owner was under obligation to deal righteously and fairly with him.—Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1.

The acceptance of Christianity by those in servitude placed upon them the responsibility of being better slaves, “not talking back, not committing theft, but exhibiting good fidelity.” (Titus 2:9, 10) Even if their masters were to treat them unjustly, this did not give them license to render inferior service. By suffering for righteousness’ sake, they imitated the example of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet. 2:18-25) “You slaves,” wrote the apostle Paul, “be obedient in everything to those who are your masters in a fleshly sense, not with acts of eye service, as men pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, with fear of Jehovah. Whatever you are doing, work at it whole-souled as to Jehovah, and not to men.” (Col. 3:22, 23; Eph. 6:5-8) Such fine conduct toward their masters prevented bringing reproach upon the name of God, as no one could blame Christianity for producing lazy, good-for-nothing slaves.—1 Tim. 6:1.

Of course, a slave’s “obedience in everything” could not include disobeying God’s law, as that would have meant fearing men rather than God. Wrongdoing by slaves, even when committed at the direction of a superior, would not have ‘adorned the teaching of their Savior, God,’ but would have misrepresented and disgraced this teaching. (Titus 2:10) Thus, their Christian conscience would govern.

In the Christian congregation all persons, regardless of their social status, enjoyed the same standing. All were anointed by the same spirit and thus shared in the same hope as members of one body. (1 Cor. 12:12, 13; Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11) While more limited in what he could do in spreading the good news, the Christian slave was not to worry about this. If granted the opportunity to gain freedom, however, he would take advantage of it and thereby enlarge his sphere of Christian activity.—1 Cor. 7:21-23.

ENSLAVEMENT TO SIN

At the time the first man Adam disobeyed God’s law he surrendered perfect control of himself and yielded to the selfish desire to continue sharing association with his sinful wife and pleasing her. Adam’s surrendering himself to his sinful desire made this desire and its end product, sin, his master. (Compare Romans 6:16; James 1:14, 15.) He thus sold himself under sin. As all his offspring were yet in his loins, Adam also sold them under sin. That is why the apostle Paul wrote: “I am fleshly, sold under sin.” (Rom. 7:14) For this reason there was no way for any of Adam’s descendants to make themselves righteous, not even by trying to keep the Mosaic law. As the apostle Paul put it: “The commandment which was to life, this I found to be to death.” (Rom. 7:10) The inability of humans to keep the Law perfectly showed that they were slaves to sin and deserving of death, not life.

Only by availing themselves of the deliverance made possible through Jesus Christ could individuals be emancipated or gain freedom from this enslavement. (Compare John 8:31-34; Romans 7:21-25; Galatians 4:1-7; Hebrews 2:14-16.) Having been bought with the precious blood of Jesus, Christians are slaves or servants of Jehovah God and of his Son, obligated to keep their commands.—1 Cor. 7:22, 23; 1 Pet. 1:18, 19; Rev. 19:1, 2, 5; see DEATH; FREEDMAN, FREEMAN; FREEDOM; RANSOM; SIN, I.

SLEDGE

See FARMING IMPLEMENTS.

SLEEP

A period of rest marked by the cessation of conscious activity is vital for the maintenance of human life and health. Being fully aware of the importance of rest, Jesus Christ was concerned about his disciples’ having time to rest up a bit. (Mark 6:31) Jesus’ example shows that, even in human perfection, rest and sleep are necessary.—Compare Mark 4:38; see PERFECTION.

Hard work (Eccl. 5:12), a clear conscience (compare Psalm 32:3-5) and freedom from undue anxiety as well as trust in Jehovah (Ps. 3:5; 4:8; Prov. 3:24-26) contribute much toward making an individual’s sleep pleasurable and refreshing. Content with life’s necessities (compare 1 Timothy 6:8), the servant of God does not have to spend long hours in arduous toil to the point of sacrificing necessary sleep and still deriving no real benefit from his work.—Compare Psalm 127:1, 2.

Of course, there are times when God’s servants experience sleepless nights. If not due to sickness or other adverse or trialsome circumstances, their sleeplessness may stem from concern for fellow believers and the advancement of true worship. (2 Cor. 6:3-5; 11:23, 27; compare Psalm 132:3-5, where the reference is, not to actual sleep, but to rest, cessation from activity.) However, they do not need to worry needlessly about material possessions and lose sleep as a result. (Eccl. 5:12; compare Matthew 6:25-34.) On the other hand, wrongdoing serves to make wicked persons content. “They do not sleep unless they do badness, and their sleep has been snatched away unless they cause someone to stumble.”—Prov. 4:16.

