scientific classification is not strictly adhered to, and it is therefore unlikely that the ancient Hebrews differentiated between the true grasses and grasslike herbs.

Brought into existence during the third creative day (Gen. 1:11-13), the grasses have served as a direct as well as an indirect source of food for man and the animals. Also, along with other plants, they have played a significant role in purifying the air by taking in carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen. The extensive root system of grasses serves as a deterrent to soil érosion. Appropriately, grass is referred to as one of Jehovah’s provisions, as are also the sunlight and the rain that are so vital for grass to flourish.—Ps. 104:14; 147:8; Zech. 10:1; 2 Sam. 23:3, 4; Job 38:25-27; Matt. 5:45.

The Israelites were very familiar with the withering of grass under the sun’s intense heat during the dry season. So the transitoriness of man’s life is fittingly likened to that of grass and is contrasted with the everlastingness of Jehovah and that of his “word” or “saying.” (Ps. 90:4-6; 103:15-17; Isa. 40:6-8; 51:12; 1 Pet. 1:24, 25) Evildoers also are compared to grass that quickly withers. (Ps. 37:1, 2) The haters of Zion as well as people about to be subjugated by military conquest are likened to shallow-rooted grass growing on earthen roofs, grass that withers even before being pulled up or that is scorched in the wake of the E wind.—Ps. 129:5, 6; 2 Ki. 19:25, 26; Isa. 37:26, 27.

A restoration prophecy foretold that the bones of God’s servants would ‘sprout like tender grass,’ that is, be invigorated with fresh strength.—Isa. 66:14; compare Isaiah 58:9-11.

GRASSHOPPER

This translates the word hha·gavʹ, but there is uncertainty as to the insect or insects designated by this Hebrew term. It is considered to be derived from a root meaning “to hide, to cover over.” Hence, hha·gavʹ may denote a variety of flying locust whose vast swarms virtually hide the sun and cover the ground. Or, since the fully developed, winged stage of locust (Heb., ʼar·behʹ) is mentioned along with the hha·gavʹ at Leviticus 11:22 (as being clean for food), hha·gavʹ may refer to a leaper rather than a flier.

The English designation “grasshopper” is applied to any of numerous leaping insects of the families Acridiidae (including the migratory locusts and the grasshoppers having short feelers) and Locustidae (including the grasshoppers with long feelers).

Aside from its being listed as an insect clean for food and the allusion to its destructiveness to vegetation (2 Chron. 7:13), the grasshopper appears in an illustrative setting in Scripture. The unfaithful Israelite spies reported that in size they were as grasshoppers in comparison with the inhabitants of Canaan. (Num. 13:33) Men are as grasshoppers from Jehovah’s standpoint and in view of his greatness. (Isa. 40:22) In portraying the difficulties of old age, the congregator employed the figure of a grasshopper dragging itself along, perhaps thereby depicting the aged person as bent and stiff in figure, arms thrust somewhat backward.—Eccl. 12:5; see LOCUST.

GRAVE

The English word “grave” is generally understood as applying to an excavation in the earth for use as a place of burial, though it may also apply to any place of interment. Since a common method of burial among the Hebrews and other Oriental peoples was by use of a natural cave or a rock-cut tomb or vault, the word “grave” may easily convey an inaccurate idea to the mind of the Occidental reader of the Bible accounts. The broader, more general term “burial place” may, therefore, be a preferable translation for the Hebrew word qeʹver, the common word used to designate a place of interment, a grave or graveyard. (Gen. 23:7-9; Isa. 22:16) The related word q^evu·rahʹ similarly may refer to an earthen grave or to a tomb excavated in rock.—Gen. 35:20; Deut. 34:6.

In Greek the common word for grave is taʹphos (Matt. 28:1), related to the verb (thaʹpto), meaning “to bury.” (Matt. 8:21, 22) The words mneʹma (Luke 23:53) and mne·meiʹon (Luke 23:55) refer to a tomb or memorial tomb.

Since these Hebrew and Greek words refer to an individual burial place or grave site, they are often used in the plural as referring to many such graves. They are, therefore, distinct from the Hebrew sh^eʼohlʹ and its Greek equivalent haiʹdes, which refer to the common grave of all mankind or gravedom and hence are always used in the singular. For this reason many modern translations have not followed the practice of the Authorized Version, in which sh^eʼohlʹ and haiʹdes are alternately rendered by the words “hell,” “grave” and “pit,” but have instead simply transliterated them into English.—See HADES; SHEOL.

