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Bible Dictionaries
Come
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or Bô' (בּוֹא, Strong's #935), “to go in, enter, come, go.” This root appears in most Semitic languages, but with varying meanings. For example, the meaning “come” appears in the Babylonian letters of Mari (1750-1697 B.C.). The corresponding Ugaritic word (1550- 1200 B.C.) has the same significance as its Hebrew counterpart, while the Phoenician root (starting around 900 B.C.) means “come forth.” Bô' occurs about 2,570 times in Old Testament Hebrew.First, this verb connotes movement in space from one place toward another. The meaning “go in” or “enter” appears in Gen. 7:7, where it is said that Noah and his family “entered” the ark. In the causative stem, this verb can signify “cause to enter” or “bring into” (Gen. 6:19) or “bring unto” (its meaning in its first biblical occurrence, Gen. 2:19). In Gen. 10:19, the verb is used more absolutely in the phrase “as thou goest unto Sodom.” Interestingly, this verb can also mean “to come” and “to return.” Abram and his family “came” to the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:5), while in Deut. 28:6 God blessed the godly who “go forth” (to work in the morning) and “return” (home in the evening).
Sometimes bô' refers to the “going down” or “setting” of the sun (Gen. 15:12). It can connote dying, in the sense of “going to one’s fathers” (Gen. 15:15). Another special use is the “going into one’s wife” or “cohabitation” (Gen. 6:4). Bô' can also be used of movement in time. For example, the prophets speak of the “coming” day of judgment (1 Sam. 2:31). Finally, the verb can be used of the “coming” of an event such as the sign predicted by a false prophet (Deut. 13:2).
There are three senses in which God is said “to come.” God “comes” through an angel (Judg. 6:11) or other incarnated being (cf. Gen. 18:14). He “appears” and speaks to men in dreams (Gen. 20:3) and in other actual manifestations (Exod. 20:20). For example, during the Exodus, God “appeared” in the cloud and fire that went before the people (Exod. 19:9).
Secondly, God promises to “come” to the faithful wherever and whenever they properly worship Him (Exod. 20:24). The Philistines felt that God had “come” into the Israelite camp when the ark of the covenant arrived (1 Sam. 4:7). This usage associated with formal worship may appear in Ps. 24:7, where the gates of Zion are said to open as the King of glory “enters” Jerusalem. Also, the Lord is “to return” (“come back”) to the new temple described in Ezek. 43:2.
Finally, there is a group of prophetic pictures of divine “comings.” This theme may have originated in the hymns sung of God’s “coming” to aid His people in war (cf. Deut. 33:2). In the Psalms (e.g., 50:3) and prophets (e.g., Isa. 30:27), the Lord “comes” in judgment and blessing—a poetic figure of speech borrowed from ancient Near Eastern mythology (cf. Ezek. 1:4).
Bô' also is used to refer to the “coming” of the Messiah. In Zech. 9:9, the messianic king is pictured as “coming” on a foal of a donkey. Some of the passages pose especially difficult problems, such as Gen. 49:10, which prophesies that the scepter will remain in Judah “until Shiloh come.” Another difficult passage is Ezek. 21:27: “until he come whose right it is.” A very well-known prophecy using the verb bô' is that concerning the “coming” of the Son of Man (Dan. 7:13). Finally, there is the “coming” of the last day (Amos 8:2) and the Day of the Lord (Isa. 13:6).
The Septuagint translates this verb with many Greek words paralleling the connotations of the Hebrew verb, but especially with words meaning “to come,” “to enter,” and “to go.”
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Come'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/c/come.html. 1940.
