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representative was a drawing near to God (Exod. 16:9). At Sinai they drew near to
receive God’s law (Deut. 5:23, 27). In the causative stem the verb often represents the
sacrificial presentation of offerings (Lev. 1:14) through the priests (Lev. 1:5) to the Lord
(Lev. 1:13).
Israel also came near the Lord’s representative in serious legal cases so that God the
great King and Judge could render a decision (Josh. 7:14). In the eschaton all peoples are
to gather before God; they are “to come near” Him to hear and receive His judgment (Isa.
41:1; 48:16).
B. Nouns.
%
(
, 7133), “offering; oblation.” This noun occurs about 80 times in
biblical Hebrew. The word is also found in Ethiopic and old South Arabic. The first
occurrence of the word is used of an “offering” presented as a sacrifice: “If any man of
you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the
herd, and of the flock” (Lev. 1:2).
Some other related nouns appear less frequently:
%
, “neighbor” (Exod. 32:27);
%
occurs twice with the meaning of drawing near to worship God and offer sacrifice
(Ps. 73:28; Isa. 58:2);
%$
, which appears twice, means “supply, offering” (Neh.
10:35; 13:31)— it appears to be a late pronunciation of
% !
The word
%
, which
appears 8 times, is an Aramaic loan word; it means “war, battle,” or the actual engaging
in battle (Ps. 55:18).
C. Adjectives.
%
(
, 7138), “near.” This word occurs about 77 times.
+
can represent
nearness in space (Gen. 19:20—the first biblical occurrence) and an epistemological
nearness (Deut. 30:14). The adjective also appears in Ezek. 6:12: “He that is far off shall
die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword.…”
The adjective
%
parallels
%
in meaning.
+
, which occurs 11 times,
means “near”; it represents intimate proximity (usually in a cultic context referring to
cultic activity). One appearance is in Ezek. 45:4: “The holy portion of the land shall be
for the priests the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near to minister unto the
Lord.…”
OFFERING
(
, 4503), “meat [cereal] offering; offering; tribute; present; gift;
sacrifice; oblation.” The
KJV
characteristically translates the word as “meat offering,”
using it some 40 times in this way in both Leviticus and Numbers alone. The word
“meat” in this
KJV
use really means “food”; the
RSV
’S rendering, “cereal offering,”
generally is much more accurate.
"
is found some 200 times in the Old
Testament.
"
is found in all periods of Hebrew, although in modern Hebrew, while it is
commonly used in the sense of “gift,” it also is used to refer to “afternoon prayers.” This
latter use is an obvious echo of the Old Testament liturgy connected with sacrifices. It
appears in other Semitic languages such as Arabic and Phoenician, and seems to be used
in ancient Ugaritic in the sense of “tribute/gift.”
"
occurs for the first time in the