HANDMAID

hand'-mad: Which appears often in the Old Testament, but seldom in the New Testament, like bondmaid, is used to translate two Hebrew words (shiphchah, and 'amah) both of which normally mean a female slave. It is used to translate the former word in the ordinary sense of female slave in Genesis 16:1; Genesis 25:12; Genesis 29:24, 29 Proverbs 30:23 Jeremiah 34:11, 16 Joel 2:29; to translate the latter word in Exodus 23:12 Judges 19:19 2 Samuel 6:20. It is used as a term of humility and respectful self-depreciation in the presence of great men, prophets and kings, to translate the former word in Ruth 2:13 1 Samuel 1:18; 1 Samuel 28:21; 2 Samuel 14:6 2 Kings 4:2, 16; it translates the latter word in the same sense in Ruth 3:9 1 Samuel 1:16; 1 Samuel 25:24, 28, 31, 41; 2 Samuel 20:17 1 Kings 1:13, 17; 1 Kings 3:20. It is also used to express a sense of religious humility in translating the latter word only, and appears in this sense in but three passages, 1 Samuel 1:11 Psalm 86:16; Psalm 116:16.

In the New Testament it occurs 3 t, in a religious sense, as the translation of doule, "a female slave" (Luke 1:38, 48 Acts 2:18), and twice (Galatians 4:22, 23) as the translation of paidiske, the King James Version "bondmaid."

William Joseph McGlothlin

SPIRIT, HOLY

See HOLY SPIRIT.