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prudence, but acting prudently: “Therefore the prudent shall keep silence …” (Amos
5:13); “… He hath left off to be wise …” (Ps. 36:3).
(
, 995), “to understand, be able, deal wisely, consider, pay attention to, regard,
notice, discern, perceive, inquire.” This verb, which occurs 126 times in biblical Hebrew,
has cognates in Ugaritic, Arabic, Ethiopic, late Aramaic, and Syriac.
0
appears in all
periods of biblical Hebrew.
0
appears in Jer. 9:12 with the meaning “to understand”: “Who is the wise man,
that may understand this?” In Job 6:30 the word means “to discern,” and in Deut. 32:7 it
means “to consider.”
B. Nouns.
(
, 998), “understanding.”
0
appears 37 times and in all periods of
biblical Hebrew even though it belongs primarily to the sphere of wisdom and wisdom
literature.
This noun represents the “act of understanding”: “And in all matters of wisdom and
understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the
magicians …” (Dan. 1:20).
Elsewhere
signifies the faculty “understanding”: “… The spirit of my
understanding causeth me to answer” (Job 20:3).
In other passages the object of knowledge, in the sense of what one desires to know,
is indicated by
&
“Keep therefore and do them [God’s laws]: for this is your wisdom
and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes …”
(Deut. 4:6; cf. 1 Chron. 22:12). God’s law, therefore, is wisdom and “understanding”—
what one should know.
This word is sometimes personified: “Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest
up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for
hid treasures …” (Prov. 2:3-4).
$
(
, 8394), “understanding.” This word, which occurs 42 times, is also a
wisdom term. Like
, it represents the act (Job 26:12), faculty (Exod. 31:3), object
(Prov. 2:3), and personification of wisdom (Prov. 8:1).
(
*
, 4905), “didactic psalm(?).” This noun form, derived from
, is
found in the title of 13 psalms and also in Ps. 47:7. Scholars are not agreed on the
significance of this term, but on the basis of the general meaning of
, such psalms
must have been considered didactic or teaching psalms.
UPRIGHT
A. Adjective.
(
, 3477), “upright; right; righteous; just.” This adjective occurs first in
Exodus in the idiom “right in his eyes”: "[He] said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the
voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to
his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee,
which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Exod.
15:26). Its usage is infrequent in the Pentateuch and in the prophetical writings.