舊約詞匯 - L

Laban

Rebekah's brother and Jacob's uncle who lived in Aram; Jacob married Laban's daughters Rachel and Leah, and Jacob gained wealth there. See Chapter 2.

Lament

A cry of pain and grief; in the study of the Psalms, the lament, also called a complaint, is the literary type which expresses a cry of help, either of an individual or the community. See Chapter 14 Speech Forms and Chapter 14 Complaint.

Latter Prophets

The technical name for the collection of prophetic writings comprised of the books of the three "major" prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) and those of the twelve "minor" (or shorter) prophets, collectively called the Book of the Twelve. See Part 2 Introduction and Part 2 Latter Prophets.

Law

See Commandments, Halaka, Oral torah, Ten commandments, Torah.

Leah

Daughter of Laban, the first wife of Jacob who had six sons and one daughter. See Chapter 2.

Legend

A general term denoting stories about heroes, usually from the distant past, whose primary intent is not historical accuracy but entertainment, illustration, and instruction; some scholars consider certain of the ancestral accounts in Genesis, some stories of Moses in Exodus, as well as some stories about Elijah and Elisha, to be legends.

Levi

A son of Jacob, one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Levirate marriage

(from Latin levir for Hebrew yabam, "brother-in-law") A biblical system of marriage in which the levir marries his brother's widow (see Deuteronomy 25:5-10). See Chapter 16.

Levite(s)

A member of the tribe of Levi; the Levites took care of the tabernacle and later the temple but generally could not serve as priests; only Levites specifically from the family of Aaron could become priests. See Chapter 4.

Literary criticism

(sometimes called literary critique) A critical, but not necessarily criticizing or judgmental, examination of a piece of literature that seeks to determine the type of literature it is, as well as its conventions, stylistic techniques, structure, and strategies; in older scholarship, it may mean source criticism.

Liturgy

(adj. liturgical). Rites of public worship, usually institutionalized in temple, synagogue, or church tradition.

Lo-ammi

A child of Gomer, the wife of the prophet Hosea; the name means "not my people;" see Hosea 1:9.

Lo-ruhamah

A child of Gomer, the wife of the prophet Hosea; the name means "no mercy;" see Hosea 1:6.

LORD

(Hebrew adonay) This term (note the use of small capital letters) substitutes for God's Hebrew personal name Yahweh in most modern translations of the Hebrew Bible. See Introduction.

LORD God

A name of God, Yahweh Elohim in Hebrew. It is used notably by the Yahwist in Genesis 2-3, though often elsewhere the phrase "the LORD our God" is used. See Chapter 1.

Lot

The nephew of Abraham who accompanied him to Canaan. See Chapter 2.

Lots

A mechanical means of divination, perhaps similar to dice or drawing straws, that was used to determine God's decision in certain matters; used in the phrase to cast lots. In the book of Esther lots are termed purim, and this becomes the name of the festival celebrating the deliverance of the Jews in the diaspora. See Purim. See Chapter 6.

LXX

The abbreviation for the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures done in the last centuries B.C.E.