Nevertheless, since one’s entry into Sheol is represented as taking place through burial in an individual grave or at a burial site, words pertaining to such places of interment are used as parallel though not equivalent terms with Sheol. (Job 17:1, 13-16; 21:13, 32, 33; Ps. 88:3-12) The grave may also be represented by such figurative expressions as man’s “long-lasting house,” and, perhaps, “the land down below” (in contrast with “the land of those alive”), although these expressions may well refer to Sheol, which, standing for gravedom, is a term of greater magnitude and extent.—Compare Ecclesiastes 12:5-7 with Job 17:13; and Ezekiel 32:24, 25 with Ezekiel 32:21.

At Romans 3:13 the apostle Paul quotes Psalm 5:9, likening the throat of wicked and deceitful men to “an opened grave.” As an opened grave is to be filled with the dead and with corruption, their throat opens for speech that is deadly and corrupt.—Compare Matthew 15:18-20.

Although the grave is likened to a pit from which man rightly desires to be delivered, Job draws attention to the despair of those suffering persons who, lacking a clear hope or understanding of their Creator’s purposes, seek death and “exult because they find a burial place.” (Job 3:21, 22) Such attitude contrasts sharply with that of men who devoted their lives to their Creator’s service and confidently embraced the promise of a resurrection.—Ps. 16:9-11; Acts 24:15; Phil. 1:21-26; 2 Tim. 4:6-8; Heb. 11:17-19; see BURIAL, BURIAL PLACES.

GRAVEL

Small stones or pebbles. In the Scriptures, “gravel” is used in an illustrative sense. The injurious aftereffects of gaining bread by falsehood are compared to having one’s mouth filled with gravel. (Prov. 20:17) Also, the severe treatment Jehovah meted out to unfaithful Jerusalem by means of the Babylonians is likened to ‘breaking teeth with gravel.’ (Lam. 3:16) According to traditional Jewish thought, this was actually experienced by those taken into Babylonian exile. The tradition claims that they were forced to bake bread in pits dug in the ground and that, as a result, the bread contained grit.

GRAY-HEADEDNESS

Caused by the reduction of pigment granules in the hair due to changes in body chemistry. There are infrequent cases of premature graying, but usually it accompanies older age. It is in this latter association that the Hebrew verb siv (grow, be gray, old), and more frequently the Hebrew noun seh·vahʹ (gray-headedness, age), occur in the Bible. (Ruth 4:15; 1 Sam. 12:2; 1 Ki. 2:6, 9; Job 15:10; Ps. 71:18) Abraham, Gideon and David lived to “a good old age [seh·vahʹ].”—Gen. 15:15; 25:8; Judg. 8:32; 1 Chron. 29:28.

The Bible recognizes both the beauty of youth and the splendor of old age. “The beauty of young men is their power, and the splendor of old men is their gray-headedness.” (Prov. 20:29) Especially is the latter true if such ones are found worshiping and serving Jehovah. “Gray-headedness is a crown of beauty when it is found in the way of righteousness.” (Prov. 16:31) “Those who are planted in the house of Jehovah, . . . they will still keep on thriving during gray-headedness.” (Ps. 92:13, 14) They will not be abandoned by their God. (Isa. 46:4) Jehovah’s law is: “Before gray hair you should rise up, and you must show consideration for the person of an old man.”—Lev. 19:32.

Gray-headedness has nothing to do with the sex of individuals; neither is the natural color of the hair, whether blond, brunet or red, a factor. Graying has long been recognized as beyond the power of man or medical science to prevent or remedy. This is a point Jesus Christ made after he said we should not swear by our heads.—Matt. 5:36.

Hair dyes are not of modern discovery, for they were used by the Greeks and Romans. According to Josephus, it was reported that Herod the Great dyed his graying hair to hide his old age.—Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVI, chap. VIII, par. 1.

GREAT CROWD

An expression that, in itself, is quite common in the Christian Greek Scriptures. “Great crowd(s)” is sometimes used with regard to the large groups of persons who heard Jesus Christ’s public teaching. (Matt. 14:14; 19:2; 20:29) After the vision of the destruction of the symbolic Babylon the Great, the apostle John heard “what was as a loud voice of a great crowd in heaven.” (Rev. 19:1) At Revelation 7:9, however, a “great crowd” is mentioned whose identification has particularly been the subject of much discussion.

In this chapter, the apostle John first refers to the sealing of 144,000 slaves of God “out of every tribe of the sons of Israel.” (Rev. 7:2-8) After this, he saw in a vision a “great crowd” out of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues. These ascribe their salvation to God and to the Lamb as they stand before God’s throne. They have come out of “the great tribulation,” they serve God in his temple, and he spreads his tent over them. All their hunger and thirst are to be ended and every tear wiped from their eyes as his Son (the Lamb) (John 1:29) guides them to the waters of life.—Rev. 7:9-17.

