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Hebrew Bible. Its first use in the Old Testament is in Gen. 21:15, which says that Hagar
“cast the child [Ishmael] under one of the shrubs.”
The word is used to describe the “throwing” or “casting” of anything tangible: Moses
“threw” a tree into water to sweeten it (Exod. 15:25); Aaron claimed he “threw” gold into
the fire and a golden calf walked out (Exod. 32:24). Trees “shed” or “cast off” wilted
blossoms (Job 15:33).
-
indicates “rejection” in Lam. 2:1: “How hath the Lord … cast down from
heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel.…” The word is used figuratively in Ps. 55:22:
“Cast thy burden upon the Lord.…”
CATTLE
(
, 504), “cattle; thousand; group.” The first word, “cattle,” signifies the
domesticated animal or the herd animal. It has cognates in Aramaic, Akkadian, Ugaritic,
and Phoenician. It appears only 8 times in the Bible, first in Deut. 7:13: “He will also
bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil,
the increase of thy kine [
NASB
, “herd”], and the flocks of thy sheep.…”
This noun is probably related to the verb
, “to get familiar with, teach, instruct.”
This verb occurs 4 times, only in Job and Proverbs.
The related noun
$
usually means “familiar; confident.” It, too, occurs only in
biblical poetry. In Ps. 144:14,
$
signifies a tame domesticated animal: “That our
oxen may be strong to labor; that there be no breaking in, nor going out.…”
The second word, “thousand,” occurs about 490 times and in all periods of biblical
Hebrew. It first appears in Gen. 20:16: “Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand
pieces of silver …”
The third word, “group,” first occurs in Num. 1:16: “These were the renowned of the
congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands [divisions] in
Israel.” It appears to be related to the word
$
, “leader of a large group,” which is
applied almost exclusively to non-lsraelite tribal leaders (exceptions: Zech. 9:7; 12:5-6).
* $
first occurs in Gen. 36:15: “These were [
7
] of the sons of Esau.…”
TO CEASE
A. Verbs.
(
$
, 2308), “to cease, come to an end, desist, forbear, lack.” This word is
found primarily in Hebrew, including modern Hebrew. In the Hebrew Old Testament, it
is found fewer than 60 times. The first occurrence of
is in Gen. 11:8 where, after
man’s language was confused, “they left off building the city” (
RSV
).
The basic meaning of
is “coming to an end.” Thus, Sarah’s capacity for
childbearing had long since “ceased” before an angel informed her that she was to have a
son (Gen. 18:11). The Mosaic law made provision for the poor, since they would “never
cease out of the land” (Deut. 15:11; Matt. 26:11). In Exod. 14:12, this verb is better
translated “let us alone” for the literal “cease from us.”
-
(
"
, 7673), “to rest, cease.” This word occurs about 200 times throughout
the Old Testament. The root also appears in Assyrian, Arabic, and Aramaic.