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Book of Job
[Bible]A book of the Old Testament belonging to the wisdom literature. It tells the story of Job, a righteous man who suffers for reasons unknown to him, debates with his friends, and encounters God, and it addresses the question of why the righteous suffer.
Samson
[People]Samson was a judge of Israel in the Old Testament book of Judges. Born a Nazarite, he fought against the Philistines. Renowned for his great strength, he was captured after revealing the secret of his strength to Delilah, and he died when he brought down the temple of Dagon.
Rahab
[People]Rahab is a woman of Jericho in the Old Testament book of Joshua (chapters 2 and 6) who hid the Israelite spies and was saved together with her family. The New Testament names her in the genealogy of Jesus and presents her as an example of both faith and works.
Messiah
[Bible]Messiah, from the Hebrew for "anointed one," is a title applied in the Old Testament to kings, priests, and others; it later came to designate the deliverer whom God would send. The New Testament confesses Jesus as the Messiah, that is, the Christ.
Hallelujah
[Bible]Hallelujah is a Hebrew exclamation meaning "Praise the LORD." In the Old Testament it appears only in the Psalms, and in the New Testament only in Revelation 19. Today it is widely used in churches as an expression of praise and as a greeting.
Son of God
[Bible]"Son of God" is a biblical expression denoting a special relationship with God. In the Old Testament it refers to angels, Israel, and the king. In the New Testament it refers chiefly to Jesus Christ, and it is also applied to believers.
Hades
[Bible]Hades is the biblical term for the place to which the dead go. It renders the Old Testament Hebrew word Sheol and the New Testament Greek word Hades.
Mesopotamia
[Bible]Mesopotamia is the region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the homeland of Abraham. It is mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments.
Widow
[Bible]A woman whose husband has died. The Old Testament law designated widows, along with the fatherless and the stranger, as people to be protected. In the New Testament, widows appear both as recipients of the early church's relief and care and as examples of faith.
Herem
[Bible]Herem is the Old Testament practice of devoting people or objects wholly to God, removing them from ordinary use and usually destroying them. The term is often rendered "utter destruction" or "devotion to destruction."
Book of Jasher
[Bible]The Book of Jasher is an ancient Israelite record cited in the Old Testament. It is named in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18, and the original has not survived.
Beth-shemesh
[Bible]Beth-shemesh, meaning "house of the sun," is an Old Testament place name that refers chiefly to a priestly city on the western border of Judah. It was the first place the ark of the covenant reached when the Philistines sent it back, and it was also where Amaziah, king of Judah, was defeated by the northern kingdom of Israel.
Shulamite Woman
[People]The Shulamite woman is the woman called "the Shulamite" in the Old Testament book of the Song of Songs. She is commonly understood to be the female speaker who exchanges songs of love with her beloved in the book.
Blasphemy
[Bible]Blasphemy is the dishonoring of God's name and majesty by word or deed. The Old Testament law punished it with death, and in the Gospels Jesus is accused of this offense.
Ransom
[Bible]Ransom is an Old Testament term for a price paid in place of a life or a person. The half shekel paid at the census in Exodus 30 is a representative example, and the concept is linked to the New Testament idea of Christ's life given as a ransom.
Temple Mount
[Bible]The Temple Mount is a hill on the eastern side of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was the site of Solomon's Temple and later of the Second Temple, and 2 Chronicles 3:1 calls it "mount Moriah."
Aroer
[Bible]Aroer is a place name in the Old Testament. Several towns bore this name; the one mentioned most often lay on the edge of the Arnon Valley east of the Jordan River and is cited as a boundary between Israel and Moab.
Ecclesiastes
[Bible]Ecclesiastes is a book of Old Testament wisdom literature. It reflects on the transience, or "vanity," of all things in the world and concludes that fearing God is the whole duty of man.
Ruth
[People]Ruth is a Moabite woman and the central figure of the Old Testament Book of Ruth. She followed her mother-in-law Naomi to Bethlehem, married Boaz, and became the great-grandmother of King David.
Haman
[People]Haman was a high official of the Persian king Ahasuerus in the Old Testament book of Esther. Driven by a grudge against Mordecai, he sought to destroy all the Jews in the empire, but his plot was exposed and he was executed.