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Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on

Showing 3076 to 3100 of 4943 results

3076. The New Stone Tablets

Exodus 34:1-28

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... Lord’s name in Exodus 3. After many struggles, the Lord reveals a fuller description of the divine characteristics and attributes. It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of verses 5–7. Yahweh’s identity itself became the basis for Israel’s continued existence as a sinful and forgiven people. These verses are the heart of the chapter that is the theological core of Exodus. They functioned as a confession of faith in God and God’s redeeming work throughout the OT. Throughout their history ...

3077. The Lord Commands Joshua

Joshua 1:1-18

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... throughout the book, as from the first chapter to the final verses the questions are answered yes or no or sometimes. The death of Joshua raises a new question: Can the people conquer the remaining areas without Joshua and his generation of leaders? Doubt returns and continues through the time of Judges. 1:1 The narrator sets the context of the events in the first verse. Joshua 1:1 states that a new era is beginning after the death of Moses. The narrator connects the book of Joshua with the final chapters ...

3078. The Gibconite Deception

Joshua 9:1-27

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... choose” remains ambiguous. Later readers will assume that the place is the temple in Jerusalem, but that point is not stated here. God still has the freedom to appear wherever appropriate. No one location can claim to possess God. In any case, the Gibeonites continue to serve God and the people as woodcutters and water carriers to the time when the story is retold and becomes Scripture. The humility of the Gibeonites points out that they have learned their lesson and now deserve a place in the people of ...

3079. Northern Kings Defeated

Joshua 11:1-23

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... city was destroyed in 1300 B.C.E. and never reoccupied. The destruction of Hazor fits the date, which has been recognized by archaeologists as the time of the conquest (J. M. Hamilton, “Hazor,” ABD 3:87–88). A. Ben-Tor of Hebrew University continues to excavate the site made famous by Y. Yadin, and additional discoveries about the fortress will be forthcoming. 11:16 So Joshua took this entire land: The area defined in Josh. 11 is a geography lesson on ancient Canaan. It includes several places that ...

3080. Allotment for Ephriam and Manasseh

Joshua 16:1--17:18

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... (16:6b–7). Though the tribe of Ephraim later becomes synonymous with the powerful northern kingdom, this narrative places its towns and villages within the area of Manasseh and does not name them. These comments diminish the reputation of Ephraim. Rivalry with Ephraim continues to appear in the book of Judges within stories about Gideon (Judg. 8:1–3) and Jephthah (Judg. 12:1–7). As in the Judahite allotment, the tribe cannot completely possess the land (16:10). Gezer, a Canaanite city, remains in the ...

3081. Joshua's Farewell to the Leaders

Joshua 23:1-16

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... in this setting does not refer to a later time when the material was edited or written, as other uses of the phrase might suggest. The reported speech suggests that the tribes should love God in response to God’s saving power during the battles and continue a close relationship with God that began under the pressure of taking the land. It addresses human nature, which tends to lose its need to depend on God when a crisis subsides. The people should put extra effort into loving God to counter apathy that ...

3082. The Covenant Renewed at Shechem

Joshua 24:1-27

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... to an indirect warning from Joshua (24:14–15). The challenge begins with a call to fear and serve the Lord with all faithfulness. Both “fear” and “serve” describe faithful worship. Joshua continues to call the people to put aside the gods of their ancestors to serve the Lord. The idolatry of the past continues into the present. Canaan once again places before the tribes the temptations of the past. Now is the time to choose personally, this day, the God of the present. Each generation must make ...

3083. The Song of Deborah

Judges 5:1-31

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... moved across the Jordan River and Dan had not yet moved north. 5:30 A girl or two for each man: Instead of “a girl or two for each man,” the Hb. literally says “a womb, two wombs for every man.” Rape in warfare has been and continues to be a common practice. But what is especially shocking is that here women accept it and even excitedly expect it. R. Alter (The Art of Biblical Poetry [New York: Basic Books, 1985], p. 46) comments upon the irony of this scene: “All this stands in shocking contrast ...

