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when God’s chosen people in the northern kingdom had fallen into apostasy, the Lord
announced: “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not
bowed unto Baal …” (1 Kings 19:18).
In the pre-exilic period, this remnant idea is stressed by Isaiah. Isaiah tells of the
judgment on the earth from which a remnant will “remain”: “Therefore hath the curse
devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of
the earth are burned, and few men left” (Isa. 24:6). Isa. 4:3 refers to a “remnant” which
shares holiness: “And it shall come to pass, that he that is left [
], and he that
remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy.…”
In the writing prophets, the idea of the “remnant” acquired a growing significance.
Yet the idea may be found as early as the Pentateuch. The idea of “those being left” or
“having escaped,” especially a portion of the Israelite people, may be traced back to
Deut. 4:27: “And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in
number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you” (cf. Deut. 28:62). In these
passages, Moses warns that if Israel failed to live up to the stipulations of the Mosaic
covenant, the Lord would scatter them among the nations, and then He would regather a
“remnant.”
In Neh. 1:2-3, the condition of the “remnant” of Israel is described: “… And I asked
them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and
concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity
there in the province are in great affliction and reproach.…”
TO REMOVE, DEPART
A. Verb.
(
*
, 5375), “to remove, depart, carry away.” This verb occurs in all Semitic
languages including biblical Aramaic and in all periods of Hebrew. The Bible attests this
Hebrew word about 650 times.
The meaning “to lift up” or “to bear” is seen, for example, in Gen. 7:17 (the first
occurrence of this word), where it is reported that the waters “lifted up” the ark. A special
use of this emphasis occurs in Job 6:2, where Job prays that his trouble be laid (“lifted
up”) in the balances because he believes his trouble far outweighs his sin. Then there is
the sense “to bear up” or “to support,” as a loaded donkey “bears up” his load (Gen.
45:23). Then, too,
can be used of bearing something away—David and his men
“took away” the abandoned Philistine idols; they lifted them up, bore them, and carried
them away (2 Sam. 5:21,
RSV
). This same nuance is applied to marriage, or taking a wife
(Ruth 1:4). The same expression means to steal (or plunder) a wife (Judg. 21:23). The
phrase “lift up … heads” sometimes means “to take a census” (
KJV
, “to number”)—the
Lord told Moses to “lift up” the heads of the sons of Israel (Exod. 30:12). This latest
phrase may well be an evidence of direct influence from the Akkadian language.
Often
is used as a part of a gesture— for example, “to lift up” one’s hand. This
gesture can be hostile (2 Sam. 20:21), a part of taking an oath (Exod. 6:8), something
done while praying (Ps. 28:9) and signaling (Isa. 49:22). “To lift up the head” can mean
to be or declare independence in power and control (Judg. 8:28). The same phrase can be
used of being free (2 Kings 25:27; cf. Gen. 40:13), while losing one’s head can mean
dying (cf. Gen. 40:19). To “lift one’s face” means to be able to look someone straight in
the eye, to have a clear conscience toward someone or with reference to something (2