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form and meaning in its first biblical appearance: “And it came to pass on the morrow
…” (Gen. 19:34). In 3 passages this adverb is preceded by the preposition , but the
meaning is the same: “And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of
the next day …” (1 Sam. 30:17). In Num. 11:32
appears after
, “day,” and
is preceded by the definite article: “And the people stood up all that day, and all that
night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails.…” First Chron. 29:21 displays
yet another construction, with the same meaning: “… On the morrow after that day.…”
C. Verb.
*
means “to be behind, tarry, defer.” This verb, which occurs rarely in biblical
Hebrew, is usually considered the root of
, “tomorrow.” This verb appears in
Prov. 23:30: “They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.” The
meaning of “to tarry” also occurs in Judg. 5:28: “Why tarry the wheels of his chariots?”
TONGUE
(
, 3956), “tongue; language; speech.” This word is thought to have the
root meaning “to lick,” but this is a conjecture. The noun occurs in Ugaritic, Akkadian
(
6
$
), Phoenician, and Arabic. In the Hebrew Old Testament it appears 115 times,
mainly in the poetic and, to a lesser extent, in the prophetical books. The first occurrence
is in Gen. 10:5: “By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one
after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.” The basic meaning of
is
“tongue,” which as an organ of the body refers to humans (Lam. 4:4) and animals (Exod.
11:7; Job 41:1)The extended meaning of the word as an organ of speech occurs more
frequently. A person may be “heavy” or “slow” of tongue or have a stammering “tongue”
(Exod. 4:10); or he may be fluent and clear: “The heart also of the rash shall understand
knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly” (Isa. 32:4).
And see the description of the “tongue” in Ps. 45:1: “My heart is inditing a good matter: I
speak of the things which I have made touching the King: my tongue is the pen of a ready
writer.” The word is often better translated as “speech,” because of the negative and
positive associations of
!
Especially in the wisdom literature the manner of one’s
“speech” is considered to be the external expression of the character of the speaker. The
fool’s “speech” is unreliable (Ps. 5:9), deceitful (Ps. 109:2; 120:2-3; Prov. 6:17), boastful
(Ps. 140:11), flattering (Prov. 26:28), slanderous (Ps. 15:3), and subversive (Prov. 10:31).
The “tongue” of the righteous man heals (Prov. 15:4). While the “tongue” may be as
sharp as sword (Ps. 57:4), it is a means of giving life to the righteous and death to the
wicked: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the
fruit thereof” (Prov. 18:21; cf. 21:23; 25:15). The biblical authors speak of divine
inspiration as the Lord’s enabling them to speak: “The Spirit of the Lord spake by me,
and his word was in my tongue” (2 Sam. 23:2; cf. Prov. 16:1). “Tongue” with the
meaning “speech” has as a synonym
, “mouth” (Ps. 66:17), and more rarely
,
“lip” (Job 27:4).
A further extension of meaning is “language.” In Hebrew both
and
denote a foreign “language”: “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak
to this people” (Isa. 28:11). The foreigners to the “language” are well described in these