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will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by
the pestilence” (Jer. 14:12).
The Septuagint gives the following translation:
(“death”).
PILLAR
(
, 352), “pillar.” This word appears 22 times and only once outside Ezek.
40-41: “And for the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree: the lintel [pillar]
and side posts were a fifth part of the wall” (1 Kings 6:31).
(
)
, 4676), “pillar; monument; sacred stone.” This word is derived
from the verb
, and it is found about 35 times.
This word refers to a “pillar” as a personal memorial in 2 Sam. 18:18: “Now Absalom
in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar … and he called the pillar after
his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom’s place.” In Gen. 28:18 the
“monument” is a memorial of the Lord’s appearance.
"
is used in connection
with the altar built by Moses in Exod. 24:4, and it refers to “sacred stones or pillars.”
PIOUS
(
$
, 2623), “one who is pious, godly.” Psalms contains 25 of the 32
appearances of this word.
Basically, hasid means one who practices hesed (“loving-kindness”), so it is to be
translated the “pious” or “godly one.” The word’s first biblical occurrence is in Deut.
33:8 where it represents a human being: “Give to Levi thy Thummim, and thy Urim to
thy godly one” (
RSV
). The word appears in Ps. 32:6: “For this shall every one that is
godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found.…” The word is applied to
God in Ps. 145:17: “The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.”
This noun is derived from the noun
!
PIT
(
, 875), “pit; well.” Cognates of this noun appear in Ugaritic, Akkadian,
Arabic, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Ethiopic. This word appears 37 times in the Bible with
no occurrences in the Old Testament prophetic books.
0
means a “well” in which there may be water. (By itself the word does not
always infer the presence of water.) The word refers to the “pit” itself whether dug or
natural: “And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which
Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away” (Gen. 21:25). Such a “well” may have a
narrow enough mouth that it can be blocked with a stone which a single strong man could
move (Gen. 29:2, 10). In the desert country of the ancient Near East a “well” was an
important place and its water the source of deep satisfaction for the thirsty. This concept
pictures the role of a wife for a faithful husband (Prov. 5:15).
A “pit” may contain something other than water. In its first biblical appearance
is used of tar pits: “And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits …” (Gen. 14:10). A “pit”
may contain nothing as does the “pit” which becomes one’s grave (Ps. 55:23, “pit of the
grave”). In some passages the word was to represent more than a depository for the body
but a place where one exists after death (Ps. 69:15). Since Babylonian mythology knows