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meaning in Gen. 4:8, the first biblical occurrence. With the particle (“against”),
%$
means “make a formal charge against”: “One witness shall not rise up against a man …”
(Deut. 19:15). With I (“for”),
%$
means “to testify in behalf of”: “Who will rise up for
me against the evildoers?” (Ps. 94:16).The same construction can mean “to deed over,” as
when Ephron’s field was deeded over (
KJV
, “made sure”—Gen. 23:17).
B. Noun.
%
(
, 4725), “place; height; stature; standing.” The Old Testament
contains three nouns related to
%$
. The most important of these is
%
which
occurs 401 times in the Old Testament. It refers to the place where something stands (1
Sam. 5:3), sits (1 Kings 10:19), dwells (2 Kings 8:21), or is (Gen. 1:9). It may also refer
to a larger location, such as a country (Exod. 3:8) or to an undetermined “space between”
(1 Sam. 26:13). A “place” is sometimes a task or office (Eccl. 10:4). This noun is used to
signify a sanctuary—i.e., a “place” of worship (Gen. 22:3).
ARK
(
, 727), “ark; coffin; chest; box.” This word has cognates in Phoenician,
Aramaic, Akkadian, and Arabic. It appears about 203 times in biblical Hebrew and in all
periods.
In Gen. 50:26, this word represents a coffin or sarcophagus (as the same word does in
Phoenician): “So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed
him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” This coffin was probably quite elaborate and
similar to those found in ancient Egyptian tombs.
During the reign of Joash (or Jehoash), when the temple was repaired, money for the
work was deposited in a “chest” with a hole in its lid. The high priest Jehoida prepared
this chest and put it at the threshold to the temple (2 Kings 12:9).
In most occurrences,
refers to the “ark of the covenant.” This piece of furniture
functioned primarily as a container. As such the word is often modified by divine names
or attributes. The divine name first modifies
in 1 Sam. 3:3: “And ere the lamp of
God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid
down to sleep.…”
*
is first modified by God’s covenant name,
'
(
in Josh. 4:5.
Judg. 20:27 is the first appearance of the “ark” as the ark of the covenant of
,
. First
Samuel 5:11 uses the phrase “the ark of the God [
] of Israel,” and 1 Chron. 15:12
employs “the ark of the Lord [
'
(
] God [
] of Israel.”
Sometimes divine attributes replace the divine name: “Arise, O Lord, into thy rest;
thou, and the ark of thy strength” (Ps. 132:8). Another group of modifiers focuses on
divine redemption (cf. Heb. 8:5). Thus
is often described as the “ark of the
covenant” (Josh. 3:6) or “the ark of the covenant of the Lord” (Num. 10:33). As such, the
ark contained the memorials of God’s great redemptive acts—the tablets upon which
were inscribed the Ten Commandments, an omer or two quarts of manna, and Aaron’s
rod. By Solomon’s day, only the stone tablets remained in the ark (1 Kings 8:9). This
chest was also called “the ark of the testimony” (Exod. 25:22), which indicates that the
two tablets were evidence of divine redemption.