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B. Noun.
( , 8537), “completeness.” This noun, which occurs 25 times, signifies
“completeness” in the following senses: fullness (Job 21:23), innocency or simplicity (2
Sam. 15:11), integrity (Gen. 20:5).
C. Verb.
(
, 8552), “to be complete, be finished, be consumed, be without blame.”
This verb, which appears 64 times, has cognates in Aramaic, Syriac, and Arabic. The
word means “to be finished or completed” in Gen. 47:18: “When that year was ended,
they came unto him.…”
TO PERISH
A. Verb.
’abad (6), “to perish, die, be lost, go astray, go to ruin, succumb, be carried off, fail.”
The word occurs in all the branches of the Semitic languages including biblical Aramaic.
Biblical Hebrew attests this verb at every time period and about 120 times.
Basically
represents the disappearance of someone or something. In its
strongest sense the word means “to die or to cease to exist.” The Lord warned Israel that
disobedience and godlessness would be punished by their removal from the Promised
Land and death in a foreign land: “And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of
your enemies shall eat you up” (Lev. 26:38). This sense may be further heightened by the
use of the intensive stem so that the verb comes to mean “utterly destroy.” The stem also
changes the force of the verb from intransitive to transitive. So God told Israel “to utterly
destroy” (“bring to non-existence”) the false gods of Canaan: “… [Utterly] destroy all
their pictures and [utterly] destroy all their molten images …” (Num. 33:52). The force of
this command was further heightened when He said: “Ye shall utterly destroy all the
places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods … and destroy the
names of them out of that place” (Deut. 12:2-3). This intensified sense is used of the
destruction of peoples (armies), too; as for Pharaoh’s army, “the Lord hath destroyed
them unto this day” (Deut. 11:4).
A somewhat different emphasis of
is “to go to ruin” or “to be ruined.” After the
second plague Pharaoh’s counsellors told him to grant Israel’s request to leave because
the nation was in ruins: “… knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed [ruined]?”
(Exod. 10:7—the first biblical occurrence). In a similar sense Moab is said “to be ruined”
or laid waste: “Woe to thee, Moab! Thou art undone [
NASB
, “ruined”], O people of
Chemosh … We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have
laid them waste even unto Nophah …” (Num. 21:29-30).
Closely related to the immediately preceding emphasis is that of “to succumb.” This
use of
focuses on the process rather than the conclusion. The sons of Israel spoke
to Moses about the disastrous effects of everyone drawing near to God. They needed
some mediators (priests) who could focus on keeping ritualistically prepared so they
would not die when they approached God. They used the verb, therefore, in the sense of
the nation gradually perishing, or “succumbing” to death: “Behold, we die, we perish, we
all perish. Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die:
shall we be consumed with dying?” (Num. 17:12-13). God responds by establishing the
priesthood so “that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel” (Num. 18:5).