that such a causeless curse does not come to fulfillment or “alight,” but, rather, is like the restless flight of the swallow as it continues almost tirelessly on the wing in pursuit of its insect prey. In the surrounding verses the writer is discussing the fool and his ways, and thus in the rendering first cited (NW) the sense may be instead that, even as the flying of the birds when fleeing from danger or searching for food has a real cause, so, too, if a fool’s course brings a malediction upon him, it was not without there being real cause; his foolish course was responsible.—Compare verse 3; also Proverbs 1:22-32.

The swallow, particularly the common or barn swallow, is abundant in Palestine. Some swallows spend the year there, whereas others arrive in March and depart at the approach of winter. Small, with long powerful wings and, usually, a forked tail, the swallow is a bird of unusually graceful and speedy flight, able to cover long distances in migration. The plumage often has a rich iridescent hue; its song is a pleasant combination of soft twittering and warbling.

SWAN

[Heb., tin·sheʹmeth].

The swan is a large, graceful water bird with a long, slender curving neck. Some swans may weigh as much as forty pounds (18.1 kilograms) and may have a wingspan of as much as eight feet (2.4 meters).

The Hebrew name (tin·sheʹmeth), appearing in the list of unclean flying creatures (Lev. 11:13, 18; Deut. 14:12, 16), is thought to mean a “hard breather” or “snorter.” It may describe the swan with its loud hissing sound, made when the bird is excited or angered, and is so rendered in a number of translations (AV, Da, Le, NW, Ro, Yg). This identification dates back at least to the Latin Vulgate, in which Jerome rendered the Hebrew tin·sheʹmeth (at Leviticus 11:18) by the Latin word cygnus (“swan”). The earlier Greek Septuagint here reads “purple-colored bird” (Gr., por·phy·riʹon), evidently the purple gallinule or water hen. However, both of these ancient versions translate tin·sheʹmeth as “ibis” at Deuteronomy 14:16, thus showing their uncertainty.

The swan, though found in Palestine, is not common there in modern times. Because of this, and also due to the fact that the swan is primarily a vegetarian as to diet, many modern translators prefer to identify the tin·sheʹmeth with the “water hen” (RS, Mo), “eagle-owl” (AT), “ibis” (JB), or with other birds known to be either carnivorous or scavengers. However, the rarity of the appearance of swans in Palestine in modern times is not a certain evidence that they were not more common there in ancient times. Likewise, it must be recognized that the view that the classification of certain birds as unclean depended upon their being either raptorial or scavengers is only a deduction and is not directly stated in the Bible.

In addition to its usual diet of seeds, roots of water plants, and worms, the swan is known to feed on shellfish.

SWARMING THING

[Heb., sheʹrets].

The root word from which this term is drawn means to “swarm” or “teem.” The noun appears to apply to small creatures to be found in large numbers. (Ex. 8:3; Ps. 105:30; compare Exodus 1:7.) It first occurs at Genesis 1:20 with the initial appearance of living souls on the fifth creative day when the waters began to swarm with living souls. The Flood destroyed earthly ‘swarming things’ outside the ark.—Gen. 7:21.

The law regarding clean and unclean things shows that the term may apply to aquatic creatures (Lev. 11:10), winged creatures, including bats and insects (Lev. 11:19-23; Deut. 14:19), land creatures, including rodents, lizards, chameleons (Lev. 11:29-31), and creatures traveling on their “belly” and multi-legged creatures (vss. 41-44). Many, but not all, of these were “unclean” as food under that Law.

SWEARING

See OATH.

SWEAT

Perspiration; bodily moisture or liquid excreted by the sudoriparous (sweat) glands and flowing through pores in the skin. Exertion (as during laborious work), emotion (such as anxiety), heat, and so forth, are generally the causes of sweat.

After sinning, Adam had to eke out an existence from cursed ground outside the Garden of Eden, doing so through sweat-producing toil amid thorns and thistles. Jehovah told him, in part: “In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken.”—Gen. 3:17-19.

During Ezekiel’s temple vision, Jehovah stated that the priests ministering there were to wear linen garments and that “no wool should come upon them.” They were not to gird themselves with wool or anything ‘causing sweat.’ Perhaps this was to avoid any uncleanness that sweat would produce, or because perspiration would make their service unpleasant rather than joyful, sweat being suggestive of toil or drudgery, as in Adam’s case.—Ezek. 44:15-18.

JESUS IN GETHSEMANE

Concerning Jesus Christ, when in Gethsemane on the final night of his earthly life, Luke 22:44 states: “But getting into an agony he continued praying more earnestly; and his sweat became as drops of blood falling to the ground.” The writer does not say that Jesus’ sweat was actually mingled with his blood. He may only have been drawing a comparison, perhaps indicating that Christ’s perspiration formed like drops of blood or describing how the dripping of Jesus’ sweat resembled a drop-by-drop flowing of blood from a wound. On the other hand, Jesus’ blood may have exuded through his skin, being mixed with his sweat. Bloody sweat has reportedly occurred in certain cases of extreme mental stress. Blood or elements thereof will seep through unruptured walls of blood vessels in a condition called diapedesis, and in hematidrosis there is an excreting of perspiration tinged with blood pigment or blood, or of bodily fluid mingled with blood, thus resulting in the ‘sweating of blood.’ These, of course, are only suggestions as to what possibly took place in Jesus’ case.

Verses 43 and 44 of Luke chapter 22 are omitted in the Vatican Manuscript No. 1209, the Alexandrine Manuscript, the Syriac Sinaitic codex and in the corrected reading of the Sinaitic Manuscript. However, these verses do appear in the original Sinaitic Manuscript, the Codex Bezae, the Latin Vulgate, the Curetonian Syriac manuscript and the Syriac Peshitta Version.

SWIFT

[Heb., sis].

Hezekiah, upon recovering from illness, said in a thoughtful composition that he ‘kept chirping like the swift,’ while the prophet Jeremiah used the migratory swift as an example when rebuking the people of Judah for not discerning the time of God’s judgment.—Isa. 38:14; Jer. 8:7.

That the Hebrew sis identifies the swift is indicated by the use of the same name in Arabic for that bird. The name is suggested by some authorities to indicate a rushing sound; but most consider the name to represent the shrill si-si-si cry of the swift. The swift’s cry has a somewhat wailing, melancholy note that makes Hezekiah’s reference to it a very apt one.

Though comparatively small, the swift is ranked as the fastest of all flying birds, capable of bursts of speed up to 170 miles (273.5 kilometers) per hour or more. It uses its long, thin scythelike wings energetically and with seeming tirelessness as it swoops and darts after insect prey, which it engulfs in its large mouth while on the wing. Of the three varieties of swifts common to Palestine, the Alpine swift is the largest and is distinguished by its white underparts. It is the first of the migrating swifts to appear in Palestine at the approach of spring, followed shortly