Levirate Law - from Latin levir, "a husband's brother," the name of an ancient custom ordained by Moses, by which, when an Israelite died without issue, his surviving brother was required to marry the widow, so as to continue his brother's family through the son that might be born of that marriage ( Gen. 38:8; Deut. 25:5-10; comp. Ruth 3; 4:10). Its object was "to raise up seed to the departed brother."

Levite - a descendant of the tribe of Levi ( Ex. 6:25; Lev. 25:32; Num. 35:2; Josh. 21:3, Josh. 21:41). This name is, however, generally used as the title of that portion of the tribe which was set apart for the subordinate offices of the sanctuary service (1 Kings 8:4; Ezra 2:70), as assistants to the priests.

When the Israelites left Egypt, the ancient manner of worship was still observed by them, the eldest son of each house inheriting the priest's office. At Sinai the first change in this ancient practice was made. A hereditary priesthood in the family of Aaron was then instituted ( Ex. 28:1). But it was not till that terrible scene in connection with the sin of the golden calf that the tribe of Levi stood apart and began to occupy a distinct position (Ex. 32). The religious primogeniture was then conferred on this tribe, which henceforth was devoted to the service of the sanctuary ( Num. 3:11-13). They were selected for this purpose because of their zeal for the glory of God ( Ex. 32:26), and because, as the tribe to which Moses and Aaron belonged, they would naturally stand by the lawgiver in his work.

The Levitical order consisted of all the descendants of Levi's three sons, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; whilst Aaron, Amram's son (Amram, son of Kohat), and his issue constituted the priestly order.

The age and qualification for Levitical service are specified in Num. 4:3, Num. 4:23, Num. 4:30, Num. 4:39, Num. 4:43, Num. 4:47.

They were not included among the armies of Israel ( Num. 1:47;Num 2:33;Num 26:62), but were reckoned by themselves. They were the special guardians of the tabernacle ( Num. 1:51;Num 18:22-24). The Gershonites pitched their tents on the west of the tabernacle ( Num 3:23), the Kohathites on the south ( Num 3:29), the Merarites on the north ( Num 3:35), and the priests on the east ( Num 3:38). It was their duty to move the tent and carry the parts of the sacred structure from place to place. They were given to Aaron and his sons the priests to wait upon them and do work for them at the sanctuary services ( Num. 8:19;Num 18:2-6).

As being wholly consecrated to the service of the Lord, they had no territorial possessions. Jehovah was their inheritance ( Num. 18:20;Num 26:62; Deut. 10:9; Deut 18:1, Deut. 10:2), and for their support it was ordained that they should receive from the other tribes the tithes of the produce of the land. Forty-eight cities also were assigned to them, thirteen of which were for the priests "to dwell in", i.e., along with their other inhabitants. Along with their dwellings they had "suburbs", i.e., "commons", for their herds and flocks, and also fields and vineyards ( Num. 35:2-5). Nine of these cities were in Judah, three in Naphtali, and four in each of the other tribes (Josh. 21). Six of the Levitical cities were set apart as "cities of refuge" (q.v.). Thus the Levites were scattered among the tribes to keep alive among them the knowledge and service of God. (See PRIEST.)

Leviticus - the third book of the Pentateuch; so called in the Vulgate, after the LXX., because it treats chiefly of the Levitical service.

In the first section of the book (1-17), which exhibits the worship itself, there is, (1.) A series of laws (1-7) regarding sacrifices, burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, and thank-offerings (1-3), sin-offerings and trespass-offerings (4; 5), followed by the law of the priestly duties in connection with the offering of sacrifices (6; 7). (2.) An historical section (8-10), giving an account of the consecration of Aaron and his sons (8); Aaron's first offering for himself and the people (9); Nadab and Abihu's presumption in offering "strange fire before Jehovah," and their punishment (10). (3.) Laws concerning purity, and the sacrifices and ordinances for putting away impurity (11-16). An interesting fact may be noted here. Canon Tristram, speaking of the remarkable discoveries regarding the flora and fauna of the Holy Land by the Palestine Exploration officers, makes the following statement:, "Take these two catalogues of the clean and unclean animals in the books of Leviticus [11] and Deuteronomy [14]. There are eleven in Deuteronomy which do not occur in Leviticus, and these are nearly all animals and birds which are not found in Egypt or the Holy Land, but which are numerous in the Arabian desert. They are not named in Leviticus a few weeks after the departure from Egypt; but after the people were thirty-nine years in the desert they are named, a strong proof that the list in Deuteronomy was written at the end of the journey, and the list in Leviticus at the beginning. It fixes the writing of that catalogue to one time and period only, viz., that when the children of Israel were familiar with the fauna and the flora of the desert" (Palest. Expl. Quart., Jan. 1887). (4.) Laws marking the separation between Israel and the heathen (17-20). (5.) Laws about the personal purity of the priests, and their eating of the holy things (20; 21); about the offerings of Israel, that they were to be without blemish (22:17-33); and about the due celebration of the great festivals (23; 25). (6.) Then follow promises and warnings to the people regarding obedience to these commandments, closing with a section on vows.

