“Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.” Jer. xiv. 2.
“Her Nazarites were purer than snow; they were whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than rubies; their polishing was of sapphire. Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets.” Lam. iv. 7, 8.
“For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire; nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest.” Heb. xii. 18.
“Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” Jude 13.
“For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God.” Jer. ii. 22.
“The show of their countenance doth witness against them.” Isa. iii. 9.
LESSON IV.
But experience proved that even this second degree of slavery was not a sufficient preventive of sin to preserve man upon the earth. “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man.” Gen. vi. 2, 3. The word translated “fair,” and applied to the daughters of men, is טֹבֹ֖תṭōbōt to voth; it is in the feminine plural, and comes from טָבṭāb tav, and cognate with the Syriac word [ܛܒܳܗܳ] tov or tob; it merely means good, excellent, as the quality may exist in the mind of the person taking cognisance.
It implies no quality of virtue or complexion, but in its use is reflective back to the nominative. It is one of those words which we find in all languages, of which rather a loose use is made. We find it in Dan. ii. 32, (the 31st of the English text,) “excellent;” also Ezra v. 17, “good.” When it is said of Sarah, in Gen. xii. 11, that she was “fair,” meaning that she was of a light complexion, the word יְפַהyĕpa yĕphath, is used, and is the same with our Japheth, the son of Noah, and comes from יָפַהyāpa yapha, and means to shine, to give light, and, as an adjective, well means lightness of complexion, fairness, and brilliancy of beauty. So in Esth. ii. 7, “and the maid was fair and beautiful,” יָפַהyĕpa yephath. 1 Sam. xvi. 12, “Now he was ruddy and of a fair countenance,” יְפַהyĕpa yepha. 1 Kings i. 4, “and the damsel was fair,” יָפָ֣הyāpâ yaphah.