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31:21). Another specific use of this general meaning is to pass through something; Ps. 8:8
speaks of whatever “passes through” the sea as being under Adam’s control.
*
can
also merely mean “to go as far as”—Amos tells his audience not to “cross over” to Beer-
sheba (Amos 5:5). “To go as far as” an individual is to overtake him (2 Sam. 18:23).
Abram “passed through” Canaan as far as Mamre; he did not go out of the land (cf. Gen.
12:6). The word can also be used of “passing by” something; Abraham begged the three
men not “to pass by” him but to stop and refresh themselves (Gen. 18:3).
*
is
sometimes used of “passing over” a law, order, or covenant as if it were not binding.
When the people decided to enter Palestine against the command of God, Moses said,
“Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord?” (Num. 14:41).
This verb first occurs in Gen. 8:1 where it means “pass over on top of.” God caused
the wind “to pass over” the flood waters and to carry them away.
The word can also mean “to pass away,” to cease to be, as in Gen. 50:4 where the
days of mourning over Jacob “were past.”
A number of technical phrases where this root has a regular and specialized meaning
appear. For example, one who “passes over” the sea is a seafarer or sailor (Isa. 23:2—a
similar technical usage appears in Akkadian).
*
is used in business affairs with silver
or money in the sense of reckoning money according to the “going” (passing) rate (Gen.
23:16ff.). In Song of Sol. 5:5 (
RSV
) the verb is used to mean “flow” as what a liquid does
(“flowing” or “liquid” myrrh). The phrase “pass over to be numbered” is a phrase
meaning to move from one status to another (to move into the ranks of the militia) in
Exod. 30:13-14.
The intensive stem of
is used in two special senses: of “overlaying” with
precious metals (1 Kings 6:21) and of the ox’s act of making a cow pregnant (Job 21:10).
The verb also has special meanings in the causative stem: “to devote” the firstborn to the
Lord (Exod. 13:12); “to offer” a child by burning him in fire (Deut. 18:10); “to make” a
sound “come forth” (Lev. 25:9); “to sovereignly transfer” a kingdom or cause it to pass
over to another’s leadership (2 Sam. 3:10); “to put away or cause to cease” (1 Kings
15:12); and “to turn” something “away” (Ps. 119:37).
B. Nouns.
(
, 5680), “Hebrew.” The origin and meaning of this word, which appears
34 times, is much debated. The word is an early generic term for a variety of Semitic
peoples and is somewhat akin to our word
!
So Abram is identified as a
“Hebrew” (Gen. 14:13). This ethnic term indicates family origin whereas the term “sons
of Israel” is a political and religious term. Unquestionably in the ancient Near East
“Hebrew” was applied to a far larger group than the Israelites. The word occurs in
Ugaritic, Egyptian, and Babylonian writings describing a diverse mixture of nomadic
wanderers or at least those who appear to have at one time been nomadic. Sometimes the
word seems to be a term of derision. Such usage recalls 1 Sam. 29:3, where the Philistine
leaders asked Achish, “What do these Hebrews here?” There is considerable debate about
identifying Hebrew with the well-known Habiru (Semitic warlords) who occupied Egypt
in the first half of the second millennium B.C.