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TO PILL. Pill, as a verb, means to peel or strip off the skin or rind of anything.
"And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree and pilled
white strakes in them" (Gen. 30: 37, 38) means `peeled white streaks in them'.
POLL. The basic meaning of this words is the human head. "To take a poll" is to
count heads. "Every male by their polls" means "every male head by head".
As a verb it means to cut the hair. Hence Absalom "polled his head" (II Sam. 14: 26)
or cut it once a year.
POMMEL. This refers to the bowl-like ornament at the top of a pillar (see
I Kings 7: 41, 42).
PORTER. In the Bible a porter is not used in the sense of a luggage porter, but means
a gate-keeper or door-keeper. In I Chron. 16: 42 we are told that `the sons of Jeduthun
were porters', but the margin reads `for the gate'.
POST. The word is used eight times in the sense of running or a runner.
II Chron. 30: 6, 10 reads: "So the posts went with the letters of the king and his
princes". "So the posts passed from city to city . . . . .". These were royal messengers
which were used in the king's service.
PRESENTLY is used in the A.V. meaning immediately, at once, not later on. The
withering of the fig tree after the Lord's pronouncement was immediately not presently in
the modern sense (Matt. 21: 19). In Matt. 26: 53 the Lord asserts that the Father
could presently (A.V.) give Him more than twelve legions of angels, but of course He
meant immediately on asking. This would have avoided Calvary and all that God had
planned for redemption, so this request was never made, for which we can praise the
Lord.
PREVENT. This word is used 17 times in the Scriptures and always in the obsolete
sense of go before, anticipate or precede. "Prevent" comes from the Latin prae before
and venire to come. In Psa. 119: 147 the writer says "I prevented the dawning of the
morning" which is mystifying to the modern English reader for, in no way whatsoever
could he have stopped day and night. What he meant was that he anticipated the dawning
of the morning, by rising before dawn for meditation in the Word of God. In verse 148
the psalmist says "Mine eyes prevent the night watches", that is, "My eyes are awake
before the watches of the night".
The well known reference in I Thess. 4: 15, "we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep", means shall not precede or
get before them which are asleep.