- DUNGEON different from the ordinary prison in being more severe as a
place of punishment. Like the Roman inner prison (Acts 16:24), it
consisted of a deep cell or cistern (Jeremiah 38:6). To be shut up in, a
punishment common in Egypt (Genesis 39:20; 40:3; 41:10; 42:19). It is
not mentioned, however, in the law of Moses as a mode of punishment.
Under the later kings imprisonment was frequently used as a punishment
(2 Chron. 16:10; Jeremiah 20:2; 32:2; 33:1; 37:15), and it was customary
after the Exile (Matthew 11:2; Luke 3:20; Acts 5:18, 21; Matthew 18:30). - DUNG-GATE (Nehemiah 2:13), a gate of ancient Jerusalem, on the
south-west quarter. “The gate outside of which lay the piles of sweepings
and offscourings of the streets,” in the valley of Tophet. - DUNG-HILL to sit on a, was a sign of the deepest dejection (1 Samuel
2:8; Psalm 113:7; Lamentations 4:5). - DURA the circle, the plain near Babylon in which Nebuchadnezzar set up
a golden image, mentioned in Daniel 3:1. The place still retains its ancient
name. On one of its many mounds the pedestal of what must have been a
colossal statue has been found. It has been supposed to be that of the
golden image. - DUST Storms of sand and dust sometimes overtake Eastern travellers.
They are very dreadful, many perishing under them. Jehovah threatens to
bring on the land of Israel, as a punishment for forsaking him, a rain of
“powder and dust” (Deuteronomy 28:24).
To cast dust on the head was a sign of mourning (Joshua 7:6); and to sit in
dust, of extreme affliction (Isaiah 47:1). “Dust” is used to denote the grave
(Job 7:21). “To shake off the dust from one’s feet” against another is to
renounce all future intercourse with him (Matthew 10:14; Acts 13:51). To
“lick the dust” is a sign of abject submission (Psalm 72:9); and to throw
dust at one is a sign of abhorrence (2 Samuel 16:13; comp. Acts 22:23).
- DWARF a lean or emaciated person (Leviticus 21:20).
- DWELL Tents were in primitive times the common dwellings of men.
Houses were afterwards built, the walls of which were frequently of mud
(Job 24:16; Matthew 6:19, 20) or of sun-dried bricks.
God “dwells in light” (1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 1:7), in heaven (Psalm
123:1), in his church (Psalm 9:11; 1 John 4:12). Christ dwelt on earth in