POPULAR VIEWS

Various views have been advanced as to the significance and identification of this “great crowd.” Many commentators view the 144,000 sealed ones, first mentioned, as members of “spiritual Israel,” and believe that they symbolize the Christian congregation while on earth. They consider the “great crowd” as representing that same Christian congregation in heaven, after having died in faith and been resurrected. Others hold that the 144,000 are literally from “every tribe of the sons of Israel” (Rev. 7:4), that is, fleshly Jews who become Christians, and consider the “great crowd” to represent all the Gentile Christians. A consideration of Revelation chapter 7 and other related texts, however, reveals serious inconsistencies in these views, at the same time pointing to a more reasonable identification.

To hold that the 144,000 sealed ones are the members of the Christian congregation while on earth whereas the “great crowd” are the resurrected Christians in heaven does not harmonize with the other mention of the 144,000, in Revelation chapter 14. There the 144,000 are stationed with the Lamb on “Mount Zion.” At Hebrews 12:18-24 the apostle Paul contrasts the experience of the Israelites at the earthly Mount Sinai with that of the Christians who have “approached a Mount Zion and a city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and myriads of angels, in general assembly, and the congregation of the firstborn who have been enrolled in the heavens.” Obviously, then, Revelation 14:1 places the 144,000, not on earth, but in heaven with the heavenly Lamb, Christ Jesus. They have been “bought from the earth,” “bought from among mankind as a first fruits to God and to the Lamb.” (Rev. 14:3, 4) This renders invalid the view that the 144,000 represent the Christian congregation while on earth in contrast with them when they are in heaven.

Additionally, the way in which the apostle John introduces his vision of the “great crowd” indicates a clear distinction of identity between them and the 144,000 sealed ones. He states: “After these things [the account of the 144,000 sealed ones] I saw, and, look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number.” (Rev. 7:9) He thus presents the “great crowd” as a separate entity and makes a definite contrast between the specific number of the 144,000 and the unnumbered “great crowd.” They are also distinguished by their being, not “of the sons of Israel,” but out of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues. They are not seen standing ‘with the Lamb’ as are the 144,000, at Revelation 14:1, but are “before the Lamb.” These several factors all argue that the “great crowd” are intended to be understood as separate and distinct from the 144,000 sealed ones.

On the other hand, the view that here Christians of Jewish stock are being distinguished from Gentile Christians runs counter to the apostle Paul’s inspired statement that fleshly distinctions are of no consideration in the Christian congregation, its members being all one in union with Christ Jesus. (Rom. 10:12; Gal. 3:28) Jehovah, having ‘fully reconciled both peoples [Jews and non-Jews] to himself in one body’ through Christ, it is hardly to be expected that God would now make a division between the two groups by separating fleshly Jews from Gentiles in the vision given to John. (Eph. 2:11-21; Acts 15:7-9) This is particularly evident when the divine principle stated by Paul is taken into account. The apostle wrote: “He is not a Jew who is one on the outside, nor is circumcision that which is on the outside upon the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one on the inside, and his circumcision is that of the heart by spirit.” (Rom. 2:28, 29) Why, too, would there be no mention of any ‘sealing’ of the Gentile Christians in this divine vision? And why would not the Gentile Christians be able to master the new song sung by the 144,000? (Rev. 14:3) It thus seems clear that the 144,000 sealed ones are of spiritual Israel, not fleshly Israel—hence including both Jewish and Gentile Christians.—Gal. 6:16.

THEIR IDENTIFICATION

The key to the identification of the “great crowd” is found within the description of them in Revelation chapter 7, and in obviously parallel passages. Revelation 7:15-17 speaks of God as ‘spreading his tent over them,’ of their being guided to “fountains of waters of life,” and of God’s wiping “every tear from their eyes.” At Revelation 21:2-4 we find parallel expressions: ‘God’s tent being with mankind,’ his ‘wiping every tear from their eyes,’ and ‘death being no more.’ The vision there presented is not concerning persons in heaven, from whence the ‘New Jerusalem comes down,’ but on earth, among mankind.

This poses the question: If the “great crowd” are persons who gain salvation and remain on earth, how could they be said to be ‘standing before God’s throne and before the Lamb’? (Rev. 7:9) The position of ‘standing’ is sometimes used in the Bible to indicate the holding of a favored or approved position in the eyes of the one in whose presence the individual or group stands. (Ps. 1:5; 5:5; Prov. 22:29, AT; Luke 1:19) In fact, in the previous chapter of Revelation, the “kings of the earth and the top-ranking ones and the military commanders and the rich and the strong ones and every slave and every free person” are depicted as seeking to hide themselves “from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev. 6:15-17; compare Luke 21:36.) It thus appears that the “great crowd” is formed of those persons who have been preserved during that time of wrath and who have been able to ‘stand’ as approved by God and the Lamb.

The Lamb’s guiding them to “fountains of waters