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exclusively in poetical passages. The only apparent exception is 2 Chron. 14:11, but this
is a prayer and, therefore uses poetical words.
,
never appears with the definite article and at all times except once (Ps. 144:3)
sets forth a collective idea, “man.” In most cases where the word occurs in Job and the
Psalms it suggests the frailty, vulnerability, and finitude of “man” as contrasted to God:
“As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth” (Ps.
103:15). As such “man” cannot be righteous or holy before God: “Shall mortal man be
more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?” (Job 4:17). In the Psalms
this word is used to indicate the enemy: “Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail: let the
heathen be judged in thy sight” (Ps. 9:19). Here the parallelism shows that
is
synonymous with “nations,” or the enemy. They are, therefore, presented as weak,
vulnerable, and finite: “Put them in fear, O Lord: that the nations may know themselves
to be but men” (Ps. 9:20).
,
may connote “men” as weak but not necessarily morally weak: “Blessed is the
man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold of it” (Isa. 56:2). In this passage
the
is blessed because he has been morally strong.
In a few places the word bears no moral overtones and represents “man” in a sense
parallel to Hebrew
!
He is finite as contrasted to the infinite God: “I said, I would
scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among
men” (Deut. 32:26—the first biblical occurrence).
$
(
, 970), “young man.” The 44 occurrences of this word are scattered
throughout every period of biblical Hebrew.
This word signifies the fully developed, vigorous, unmarried man. In its first
occurrence
$
is contrasted to
$
, “maiden”: “The sword without, and terror
within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of
gray hairs” (Deut. 32:25). The strength of the “young man” is contrasted with the gray
hair (crown of honor) of old men (Prov. 20:29).
The period during which a “young man” is in his prime (could this be the period
during which he is eligible for the draft—i.e., age 20- 50?) is represented by the two
nouns,
$
and
$
, both of which occur only once.
0
$
is found in
Num. 11:28.
B. Verb.
(
, 977), “to examine, choose, select, choose out, elect, prefer.” This verb,
which occurs 146 times in biblical Hebrew, has cognates in late Aramaic and Coptic. The
poetic noun
, “chosen or elect one(s),” is also derived from this verb. Not all
scholars agree that these words are related to the noun
$ !
They would relate it to the
first sense of
, whose cognate in Akkadian has to do with fighting men. The word
means “choose or select” in Gen. 6:2: “… and they took them wives of all which they
chose.”
TO BE MARVELOUS
A. Verb.