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35:16-21), the blood avenger may execute the murderer without a trial. In this way the
Old Testament underscores the principles of the sanctity of life and of retribution; only in
the cities of refuge is the principle of retribution suspended.
The prophets use
to describe the effect of injustice and lawlessness in Israel:
“… because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing,
and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery …” (Hos. 4:1-2; cf. Isa.
1:21; Jer. 7:9). The psalmist, too, metaphorically expresses the deprivation of the rights
of helpless murder victims: “They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the
fatherless” (Ps. 94:6).
The Septuagint gives the following translation:
$
(“murder; kill; put to
death”). The
KJV
gives these senses: “kill; murder; be put to death; be slain.”
KINGDOM
$
(
" '
, 4438), “kingdom; reign; rule.” The word
$
occurs 91 times in
the Hebrew Old Testament and apparently belongs to late biblical Hebrew. The first
occurrence is in Num. 24:7: “He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed
shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be
exalted.”
The word
$
denotes: (1) the territory of the kingdom: “When he showed the
riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent majesty many days, even a
hundred and fourscore days” (Esth. 1:4); (2) the accession to the throne: “For if thou
altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance
arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed:
and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esth.
4:14); (3) the year of rule: “So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal
in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign” (Esth.
2:16); and (4) anything “royal” or “kingly”: throne (Esth. 1:2), wine (Esth. 1:7), crown
(Esth. 1:11), word (Esth. 1:19), garment (Esth. 6:8), palace (Esth. 1:9), scepter (Ps. 45:6),
and glory(Ps. 145:11-12).
The Septuagint translations of
$
are:
(“kingship; kingdom; royal
power”) and
$
(“king”).
(
'
, 4467), “kingdom; sovereignty; dominion; reign.” The word
appears about 115 times throughout the Old Testament.
"
occurs first in Gen.
10:10: “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh,
in the land of Shinar” in the sense of the “realm” of the kingdom.
The basic meaning of
is the area and people that constitute a “kingdom.”
The word refers to non-lsraelite nations who are ruled by a
, “king”: “And it shall
come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall
turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the
face of the earth” (Isa. 23:17).
"
is a synonym for
, “people,” and
,
“nation”: “… they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another
people” (Ps. 105:13).
"
also denotes Israel as God’s “kingdom”: “And ye shall