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Bible Dictionaries
Sell
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or Mâkar (מָכַר, Strong's #4376), “to sell.” Common in both ancient and modern Hebrew, this word is also found in ancient Akkadian and Ugaritic. It occurs approximately 70 times in the text of the Hebrew Old Testament and is found for the first time in the Old Testament in Gen. 25:31: “And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.”
Anything tangible may be “sold,” such as land (Gen. 47:20), houses (Lev. 25:29), animals (Exod. 21:35), and human beings as slaves (Gen. 37:27-28). Daughters were usually “sold” for an agreed bride price (Exod. 21:7).
Mâkar is often used in the figurative sense to express various actions. Nineveh is accused of “selling” or “betraying” other nations (Nah. 3:4). Frequently it is said that God “sold” Israel into the power of her enemies, meaning that He gave them over entirely into their hands (Judg. 2:14). Similarly, it was said that “the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (Judg. 4:9). “To be sold” sometimes means to be given over to death (Esth. 7:4).
These files are public domain.
Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Sell'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/s/sell.html. 1940.
