-
StorehouseAid to Bible Understanding
-
-
things as boasting in their wealth by saying: “Our garners [are] full, furnishing products of one sort after another, . . . Happy is the people for whom it is just like that!” But David’s next words, that “Happy is the people whose God is Jehovah!” apparently are intended to show the true Source of happiness in contrast with material wealth.
FIGURATIVE USE
John the Baptist warned the Pharisees and Sadducees of their dangerous situation, likening truly repentant ones to wheat to be gathered, but comparing those leaders to chaff. He said to them: “The one coming after me . . . will gather his wheat into the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with fire that cannot be put out.” (Matt. 3:7-12; Luke 3:16, 17) Jesus foretold a “harvest,” which he equated with “a conclusion of a system of things” and in which angelic “reapers” would gather symbolic “weeds” to be burned, whereas the “wheat” would be gathered into God’s “storehouse,” evidently a restored, congregated condition where they would have God’s favor and protection.—Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43.
Jehovah speaks of things around which he has put boundaries by means of created forces, or natural laws, also of things he has reserved under his control for special purposes, as being in “storehouses.” The sea is said to be ‘gathered like a dam, put in storehouses.’ (Ps. 33:7) Also of other natural phenomena that he has at times used against his enemies he asked Job: “Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow, or do you see even the storehouses of the hail, which I have kept back for the time of distress, for the day of fight and war?” (Job 38:22, 23; compare Joshua 10:8-11; Judges 5:20, 21; Psalm 105:32; 135:7.) Even the armies of the Medes and Persians under King Cyrus were included by Jehovah among the “weapons of his denunciation” brought out of his “storehouse” against Babylon.—Jer. 50:25, 26.
-
-
StorkAid to Bible Understanding
-
-
STORK
[Heb., hhasi·dhahʹ].
The name of this bird is evidently derived from the Hebrew hheʹsedh, meaning loving-kindness or loyal love, as at Genesis 19:19. Thus hhasi·dhahʹ indicates a kind and loyal creature, and this description fits the stork well, as it is noted for its tender care of its young and its loyalty to its lifelong mate.
The stork is a large, long-legged wading bird similar to the ibis and heron. The white stork (Ciconia alba) has white plumage except for the flight feathers of its wings, which are a glossy black. An adult stork may stand as much as four feet (1.2 meters) high, measuring nearly four feet (1.2 meters) in body length, and with a magnificent wingspan that may extend up to nearly seven feet (2.1 meters). Its long red bill is broad at the base and sharply pointed and is used by the stork in probing in the mud for frogs, fish or small reptiles while wading in marshes or striding through pastures in an ungainly manner on its long red legs. In addition to small water creatures, it feeds on grasshoppers and locusts and also may resort to carrion and offal. The stork was included in the list of unclean creatures, which, according to the Law covenant, the Israelites were prohibited from eating.—Lev. 11:19; Deut. 14:18.
When reprimanding the apostate people of Judah who failed to discern the time of Jehovah’s judgment, the prophet Jeremiah called their attention to the stork and other birds that ‘well know their appointed times.’ (Jer. 8:7) The stork regularly migrates through Palestine and Syria from its winter quarters in Africa, appearing in large flocks during March and April. Of the two kinds of stork found in Palestine, the white stork and the black stork (Ciconia nigra), the former only occasionally remains to breed in that region, often making its nest on houses but also nesting in trees. The black stork, so named for its black head, neck and back, is more common in the Dead Sea area and in Bashan and seeks trees, where available, to build its nest. The psalmist referred to the storks nesting in the tall juniper trees.—Ps. 104:17.
Contrasting the flightless ostrich with the highflying stork, Jehovah asked Job: “Has the wing of the female ostrich flapped joyously, or has she the pinions of a stork and the plumage?” (Job 39:13) The stork’s pinions are of great breadth and power, the secondary and tertiary feathers being almost as long as the primaries, giving an immense surface to the wing and enabling the stork to be a bird of lofty and long-continued flight. A stork in flight soaring on its powerful wings, with its neck extended and its long legs stretched out straight behind it, makes an imposing sight. The two women seen in Zechariah’s vision (5:6-11) carrying an ephah measure containing the woman called “Wickedness” are described as having “wings like the wings of the stork.” The reference to the ‘wind in their wings’ (vs. 9) harmonizes also with the rushing sound produced by the air passing through the stork’s pinions. The primary feathers are fingered out in flight so that slots are formed at the ends of the wings, thereby controlling the airflow over the top of the wings and improving their lifting power.
-
-
StraightAid to Bible Understanding
-
-
STRAIGHT
(Street).
A street in Damascus, Syria. (Acts 9:10, 11) During the Roman period, it was a major thoroughfare approximately one mile (c. 1.6 kilometers) long and about 100 feet (c. 30.5 meters) wide. Then divided by colonnades into three sections, its center lane was used by pedestrians and the two outside lanes were for mounted and vehicular traffic moving in opposite directions. Still bearing an Arabic equivalent of the former name, but no longer completely straight, it runs W from the city’s East Gate. On this ancient street, at the house of a man named Judas, Saul of Tarsus stayed for a time after the glorified Jesus Christ appeared to him. In a vision, Jesus directed the disciple Ananias to this home on “the street called Straight” to restore Saul’s sight.—Acts 9:3-12, 17-19.
-
-
StrangerAid to Bible Understanding
-
-
STRANGER
See ALIEN RESIDENT.
-
-
StrawAid to Bible Understanding
-
-
STRAW
The dried stalks of grains such as wheat and barley; in the Bible, particularly the fragments remaining after the completion of the threshing operation. Anciently straw, either by itself or mixed with other provender, was used as fodder for domestic animals. (Gen. 24:25, 32; Judg. 19:19; 1 Ki. 4:28; Isa. 11:7; 65:25) Straw was also employed in the manufacture of bricks. (Ex. 5:7-18; see BRICK.) It appears in illustrative settings with reference to the destruction of the wicked (Job 21:18) and the subjugation and humiliation of Moab. (Isa. 25:10-12) Mighty Leviathan is depicted as accounting iron like mere straw.—Job 41:1, 27.
-
-
StreetAid to Bible Understanding
-
-
STREET
In ancient towns and cities of Bible lands it appears that most streets were unpaved. (Ps. 18:42; Isa. 10:6; Lam. 2:21) Channels for water drainage from the streets have been discovered in Jericho and Gezer.
Generally, streets were narrow and winding. But there were also “broad ways.” (Luke 14:21; compare Revelation 21:21.) Nineveh’s streets were wide enough to accommodate chariots. (Nah. 2:4) Babylon and Damascus had broad avenues or processional ways, and some streets bore names. During the Roman period, “the street called Straight” in Damascus was a three-lane thoroughfare about 100 feet (c. 30.5 meters) wide.—Acts 9:11; see STRAIGHT (Street).
An open area, the public square, likely near a city gate, might serve as a place to transact business or meet for instruction. (Gen. 23:10-18; Neh. 8:1-3; Jer. 5:1) There children played (Zech. 8:4, 5); the streets in general were usually filled with sounds of activity. (Job 18:17; Jer. 33:10, 11; contrast Isaiah 15:3; 24:11.) They were places of commercial enterprise, shops of a certain kind sometimes being grouped together, as on the “street of the bakers” in Jerusalem.
-