Reprinted with permission from the November/December 2004 issue of Science and Spirit.

Many Hebrew idioms translated into the King James Bible have been welcomed into modern English, including:

"to fall flat on his face" (Numbers 22:31)

"the skin of my teeth" (Job 19:20)

"from time to time" (Ezekiel 4:10)

"sour grapes" (Ezekiel 18:2)

"under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:14 and at least twenty other occurrences)

"to lick the dust" (Psalm 72:9; Isaiah 49:23; Micah 7:17)

"a man after his own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14)

"to pour out one's heart" (Psalm 62:8; Lamentations 2:19)

"the land of the living" (Job 28:13; Psalm 27:13; Psalm 52:5; Isaiah 38:11; Jeremiah 11:19; Ezekiel 32:23-27)

"to stand in awe" (Psalm 4:4; Psalm 33:8)

"to put words in his mouth" (Exodus 4:15; Deuteronomy 18:18; 2 Samuel 14:3; 2 Samuel 14:19; Jeremiah 1:9)

"to go from strength to strength" (Psalm 84:7)

"like a lamb to the slaughter" (Isaiah 53:7)