the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Dictionaries
Step
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or A. Noun.
Pa‛am (פַּעֲמָה, Strong's #6471), “step; foot; hoofbeats; pedestal; stroke; anvil.” This noun’s attested cognates appear in Ugaritic (pcn) and Phoenician. Biblical occurrences of this word number about 117 and appear in every period of the language.
The nuances of this word are related to the basic meaning “a human foot.” The psalmist uses this meaning in Ps. 58:10: “The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.” In Exod. 25:12 the word is applied to the “pedestals or feet” of the ark of the covenant: “And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four [feet] thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.” Elsewhere the word signifies the “steps” one takes, or “footsteps”: “Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not” (Ps. 17:5). Judg. 5:28 applies the word to the “steps” of a galloping horse, or its hoofbeats. This focus on the falling of a foot once is extended to the “stroke” of a spear: “Then said Abishai to David, … let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear …” (1 Sam. 26:8, RSV). Finally, pa‛am represents a footshaped object, an “anvil” (Isa. 41:7).
B. Adverb.
Pa‛am (פַּעֲמָה, Strong's #6471), “once; now; anymore.” This word functions as an adverb with the focus on an occurrence or time. In Exod. 10:17 the word bears this emphasis: “Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat the Lord your God.…” The first biblical appearance of the word focuses on the finality, the absoluteness, of an event: “This is now bone of my bones …” (Gen. 2:23). The thrust of this meaning appears clearly in the translation of Gen. 18:32—Abraham said to God: “Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once [only one more time].…”
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Step'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/s/step.html. 1940.