While sleep is important, a person should not become a lover of sleep. (Prov. 20:13) “Laziness causes a deep sleep to fall,” making an individual inactive when he should be accomplishing something. (Prov. 19:15) For one to prefer to sleep or to be inactive when he should be working is to choose a course that eventually leads to poverty.—Prov. 6:9-11; 10:5; 24:33, 34.

Unlike men, Jehovah God does not become drowsy and require sleep. His servants, therefore, can rest assured that he can at all times supply needed help. (Ps. 121:3, 4) Only when, for his own good reasons, he delays or refrains from taking action, as in the case of those professing to be his people but proving to be unfaithful, is Jehovah likened to one who is asleep.—Ps. 44:23; 78:65.

SPIRITUAL WAKEFULNESS

When encouraging Christians at Rome not to be asleep or inactive and insensible to their responsibilities, the apostle Paul wrote: “It is already the hour for you to awake from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than at the time when we became believers. The night is well along; the day has drawn near. Let us therefore put off the works belonging to darkness and let us put on the weapons of the light. As in the daytime let us walk decently, not in revelries and drunken bouts, not in illicit intercourse and loose conduct, not in strife and jealousy.” (Rom. 13:11-13; compare Ephesians 5:6-14; 1 Thessalonians 5:6-8; Revelation 16:15.) Those who engage in wrong practices or advance false teachings are asleep as to righteousness and need to wake up if they are to gain God’s approval.

DEATH IS LIKE SLEEP

There is evidence that people sleep in cycles. Each cycle is made up of a deep sleep followed by a lighter sleep. During periods of deep sleep it is very difficult to awaken a person. He is completely unaware of his surroundings and the things that may be occurring about him. There is no conscious activity. Similarly, the dead are “conscious of nothing at all.” (Eccl. 9:5, 10; Ps. 146:4) Therefore death, whether that of a man or of an animal, is like sleep. (Ps. 13:3; John 11:11-14; Acts 7:60; 1 Cor. 7:39; 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:13) The psalmist wrote: “From your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the charioteer and the horse have fallen fast asleep.” (Ps. 76:6; compare Isaiah 43:17.) Were it not for God’s purpose to awaken persons from the sleep of death, they would never wake up.—Compare Job 14:10-15; Jeremiah 51:39, 57; see RESURRECTION.

However, “death” and “sleep” may also be contrasted. Concerning, a dead girl, Christ Jesus said: “The little girl did not die, but she is sleeping.” (Matt. 9:24; Mark 5:39; Luke 8:52) As he was going to resurrect her from death, Jesus may have meant that the girl had not ceased forever to exist but would be as one awakened from her sleep. Also, this girl had not been buried, nor had her body had time to begin decaying, as had the body of Lazarus. (John 11:39, 43, 44) On the basis of the authority granted to him by his Father, Jesus could say this just as does his Father, “who makes the dead alive and calls the things that are not as though they were.”—Rom. 4:17; compare Matthew 22:32.

It should be noted that the term “asleep” is applied in the Scriptures to those dying because of the death passed on from Adam. Those suffering the “second death” are not spoken of as asleep. Rather, they are shown to be completely annihilated, out of existence, burned up as by an unquenchable fire.—Rev. 20:14, 15; compare Hebrews 10:26-31, where a contrast is made between those who died because of violating the Mosaic law and the much more severe punishment meted out to Christians who turn to a willful practice of sin; Heb. 6:4-8.

SLING

See ARMS, ARMOR.

SLINGER

In early times, slingers of stones formed an important part of a military force. The tribe of Benjamin had 700 picked men, every one of whom was “a slinger of stones to a hairbreadth and would not miss.” (Judg. 20:15, 16) The Targums say that the Cherethites and Pelethites among David’s warriors were adept slingers. Slingmen were an important part of King Uzziah’s military force in the ninth century B.C.E. (2 Chron. 26:13, 14) In the next century Sennacherib employed a corps of slingers in the Assyrian army, as monuments attest. The fighting forces of the Egyptians, Syrians, Persians, Sicilians and others also had similar divisions. In the Roman army slingers were among the auxilia rather than the Legion. (See ARMY [Roman].) As late as the first century C.E., Jewish slingers pitted their skill against Roman forces.—Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVII chap X, par. 2; Wars of the Jews, Book II, chap. XVII, par. 5; Book IV, chap. I, par. 3.

