Idioms, Phrases and Concepts

The Bible is full of Hebrew idioms, phrase and concepts. If you don’t understand them you will not understand what the Lord, through the particular author,  was trying to say. Below you will find a list of Bible idioms, phrases and concepts. This is not an exhaustive list but it will help you in your studies.

(A) Abraham’s bosom=heaven; anointing=reception of the spiritual; arm=strength, Messiah; ass/donkey=the natural body serving the old nature; Assyria=Russia; altar=cross, worship; ascending=lofty, higher level; ancestors=parents, preceding life; animals (predatory)=flesh, passions; adultery=idolatry; angel=agent; Azazel=False Messiah.

(B) black=death; barley=lowly, food of poor;  bread=spiritual food, spiritual knowledge; bowels=inward emotions; Babylon=false religion, “USA”; birds=demons (Gen 15, Lk 8.5,12); breast=love and affection; blue=heaven; briers=worthless works; boat=unity, the Kahal (congregation); beast=spiritual character; bulls=vigor, virility, violent, wicked; bed =rest, peace; boiling= Holy Spirit “bubbling up”; baking over a fire=direct revelation of God; blood= spiritual life, marriage, covenant; birth=manifestation; barren=unfruitful; battles=conflicts; barn=heaven; blind=ignorant; brimstone=desolation; bride=Israel; bridegroom=Messiah; breastplate=motive, desire, affection, heart.

(C) circumcision=conversion; cock crowing=the Temple crier; city=mind; chair=rest; Canaan side=spiritual realm; cedar=Temple, great men/rulers; camel=believer traveling the desert (world); cubit=mother=(amah) ;concubine=going beyond a limit; carcass=flesh ;chaff=earthly crown=power, victory, reward ;chariots=strength, a mobile firing platform; cave=tomb, burial; clay=weakness; corn/grain=potential; cutting=severing; cow=fertility; candlestick=congregation; cup=vessel in the hand

(D) drink my blood=make my teaching a part of you; darkness=ignorance, diminished light of understanding; drinking=pleasure; depth=to dig, work; dew=teaching ;dog=base behavior, unbelievers; deer=youthful vitality; dove=Israel , Holy Spirit; dead=not conscious of the spiritual ;descending=returning to normal; door=access ;destroy the Law=to misinterpret the Scriptures

(E) evil eye=stingy ;eat my flesh=make my teaching a part of you ;entrails= inner thoughts ;east=way from God; eagle=heaven, conquering kings/nations; ear=hearing, to perceive doctrinal truth; eating=satisfaction; Egypt=the world, idolatry, “Europe”; earthenware=the natural body; evening=the end of something; Ephraim=Israel; earthquake=great controversy, to shake the people, upheaval

(F) fulfill the Law=interpret Scripture correctly; flour=the word ;field=world; foot=walk; female=passivity, submission ;first-born=flesh; fig tree=Israel ;forehead=perception, comprehension, mental assent, intellect; famine=lack of spiritual food; fruit=teaching, results; fat= too rich for consumption; face=favor (1 Pet 3.12, Matt 18.10), idiom for Yom Kippur; furnace=affliction; fire=blind fury, judgment, impulse of Holy Spirit, cleansing; frogs=false teachers/prophets who catch their prey with their tongues

(G) good eye=generous; Galilee=type of heaven; grey hair=wisdom, old age; garments=outward habits; gold=God, glory; green=life; girded=ready; grass=transitory aspect of life, lower order; gates=access, courts; garden=fruitfulness; graves=earth, nations; girdle=service

(H) harp=emotions ;house=the Temple, a congregation hill=place of separation ;hand=work, action, power, Messiah; horn=power, strength, king; horses=power, strength; heart= understanding, motive; hunger=dissatisfied; head=intelligence, aware, ruler, Messiah; hyssop=lowly rank ;honey=sweetness ;harlot=fallen, apostate; hair=relation between outward/inner man; hay=word remembered and changed to spiritual food

(I) island=local congregation of believers incense=worship, prayer; immersion=purification, burial ; in the spirit=under the control of, purpose of; Israel=spiritual activity

(J) Jacob=earthly, fleshly; Jordan side=physical world Jerusalem=the heart, he sees peace; jawbone=strength; jail=limits

(K) key=authority; kidneys=inward emotions, thought;s kiss=intimacy

(L) leaves=profession, teachings, testimony; length=duration; left hand=weakness; lions=royalty; leaven=sin, teaching; light=understanding; leprosy=sin; linen=earthly, “works”; legs=walk; liver=inward thoughts; Leviathan=False Messiah; lightning=illumination

