upon this moost light meet,’ Tind. ‘oure soules
120 LIGHT, LIGHTNESS
LIGHTNING
lothe this lyghte bred,’ Matt. [Rog.] ‘oure soules lothe thys pit breade’ with marg. ‘ that is so litle worth,’ RVm ‘this vile bread’); Jg 9%
‘Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which | , | ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς, RV ‘strike upon them’).
followed him’ (0195) opr Οὐ; LXX ἄνδρας κενοὺς καὶ δειλούς [A θαμβουμένους] ; yale ‘viros inopes et vagos,’ Wye. ‘nedi men and vagaunt’; Cov. ‘men that were vagabundes and of light condicions’ ; Gen. ‘vaine and light fellowes,’ so RV); Zeph 3* ‘Her prophets are light and treacherous persons’ (923 ὌΝ ΟἿΠῚΒ; Cov. ‘light personnes and unfaith- full men’). In Sir 755 the meaning is more definite and more disgraceful, ‘ Hast thou a wife after thy mind? forsake her not: but give not thyself over to a light woman,’ i.e. ‘wanton’: the Gr. is μισου- μένῃ, AVm and RV ‘hateful,’ RVm ‘hated’: ‘light’ here is peculiar to AV, earlier VSS having ‘ hate- ful,’ and is rather a paraphrase than a translation. For its meaning cf. Shaks. Meas. v. i. 280, ‘Women are light at midnight.’ Shaks. often uses the word in a double sense, as Merch. of Ven. Π. vi. 42, ‘A light wife doth make a heavy husband.’
Lightminded occurs in Sir 19) ‘ He that is hasty to give credit is lightminded’ (κοῦφος καρδίᾳ ; Vulg. ‘levis corde est,’ whence Erasmus, Of the Commune Crede, fol. 32, ‘And a certayne wise man of the Hebrues doth name those persones leves corde, lyghte mynded whiche doo easilye and soon geve credence’).
The ady. lightly is used in AV with the various meanings of theadj. (1) Quickly or easily: Gn 26" ‘one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife’ (ον, EXk μικροῦ, Gen. ‘had almost lien’) ; Is 91 ‘at the first he lightly afflicted the land. . . and afterward did more grievously afflict her’ (22, RV ‘he brought into contempt’); Jer 4331 beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly’ (9pban3, RV ‘ moved to and fro,’ RVm as AV); Mk 939 ‘for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me’ (ταχύ, Vulg. ‘ cito,’ Wye. ‘soone,’ Tind. ‘lightlyge,’ RV ‘ quickly’). Cf. Tind. Expos. p. 61, ‘there is none so great an ron to thee in this world, but thou shalt lightly love him, if thou look well on the love that God showed thee in Christ’; Rhem. NT on Jn 4” ‘ Afterward the said Schismatikes (which is lightly the end of al Schismes) revolted quite from the Jewes religion, and dedicated their temple in Garizim to lupiter Olympius, as Calvin’s supper and his bread and wine is like at length to come to the sacrifice of Ceres and Bacchus’; and Malory, Morte @Arthur, iii. 336, ‘But now goe againe lightly, for thy long tarying putteth me in jeopardie of my life.’ (2) Poorly, worthlessly, always with ‘esteem,’ Dt 32", 1 S 2% 18%.
Lightness is frivolity, passing into wantonness. Jer 3° ‘And it came to pass, through the lightness of her whoredom, that the land was polluted’; 23% ‘that... cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness’ (RV ‘vain boasting’); 2 Co 1” ‘did I use lightness?’ (ἐλαφρία, RV “ fickle- ness’), cf. Jer 2° Cov. ‘What unfaithfulnesse founde youre fathers in me, that they wente so farre awaye fro me, fallinge to lightnesse, and being so vayne?’
The verb to lighten means either (1) to make light, unburden, 1 S 6° ‘peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you’; Jon 15, Ac 2718. 88 spoken of ships; or (2) to give light, enlighten, as
zx 95 ‘that our God may lighten our eyes’; Ps 13° ‘lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,’ Bar 1?‘ And the Lord will give us strength, and lighten our eyes’ (¢wrice). Cf. Is 35° Cov. ‘Then shal the eyes of the blinde be lightned’; Bunyan, Holy Warre, p. 116, ‘Emmanuel also ex- pounded unto them some of those Riddles himself ;
ut, oh! how they were lightened !’
The phrase to light on or upon means alwaya to come down upon, to hit upon: Gn 28", Dt 19°, Ru 2%, 28 1713, 2 Καὶ 105, Mt 3818, Rev 716 ‘neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat’ (πέσ Cf. Mt 10: Tind. ‘ Are not two sparrowes solde for a farthinge ? And none of them dothe lyght on the grounde with out youre father.’ J. HASTINGS.
LIGHTNING is a well-known phenomenon accom-
anying thunderstorms. It consists of brief, vivid Panes which are caused by electric discharges passing from one cloud to another, or from a cloud to the earth. In the latter case great damage is usually produced at the point where the dist harge strikes the earth. Trees and houses are often shattered, holes made in the ground, and life in the vicinity destroyed.
In EV of OT ‘lightning’ is usually the render- ing of p23; but as this word sometimes refers to the physical phenomenon and sometimes to other appearances resembling it, it is not always literally translated. LXX usually renders it by ἀστραπή, but in Nah 3° ἐξαστράπτειν is used, in Ezk 21)" στίλβωσις, in Ezk 21% στίλβειν, in Job 20% ἄστρον (a doubtful reading—dorpa, A ἄνδρα), and in Job 38% κεραυνός. In AV pa is rendered ‘glitter’ or ‘ slittering’ Dt 32%, Job 20%, Ezk 9110. 8. Nah 3°, Hab 3", and ‘bright’ Ezk 21. The only places in RV where 793 is not translated ‘lightning’ are Dt 32" (‘elittering’ sword), Job 20” (‘ glittering’ point), Nah 3°, Hab 34 (‘ glittering’ spear). ‘The verb p22 occurs once with te cognate noun Ps 144°.