The various ordinances contained in this book were all delivered in the space of a month (comp. Ex. 40:17; Num. 1:1), the first month of the second year after the Exodus. It is the third book of Moses.

No book contains more of the very words of God. He is almost throughout the whole of it the direct speaker. This book is a prophecy of things to come, a shadow whereof the substance is Christ and his kingdom. The principles on which it is to be interpreted are laid down in the Epistle to the Hebrews. It contains in its complicated ceremonial the gospel of the grace of God.

Levy - (1 Kings 4:6, R.V .; 5:13), forced service. The service of tributaries was often thus exacted by kings. Solomon raised a "great levy" of 30,000 men, about two per cent. of the population, to work for him by courses on Lebanon. Adoram .V 12:18) presided over this forced labour service (Ger. Frohndienst; Fr. corvee).

Lewdness - ( Acts 18:14), villany or wickedness, not lewdness in the modern sense of the word. The word "lewd" is from the Saxon, and means properly "ignorant," "unlearned," and hence low, vicious ( Acts 17:5).

Libertine - found only Acts 6:9, one who once had been a slave, but who had been set at liberty, or the child of such a person. In this case the name probably denotes those descendants of Jews who had been carried captives to Rome as prisoners of war by Pompey and other Roman generals in the Syrian wars, and had afterwards been liberated. In A.D. 19 these manumitted Jews were banished from Rome. Many of them found their way to Jerusalem, and there established a synagogue.

Libnah - transparency; whiteness. (1.) One of the stations of the Israelites in the wilderness ( Num. 33:20,Num. 33:21).

(2.) One of the royal cities of the Canaanites taken by Joshua ( Josh. 10:29-32;Josh 12:15). It became one of the Levitical towns in the tribe of Judah ( Josh 21:13), and was strongly fortified. Sennacherib laid siege to it (2 Kings 19:8; Isa. 37:8). It was the native place of Hamutal, the queen of Josiah (2 Kings 23:31). It stood near Lachish, and has been identified with the modern Arak el-Menshiyeh.

Libni - white, one of the two sons of Gershon, the son of Levi ( Ex. 6:17; Num. 3:18, Num. 3:21). (See LAADAN ¯(n/a).)

Libya - the country of the Ludim ( Gen. 10:13), Northern Africa, a large tract lying along the Mediterranean, to the west of Egypt ( Acts 2:10). Cyrene was one of its five cities.

Lice - (Heb. kinnim), the creatures employed in the third plague sent upon Egypt ( Ex. 8:16-18). They were miraculously produced from the dust of the land. "The entomologists Kirby and Spence place these minute but disgusting insects in the very front rank of those which inflict injury upon man. A terrible list of examples they have collected of the ravages of this and closely allied parasitic pests." The plague of lice is referred to in Ps. 105:31.

Some have supposed that the word denotes not lice properly, but gnats. Others, with greater probability, take it to mean the "tick" which is much larger than lice.

Lie - an intentional violation of the truth. Lies are emphatically condemned in Scripture ( John 8:44; 1 Tim. 1:9,1 Tim. 1:10; Rev. 21:27; Rev 22:15). Mention is made of the lies told by good men, as by Abraham ( Gen. 12:12,Gen. 12:13;Gen 20:2), Isaac ( Gen 26:7), and Jacob ( Gen 27:24); also by the Hebrew midwives ( Ex. 1:15-19), by Michal (1 Sam. 19:14), and by David (1 Sam. 20:6). (See ANANIAS.)

