the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Dictionaries
Street
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or A. Noun.
Chûts (חֻץ, Strong's #2351), “street.” This word, of uncertain origin, appears in biblical, mishnaic, and modern Hebrew. In the Old Testament the total number of occurrences of the noun and adverb is about 160.
A particular use of chûts denotes the place outside the houses in a city, or the “street.” The “street” was the place for setting up bazaars: “The cities, which my father took from thy father, I will restore; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria” (1 Kings 20:34). Craftsmen plied their trade on certain “streets” named after the guild—for example, the Bakers’ Street: “Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city were spent” (Jer. 37:21). The absence of justice in the marketplace was an indication of the wickedness of the whole population of Jerusalem. Jeremiah was called to check in the “streets” to find an honest man: “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it” (5:1).
Other descriptions of the “streets” are given by the prophets. Several mention that the “streets” were muddy: “… And to tread them down like the mire of the streets” (Isa. 10:6; cf. Mic. 7:10; Zech. 10:5). Others make reference to the blood (Ezek. 28:23), the famished (Lam. 2:19), and the dead (Nah. 3:10) which filled the “streets” in times of war.
The area outside a city was also known as the chûts. In this case it is better translated as “open country” or “field”; cf. “That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store, that sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets” (Ps. 144:13, KJV; RSV, “fields”; cf. Job 5:10; Prov. 8:26).
B. Adverb.
Chûts (חֻץ, Strong's #2351), “outside.” The first occurrence of this word is in Gen. 6:14: “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without [chûts ] with pitch.”
By chûts the general idea of “the outside” is intimated. It is sometimes indeterminate where “outside” is, especially when connected with a verb: “You shall also have a place outside the camp; he may not reenter the camp” (Deut. 23:12, NASB). The area could be “outside” a home, tent, city, or camp—hence the adverbial usage of “outside.” The word is also connected with a preposition with the sense of “in, to, on, toward the outside”: “If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed” (Exod. 21:19).
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Street'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/s/street.html. 1940.
