the best things available in life
—Bill’s dream is to become a famous actor, move to Hollywood, and live off the fat of the land.

After Joseph arrived in Egypt as a slave, he was sold to an officer of the pharaoh, the Egyptian king. The officer’s wife tried to seduce him, but when Joseph refused her, she accused him of being the seducer. Joseph was put in prison and stayed there until the pharaoh heard about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams. After Joseph told him the meaning of his dream, the pharaoh set him free and made him second in command of Egypt. Later, there was a famine in Canaan, and Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to buy food. Joseph forgave his brothers for what they had done to him and invited his family to come live in Egypt. When the pharaoh heard this, he was glad and told Joseph,

Say to your brothers, “Do this: Load your animals and go to the land of Canaan! Get your father and your households and come to me! Then I will give you the best land in Egypt and you will eat the best of the land [fat of the land—KJV].” (Genesis 45:17,18)

Here, fat of the land means “the best the land has to offer.”

a multi-colored coat or similar garment or covering; something that makes others envious
—My favorite time of year is spring, when the flowers bloom and my mother’s garden is clothed in a coat of many colors.

God changed Jacob’s name to Israel and blessed him with 12 sons. Of these sons, Joseph was Israel’s favorite, and he showed this by giving Joseph a special gift:

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was a son born to him late in life, and he made a special tunic for him [a coat of many colours—KJV]. When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated Joseph and were not able to speak to him kindly. (Genesis 37:3,4)

Over time, the brothers’ anger toward Joseph increased, until one day they sold him to some merchants who took him as a slave to Egypt. When the brothers went back to their father, they told him that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal, convincing Israel of this by showing him Joseph’s coat, which they had dipped in the blood of a goat.

said to show affection or thankfulness; said in response to someone who has sneezed
—After his third sneeze, I stopped saying, “Bless you,” and just gave him a tissue.

Just as he had promised, God gave Abraham and Sarah a son in their old age. After this son, Isaac, grew up, he married Rebecca and she gave birth to twin baby boys. When the two boys were born, the younger one was holding on to the heel of his brother. Therefore, he was given the name Jacob, meaning “one who grabs the heel,” which can further mean “supplanter” or “deceiver.”

As a grown man, Jacob tricked Esau to get a blessing from his father. As part of the blessing, Isaac told Jacob to travel to the land of his grandfather to find a wife, saying,

May the sovereign God bless you [God almighty bless thee—KJV]! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! Then you will become a large nation. May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham so that you may possess the land God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident. (Genesis 28:3,4)

Today, people often say “Bless you” after hearing someone sneeze. While this is a common custom, it’s origins are unclear. Following are some possible explanations.

Some say that, in the past, people believed that sneezing could expel a person’s spirit. Saying “Bless you” prevented the spirit from being snatched by Satan before it could return. Others say that the phrase comes from an old belief that sneezing was the body’s way of ridding itself of an evil spirit. Saying “Bless you” therefore kept the spirit from returning. Still others say that in times past people believed that when a person sneezed, his heart stopped. Saying “Bless you” encouraged the heart to start again. Still another theory is that during a plague, a sneeze was seen as a symptom of the disease, so a response of “Bless you” was asking God to heal the sick person.

Now, for most people, this phrase is simply a polite response, with no actual meaning behind it.

Even thought the name Jacob has a strange meaning, according to the US Social Security Administration, it was the most popular name chosen for baby boys in the US during the first decade of the 2000s. In fact, of the top-ten boys’ names for that time period, eight come from the Bible (Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, Daniel, Andrew, Ethan, and Joseph), while three out of the top-ten girls’ names are biblical in origin (Hannah, Abigail, and Elizabeth).

Go to the appendix for a list of over 150 biblical names, along with their meanings and backgrounds, that are often used in the US.

a place of evil, crime, or immorality
—According to my mother’s thinking, my move from the countryside to the big city was going from Eden to Sodom and Gomorrah.

In Canaan, Abraham and Lot, his nephew, decided to separate to give each more room for his livestock and possessions. Lot moved east, toward the city of Sodom, even though it was known as a wicked place. The Lord, accompanied by two angels, appeared to Abraham and told him that his wife, Sarah, would have a son, even though she was past the age to have children.

He also told Abraham about his plans to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness. When the angels visited Lot in Sodom, the men of the city surrounded his home and threatened Lot and his guests. In the end, the angels helped Lot and his wife and two daughters escape, as God destroyed the city with burning sulfur from the sky.

Sodomy is the name given to certain sexual acts by those who consider those acts unnatural or illegal.

a place of happiness; a longed-for goal that is reached by hard work and patience
—The team believes that their new coach will be able to take them to the promised land of the championship game.

God chose Abraham to be the father of the Hebrew people, later called Israelites, or Jews. God told him to leave his homeland and travel to a place that he promised to give to his descendants. So Abraham, with his wife, Sarah, and his nephew, Lot, went to this “Promised Land,” called Canaan. In the New Testament book of Hebrews, Abraham and Sarah are remembered as people of great faith:

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, and he went out without understanding where he was going. By faith he lived as a foreigner in the promised land [land of promise—KJV] as though it were a foreign country. . . . By faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and he was too old, he received the ability to procreate, because he regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy. So in fact children were fathered by one man – and this one as good as dead—like the number of stars in the sky and like the innumerable grains of sand on the seashore. (Hebrews 11:8,9,11,12)

Abraham believed that God would make him the father of a great nation, even though he and Sarah were childless and well past the age for having children. Also in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul writes about Abraham:

Against hope Abraham believed in hope [against hope believed in hope—KJV] with the result that he became the father of many nations according to the pronouncement, “so will your descendants be.” (Romans 4:18)

Today, hope against hope means “to have faith in a good outcome even though it doesn’t seem likely.”

something extremely large and powerful
—It’s going to take a leviathan-sized tax increase to pay for the behemoth that the city is planning to build as its new stadium.

