Gen. 3:10—the first
occurrence). One may be “afraid” to do something, as when Lot “feared to dwell in Zoar”
(Gen. 19:30).
B. Nouns.
(
, 4172), “fear.” The noun
, which appears 12 times, is used
exclusively of the fear of being before a superior kind of being. Usually it is used to
describe the reaction evoked in men by God’s mighty works of destruction and
sovereignty (Deut. 4:24). Hence, the word represents a very strong “fear” or “terror.” In
the singular, this word emphasizes the divine acts themselves.
"
may suggest the
reaction of animals to men (Gen. 9:2) and of the nations to conquering Israel (Deut.
11:25).
(
, 3374), “fear; reverence.” The noun
appears 45 times in the Old
Testament. It may mean “fear” of men (Deut. 2:25), of things (Isa. 7:25), of situations
(Jonah 1:10), and of God (Jonah 1:12); it may also mean “reverence” of God (Gen.
20:11).
FEAST
(
,
, 2282), “feast; festal sacrifice.” Cognates of this noun appear in Aramaic,
Syriac, and Arabic. Biblical Hebrew attests it about 62 times and in all periods, except in
the wisdom literature.
This word refers especially to a “feast observed by a pilgrimage.” That is its meaning
in its first biblical occurrence, when Moses said to Pharaoh: “We will go with our young
and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our Rocks and with our
herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord” (Exod. 10:9).
)
(or
)