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“Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they
have prescribed.”
STEP
A. Noun.
(
#
, 6471), “step; foot; hoofbeats; pedestal; stroke; anvil.” This noun’s
attested cognates appear in Ugaritic ( ) and Phoenician. Biblical occurrences of this
word number about 117 and appear in every period of the language.
The nuances of this word are related to the basic meaning “a human foot.” The
psalmist uses this meaning in Ps. 58:10: “The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the
vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.” In Exod. 25:12 the word is
applied to the “pedestals or feet” of the ark of the covenant: “And thou shalt cast four
rings of gold for it, and put them in the four [feet] thereof; and two rings shall be in the
one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.” Elsewhere the word signifies the
“steps” one takes, or “footsteps”: “Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip
not” (Ps. 17:5). Judg. 5:28 applies the word to the “steps” of a galloping horse, or its
hoofbeats. This focus on the falling of a foot once is extended to the “stroke” of a spear:
“Then said Abishai to David, … let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear
…” (1 Sam. 26:8,
RSV
). Finally,
represents a footshaped object, an “anvil” (Isa.
41:7).
B. Adverb.
(
#
, 6471), “once; now; anymore.” This word functions as an adverb with
the focus on an occurrence or time. In Exod. 10:17 the word bears this emphasis: “Now
therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin
, and entreat the Lord your God.…”
The first biblical appearance of the word focuses on the finality, the absoluteness, of an
event: “This is now bone of my bones …” (Gen. 2:23). The thrust of this meaning
appears clearly in the translation of Gen. 18:32—Abraham said to God: “Oh, let not the
Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once [only one more time].…”
STONE
(
, 68), “stone.” A comparison of Semitic languages shows that
was
the common word for “stone” among the ancients. Exact philological and semantic
cognates are found in Akkadian, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic, Old South Arabic, and
several Ethiopic dialects. The Greek Old Testament usually has
(lithos) for
!
Used almost exclusively for movable stone(s),
is to be distinguished from
,
“rock,” and
$
, “cliff.”
The noun
occurs in the Old Testament 260 times, with almost equal frequency
in the singular (and collective) as in the plural. It appears more frequently in prose than in
poetry.
Palestine was (and is) famous for its ubiquitous “stone.” So much was “stone” a part
of the ancient writer’s consciousness that it served the literary interests of simile (Exod.
15:5), metaphor (Ezek. 11:19), and hyperbole (1 Kings 10:27; 2 Chron. 1:15; 9:27). That
building with “stone” was the rule rather than the exception in Palestine is suggested by
the biblical writer’s allusion to the Mesopotamian custom of using clay bricks (Gen.