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princes; but he shall be broken without hand [i.e., human agency]” (Dan. 8:25; cf. Job
34:20).
In Isa. 49:2, “hand” is used of God; God tells Moses that He will put His “hand” over
the mouth of the cave and protect him. This is a figure of speech, an anthropomorphism,
by which God promises His protection. God’s “hand” is another term for God’s “power”
(cf. Jer. 16:21). The phrase “between your hands” may mean “upon your chest”: “And
one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands [upon your chest]?” (Zech.
13:6).
'
is employed in several other noteworthy phrases. The “lifting of the hand” may
be involved in “taking an oath” (Gen. 14:22). “Shaking” [literally, “giving one’s hand”]
is another oath-taking gesture (cf. Prov. 11:21). For “one’s hands to be on another” (Gen.
37:27) or “laid upon another” (Exod. 7:4) is to do harm to someone. “Placing one’s hands
with” signifies “making common cause with someone” (Exod. 23:1). If one’s hand does
not “reach” something, he is “unable to pay” for it (Lev. 5:7,
RSV
). When one’s
countryman is “unable to stretch out his hand to you,” he is not able to support himself
(Lev. 25:35).
“Putting one’s hand on one’s mouth” is a gesture of silence (Prov. 30:32). “Placing
one’s hands under someone” means submitting to him (1 Chron. 29:24). “Giving
something into one’s hand” is entrusting it to him (Gen. 42:37).
A second major group of passages uses
to represent the location and uses of the
hand. First, the word can mean “side,” where the hand is located: “And Absalom rose up
early, and stood
the way of the gate …” (2 Sam. 15:2). In 2 Chron. 21:16, the
word means “border”: “Moreover the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the
Philistines, and of the Arabians, that were near [literally, “by the hand of”] the
Ethiopians.” A similar use in Exod. 25 applies this word to the “banks” of the Nile River:
“And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens
walked
the [Nile].…” In this sense,
can represent “length and breadth.” In
Gen. 34:21 we read that the land was (literally) “broad of hands”: “These men are
peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for the land,
behold, it is large enough for them.…”
Second, since the hand can receive only a part or fraction of something, the word can
signify a “part” or “fraction”: “And he took and sent [portions] unto them from before
him: but Benjamin’s [portion] was five times so much as any of theirs” (Gen. 43:34).
Third,
comes to mean that which upholds something, a “support” (1 Kings
7:35ff.) or an “arm rest” (1 Kings 10:19).
Fourth, since a hand may be held up as a “sign,”
can signify a “monument” or
“stele”: “… Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place [monument], and is
gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal” (1 Sam. 15:12).
Fifth,
sometimes represents the “male sex organ”: “… And art gone up; thou hast
enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou
sawest it [you have looked on their
]” (Isa. 57:8; cf. v. 10; 6:2; 7:20).
In several passages,
is used in the sense of “power” or “rule”: “And David smote
Hadarezer king of Zobah unto Hamath, as he went to stablish his dominion by the river