3084. Gideon

Judges 6:1-40

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... realism and fear. But God was patient with him in his fear; on the same night, Gideon had received a divine message: “Do not be afraid” (v. 23). This will not be the last time Gideon manifests human fraility (vv. 36–40). In this way, his life continues to parallel that of Moses, whose self-doubt is candidly portrayed (e.g., Exod. 3:11–4:13). The Bible does not hesitate to present heroes of the faith as having clay feet and reveals that the Lord is patient with genuine human weakness and willing to ...

3085. Abimelech

Judges 9:1-57

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... qll (“cursed”; v. 27) and underscores the theme of just retribution. 9:42–49 But the prophecy had not been completely fulfilled. What about the Israelite citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo (v. 20)? What about the cedars of Lebanon (v. 15)? The carnage continued. When the people of Shechem went out to the fields to work, Abimelech rose to attack them (v. 43). He did not stop until he had destroyed the city. The text specifies that Abimelech (abimlkh) scattered salt [mlh] over the city (v. 45), a sign ...

3086. Samson's Vengeance on the Philistines

Judges 15:1-20

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... before the end of communism. People were taught to think alike and act alike; they were taught to conform and to obey. When freedom came, they had to learn a whole new way of life, mentally as well as physically. The effects of years of subjugation continue to have their hold on people in numerous ways. A Jewish proverbial statement, “It’s not enough to get the Jews out of the captivity but also to get the captivity out of the Jews,” applies appropriately in many contemporary situations. 15:16 With a ...

3087. Micah’s Idols

Judges 17:1-13

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... apart from Samson’s mother. Her immediate response upon recovering the silver was to pronounce a blessing upon her son in the name of the Lord (v. 2) and then to announce that she would solemnly consecrate her silver to the LORD. Admirable indeed! But the sentence continued: for my son to make a carved image and a cast idol. How could a person dedicate silver to the Lord to make an idol? Besides violating the first and second commandments, those who made idols stood at the top of the list of those cursed ...

3088. A Levite and His Concubine

Judges 19:1-30

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... alot). The assonance plays upon sounds related to the word “night.” This was indeed a dark time in Israel’s existence. The Levite’s conduct was hardly better than that of the men of Gibeah. When morning came, he opened the door of the house to continue on his way . . . and nearly stepped on his concubine, who was lying motionless at the threshold. He responded not by “speaking to her heart” (v. 3) but by barking a command: Get up; let’s go. Then, one of the most poignant statements in all the ...

3089. The People in Jerusalem

1 Chronicles 9:1-34

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... downfall of Judah and Jerusalem to the resettlement in the land in two brief sentences (9:1b–2). Judah’s exile—“because of their unfaithfulness”—is acknowledged, but he does not dwell on this sad time in Israelite history. He quickly continues to indicate those who have resettled in the land (9:2). The focus of the resettlement immediately shifts from “their own towns” (9:2) to “Jerusalem” (9:3) and its inhabitants in the postexilic age. It particularly features the prominent presence ...

3090. God's Promise to David

1 Chronicles 17:1-15

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... of comparison here is again Saul, from whom Yahweh took away the kingship (1 Chron. 10). The oracle ends with a remark in 17:15 (taken from the source text) that Nathan reported to David all the words of the entire revelation. 17:16–27 The narrative continues with David’s response to the oracle. First Chronicles 17:16, which for the first time calls David king, says that he went in and sat before the LORD. The location is not specified, although one may assume that he went to the place where the ark ...

3091. David Numbers the Fighting Men

1 Chronicles 21:1-22:1

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... dramatic and visual, with the LORD speaking to the angel, and the angel putting his sword back in its sheath. That the punishment for David’s census was countermanded forms the climax of the source text’s version. However, the Chronicler’s version continues in order to drive another important point home. 21:28–22:1 These verses are without parallel in the source text of 2 Samuel 24. The Chronicler (see Additional Note) indicates that after the dramatic event at Araunah’s threshing floor (which is ...

3092. The Levites

1 Chronicles 23:1-6

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... as acting in accordance with tradition. Moreover, the Levites are presented as being organized in accordance with tradition. This claim probably gave legitimacy to the clergy in the Chronicler’s own days. The organized cult in the postexilic age is thereby portrayed as a continuation of the past and not as something new that developed during the Persian period. 23:25–26 and 23:28–32 Up to this point references to the Levites were in the generic sense. In 23:25–32 (excluding 23:27; see Additional ...

