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. אָבַק ('avák) – "dust." Biblical Context: אָבַק literally refers to the dust of the earth, and appears in contexts ranging from creation to images of judgment or humiliation.
Biblical Examples: Genesis 3:14 – "The Lord God said to the serpent: [...] you shall go upon your belly, and dust (אָבַק) you shall eat all the days of your life." Here, אָבַק symbolizes humiliation and degradation, as punishment for the serpent.
Isaiah 29:5 – "The multitude of your enemies shall be as dust (אָבַק)..." It is used as an image of total destruction and smallness in the face of God's judgment.
Job 14:19 – "The stones are worn away by the mighty waters, and the streams drown the dust (אָבַק) of the earth..." Here the term shows the fragility and transience of human life.
Symbolic meaning: Fragility: the temporary condition of human beings.
Humiliation: allusion to baseness, punishment, or subjugation. Primary root, probably to float away (as vapor), but used only as a denominative of H80; to seize, i.e., to wrestle hand to hand:- to fight
Innumerable quantity: sometimes used to illustrate something uncountable, such as "dust of the earth." |
