Basic HTML Version
The verb is translated in the Septuagint generally as
(“to be innocent,
guiltless”). However, the range of the meaning of the Hebrew word is wider. It extends
from “to be emptied [cleaned out]” to the legal jargon of “acquittal.” In English versions,
there is no uniformity of translation: “to be innocent, unpunished, acquitted, cleansed,
held innocent” (
KJV
,
RSV
,
NIV
); “to be guiltless, free, cut off” (
RSV
); “to be deserted,
purged” (
NASB
); “to be released, banished” (
NIV
).
B. Adjective.
%
(
, 5355), “innocent.” This adjective appears 43 times in the Old Testament.
One occurrence is in Ps. 15:5, which says of the righteous man, “… Nor does he take a
bribe against the innocent” (
NASB
).
H
HALF
A. Noun.
(
, 2677), “half; halfway; middle.” This word appears about 123 times and
in all periods of biblical Hebrew.
First, the word is used to indicate “half” of anything. This meaning first occurs in
Exod. 24:6: “And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood
he sprinkled on the altar.”
Second,
can mean “middle,” as it does in its first biblical appearance: “And it
came to pass, that at midnight [literally, “the middle of the night”] the Lord smote all the
first-born in the land of Egypt …” (Exod. 12:29). In Exod. 27:5, the word means
“halfway”: “And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may
be even to the midst [i.e., up to the middle] of the altar.”
B. Verb.
(
, 2673), “to divide, reach unto.” This verb appears about 15 times in
biblical Hebrew and has cognates in Phoenician, Moabite, and Arabic. The word most
commonly means “to divide,” as in Exod. 21:35: “… Then they shall sell the live ox, and
divide the money of it.…”
HAND
(
$
, 3027), “hand; side; border; alongside; hand-measure; portion; arm (rest);
monument; manhood (male sex organ); power; rule.” This word has cognates in most of
the other Semitic languages. Biblical Hebrew attests it about 1,618 times and in every
period. The primary sense of this word is “hand”: “And the Lord God said, Behold, the
man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand,
and take also of the tree of life …” (Gen. 3:22—the first biblical occurrence). Sometimes
the word is used in conjunction with an object that can be grasped by the “hand”: “And if
he smite him with throwing a stone [literally, “hand stone”] …” (Num. 35:17). In a
similar usagethe word means “human”: “… He shall also stand up against the Prince of