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In Job 30:12 the word seems to represent an obstruction or dam: “… They push away
my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.”
The word can refer to a recurring life event typical of an individual or a group. In its
first biblical occurrence (Gen. 18:11) it is used of “the manner of women”
(menstruation). Job 16:22 mentions the “way whence I shall not return,” or death, while
other passages speak of life actions (Job 34:11; literally, “conduct”) or life-style (Prov.
15:10: “Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way …”—prescribed life-
style; Prov. 5:6: “Lest thou shouldest ponder the path [which is typified by] life …”).
Thus,
sometimes figures a proper course of action or proceeding within a given
realm— “the path of judgment” (Isa. 40:14).
The noun
which occurs 3 times, represents a “wandering company” or a
“caravan” (Gen. 37:25).
B. Verb.
*
means “to go, wander.” This word, which occurs 6 times in biblical Hebrew,
has cognates in Phoenician, Ethiopic, Aramaic, and Syriac. One example of this verb’s
usage is found in Job 34:7-8: “What man is like Job … which goeth in company with the
workers of iniquity, and walketh with wicked men.”
WEAKER ONE, LITTLE ONE
(
+
, 2945), “weaker one; child; little one.” Cognates of this noun appear in
Arabic and Ethiopic. All but 4 of the 42 occurrences of this word are in prose literature
and mostly in early (pre-monarchy) prose narrative.
Basically this word signifies those members of a nomadic tribe who are not able to
march or who can only march to a limited extent. The word implies the “weaker ones.”
Thus we read of the men and the
, or the men and those who were unable to move
quickly over long stretches: “And Judah said unto Israel, his father, Send the lad with me,
and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our
little ones” (Gen. 43:8). This nuance is clearer in Gen. 50:7-8: “And Joseph went up to
bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house,
and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren and
his father’s house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the
land of Goshen.” They left the women and the aged to take care of the beasts and babies.
These verses certainly make it clear that only men went along.
In several passages
represents only the children and old ones: “And all their
wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and spoiled even all
that was in the house” (Gen. 34:29, first occurrence). All the able-bodied men of
Shechem were killed (Gen. 34:26).
Sometimes the word means “children”: “But all the women children [
NASB
, “girls”],
that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves” (Num. 31:18;
cf. v. 17).
WEALTH
( , 1952), “wealth; substance; riches; possessions; enough.” The 26
occurrences of this word are almost wholly in wisdom literature, with 17 of them in the
Book of Proverbs. This word appears only in the singular form.