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Infrequently,
represents any wild, four-footed, undomesticated beast: “And
thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no
man shall [frighten] them away” (Deut. 28:26).
BEHIND
A. Adverb.
(
, 310), “behind; after(wards).” A cognate of this word occurs in Ugaritic.
*
appears about 713 times in biblical Hebrew and in all periods.
One adverbial use of
has a local-spatial emphasis that means “behind”: “The
singers went before, the players on instruments followed after …” (Ps. 68:25). Another
adverbial usage has a temporal emphasis that can mean “afterwards”: “And I will fetch a
morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on …” (Gen. 18:5).
B. Preposition.
(
, 310), “behind; after.”
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as a preposition can have a local-spatial
significance, such as “behind”: “And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard
them say, Let us go to Dothan” (Gen. 37:17). As such, it can mean “follow after”: “And
also the king that reigneth over you [will] continue following the Lord your God” (1 Sam.
12:14).
*
can signify “after” with a temporal emphasis: “And Noah lived after the
flood three hundred and fifty years” (Gen. 9:28, the first biblical occurrence of the word).
This same emphasis may occur when
appears in the plural (cf. Gen. 19:6—local-
spatial; Gen. 17:8—temporal).
C. Conjunction.
(
, 310), “after.”
*
may be a conjunction, “after,” with a temporal
emphasis: “And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years
…” (Gen. 5:4).
TO BELIEVE
A. Verb.
(
, 539), “to be firm, endure, be faithful, be true, stand fast, trust, have
belief, believe.” Outside of Hebrew, this word appears in Aramaic (infrequently), Arabic,
and Syriac. It appears in all periods of biblical Hebrew (about 96 times) and only in the
causative and passive stems.
In the passive stem,
has several emphases. First, it indicates that a subject is
“lasting” or “enduring,” which is its meaning in Deut. 28:59: “Then the Lord will make
thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long
continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.” It also signifies the element
of being “firm” or “trustworthy.” In Isa. 22:23,
refers to a “firm” place, a place
into which a peg will be driven so that it will be immovable. The peg will remain firmly
anchored, even though it is pushed so hard that it breaks off at the point of entry (Isa.
22:25). The Bible also speaks of “faithful” people who fulfill their obligations (cf. 1 Sam.
22:14; Prov. 25:13).
The nuance meaning “trustworthy” also occurs: “He that is of a faithful spirit
concealeth the matter” (Prov. 11:13; cf. Isa. 8:2). An officebearer may be conceived as an