The triumphant “daughter of Zion” is said to devote, by a ban, the unjust profit and the resources of the enemy peoples to “the true Lord of the whole earth.” (Mic. 4:13) It is foretold that Jerusalem, delivered from all her enemies, will be inhabited and that henceforth there will occur “no more any banning to destruction.”—Zech. 14:11; compare Revelation 22:3.

These scriptures all serve to emphasize the divine statement at Deuteronomy 7:9, 10: “And you well know that Jehovah your God is the true God, the faithful God, keeping covenant and loving-kindness in the case of those who love him and those who keep his commandments to a thousand generations, but repaying to his face the one who hates him by destroying him. He will not hesitate toward the one who hates him; he will repay him to his face.” God’s Son, who gave his life as a ransom, declared: “He that exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life; he that disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” (John 3:36) The cursed “goats” of the prophetic parable at Matthew 25:31-46 are clearly such persons upon whom the wrath of God remains and who are therefore devoted to everlasting destruction.

In the Septuagint the word hheʹrem is generally translated by the Greek a·naʹthe·ma.—See CURSE; Vow.

DEW

Small drops of water produced by the condensation of moisture in the air, of water vapor arising from the ground, and of moisture exuded by plants. The Hebrew word for “dew,” tal, has been defined as “sprinkled moisture” and also signifies “light rain.” (Prov. 3:20) Dew becomes silvery-white, icy hoarfrost when the lower air strata drop in temperature to 32° Fahrenheit. Jehovah is responsible for the dewdrops and is said to scatter the hoarfrost “just like ashes.”—Ps. 147:16; Job 38:28.

Dew forms when night air laden with water vapor cools, depositing the vapor on cooler objects in liquid form. It also develops when warm watery vapor rising from the ground comes in contact with the cooling air. The Bible explains that, early in earth’s history, before it rained on earth, “a mist [vapor] would go up from the earth and it watered the entire surface of the ground.” (Gen. 2:6; compare 1953 edition.) Dew is also produced by plants. In sunlight, moisture from vegetation evaporates into the air, and a plant continues to draw water that has been absorbed by its roots until a balance is obtained between the temperature at the tip of the leaves and that at the plant’s roots. The great amount of dew thus produced by some trees can often be heard dripping from them at night. Most morning dew seems to have this source. Job said, “My root is opened for the waters, and dew itself will stay overnight upon my bough.”—Job 29:19.

In Israel there is normally little if any rain from mid-April to mid-October. However, dew forms and waters the vegetation during these months. The Geography of the Bible says (p. 43): “The value of the dew, which is largely responsible for the growth of grapes during the summer drought, was well appreciated in Biblical times.” Isaiah refers to the “dew in the heat of [grape] harvest.” (Isa. 18:4, 5) After this came the autumn or ‘early’ rains. (Joel 2:23; Jas. 5:7) Night dews in certain areas are so heavy that trees and other plants thereby obtain more than enough moisture to compensate for loss through evaporation during the day. Hence, nocturnal dews may well account for a bountiful harvest where drought and starvation would otherwise prevail.

The importance of dew is emphasized by the discovery that when plants have wilted from dry heat they have recovered more rapidly when dew formed on their leaves at night than they did when the ground was watered. They absorbed so much dew that they functioned normally during the succeeding day without any watering of the ground. The amount of water absorbed from dew and later excreted through the roots into the soil for storage sometimes equaled the plant’s entire weight.

During Israel’s forty-year wilderness trek, the divinely provided manna regularly descended with the dew, remaining upon the earth after the dew’s evaporation. (Ex. 16:13-18; Num. 11:9) By two signs involving dew, Gideon obtained proof of divine support before going forth to fight the Midianites. First, he kept a fleece of wool exposed on a threshing floor overnight, the dew developing only on the fleece while the earth was dry. In the second test, matters were reversed. It is not revealed whether this was the rainless season when dew could be expected.—Judg. 6:36–7:1.

FIGURATIVE USE

Dew is Scripturally associated with blessing, fertility and abundance. (Gen. 27:28; Deut. 33:13, 28; Zech. 8:12) A return to Jehovah would result in blessing, God saying: “I shall become like the dew to Israel.” (Hos. 14:1, 5) Through Micah, God foretold that “the remaining ones of Jacob” would “become in the midst of many peoples like dew from Jehovah, like copious showers upon vegetation,” foretelling that the remnant of spiritual Jacob (Israel) would be a blessing from God to the people.—Mic. 5:7.

Conversely, lack or the withholding of dew is associated with a disfavored condition. (Gen. 27:39; Hag. 1:10) When God withheld dew and rain from the land of Israel in the days of King Ahab and Elijah, famine resulted.—1 Ki. 17:1; Luke 4:25.

