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or wickedness.” Jer. 50:38 evidences the word
which means “fright or horror.”
The word
appears for “idol” in Lev. 19:4; it means “nothingness or feeble.” 1 Kings
15:13 uses the Hebrew word,
, meaning a “horrible thing, a cause of trembling.”
A root signifying to make an image or to shape something,
(a homonym of the root
meaning “sorrow and grief”) is used in several passages (cf. 1 Sam. 31:9).
TO INHERIT
A. Verb.
(
, 5157), “to inherit, get possession of, take as a possession.” This term is
found in both ancient and modern Hebrew, as well as in ancient Ugaritic. It is found
around 60 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. The first time
is used in the Old
Testament text is in Exod. 23:30: “inherit the land.” The
RSV
“possess” translates more
appropriately here, since the land of Canaan was not literally an inheritance in the usual
sense of the word, but a possession, that which was due her, through God’s direct
intervention. In fact, in most cases of the use of
in the Old Testament, the word
has the basic sense of “to possess” rather than “to inherit” by means of a last will and
testament. One of the few instances of “to inherit” by last will and testament is in Deut.
21:16: “… when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath.…” This clause is more
literally translated “in the day he causes his sons to inherit that which is his.”
When Moses prayed: “… O Lord, … take us for thine inheritance” (Exod. 34:9), he
did not mean that God should “inherit” through a will, but that He should “take
possession of” Israel. The meaning “to get as a possession” is seen in its figurative use.
Thus, “the wise shall inherit [possess as their due] glory” (Prov. 3:35); “the upright shall
have good things in possession” (Prov. 28:10); “our fathers have inherited lies” (Jer.
16:19); “he that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind” (Prov. 11:29).
B. Noun.
(
, 5159), “possession; property; inheritance.” This noun is used
frequently (220 times), but mainly in the Pentateuch and Joshua. It is rare in the historical
books. The first occurrence of the word is in Gen. 31:14: “And Rachel and Leah
answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s
house?”
The basic translation of
is “inheritance”: “And Naboth said to Ahab, The
Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee” (1 Kings
21:3). The word more appropriately refers to a “possession” to which one has received
the legal claim. The usage of
in the Pentateuch and Joshua indicates that the
word often denotes that “possession” which all of Israel or a tribe or a clan received as
their share in the Promised Land. The share was determined by lot (Num. 26:56) shortly
before Moses’ death, and it fell upon Joshua to execute the division of the “possession”:
“So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; and
Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes”
(Josh. 11:23). After the Conquest the term “inheritance” is no longer used to refer to
newly gained territory by warfare. Once “possession” had been taken of the land, the
legal process came into operation by which the hereditary property was supposed to stay