Lieutenant - (only in A.V. Esther 3:12; Esther 8:9; Esther 9:3; Ezra 8:36), a governor or viceroy of a Persian province having both military and civil power. Correctly rendered in the Revised Version "satrap."

Life - generally of physical life ( Gen. 2:7; Luke 16:25, etc.); also used figuratively (1) for immortality ( Heb. 7:16); (2) conduct or manner of life ( Rom. 6:4); (3) spiritual life or salvation ( John 3:16,John 3:17,John 3:18,John 3:36); (4) eternal life ( Matt. 19:16,Matt. 19:17; John 3:15); of God and Christ as the absolute source and cause of all life ( John 1:4;John 5:26,John 1:39;John 11:25;John 12:50).

Light - the offspring of the divine command ( Gen. 1:3). "All the more joyous emotions of the mind, all the pleasing sensations of the frame, all the happy hours of domestic intercourse were habitually described among the Hebrews under imagery derived from light" (1 Kings 11:36; Isa. 58:8; Esther 8:16; Ps. 97:11). Light came also naturally to typify true religion and the felicity it imparts ( Ps. 119:105; Isa. 8:20; Matt. 4:16, etc.), and the glorious inheritance of the redeemed ( Col. 1:12; Rev. 21:23-25). God is said to dwell in light inaccessible (1 Tim. 6:16). It frequently signifies instruction ( Matt. 5:16; John 5:35). In its highest sense it is applied to Christ as the "Sun of righteousness" ( Mal. 4:2; Luke 2:32; John 1:7-9). God is styled "the Father of lights" ( James 1:17). It is used of angels (2 Cor. 11:14), and of John the Baptist, who was a "burning and a shining light" ( John 5:35), and of all true disciples, who are styled "the light of the world" ( Matt. 5:14).

Lightning - frequently referred to by the sacred writers ( Nah. 1:3-6). Thunder and lightning are spoken of as tokens of God's wrath (2 Sam. 22:15; Job 28:26; Job 37:4; Ps. 135:7; Ps 144:6; Zech. 9:14). They represent God's glorious and awful majesty ( Rev. 4:5), or some judgment of God on the world ( Rev 20:9).

Lign-aloes - (only in pl., Heb. 'ahalim), a perfume derived from some Oriental tree ( Num. 24:6), probably the agallochum or aloe-wood. (See ALOES ).

Ligure - (Heb. leshem) occurs only in Ex. 28:19 and 39:12, as the name of a stone in the third row on the high priest's breastplate. Some have supposed that this stone was the same as the jacinth (q.v.), others that it was the opal. There is now no mineral bearing this name. The "ligurite" is so named from Liguria in Italy, where it was found.

Lily - The Hebrew name shushan or shoshan, i.e., "whiteness", was used as the general name of several plants common to Syria, such as the tulip, iris, anemone, gladiolus, ranunculus, etc. Some interpret it, with much probability, as denoting in the Old Testament the water-lily (Nymphoea lotus of Linn.), or lotus ( Cant. 2:1,Cant. 2:2;Cant 2:16;Cant 4:5;Cant 5:13;Cant 6:2,Cant. 2:3;Cant 7:2). "Its flowers are large, and they are of a white colour, with streaks of pink. They supplied models for the ornaments of the pillars and the molten sea" (1 Kings 7:19,1 Kings 7:22,1 Kings 7:26; 2 Chr. 4:5). In the Canticles its beauty and fragrance shadow forth the preciousness of Christ to the Church. Groser, however (Scrip. Nat. Hist.), strongly argues that the word, both in the Old and New Testaments, denotes liliaceous plants in general, or if one genus is to be selected, that it must be the genus Iris, which is "large, vigorous, elegant in form, and gorgeous in colouring."

The lilies (Gr. krinia) spoken of in the New Testament ( Matt. 6:28; Luke 12:27) were probably the scarlet martagon (Lilium Chalcedonicum) or "red Turk's-cap lily", which "comes into flower at the season of the year when our Lord's sermon on the mount is supposed to have been delivered. It is abundant in the district of Galilee; and its fine scarlet flowers render it a very conspicous and showy object, which would naturally attract the attention of the hearers" (Balfour's Plants of the Bible).

