pīn ́ing, sik ́nes: In the account of the epileptic boy in Mark 9:18 it is said that “he pineth away.” The verb used here (ξηραίνω, xēraínō) means “to dry up,” and is the same which is used of the withering of plants, but seldom used in this metaphorical sense. The English word is from the Anglo-Saxon pinian and is often found in the Elizabethan literature, occurring 13 times in Shakespeare. In the Old Testament it is found in Leviticus 26:39 (bis) and in Ezekiel 24:23 and 33:10. In the Revised Version it replaces “consume” in Ezekiel 4:17. In all these passages it is the rendering of the Hebrew māḳaḳ, and means expressly being wasted on account of sin. In Leviticus 26:16 “pine away” is used in the Revised Version to replace “cause sorrow of heart,” and is the translation of the Hebrew dūbh; and in Deuteronomy 28:65 “sorrow of mind” is also replaced in the Revised Version by “pining of soul,” the word so rendered being de‘ābhōn, which in these two passages is expressive of homesickness. In Isaiah 24:16 the reduplicated exclamation, “my leanness,” of the King James Version is changed into “I pine away,” the word being rāzī. The starving people in Lamentations 4:9 are said to pine away, the word so translated being zūbh. All these Hebrew words have a general meaning of to dry or to waste or wear away, or to be exhausted by morbid discharges.
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Author: International Std. Bible Encyclopedia
Keywords: Pining, Sickness
Source: James Orr (editor), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 5 volume set.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.