As Job cried out because of his suffering, God finally answered him. God didn’t explain the reason for Job’s troubles but instead said that Job didn’t have the right to question him. God gave examples of his power and wisdom in creation to show how much greater he was than Job. For example, he talked about the behemoth:

Look now at Behemoth, which I made as I made you;
it eats grass like the ox.
Look at its strength in its loins,
and its power in the muscles of its belly.
It makes its tail stiff like a cedar,
the sinews of its thighs are tightly wound.
Its bones are tubes of bronze,
its limbs like bars of iron. (Job 40:15-18)

Later, God asked Job,

Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook,
and tie down its tongue with a rope? (Job 41:1)

When it rises up, the mighty are terrified,
at its thrashing about they withdraw.
Whoever strikes it with a sword
will have no effect,
nor with the spear, arrow, or dart.
It regards iron as straw
and bronze as rotten wood. (Job 41:25-27)

Though it is not clear exactly what creatures the behemoth and leviathan are here, some translators believe the behemoth to be a hippopotamus or water buffalo and the leviathan to be a crocodile.

After God’s answer, Job responded with humility and submitted to God’s will. Then God stopped Job’s trials and blessed him more than he had before the testing.

alive; awake; in good condition
—After he spent two weeks in the hospital, it was good to see Mark back in the land of the living.

As Job looked for answers to his problems, he talked about how hard it is to gain wisdom, saying that no one on earth (in the land of the living) knows where to find it. God, he declares, is the only one who is truly wise.

“But wisdom – where can it be found?
Where is the place of understanding?
Mankind does not know its place;
it cannot be found in the land of the living. (Job 28:12, 13)

just barely
—Because Tom left work late, he caught the last bus only by the skin of his teeth.

Job lost everything he had and was so near death he said,

My bones stick to my skin and my flesh;
I have escaped alive with only the skin of my teeth. (Job 19:20)

The skin of one’s teeth originally referred to the gums surrounding the teeth. While this certainly is not much skin, many people think of the modern skin of one’s teeth as meaning “the skin on the teeth,” which is no skin at all. The more common usage of the phrase (using by rather than with), shifts the meaning more towards escaping harm by the smallest of margins.

Later, Job responded to the men who thought they knew the cause of his suffering, calling that cause “the root of the matter.” He warned them to be careful about God’s judgment in their own lives:

If you say, “How we will pursue him,
since the root of the trouble [root of the matter—KJV] is found in him!”
Fear the sword yourselves,
for wrath brings the punishment by the sword,
so that you may know
that there is judgment.” (Job 19:28,29)

Today, root of the matter means “the main part or cause of something.”

being able to withstand extreme suffering without complaining
—How can you stand in line for so long and still be smiling? You must have the patience of Job.

Like Noah, Job was called a “blameless” man. But Satan told God that Job was good only because he enjoyed God’s blessings. Remove your protection and Job will curse you, Satan told God. God allowed Satan to test Job with many disasters, and even though Job did complain, he refused to turn away from God and renounce him:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be blessed!” In all this Job did not sin, nor did he charge God with moral impropriety. (Job 1:21,22)

While the Book of Job is in the Old Testament, the phrase patience of Job comes from the King James translation of the New Testament, where James writes about the example of Job:

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name. Think of how we regard as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance [the patience of Job—KJV] and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. (James 5:10,11)

During Job’s trials, some of his friends came to talk to him, but instead of giving him comfort, they tried to convince him that God was punishing him for some sin. Therefore, such people, whose words actually do more harm than good, are called “Job’s comforters.” When Job defended himself, one of the friends argued with him, saying,

Were you the first man ever born?
Were you brought forth before the hills?
Do you listen in on God’s secret council?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
What do you know that we don’t know?
What do you understand that we don’t understand? (Job 15:7-9)

This is probably where we get the phrase as old as the hills, meaning, of course, “very old.” Another phrase with the same meaning is as old as Methuselah. In Genesis, the genealogy from Adam to Noah lists many people who lived to great ages, but Methuselah’s life was the longest:

The entire lifetime of Methuselah was 969 years, and then he died. (Genesis 5:27)

a confused mixture of voices, noises, ideas, etc.; a place of noise and confusion ; a place where many languages are spoken
—I could not understand anything in the babel of voices at the market.

After the flood, God again told the people to “be fruitful and multiply” and to “fill the earth.” But as the world’s population once more grew, all the people spoke the same language and wanted to stay in one area. They said to each other,

Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth. (Genesis 11:4)

God was not happy with their pride and disobedience. He said,

“If as one people all sharing a common language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. Come, let’s go down and confuse their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.”

So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why its name was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth. (Genesis 11:6-9)

The city name Babel is similar to the Hebrew word for confused.