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words
$
(“long duration”) and
$ $
(“circle”) seem by form to be related to the root
for the Hebrew word
!
In the Old Testament, the word
occurs about 166 times; as many as 74 of these
are in the repetition " plus
" meaning “alway.” The first occurrence of the word is
in Gen. 6:9: “These are the generations of Noah [the account of Noah]: Noah was a just
man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”
First the concrete meaning of “generation” is the “period during which people live”:
“And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I
seen righteous before me in this generation” (Gen. 7:1). A “generation” may be described
as “stubborn” (Deut. 32:5—
KJV
, “perverse”) or “righteous” (Ps. 14:5). Close to this
meaning is the temporal element of
&
A
is roughly the period of time from one’s
birth to one’s maturity, which in the Old Testament corresponds to a period of about 40
years (Num. 14:33). Abraham received the promise that four “generations” of his
descendants were to be in Egypt before the Promised Land would be inherited. Israel was
warned to be faithful to the Lord, as the punishment for disobedience would extend to the
fourth “generation” (Exod. 20:5); but the Lord’s love extends to a thousand “generations”
of those who love Him (Deut. 7:9).
The lasting element of God’s covenantal faithfulness is variously expressed with the
word
&
“Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it
abideth” (Ps. 119:90)
The use of
in Isa. 51 teaches the twofold perspective of“generation,” with
reference to the future as well as to the past. Isaiah spoke about the Lord’s lasting
righteousness and said that His deliverance is everlasting (literally, “generation of
generations”—v. 8); but in view of Israel’s situation, Isaiah petitioned the Lord to
manifest His loving strength on behalf of Israel as in the past (literally, “generations
forever”—v. 9). Thus, depending on the context,
may refer to the past, the present, or
the future. The psalmist recognized the obligation of one “generation” to the
“generations” to come: “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall
declare thy mighty acts” (Ps. 145:4). Even the grey-haired man has the opportunity to
instruct the youth (Ps. 71:17-18). In the Septuagint,
is nearly always translated by
(“generation”). The
KJV
translates it by “generation; age.”
TO GIVE DRINK
%
(
, 8248), “to give drink, irrigate, water.” This verb is found in ancient
Akkadian and Ugaritic, as well as in biblical and modern Hebrew. The word usually
occurs in the causative sense, while its much more common counterpart,
, is used
primarily in the simple active form, “to drink.” In its first occurrence in the biblical text,
%
expresses the idea of “to irrigate,” or “to water”: “But there went up a mist from
the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground” (Gen. 2:6). In view of the
Mesopotamian background of this passage, both linguistic and agricultural, the Hebrew
word for “mist” probably is to be connected with the idea of an irrigation canal or system.