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of such a place with gates that shut over the deceased, it is not at all unreasonable to see
such a place alluded to (minus the erroneous ideas of the pagans) in the Bible.
TO PLANT
(
+
, 5193), “to plant.” Common in both ancient and modern Hebrew, this
word is also found in ancient Ugaritic. It occurs approximately 60 times in the Hebrew
Old Testament. The word is used for the first time in the text in Gen. 2:8: “And the Lord
God planted a garden eastward in Eden.…” The regular word for planting trees and
vineyards,
is used figuratively of planting people: “Yet I had planted thee [Judah] a
noble vine …” (Jer. 2:21). This use is a close parallel to the famous “Song of the
Vineyard” (Isa. 5:1-10) where Israel and Judah are called God’s “pleasant planting” (Isa.
5:7,
RSV
).
:
is used in Isa. 17:10 in an unusual description of idolatry: “… Therefore
shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips.” The
NEB
(much like
the
JB
) translates more specifically: “Plant them, if you will, your gardens in honor of
Adonis” (Adonis was the god of vegetation). “To plant” sometimes has the meaning of
“to establish.” Thus, God promises in the latter days, “I will plant them upon their land”
(Amos 9:15).
TO PLEAD
A. Verb.
(
, 7378), “to plead, strive, conduct a legal case, make a charge.” Found in both
biblical and modern Hebrew, this term occurs as a verb some 70 times. It appears in the
text for the first time in Gen. 26:20: “And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s
herdmen.…” Such “striving” with words is found frequently in the biblical text (Gen.
31:36; Exod. 17:2). Sometimes contentious words lead to bodily struggle and injury:
“And if men strive together, and one smite another …” (Exod. 21:18). The prophets use
frequently to indicate that God has an indictment, a legal case, against Israel: “The
Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people” (Isa. 3:13). In one of his
visions, Amos noted: “… the Lord God called to contend by fire …” (Amos 7:4,
KJV
;
RSV
, “calling for a judgment”). Micah 6 is a classic example of such a legal case against
Judah, calling on the people “to plead” their case (6:1) and progressively showing how
only God has a valid case (6:8).
B. Noun.
(
, 7379), “strife; dispute.” This word appears as a noun 60 times. The word
appears twice in Mic. 6:2: “Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy, and ye strong
foundations of the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will
plead with Israel.”
PLEASURE
A. Noun.
(
0!
, 2656), “pleasure; delight; desire; request; affair; thing.” None of the
39 occurrences of this word appear before First Samuel. All its occurrences are scattered
through the rest of biblical literature.
This word often means “pleasure” or “delight”: “Hath the Lord as great delight in
burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?” (1 Sam. 15:22—the
first occurrence). Thus “the preacher [writer of Ecclesiastes] sought to find out acceptable