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“The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open
mouth” (Isa. 9:12). Placing one’s hands on one’s mouth is a gesture of silence (Job 29:9).
“To ask someone’s mouth” is to ask him personally: “We will call the damsel, and
inquire at her mouth [
NASB
, “consult her wishes”]” (Gen. 24:57).
This word can also stand for “utterance” or “order”: “Thou shalt be over my house,
and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled …” (Gen. 41:40). “The mouth
of two witnesses” means their testimony: “Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall
be put to death by the mouth of witnesses …” (Num. 35:30). In Jer. 36:4 “from the mouth
of Jeremiah” means “by dictation”: “… And Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah
all words of the Lord … upon a [scroll].”
8
used with various prepositions has special meanings. (1) Used with , it means
“according to.” In Lev. 25:52 this construction has the special nuance “in proportion to”:
“And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall count with him,
and according unto [in proportion to] his years shall he give him again the price of his
redemption.” The meaning “according to” appears in passages such as Num. 7:5: “Take it
of them, that they may be to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and thou
shalt give them unto the Levites, to every man according to his service.” The phrase
means “as much as” in Exod. 16:21. A different nuance appears in Job 33:6: “Behold, I
am according to thy wish in God’s stead.…” (2) When the word is preceded by , its
meanings are quite similar to those just discussed. In Lev. 25:51 it means “in proportion
to.” Jer. 29:10 uses the word in the sense “according to”: “After seventy years be
accomplished at Babylon,” which can be read literally, “according to the fullness of the
seventy years of Babylon.” (3) With the word also means “according to” or “in
proportion to” (cf. Lev. 27:18).
The phrase
(literally, “two mouths”) has two different meanings. In
Deut. 21:17 it means “double portion” (two parts): “But he shall acknowledge the son of
the hated for the first-born, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath.…” This
same phrase, however, also means “two thirds”: “And it shall come to pass, that in all the
land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left
therein” (Zech. 13:8).
TO MULTIPLY, INCREASE
A. Verb.
(
, 7235), “to multiply, become numerous, become great.” This verb also
occurs in Akkadian, Arabic, Amorite, and biblical Aramaic. Biblical Hebrew attests it
about 220 times and in all periods. This word should be compared to
and
!
Basically this word connotes numerical increase. It can refer to the process of
increasing numerically: God told the sea and air creatures to “be fruitful, and multiply”
(Gen. 1:22—the first occurrence). In Gen. 38:12 the word refers to the end result in the
sense that a great many of something existed: “And in process of time the daughter of
Shuah Judah’s wife died [literally, “and the days became multiplied”].…” When used
with “days,” the word may also signify “long life”: “… I shall multiply my days as the
sand” (Job 29:18: cf. Prov. 4:10).
sometimes refers to increasing in wealth,