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•LEMUEL dedicated to God, a king whom his mother instructed (Proverbs 31:1-9). Nothing is certainly known concerning him. The rabbis identified him with Solomon.
•LENTILES (Hebrews ‘adashim), a species of vetch (Genesis 25:34; 2 Samuel 23:11), common in Syria under the name addas. The red pottage made by Jacob was of lentils (Genesis 25:29-34). They were among the provisions brought to David when he fled from Absalom (2 Samuel 17:28). It is the Ervum lens of Linnaeus, a leguminous plant which produces a fruit resembling a bean.
•LEOPARD (Hebrews namer, so called because spotted, Cant. 4:8), was that great spotted feline which anciently infested the mountains of Syria, more appropriately called a panther (Felis pardus). Its fierceness (Isaiah 11:6), its watching for its prey (Jeremiah 5:6), its swiftness (Habakkuk 1:8), and the spots of its skin (Jeremiah 13:23), are noticed. This word is used symbolically (Daniel 7:6; Revelation 13:2).
•LEPROSY (Hebrews tsara’ath, a “smiting,” a “stroke,” because the disease was regarded as a direct providential infliction). This name is from the Greek lepra, by which the Greek physicians designated the disease from its scaliness. We have the description of the disease, as well as the regulations connected with it, in Leviticus 13; 14; Numbers 12:10-15, etc. There were reckoned six different circumstances under which it might develop itself, (1) without any apparent cause (Leviticus 13:2-8); (2) its reappearance (9-17); (3) from an inflammation (18-28); (4) on the head or chin (29-37); (5) in white polished spots (38, 39); (6) at the back or in the front of the head (40-44).
Lepers were required to live outside the camp or city (Numbers 5:1-4; 12:10-15, etc.). This disease was regarded as an awful punishment from
the Lord (2 Kings 5:7; 2 Chronicles 26:20). (See MIRIAM; GEHAZI; UZZIAH.)