Basic HTML Version
(
0
, 776), “land (the whole earth); dry land; ground; land (political);
underworld.” This word has cognates in Ugaritic, PhoenicianPunic, Moabite, Akkadian,
Aramaic (here the radicals are
%
or ), and Arabic ( ).
,
occurs in biblical
Hebrew about 2,504 times (22 times in biblical Aramaic) and in all periods.
The word often represents the whole surface of this planet and, together with the
word “heavens,” describes the entire physical creation and everything in it. This meaning
is in its first biblical occurrence: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”
(Gen. 1:1).
,
sometimes means “land” as contrasted to sea or water. This use, for example, is
in Exod. 20:11: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in
them is, and rested the seventh day.…” This more narrow meaning first appears in Gen.
1:10, where God called the dry ground “land.” Here “land” includes desert and arable
land, valleys and mountains—everything that we know today as continents and islands.
,
refers to the physical “ground” under the feet of men and animals. Upon the
“ground” creep all creeping things: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:
and let them have dominion … over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth”
(Gen. 1:26). Dust lies upon the
(Exod. 8:16), and rain and dew fall on it (Gen. 2:5).
,
may be used geographically, i.e., to identify a territory: “And Haran died before
his father Terah in the land of his nativity” (Gen. 11:28).
,
sometimes bears a political connotation and represents both a given political
territory and the people who live there: “And there was no bread in all the land; for the
famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by
reason of the famine” (Gen. 47:13). Not only the “land” languished, but (and especially)
the people suffered.
Next, in several passages this noun has both geographical and political overtones and
identifies the possession or inheritance of a tribe. This emphasis is in Num. 32:1: “Now
the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and
when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a
place for cattle.…”
In a seldom used, but interesting, nuance
represents the “underworld”: “But
those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth” (Ps. 63:9).
Sometimes even used by itself (absolutely) this noun represents the “underworld”: “I
went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever
…” (Jonah 2:6). The Akkadian cognates sometimes bear this same meaning. Other Old
Testament passages where some scholars find this meaning are Exod. 15:12; Ps. 71:20;
and Jer. 17:13.
LAST
A. Adjective.
(
, 314), “at the back; western; later; last; future.” This word occurs
about 51 times in biblical Hebrew.
*
has a local-spatial meaning. Basically, it means “at the back”: “And he put
the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel