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•SITTING the attitude generally assumed in Palestine by those who were engaged in any kind of work. “The carpenter saws, planes, and hews with his hand-adze, sitting on the ground or upon the plank he is planning. The washerwoman sits by the tub; and, in a word, no one stands when it is possible to sit. Shopkeepers always sit, and Levi sitting at the receipt of custom (Matthew 9:9) is the exact way to state the case.”, Thomson, Land and Book.
•SIVAN a Persian word (Assyr, sivanu, “bricks”), used after the Captivity as the name of the third month of the Jewish year, extending from the new moon in June to the new moon in July (Esther 8:9).
•SLAVE Jeremiah 2:14 (A.V.), but not there found in the original. In Revelation 18:13 the word “slaves” is the rendering of a Greek word meaning “bodies.” The Hebrew and Greek words for slave are usually rendered simply “servant,” “bondman,” or “bondservant.” Slavery as it existed under the Mosaic law has no modern parallel. That law did not originate but only regulated the already existing custom of slavery (Exodus 21:20, 21, 26, 27; Leviticus 25:44-46; Joshua 9:6-27). The gospel in its spirit and genius is hostile to slavery in every form, which under its influence is gradually disappearing from among men.
•SLIME (Genesis 11:3; LXX., “asphalt;” R.V. marg., “bitumen”). The vale of Siddim was full of slime pits (14:10). Jochebed daubed the “ark of bulrushes” with slime (Exodus 2:3). (See PITCH.)
•SLING With a sling and a stone David smote the Philistine giant (1 Samuel 17:40, 49). There were 700 Benjamites who were so skilled in its use that with the left hand they “could sling stones at a hair breadth, and not miss” (Judges 20:16; 1 Chronicles 12:2). It was used by the Israelites in war (2 Kings 3:25). (See ARMS.)