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within the family. For this reason Naboth could not give his rights over to Ahab (1 Kings
21:3-4). One could redeem the property, whenever it had come into other hands, as did
Boaz, in order to maintain the name of the deceased: “Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the
wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon
his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and
from the gate of his place” (Ruth 4:10).
Metaphorically, Israel is said to be God’s “possession”: “But the Lord hath taken you,
and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people
of inheritance, as ye are this day” (Deut. 4:20).
Within the special covenantal status Israel experienced the blessing that its children
were a special gift from the Lord (Ps. 127:3). However, the Lord abandoned Israel as His
“possession” to the nations (cf. Isa. 47:6), and permitted a remnant of the “possession” to
return: “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the
transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because
he delighteth in mercy” (Mic. 7:18).
On the other hand, it can even be said that the Lord is the “possession” of His people.
The priests and the Levites, whose earthly “possessions” were limited, were assured that
their “possession” is the Lord: “Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his
brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God promised him” (Deut.
10:9; cf. 12:22; Num. 18:23).
The Septuagint gives the following translations:
(“inheritance;
possession; property”), and
(“lot; position; share”). The
KJV
gives these senses:
“inheritance, heritage.”
INIQUITY
A. Verb.
(
(
/
, 5753), “to do iniquity.” This verb appears in the Bible 17 times. In
Arabic this verb appears with the meaning “to bend” or “to deviate from the way.”
*(
is often used as a synonym of
, “to sin,” as in Ps. 106:6: “We have sinned [
with our fathers, we have committed iniquity [
(
], we have done wickedly [
].”
B. Nouns.
(
( , 5771), “iniquity; guilt; punishment.” This noun, which appears 231 times
in the Old Testament, is limited to Hebrew and biblical Aramaic. The prophetic and
poetic books employ
(
with frequency. The Pentateuch as a whole employs the word
about 50 times. In addition to these, the historical books infrequently use
( !
The first
use of
(
comes from Cain’s lips, where the word takes the special meaning of
“punishment”: “And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear”
(Gen. 4:13).
The most basic meaning of
(
is “iniquity.” The word signifies an offense,
intentional or not, against God’s law. This meaning is also most basic to the word
, “sin,” in the Old Testament, and for this reason the words
and
(