Of the true "floral glories of Palestine" the pheasant's eye (Adonis Palestina), the ranunuculus (R. Asiaticus), and the anemone (A coronaria), the last named is however, with the greatest probability regarded as the "lily of the field" to which our Lord refers. "Certainly," says Tristram (Nat. Hist. of the Bible), "if, in the wondrous richness of bloom which characterizes the land of Israel in spring, any one plant can claim pre-eminence, it is the anemone, the most natural flower for our Lord to pluck and seize upon as an illustration, whether walking in the fields or sitting on the hill-side." "The white water-lily (Nymphcea alba) and the yellow water-lily (Nuphar lutea) are both abundant in the marshes of the Upper Jordan, but have no connection with the lily of Scripture."

Lime - The Hebrew word so rendered means "boiling" or "effervescing." From Isa. 33:12 it appears that lime was made in a kiln lighted by thorn-bushes. In Amos 2:1 it is recorded that the king of Moab "burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime." The same Hebrew word is used in Deut. 27:2-4, and is there rendered "plaster." Limestone is the chief constituent of the mountains of Syria.

Linen - (1.) Heb., pishet, pishtah, denotes "flax," of which linen is made ( Isa. 19:9); wrought flax, i.e., "linen cloth", Lev. 13:47, Lev. 13:48, Lev. 13:52, Lev. 13:59; Deut. 22:11.

Flax was early cultivated in Egypt ( Ex. 9:31), and also in Palestine ( Josh. 2:6; Hos. 2:9). Various articles were made of it: garments (2 Sam. 6:14), girdles (Jer. 13:1), ropes and thread (Ezek. 40:3), napkins (Luke 24:12; John 20:7), turbans (Ezek. 44:18), and lamp-wicks (Isa. 42:3).

(2.) Heb. buts, "whiteness;" rendered "fine linen" in 1 Chr. 4:21;1 Chr 15:27; 2 Chr. 2:14;2 Chr 3:14; Esther 1:6; Esther 8:15, and "white linen" 2 Chr. 5:12. It is not certain whether this word means cotton or linen.

(3.) Heb. bad; rendered "linen" Ex. 28:42; Ex 39:28; Lev. 6:10; Lev 16:4, Lev. 6:23, Lev. 6:32; 1 Sam. 2:18; 2 Sam. 6:14, etc. It is uniformly used of the sacred vestments worn by the priests. The word is from a root signifying "separation."

(4.) Heb. shesh; rendered "fine linen" Ex. 25:4; Ex 26:1, Ex. 25:31, Ex. 25:36, etc. In Prov. 31:22 it is rendered in Authorized Version "silk," and in Revised Version "fine linen." The word denotes Egyptian linen of peculiar whiteness and fineness (byssus). The finest Indian linen, the finest now made, has in an inch one hundred threads of warp and eighty-four of woof; while the Egyptian had sometimes one hundred and forty in the warp and sixty-four in the woof. This was the usual dress of the Egyptian priest. Pharaoh arrayed Joseph in a dress of linen ( Gen. 41:42).

(5.) Heb. 'etun. Prov. 7:16, "fine linen of Egypt;" in Revised Version, "the yarn of Egypt."

(6.) Heb. sadin. Prov. 31:24, "fine linen;" in Revised Version, "linen garments" ( Judg. 14:12,Judg. 14:13; Isa. 3:23). From this Hebrew word is probably derived the Greek word sindon, rendered "linen" in Mark 14:51, Mark 14:52; Mark 15:46; Matt. 27:59.

The word "linen" is used as an emblem of moral purity ( Rev. 15:6). In Luke 16:19 it is mentioned as a mark of luxury.

Linen-yarn - (See YARN.)

Lines - were used for measuring and dividing land; and hence the word came to denote a portion or inheritance measured out; a possession ( Ps. 16:6).

Lintel - (1.) Heb. mashkoph, a projecting cover ( Ex. 12:22,Ex. 12:23; ver. 7, "upper door post," but R.V. "lintel"); the head-piece of a door, which the Israelites were commanded to mark with the blood of the paschal lamb.

(2.) Heb. kaphtar. Amos 9:1; Zeph. 2:14 (R.V. correctly "chapiters," as in A.V. marg.).