Morning clouds and dew in Israel vanished rapidly in the sun’s heat. What little loving-kindness there was in Ephraim (Israel) and Judah had vanished similarly. (Hos. 6:4) And because of wrongdoing, the inhabitants of Ephraim (Israel) would be taken into captivity, becoming “like the dew that early goes away.”—Hos. 13:1-3, 16.

Dewdrops are quiet and numerous. Perhaps to denote stealthiness or a multitude as numerous as dewdrops, Hushai told Absalom: “We ourselves will be upon [David] just as the dew falls upon the ground.” (2 Sam. 17:12) Jehovah’s King has his “company of young men just like dewdrops,” perhaps as to number.—Ps. 110:3.

Dew is also gentle and refreshing. It is aptly applied to Moses’ farewell prophetic song. (Deut. 32:2) A king’s goodwill is likened to the refreshing effect of dew on vegetation. (Prov. 19:12) The loving unity prevailing among God’s people is refreshing “like the dew of Hermon that is descending upon the mountains of Zion.” Mount Hermon’s forest-covered and perpetually snow-streaked heights caused night vapors to arise that could be carried so far by cold air currents coming down over Hermon from the N that these vapors could condense upon Zion’s mountains many miles to the S.—Ps. 133:1-3.

DIADEM

See CROWN.

DIAMOND

A brilliant precious stone, the hardest natural mineral yet discovered and among the most valuable of gems. Although diamonds are generally colorless, some have such tints as yellow, green, red, brown, blue and black. Most uncut diamonds are eight-sided transparent or translucent crystals and are composed of nearly pure carbon. Diamonds are thought to have been formed long ago when the earth’s carbon was subjected to great pressure and heat. Early diamonds were found in stream beds, but in modern times they are usually mined from rock formations deep in the earth.

The Hebrew word sha·mirʹ (translated “diamond” twice, “emery stone” once in NW) denotes “a sharp point” and is sometimes applied to a thornbush or thorns. (Isa. 5:6; 32:13) Some suggest that sha·mirʹ may apply to a very hard mineral loosely identified by the general term “adamant” (from Greek a·daʹmas, meaning “unconquerable”), which may refer to diamond or to a number of very hard substances, such as corundum and emery.

The use of diamonds for scratching or engraving hard materials is applied by Jehovah, in saying: “The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus. With a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars.” (Jer. 17:1, 2) The house of Israel also became obstinate and hardhearted. Therefore, Jehovah said to Ezekiel: “Look! I have made your face exactly as hard as their faces and your forehead exactly as hard as their foreheads. Like a diamond, harder than flint, I have made your forehead.” (Ezek. 3:7-9) Similarly, because of the Jews’ stubbornness, Jehovah declared through Zechariah: “Their heart they set as an emery stone [Heb., sha·mirʹ] to keep from obeying the law and the words that Jehovah of armies sent by his spirit, by means of the former prophets.”—Zech. 7:12; see JEWELS AND PRECIOUS STONES.

DIBLAH

(Dibʹlah) [perhaps, cake of pressed figs].

A site mentioned by Ezekiel (6:14) when recording Jehovah’s prophecy of the desolation to come upon the land of Israel as recompense for its idolatrous worship. Any ancient location by this name is unknown, and most modern authorities, therefore, hold that “Diblah” is a copyist’s error for “Riblah,” the initial Hebrew letter for “R” (====) being easily mistaken for the Hebrew letter for “D” (====). If this is the case, it may be identified with the Biblical Riblah (modern Ribleh) at the Orontes River, “in the land of Hamath” (2 Ki. 23:33), and “the wilderness toward Diblah [Riblah]” could have reference to the gravelly unbroken plain of the Syrian Desert that lies to the S and SE of Riblah. Some translators, however, render Ezekiel’s words to read “from the wilderness to Riblah.” (RS) According to such rendering the meaning might be that Jehovah’s judgment would extend from “the wildeness,” Palestine’s traditional southern boundary (Ex. 23:31), to the region of “Hamath” (represented by Riblah) in the northernmost quarter of Palestine. (1 Ki. 8:65) Ezekiel’s use of such a phrase would then be the equivalent of the better known “from Dan down to Beer-sheba.”—Judg. 20:1; see RIBLAH.

DIBLAIM

(Dib·laʹim) [lump of figs, raisin cakes].

Parent of Hosea’s wife Gomer.—Hos. 1:2, 3.

DIBON

(Diʹbon).

1. A city E of the Dead Sea, wrested from the Moabites by Sihon the Amorite, but later taken from him by Israel at the time of the Israelite entry into the land under Moses.—Num. 21:25-30.