(M) moon=Israel, bride, Rachel, corporate testimony; mountain=kings, kingdoms, power, place of prayer; male=activity of will; morning=coming to light, time of judgment ;mind=understanding motives; measuring=possession; myrrh=suffering,death ;milk=baby food, abundance; meat=mature food; mystery=hidden, secret, deeper meaning; mouth=to devour, speech

(N) new name=new relationship north=intellect, wisdom, dwelling of God, judgment; neck=self will, pride ;night=spiritual darkness; noon=fullness of light ;naked=exposed

(O) ox=service; oil=Holy Spirit, abundance, joy; olive tree=Israel ;olive=light, anointing, peace; oak=rank, power

(P) Pharaoh=type of the false Messiah; pestilence=deadly; prune=cut off the worthless; poor=lack ;pearl=wisdom; purple=royalty ;plowing=preaching, teaching Philistine=apostate ;pale green=famine; pillar=testimony; palms=righteous; paradise=heaven; pit=snare

(Q) queen=bride or harlot (context)

(R) red=blood, sin; right hand=power; ring=eternal ;ram=leader of flock; rabbit=promiscuous; river=channels, armies, commerce rainbow=covenant, mercy, grace; robe=righteousness (good or bad); ripe=fullness, matured; reaper= servant; rain=blessing; resurrection= freedom; rock=God, refuge; rod=authority; rightly dividing=taken from the sacrifices, it means to interpret Scripture correctly

(S) sun=Messiah, Jacob, true doctrine of Messiah; sand=earthly descendants; serpent=Satan; sea=unconverted humanity; south=faith ;sheep=believers, submission; shoes=separation from world; straw= food ;shepherd=teacher, leader; scarlet=blood, sin ;stones=people ;salt=flavor, preservation; sword= word of God sickle=harvest, judgment; ship= local congregation; star=individual ;sackcloth=sorrow; senses= discernment; sparrow=little value sowing=reaching out, influence; spirit=power and control of ;sealed=security ;sleep=death; sores=sickness; Son of Joseph=Messianic title for Messiah; Son of David=Messianic title for Messiah; smoke=that which darkens counsel and the truth.

(T) the Teacher=the teacher of righteousness based on Joel 2.23; tail=lies, false prophets tents=transition, pilgrim; thirst=dissatisfied; thorn=curse, works of flesh, trouble; turban=headship ;trumpet=voice, testimony; trees=mankind, people, higher order; thigh=personal strength; teeth=cruelty; throne=seat; travail=anguish; watchman=prophet

(U) unleavened=without sin, without life ;undergarments=the flesh that is hidden, only God can see

(V) vine=Israel, Messiah; valleys=fruitfulness, service ;veil=barrier vessels=believers; vineyards=fruitfulness, service; virgin= purity

(W) white= righteousness; west=approaching God; wine=covenant, blood, marriage, joy, teaching ;wool=Messiah’s righteousness to us; water= word; wind=Holy Spirit; wing=speed ;wilderness=world ;wood=humanity whore=idolatry, unfaithful ;work=pursuit; war=fight; waters=armies, multitudes; wilderness=habitation of demons; wormwood=pure waters of truth corrupted
(Y) youth=strength; yoke=labor

FESTIVAL IDIOMS:
SHAVUOT (Pentecost): First Trump; Day of the giving of the Torah

YOM TERUAH (Day of the awakening blast): First day of Creation; Last Trump; Day of Remembrance; Day of the awakening blast; Day of Judgment (major); Wedding of Messiah; Coronation of Messiah; Gate is opened; Day of Concealment; Day no man knows; Lord’s Day/Day of the Lord; court is seated; books are opened.

YOM KIPPUR( Day of Atonement): Day Adam sinned; The Great Trumpet; Day of Judgment (minor); Day of Redemption; Closing of the Gate; sprinkle the nations; cleansing; the Fast; face to face.

SUKKOT (Tabernacles): Festival of all Nations; House of the water pouring; Feast of Lights; Feast of Leviathan; Wedding Feast; Feast of the Autumn; Day of Contentment; Shemini Atzeret=eighth day of the festival; Feast of joy and glad tidings.

MESSIANIC KINGDOM (Last 1000 years): The Future Coming; Day of the Lord; “in that day”; the Day of Rest; the Millennium; The Sabbath of God.

TERMINOLOGY: Moed=appointed time; Mikra Kodesh=holy assembly; Chevlai shell Mashiach=birth-pains of the Messiah.

MAJOR NATIONS IN THE DAY OF THE LORD: USA=Babylon; Egypt= Europe; Assyria=Russia; Armies of Babylon=Kings of the East.

 

Posted in Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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