Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
only in (2 Chronicles 4:12,13) In (1 Kings 7:41) “bowls.” The word signifies convex projections
belonging to the capitals of pillars.
Pond
The ponds of Egypt, (Exodus 7:19; 13:5) were doubtless water left by the inundation of the
Nile. Ponds for fish mentioned in (Isaiah 19:10)
Pontius Pilate
[Pilate]
Pontus
a large district in the north of Asia Minor, extending along the coast of the Pontus Euxinus Sea
(Pontus), from which circumstance the name was derived. It corresponds nearly to the modern
Trebizond. It is three times mentioned in the New Testament— (Acts 2:9; 18:2; 1 Peter 1:1) All
these passages agree in showing that there were many Jewish residents in the district. As to the
annals of Pontus, the one brilliant passage of its history is the life of the great Mithridates. Under
Nero the whole region was made of Roman province, bearing the name of Pontus. It was conquered
by the Turks in A.D. 1461, and is still under their dominion.
Pool
Pools, like the tanks of India, are in many parts of Palestine and Syria the only resource for
water during the dry season, and the failure of them involves drought and calamity. (Isaiah 42:15)
Of the various pools mentioned in Scripture, perhaps the most celebrated are the pools of Solomon
near Bethlehem called by the Arabs el-Burak, from which an aqueduct was carried which still
supplies Jerusalem with wafer. (Ecclesiastes 2:6) Ecclus. 24:30, 31.
Poor
The general kindly spirit of the law toward the poor is sufficiently shown by such passages as
(15:7) for the reason that (ver. 11) “the poor shall never cease out of the land.” Among the special
enactments in their favor the following must be mentioned:
•The right of gleaning. (Leviticus 19:9,10; 24:19,21)
•From the produce of the land in sabbatical years the poor and the stranger were to have their
portion. (Exodus 23:11; Leviticus 25:6)
•Re-entry upon land in the jubilee year, with the limitation as to town homes. (Leviticus 25:25-30)
•Prohibition of usury and of retention of pledges. (Exodus 22:25-27; Leviticus 25:3,5,37) etc.
•Permanent bondage forbidden, and manumission of Hebrew bondmen or bondwomen enjoined
in the sabbatical and jubilee years. (Leviticus 25:39-42,47-54; 15:12-15)
•Portions from the tithes to be shared by the poor after the Levites. (14:28; 26:12,13)
•The poor to partake in entertainments at the feasts of Weeks and Tabernacles. (16:11,14) see Nehe
8:10
•Daily payment of wages. (Leviticus 19:13) Principles similar to those laid down by Moses are
inculcated in the New Testament, as (Luke 3:11; 14:13; Acts 6:1; Galatians 2:10; James 2:15)
Poplar
This is the rendering of the Hebrew word libneh, which occurs in (Genesis 30:37) and Hose
4:13 Several authorities are in favor of the rendering of the Authorized Version and think that
“white poplar” (Populus alba) is the tree denoted: others understand the “storax tree” (Styrax
officinale, Linn.). Both poplars and storax or styrax trees are common in Palestine, and either would
suit the passages where the Hebrew term occurs. Storax is mentioned in Ecclus. 24:15, together
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William Smith