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DungAid to Bible Understanding
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I consider them as a lot of refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in union with him.” (Phil. 3:8, 9) The Greek word here rendered “refuse” (skuʹba·lon) denotes either excrement or the things left from a feast and thrown away from the table. Even if the apostle had the latter meaning in mind, his evaluation of “all things” as “refuse” emphasizes the high value he placed on gaining and being found in union with Christ.—See DOVE’S DUNG.
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DungeonAid to Bible Understanding
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DUNGEON
David felt as though he was in a dungeon at the time he was hiding in a cave as an outlaw refugee from King Saul. His circumstances looked very dark, with his life constantly in danger, traps in his pathway and no other place to flee. He prayed to Jehovah for liberation. (Ps. 142:7) Isaiah uses the term symbolically in two places: (1) at chapter 24, verse 22, speaking of kings being gathered together in a dungeon in the day when Jehovah becomes king, and (2) chapter 42, verse 7, concerning those in spiritual darkness and imprisonment. The aged Simeon, under inspiration, applied the latter prophecy to those to whom Jesus Christ would bring the light of truth.—Luke 2:25-32; see PRISON.
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DuraAid to Bible Understanding
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DURA
(Duʹra).
The plain where Nebuchadnezzar set up a gold image.—Dan. 3:1.
Though places as distant as 270 miles (434 kilometers) from Babylon have been suggested as Dura’s location, it is Biblically described as being “in the jurisdictional district of Babylon,” and so apparently was relatively near that city. For this reason, most geographers today accept Tulul Dura, six miles (9.7 kilometers) SE of Babylon, as the most likely of the many proposed sites. The ruins of a dried-brick mound measuring forty-six feet (14 meters) square were discovered here and have been conjectured by some to be the base of Nebuchadnezzar’s image. Nevertheless, the Akkadian term dûru, meaning “circuit,” “wall” or “walled place,” appears frequently in Mesopotamian place-names, making any positive identification impossible at this time.
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DustAid to Bible Understanding
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DUST
Fine particles of matter, light enough to be raised and borne easily by currents of air. Strong winds passing over dry desert regions, common to Bible lands, often produce violent dust storms that are considered by some to be more dreadful than storms encountered at sea. Volcanic eruptions, fires, and agricultural activities are among common causes of mineral dust. Vegetable matter produces dust in the form of pollen, molds, plant fiber and seed parts. Dust is also indirectly produced by animals, resulting from dried dung, fine hair and bacteria.
Although some may consider dust to be a nuisance, it is a provision of the Creator that is essential to mankind’s existence and comfort. (Prov. 8:22, 26) Scientists hold that no condensation of moisture as rain, fog or mist could occur if it were not for certain water-absorbing salts that comprise a portion of the atmosphere’s dust. Moreover, without the light-scattering property of atmospheric dust, the eyes of earth’s creatures would be exposed to unbearable glare of the sun’s direct rays, and the familiar phenomenon of dusk and beautifully colored sunsets would cease to occur.
The Creator used “dust from the ground” when he formed the first man (Gen. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:47, 48), and when Adam was sentenced for disobeying God’s law, Jehovah decreed: “To dust you will return.” (Gen. 3:19) God also pronounced a curse of great prophetic significance when saying to the serpent in Eden: “Upon your belly you will go and dust is what you will eat [bite] all the days of your life.” (Gen. 3:14) While the serpent would not subsist only on dust, it would ingest some dust with its food because of its lowly condition on the ground.
SIGNIFYING FRAILTY, MORTALITY AND LOWLINESS
In view of man’s fall from perfection, dust is sometimes used figuratively for mankind’s frailty. God shows mercy to those fearing him, “remembering that we are dust.” (Ps. 103:13, 14; Gen. 18:27) It is also symbolic of the mortality of humans, for at death “back to their dust they go.” (Ps. 104:29; Eccl. 3:19, 20; 12:1, 7) Since man returns to the dust at death, the grave is sometimes figuratively called “the dust.” (Ps. 22:29; 30:9) The dust of the ground can denote a lowly condition. Jehovah is “a Raiser of a lowly one from the dust.”—1 Sam. 2:8; Ps. 113:7
REPRESENTING NUMEROUSNESS
In the Scriptures great numbers of people are compared to dust for their numerousness. Thus, God promised Abram (Abraham): “I will constitute your seed like the dust particles of the earth.” (Gen. 13:14, 16) Jehovah also made a similar promise to Jacob. (Gen. 28:10, 13, 14) Concerning the Israelites during their wilderness trek, Balaam asked: “Who has numbered the dust particles of Jacob, and who has counted the fourth part of Israel?” (Num. 23:10) Jehovah had greatly increased Abraham’s offspring through Isaac and Jacob. Jehovah’s bountiful provision of manna for his covenant people in the wilderness is indicated by the statement that “he proceeded to make sustenance rain upon them just like dust, even winged flying creatures just like the sand grains of the seas.”—Ps. 78:24-27; Ex. 16:11-18; Num. 11:31, 32.
USE IN GOD’S JUDGMENT OF NATIONS
Due to the nations’ relative insignificance from God’s standpoint, he accounts them “as the film of dust on the scales.” (Isa. 40:15) Jehovah’s fear-inspiring power was manifested in connection with his blows against one such nation, Egypt. When the third blow was to begin, in keeping with God’s command to Moses, “Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and the gnats came to be on man and beast.” When this occurred throughout Egypt, the magic-practicing priests, unable to duplicate this miracle, had to admit. “It is the finger of God!”—Ex. 8:16-19.
The Israelites, too, were told that if they failed to keep God’s commandments, they could expect various maledictions, one of these being drought, for it was stated: “Jehovah will give powder and dust as the rain of your land. From the heavens it will come down upon you until you have been annihilated.”—Deut. 28:15, 24.
SYMBOLIC OF LAMENTATION AND DEBASEMENT
To symbolize their mournful lamentation over Jerusalem’s destruction by the Babylonians in 607 B.C.E., the older men of the city are represented as sitting on the earth in silence, having “brought up dust upon their head.” (Lam. 2:10) Many years earlier, through Isaiah, Jehovah prophetically called upon Babylon to come down off her throne, saying: “Come down and sit down in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit down on the earth where there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans.” (Isa. 47:1) Babylon was reduced to this low state in 539 B.C.E., at her conquest by the Medes and Persians. And, due to the destruction of symbolic Babylon the Great, ship captains, voyagers, sailors and all those making a living by the sea are depicted as throwing dust upon their heads and bemoaning her devastation.—Rev. 18:17-19
OTHER USES
Dust is also Scripturally linked with repentance. When Job made a retraction for talking without understanding in arguing his case before God he said: “I do repent in dust and ashes.”—Job 42:1, 3, 6.
Causing foes to “lick the dust” means vanquishing them, effecting their complete subjection. (Ps. 72:9; Mic. 7:16, 17) Tossing dust into the air or throwing it at a person were ways of registering strong disapproval of him. It is a custom in parts of Asia to
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