Consume - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

CONSUME

kon-sum' (akhal, kalah, tamam; analisko):

In Old Testament 'akhal ("to eat," "devour") occurs very frequently, and is translated "consumed" (Genesis 31:40; Exodus 15:7; Psalms 78:63, etc.); kalah ("to finish") is also frequently translated "consume," "consumed" (Genesis 41:30; Exodus 32:10; Psalms 59:13, etc.); tamam, "to be perfect," "finished" (Numbers 17:13; Deuteronomy 2:15; Psalms 73:19, etc.). There are many other words translated "consume" and "consumed," e.g. cuph, "to end" (Jeremiah 8:13; Zechariah 1:2,3); balah, "to fade," "wear away" (Job 13:28; Psalms 49:14); gazal, implying violence (Job 24:19); caphah, "to end" (Genesis 19:15,17; Isaiah 7:20, etc.); ashesh, "to be old" (Psalms 6:7; 31:9,10 the King James Version); maqaq, "to become completed" (Ezekiel 4:17; Zechariah 14:12 bis); `asah kalah is rendered "utterly consume" (Nehemiah 9:31); analisko, "to use up," occurs in Luke 9:54; Galatians 5:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:8 (the King James Version); dapanao, "to spend," is translated "consume" in James 4:3 (the Revised Version (British and American) "spend"); katanalisko, "to consume utterly," occurs only in Hebrews 12:29; "for our God is a consuming fire."

In the Revised Version (British and American) "devour," "devoured" are several times substituted for "consume," "consumed," e.g. Job 20:26; Jeremiah 49:27; Numbers 16:35; "boil well" (Ezekiel 24:10); for "be consumed with dying" (Numbers 17:13), "perish all of us"; "consume" is substituted for "corrupt" in Matthew 6:19; "my spirit is consumed," for "my breath is corrupt" (Job 17:1); instead of "the flame consumeth the chaff" (Isaiah 5:24) we have "as the dry grass sinketh down in the flame"; and for "whom the Lord shall consume" (2 Thessalonians 2:8), the Revised Version (British and American) reads (after a different text) "whom the Lord Jesus shall slay," "consume" in the American Revised Version, margin.

W. L. Walker

Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'CONSUME'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". 1915.