We are moving on to Lamentations 2:1, where we are told that an angry Yahweh has hurled the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth. This is the same imagery of a falling star that was used to describe the king of Babylon, and is used to describe other kings in other places. It represents the idea that a person or persons have been brought low from their previous lofty heights.
Ezekiel uses the word heaven (shameh) to refer to the place where birds fly and the lights we see at night reside. When we get to Daniel, the word heaven changes to shamayin for the whole book. It still refers to both god's dwelling place and the physical space above the earth and is from the same root as shameh. The different word form may reflect change in word structure over the centuries. Daniel is one of the most recent of the Old Testament books.
In Daniel 2:28, Daniel tells King Nebuchadnezzar that there is a god in heaven who reveals mysteries. In verse 38, Daniel tells the king that the god in heaven has given him dominion and power and might and glory. (Sounds like flattery to me.) In verse 44, the god of heaven will set up a future kingdom that will never be destroyed. In chapter 4, the word shamayin refers to where the birds fly, and where treetops touch, and where dew comes from. In 4:13, a messenger, a holy one, comes down from heaven. In 4:31, a voice comes from heaven to speak to the king. At the end of chapter four Nebuchadnezzar praises the king of heaven.
It's interesting to note that while the KJV translates the words shameh or shamayin as heaven in most instances, the NIV switches up its translation. When the word occurs with birds, the NIV translates it as "air" or "sky." When the word is referring to very tall things, the KJV says they reach up to heaven. The NIV says they reach up to the sky. Still, it is all one and the same word. For the people of the Old Testament, it is clear they thought the heaven where god lived was in the sky.
In Daniel chapter 7, Daniel is having a dream. In verse 2, he talks of the "four great winds of heaven churning up the great sea." In verse 13, he sees "one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven." In Daniel 8:10, Daniel has a vision of a goat with a horn that grew till it reached the "hosts of heaven, and it threw some of the starry host down to earth and trampled on them. It set itself up to be as great as the prince of the host." Later in chapter 8, Daniel hears the angel Gabriel interpret this vision. Each piece of the vision represents an historical earthly happening. The starry host seem to represent "the mighty men and the holy people," probably Jews. I'm thinking the prince of the host must be either the high priest or an exiled Jewish royal. Daniel's visions are not meant to be taken literally, but are symbolic. They are supposedly prophetic, but all indications are that they were written long after the events depicted.
In Amos 9:6, Yahweh "builds his lofty palace in the heavens." In Zephaniah 1:5, Jews are still bowing "down on the roofs to worship the starry host." In Malachi 3:10, Yahweh says that if the Jews tithe properly, he will "throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that (they) will not have enough room for it." This is the foundation of prosperity gospel. I bet a priest thought of it. Guess who benefits most from tithes?
That concludes all the Old Testament references for heaven in Strong's concordance, but I realized yesterday there is a whole other section for the plural "heavens," and it is still the exact same root. So, I will look over that to see if there are any other passages that can enlighten us further on heaven.
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