Shamad.  Another Hebrew word which we must consider is shamad.  This

word is translated 'destroy', 66 times; 'be destroyed' 19 times; once only by

the following, 'destruction', 'be overthrown', 'perish', 'bring to nought',

'pluck down', and twice 'utterly'.  It will be seen that just as the word

abad was translated the greater number of times by the word 'perish', so

shamad is translated in the majority of cases (86 out of a possible 92

occurrences) by the word 'destroy'.  It occurs in Deuteronomy 9:3, and is the

result of a consuming fire.  Again in Deuteronomy 9:14 it is threatened

against Israel, and explained as being the words of God, 'Let Me alone, that

I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven'.  This

reference will show the awfulness of the word shamad.  It is this word which

comes first in the decree of the Jews' enemy, 'to destroy, to kill, and to

cause to perish' (Esther 3:13).

When the Lord spoke concerning Israel and its punishment, He said 'I

will destroy it from off the face of the earth: saving that I will not

utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord' (Amos 9:8).  Here the

Lord makes a provision, an exception, a clause which does not allow the

threatened destruction of the sinner.  Jacob used the word 'destroy' in

Genesis 34:30 to mean the effect of being killed (see for further reference

such passages as Lev. 26:30; Deut. 1:27 and Judges 21:16).  To destroy,

abolish, or demolish is the meaning of the word.  This is the fate of the

wicked, e.g.:

'The transgressors shall be destroyed together' (Psa. 37:38).

'When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of

iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever'

(Psa. 92:7).

'All the wicked will He destroy' (Psa. 145:20).

Again we submit that the cumulative witness of the use of these two

words confirms the Scriptural statement that 'the wages of sin is death', and

that the idea of eternal conscious suffering is as foreign to the meaning and

usage of shamad as it is to the meaning and usage of abad.

Tsamath.  There is another word which is translated

'to destroy', and that is the Hebrew word tsamath.  The following is a list

of the renderings in the A.V., with the number of occurrences: 'cut off' 8

times; 'consume' once; 'destroy' 5 times; 'vanish' once.

In Psalm 101:8 we read, 'Morning by morning will I destroy all the

wicked of the land' (R.V.).  The Psalm has for its theme, 'The coming King

and His rule'.  In that day sin will be summarily dealt with, even as we have

a foreshadowing of the kingdom in the judgment which fell upon Ananias and

Sapphira, as recorded in the Acts of the apostles.  The Scriptures enlarge

upon this meaning in no uncertain way in 2 Samuel 22:41,43:

'Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might

destroy them that hate me ... then did I beat them as small as the dust

of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did

spread them abroad'.

Karath.  We will now turn our attention to another Hebrew word, namely,

karath.  In its various forms it is translated in the A.V. 'cut off' 88

times; 'be cut off' 59 times; 'cut down' 19 times; and 'cut', 'destroy',

'hewn down' and 'perish'.  It is further rendered 'covenant' twice, and 'make

a covenant' 84 times.  Its primary meaning is 'to cut off' as a branch (Num.