3093. The Death of David

1 Chronicles 29:26-30

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... s, is the climactic point toward which the Chronicler is heading. Solomon will be “the man of rest” who will establish “the house of rest.” A clear story line from David to Solomon starts with David’s desire to bring the ark to Jerusalem and continues through his ill-fated census that ultimately leads to the identification of the site for the future temple. When Yahweh confirms the eternal promise to David’s house, David realizes that Yahweh wants his son to build the temple. The story of David ...

3094. The List of Exiles Who Returned

Ezra 2:1-70

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... appealed to the narrator, who had presented his own similar definition of Israel in general terms in 1:5. Indeed, the list arranges laity, priests, and Levites in the same way. Thus, in the first two chapters of Ezra, the theme of restoration continues. First the vessels plundered by Nebuchadnezzar had been handed back (1:7), and now the people deported by the Babylonian king could come back from exile. The people of God essentially consisted of those who had journeyed through judgment—from Judah to exile ...

3095. List of the Family Heads Returning With Ezra

Ezra 8:1-14

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... ’s period. Ezek. 44:15 simply specified Zadokite ancestry. 8:3 The NIV has rightly adjusted the verse division of the MT. Shechaniah is the clan name of the family led by Hattush. In 1 Chr. 3:22 his position is four generations after Zerubbabel, if the genealogy is continuous at this point. 8:5 The NIV has rightly restored Zattu, attested in the LXX and 1 Esd. 8:32. The clan name recurs in Neh. 7:13 (= Ezra 2:8). The pattern of the list shows that a name is required; it was lost by assimilation to “the ...

3096. The People's Confession of Sin

Ezra 10:1-17

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... leaders in the city. Then he was able to let matters take their natural course, since the pledge obliged the provincial administration (officials and elders, v. 14) to convene a national assembly to enforce divorce proceedings. But on the religious front Ezra continued his intercession in a nearby room (v. 6) inside the temple area, presumably praying that the divine anger of Deuteronomy 7 would be averted from the community. Verses 2 and 14 show widespread public awareness of the severity of the situation ...

3097. Nehemiah’s Prayer

Nehemiah 1:1-11

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... heading takes a form found in the titles of some prophetic and wisdom first-person texts (compare Jer. 1:1; Prov. 30:1; and Eccl. 1:1). 1:1b–4 There was no need to specify the king for readers of Ezra 7–Nehemiah 13 because the story continued on from Ezra’s mission set in Artaxerxes’ reign (Ezra 7:1), specifically in his seventh year (Ezra 7:7–8). The event that triggered the new mission, by making a strong emotional impact on Nehemiah, was his hearing bad news about Jerusalem, brought or at least ...

3098. Builders of the Wall

Nehemiah 3:1-32

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... and ends at the Sheep Gate on the north part of the wall and takes the reader on a counterclockwise tour of the mile and a half-long wall surrounding Jerusalem. It moves from the north wall (vv. 1–5) to the west wall (vv. 6–13), then continues to the short southern stretch of wall (vv. 14–15) and to the east wall (vv. 16–31), before ending at the eastern stretch of the north wall (v. 32). The work on the wall was a remarkable feat of organization, diplomacy, and cooperation. The wall was divided ...

3099. The New Residents of Jerusalem

Nehemiah 11:1-36

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... symbolized those of the covenant people, as in the messages of Second Isaiah. Building Jerusalem, not merely with stones but with people, was an omen laden with hope for the fulfillment of God’s ancient promises to Israel. 11:1–2 The editor did not continue at this point with Nehemiah’s memoirs, which we last encountered in the citation of the list of earlier immigrants as a basis for drafting Judeans into Jerusalem (7:5–73a). He drew instead on a source that presented the people as initiating the ...

3100. Dedication of the Wall of Jerusalem

Nehemiah 12:27-47

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... or, more literally, “rejoiced over” them (NRSV). The joy of worship (v. 43) shifted to the joy of giving to maintain the infrastructure of worship. As a result, the temple staff could do their work for God. This meant, too, that singers and gatekeepers could continue a tradition that went back to David and Solomon, founders of the temple. So two traditions could be honored—that of the Torah and that of the first temple. The editor expands the latter theme in verse 46, with the same pride in religious ...

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