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be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them, by a statute for
ever throughout their generations” (Lev. 7:36).
In non-religious usage, the word
$%%
refers to the customs of the nations: “After
the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of
the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their
ordinances” (Lev. 18:3; cf. 20:23). The reason for the requirement to abstain from the
pagan practices is that they were considered to be degenerate (Lev. 18:30).
The most significant usage of
$%%
is God’s “law.” It is more specific in meaning
than
%!
Whereas
%
is a general word for “law,”
$%%
denotes the “law” of a
particular festival or ritual. There is the “law” of the Passover (Exod. 12:14), Unleavened
Bread (Exod. 12:17), Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:41), the Day of Atonement (Lev.
16:29ff.), the priesthood (Exod. 29:9), and the blood and fat (Lev. 3:17).
The word
$%%
has many synonyms. At times it forms a part of a series of three:
“Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments
[
(
], and his judgments [
], and his statutes [
$%%
], which I command
thee this day” (Deut. 8:11), and at other times of a series of four: “Therefore thou shalt
love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge [
], and his statutes [
$%%
] and
his judgments [
], and his commandments [
(
], always” (Deut. 11:1; cf.
Gen. 26:5 with
instead of
).
The “statutes” of people are to be understood as the practices contrary to God’s
expectations: “For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the home of Ahab,
and ye walk in their counsels, that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants
thereof a hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people” (Mic. 6:16). The
prophet Ezekiel condemned Judah for rejecting God’s holy “statutes”: “And she hath
changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes
[
$%%
] more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my
judgments and my statutes [
$%%
], they have not walked in them” (Ezek. 5:6). He
also challenged God’s people to repent and return to God’s “statutes” that they might
live: “If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes
of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die” (Ezek. 33:15).
The Septuagint gives the following translations of both
%
and
$%%
&
(“order; command; injunction”);
(“regulation; requirement;
commandment”); and
(“lawful; conformable to law”). A translation of
%
is
$
(“last will; testament; covenant”). A translation of
$%%
is
(“law”).
B. Verb.
% %
(
, 2710), “to cut in, determine, decree.” This root is found in Semitic
languages with the above meaning or with the sense “to be true” (Arabic), “to be just”
(Akkadian). This verb occurs less than 20 times in the Old Testament.
)
% %
is used in Isa. 22:16 with the meaning “to cut in”: “… That graveth a
habitation for himself in a rock.” In Isa. 10:1 the verb is used of “enacting a decree”: