the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Wonder
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or Môphêth (מֹפֵת, Strong's #4159), “wonder; sign; portent.” The 36 appearances of this word are in all periods of biblical literature except wisdom literature. Poetical literature manifests it only 5 times and only in the Psalter.
First, this word signifies a divine act or a special display of divine power: “When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand …” (Exod. 4:21—the first biblical occurrence of the word). Acts effecting the divine curses are called “wonders.” Thus the word does not necessarily refer to a miraculous act, if “miracle” means something outside the realm of ordinary providence.
Second, the word can represent a “sign” from God or a token of a future event: “This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken: Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out” (1 Kings 13:3). This sense sometimes has the nuance “symbol”: “Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you— indeed they are men who are a symbol …” (Zech. 3:8, NASB; cf. Ps. 71:7).
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Wonder'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/w/wonder.html. 1940.
