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; 25:12; 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; 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; 25:24,28,31,41; 2 Samuel 20:17; 1 Kings 1:13,17; 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; Psalms 86:16; 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

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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