Page 213 - Vines Expositary Dictionary

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other men and saw to it that certain things happened to him. The emphasis is on the fact
that God “knew” him intimately and personally. In fact, it is parallel in concept to
“sanctified” (cf. Jer. 1:5). A similar use of this word relates to God’s relationship to Israel
as a chosen or elect nation (Amos 3:2).
'
in the intensive and causative stems is used to express a particular concept of
revelation. God did not make Himself known by His name Jehovah to Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. He did reveal that name to them, that He was the God of the covenant.
Nevertheless, the covenant was not fulfilled (they did not possess the Promised Land)
until the time of Moses. The statement in Exod. 6:3 implies that now God was going to
make Himself known “by His name”; He was going to lead them to possess the land. God
makes Himself known through revelatory acts such as bringing judgment on the wicked
(Ps. 9:16) and deliverance to His people (Isa. 66:14). He also reveals Himself through the
spoken word—for example, by the commands given through Moses (Ezek. 20:11), by
promises like those given to David (2 Sam. 7:21). Thus, God reveals Himself in law and
promise.
“To know” God is to have an intimate experiential knowledge of Him. So Pharaoh
denies that he knows Jehovah (Exod. 5:2) or that he recognizes His authority over him.
Positively “to know” God is paralleled to fear Him (1 Kings 8:43), to serve (1 Chron.
28:9), and to trust (Isa. 43:10).
B. Noun.
(
" (
, 1847), “knowledge.” Several nouns are formed from
, and the
most frequently occurring is
which appears 90 times in the Old Testament. One
appearance is in Gen. 2:9: “… and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” The word
also appears in Exod. 31:3.
C. Particle.
$
(
(
, 4069), “why.” This word, which occurs 72 times, is related to the
verb
. The word is found in Exod. 1:18: “… Why have ye done this thing, and have
saved the men children alive?”
L
LABOR
A. Noun.
(
, 5999), “labor; toil; anguish; troublesome work; trouble; misery.”
Cognates of this noun and the verb from which it is derived occur in Aramaic, Arabic,
and Akkadian. The 55 occurrences of the noun are mostly in later poetic and prophetic
literature (Gen. 41:51; Deut. 26:7; Judg. 10:16).
First, the word means “labor” in the sense of toil: “… The Lord heard our voice, and
looked on our affliction, and our labor, and our oppression” (Deut. 26:7). In Isa. 53:11
is used of the toilsome “labor” of the Messiah’s soul: “He shall see of the travail of
his soul.…”