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often is used to represent a more abstract idea than
, whereas
means the units of Levites who served the Lord (perhaps with the exception of
Neh. 13:30, where
may mean “service-unit”).
"
refers to the priestly
or Levitical service itself: “Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the Lord …” (Lev. 8:35).
Num. 3:25 speaks of the duties of the Levites in the tent of meeting. The Levites were to
“keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony” (Num. 1:53). The word, therefore,
suggests both regularly prescribed act and obligation. The latter idea alone appears in
Num. 8:26, where God allows Levites over 50 to serve in extraordinary circumstances, to
keep an obligation.
This word often refers to divine obligation or service in general, a non-cultic
obligation: “Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my
commandments, my statutes, and my laws” (Gen. 26:5—the first occurrence of
;
cf. Deut. 11:1).
B. Verb.
(
, 8104), “to keep, watch.” This verb occurs 468 times in the Old
Testament. The word means “to watch” in Job 14:16: “For now thou numberest my steps:
dost thou not watch over my sin?”
WATER
(
, 4325), “water; flood.” This word has cognates in Ugaritic and old
South Arabic. It occurs about 580 times and in every period of biblical Hebrew.
First, “water” is one of the original basic substances. This is its significance in Gen.
1:2 (the first occurrence of the word): “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters.” In Gen. 1:7 God separated the “waters” above and the “waters” below (cf. Exod.
20:4) the expanse of the heavens.
Second, the word represents that which is in a well, “water” to be drunk (Gen. 21:19).
“Living water” is “water” that flows: “And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and
found there a well of springing [living] water …” (Gen. 26:19). “Water” of oppression or
affliction is so designated because it is drunk in prison: “Put this fellow in the prison, and
feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace” (1
Kings 22:27). Job 9:30 speaks of slush or snow water: “If I wash myself with snow water,
and make my hands never so clean.…”
Third,
can represent liquid in general: “… For the Lord our God hath put us to
silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord”
(Jer. 8:14). The phrase,
(“water of one’s feet”) is urine: “Hath my master
sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men
which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss [water
of their feet] with you?” (2 Kings 18:27; cf. Isa. 25:10).
Fourth, in Israel’s cultus “water” was poured or sprinkled (no one was ever immersed
into water), symbolizing purification. So Aaron and his sons were to be washed with
“water” as a part of the rite consecrating them to the priesthood: “And Aaron and his sons
thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them
with water” (Exod. 29:4). Parts of the sacrificial animal were to be ritually cleansed with