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This word signifies a “disaster” or “calamity” befalling a nation or individual. When
used of a nation, it represents a “political or military event”: “To me belongeth
vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their
calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste” (Deut. 32:35—
first occurrence). The prophets tend to use in the sense of national “disaster,” while
Wisdom writers use it for “personal tragedy.”
TO CALL
A. Verb.
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(
, 7121), “to call, call out, recite.” This root occurs in Old Aramaic,
Canaanite, and Ugaritic, and other Semitic languages (except Ethiopic). The word
appears in all periods of biblical Hebrew.
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may signify the “specification of a name.” Naming a thing is frequently an
assertion of sovereignty over it, which is the case in the first use of
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“And God
called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night” (Gen. 1:5). God’s act of creating,
“naming,” and numbering includes the stars (Ps. 147:4) and all other things (Isa. 40:26).
He allowed Adam to “name” the animals as a concrete demonstration of man’s relative
sovereignty over them (Gen. 2:19). Divine sovereignty and election are extended over all
generations, for God “called” them all from the beginning (Isa. 41:4; cf. Amos 5:8).
“Calling” or “naming” an individual may specify the individual’s primary characteristic
(Gen. 27:36); it may consist of a confession or evaluation (Isa. 58:13; 60:14); and it may
recognize an eternal truth (Isa. 7:14).
This verb also is used to indicate “calling to a specific task.” In Exod. 2:7, Moses’
sister Miriam asked Pharaoh’s daughter if she should go and “call” (summon) a nurse.
Israel was “called” (elected) by God to be His people (Isa. 65:12), as were the Gentiles in
the messianic age (Isa. 55:5).
To “call” on God’s name is to summon His aid. This emphasis appears in Gen. 4:26,
where men began to “call” on the name of the Lord. Such a “calling” on God’s name
occurs against the background of the Fall and the murder of Abel. The “calling” on God’s
name is clearly not the beginning of prayer, since communication between God and man
existed since the Garden of Eden; nor is it an indication of the beginning of formal
worship, since formal worship began at least as early as the offerings of Cain and Abel
(Gen. 4:7ff.). The sense of “summoning” God to one’s aid was surely in Abraham’s mind
when he “called upon” God’s name (Gen. 12:8). “Calling” in this sense constitutes a
prayer prompted by recognized need and directed to One who is able and willing to
respond (Ps. 145:18; Isa. 55:6).
Basically,
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means “to call out loudly” in order to get someone’s attention so that
contact can be initiated. So Job is told: “Call now, if there be any that will answer thee;
and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?” (Job 5:11). Often this verb represents sustained
communication, paralleling “to say” (
), as in Gen. 3:9: “And the Lord God called
unto Adam, and said unto him.…”
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can also mean “to call out a warning,” so that
direct contact may be avoided: “And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be
rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry,
Unclean, unclean” (Lev. 13:45).