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Fourth,
sometimes refers to the place where something or someone dwells or
rests. So the underworld (Sheol) is termed a “home”: “If I wait, the grave is mine house: I
have made my bed in the darkness” (Job 17:13). An “eternal home” is one’s grave: “…
Man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets” (Eccl. 12:5).
“House” can also mean “place” when used with “grave,” as in Neh. 2:3: “Let the king
live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my
fathers’ sepulchers.…”
0
means a receptacle (
NASB
, “box”) in Isa. 3:20. In 1 Kings
18:32 the “house of two seeds” is a container for seed: “And with the stones he built an
altar in the name of the Lord: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would
contain [literally, “a house of”] two measures of seed.” Houses for bars are supports:
“And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places
[literally, “houses”] for the bars” (Exod. 26:29). Similarly, see “the places [house] of the
two paths,” a crossing of two paths, in Prov. 8:2. The steppe is termed the “house of
beasts”: “… whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings
[house of beasts]” (Job 39:6).
Fifth,
is often used of those who live in a house, i.e., a “household”: “Come
thou and all thy house into the ark …” (Gen. 7:1). In passages such as Josh. 7:14 this
word means “family”: “… And it shall be, that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come
according to the families thereof; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by
households [literally, by house or by those who live in a single dwelling].…” In a similar
nuance this noun means “descendants”: “And there went a man of the house of Levi, and
took to wife a daughter of Levi” (Exod. 2:1). This word can be used of one’s extended
family and even of everyone who lives in a given area: “And the men of Judah came, and
there they anointed David king over the house of Judah” (2 Sam. 2:4). Gen. 50:4,
however, uses
in the sense of “a royal court” or all the people in a king’s court:
“And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of
Pharaoh.…” The ideas “royal court” and “descendant” are joined in 1 Sam. 20:16: “So
Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David.…”
In a few passages
means “territory” or “country”: “Set the trumpet to thy
mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord …” (Hos. 8:1; 9:15; Jer.
12:7; Zech. 9:8).
TO HUMBLE (SELF)
A. Verbs.
(
, 3665), “to be humble, to humble, subdue.” This biblical Hebrew word is
also found in modern Hebrew. The word can mean “to humble, to subdue,” and it can
have a passive or reflexive use, “to be humble” or “to humble oneself.” While
occurs some 35 times in the Hebrew Old Testament, the word is not found until Deut.
9:3: “… The Lord thy God … shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down.…”
is frequently used in this sense of “subduing, humbling,” enemies (2 Sam. 8:1; 1
Chron. 17:10; Ps. 81:14). “To humble oneself” before God in repentance is a common
theme and need in the life of ancient Israel (Lev. 26:41; 2 Chron. 7:14; 12:6-7, 12).
(
!
, 8213), “to be low, become low; sink down; be humiliated; be abased.”
This root appears in most Semitic languages (except Ethiopic) with the basic meaning “to