Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Outlandish Women

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin. Nehemiah 13:26

[Note from Donna: My southern grandmothers would always tell me to not be so "outlandish" whenever I was behaving in a manner that seemed unladylike to them. I was interested to learn that that adjective was used in the Bible and to find out what it really meant.]

Outlandish is used once (Nehemiah 13:26) to represent the Hebrew word which the KJV elsewhere translates by "alien," "foreigner," "strange," or "stranger." The passage refers to Solomon: "among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God make him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin." RSV has: ". . . nevertheless foreign women made even him to sin." For the same Hebrew phrase the KJV has "strange women" in 1 Kings 11:1, and "strange wives" in 1 Kings 11:8 and Nehemiah 13:27. Coverdale had the word "outlandish" in all these passages, meaning by it "from a foreign land."

The Bible Word Book, Bridges & Weigle, pg 246

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