Ancient Dibon is today identified with Dhiban, just N of the Arnon River, thirteen miles (20.9 kilometers) E of the Dead Sea. It has been the site of recent intensive archaeological investigations and achieved some fame as the scene of the discovery of the famous Moabite Stone in 1868. Statements on this stele, set up by Mesha, the king of Moab, have been interpreted by some to identity Dibon as his capital city (called Qarhah) and as “the chief city of Moab” at one time.

Soon after the initial Israelite conquest of this area the tribe of Gad lived there and “proceeded to build [or, rebuild] Dibon,” apparently giving it the lengthened name of Dibon-gad, a location listed as one of the nation’s camping sites. (Num. 32:34; 33:45, 46) However, Dibon was considered as part of the inheritance of Reuben. (Num. 32:2, 3; Josh. 13:8, 9, 15-17) Dibon probably suffered under the revival of Moabite power during the reign of King Eglon, until it gained relief as a result of Judge Ehud’s victory. (Judg. 3:12-30) Mesha, king of Moab, revolted against Israelite domination many centuries later, “as soon as Ahab died” (c. 919-918 B.C.E.), according to the Bible account at 2 Kings 3:4, 5. The Bible does not say precisely how long this uprising lasted, and it is possible, as Mesha boasts on the Moabite Stone, that he managed to annex several Israelite cities to “Qarhah” at that time. Nevertheless, unlike Mesha’s propagandistic inscription, the Scriptural record makes it clear that Moab was soundly defeated when its forces entered into battle against the combined armies of Israel, Judah and Edom.—2 Ki. 3:4-27.

Less than two hundred years later Dibon was once more known as a Moabite city, and against it Isaiah (15:2) uttered a pronouncement of doom. The inhabitants of the region are therefore spoken of prophetically as going “up to The House and to Dibon, to the high places,” mourning the desolation of Moab.

Certain scholars have theorized that Isaiah alluded to the threatening Assyrian menace as causing the “weeping” at the “high places” near Dibon; however, there is no record of an Assyrian devastation of that region. When Jehovah’s servant Jeremiah prophesied about a hundred years later that Dibon would “get down from glory, and sit down in thirst” (Jer. 48:18), Isaiah’s earlier prophecy had apparently not yet been fulfilled. Therefore the later prophet was evidently presenting anew a similar message and thereby making the prediction of doom on Moab doubly certain. Sometime after the fall of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., when Nebuchadnezzar thoroughly devastated Moab, he may have left Dibon’s citizens, not only ‘thirsting’ for the luxuries of its previous glory, but also forsaken as humbled captives, literally thirsting for water and other common necessities.—Jer. 25:9, 17-21.

The finding of large stores of remarkably preserved grain at Dibon, which grain is considered to date back to sometime in the latter half of the first millennium B.C.E., seems to confirm the view of some that the Dibon region, even today an agriculturally productive area, may have at one time been a “breadbasket” of Palestine.

Some commentators consider Dibon to be the same as Dimon mentioned in Isaiah 15:9; a discussion of the arguments for and against this view are found in the article DIMON.

2. A location in Judah (Neh. 11:25), thought by some to be the same as Dimonah.—Josh. 15:22; see DIMONAH.

DIBON-GAD

See DIBON No. 1.

DIBRI

(Dibʹri) [wordy].

An Israelite of the tribe of Dan whose daughter Shelomith married an Egyptian. Shortly after the exodus from Egypt the son of this union was stoned to death for abusing Jehovah’s name.—Lev. 24:10-16, 23.

DIDRACHMA

A Greek silver coin having the value of two drachmas or 28 1/5c according to modern values. The Jews paid a yearly temple tax of two drachmas or a didrachma.—Matt. 17:24, NW, 1950 ed., ftn.

DIʹGAMMA

[====] .

A letter appearing in the ancient Greek alphabet but which went out of general use at an early period. It was retained, however, as a numeral denoting the number 6. The name diʹgam·ma given the letter is due to its resemblance to two capital gamʹma letters on top of each other (====). Some suggest that it corresponded to the Hebrew waw (====) and had the sound of “v” or “w.” In the Greek manuscript that John wrote, the number 666 as found at Revelation 13:18 may have been represented by the three Greek letters: Khi (==== =six hundred), Xi (==== =sixty) and Diʹgam·ma (==== = six).

DIKLAH

(Dikʹlah) [perhaps date tree, palm].

A descendant of Shem through Joktan (Gen. 10:21, 26, 27; 1 Chron. 1:17, 20, 21) Some geographers believe his tribe settled in S Arabia, perhaps occupying part of present-day Yemen. This, however, cannot be determined with any certainty.