In ancient armies the slingers usually made up only one division of the foot soldiers. Archers, as a complement of the slingers, and spearmen in lesser numbers completed the infantry. When called forward to begin an engagement or to stall an enemy advance, the slingers passed from the rear of the ranks through corridors among the soldiers. At other times they fired from behind and over the heads of the spearmen. Slingers were especially effective fighters when attacking walled cities. Their missiles, hurled from the ground, could pick the enemy off the walls or reach targets inside the city. (2 Ki. 3:25) When siege engines and assault towers were developed, slingers took advantage of the elevated positions their platforms afforded.

An advantage of the slinger over the armor-clad swordsman or spearman was his effectiveness from a distance. It is claimed that their range of effectiveness was up to 400 feet (c. 122 meters) with stones, and even farther with lead pellets.

DAVID’S USE OF THE SLING

To become a skilled and experienced slinger required much time and training. Young shepherd boys attending and protecting flocks against beasts of prey developed the needed skill. The shepherd-boy David felt much better equipped with his sling than with the heavy armor of Saul. But he would doubtless have been unable to stand before Goliath without faith and the strength of Jehovah. The outcome of the fight depended, not on superiority of weapons or upon skill, but upon Jehovah, who supported David. As David called out to Goliath: “I am coming to you with the name of Jehovah of armies, . . . whom you have taunted. . . . And all this congregation will know that neither with sword nor with spear does Jehovah save, because to Jehovah belongs the battle.” It was a stone from David’s sling, no doubt guided and given unusual force by Jehovah, that sank into Goliath’s forehead, striking him down so that David could “definitely put him to death” by Goliath’s own sword.—1 Sam. 17:38-51.

SMOKE

[Heb. ʽa·shanʹ; Gr., ka·pnosʹ].

The visible soot-producing mixture of carbon particles and gases from burning organic materials; also vapor or a cloud resembling smoke. Aside from the mention of literal smoke in numerous instances, there are a number of figurative uses of the word, and there is figurative meaning to the appearance of smoke itself.

JEHOVAH’S PRESENCE, AND HIS ANGER

Jehovah has manifested his presence by a cloud of “smoke,” sometimes accompanied by fire. (Ex. 19:18; 20:18; Isa. 4:5) He symbolized his presence at the temple in Jerusalem at the time of its inauguration, and also at the visionary temples seen by Isaiah the prophet and by John the apostle.—1 Ki. 8:10-12; Isa. 6:1-6; Rev. 15:8; see CLOUD.

Smoke is also associated with Jehovah’s burning anger. (Deut. 29:20) On the other hand, those in Israel who had fallen away to the worship of false gods were said to be “a smoke” in God’s nostrils, signifying that they provoked his great anger.—Isa. 65:5.

A WARNING OR PORTENT

Smoke signals were used in warfare to communicate messages between cities or divisions of an army. (Judg. 20:38-40) It was also an evidence that something was being destroyed by fire, as, for example, smoke rising from a distant city. (Gen. 19:28; Josh. 8:20, 21) Or it could metaphorically refer to an army on its way to accomplish destruction, which often included the burning of conquered cities.—Isa. 14:31.

Consequently, a rising column or cloud of smoke came to be used symbolically as a token of warning, a portent of woe to come or of destruction. (Rev. 9:2-4; compare Joel 2:30, 31; Acts 2:19, 20; Revelation 9:17, 18.) The psalmist says of the wicked: “In smoke they must come to their end.” (Ps. 37:20) Smoke also symbolized the evidence of destruction. (Rev. 18:9, 18) Smoke that keeps ascending “to time indefinite” therefore is evidently an expression denoting complete and everlasting annihilation, as in Isaiah’s prophecy against Edom: “to time indefinite its smoke will keep ascending.” (Isa. 34:5, 10) Edom as a nation was wiped out and remains desolated to this day, and the evidence of this fact stands in the Bible account and in the records of secular history. Similarly, the everlasting destruction of Babylon the Great is foretold at Revelation 18:8, and a like judgment is entered against those who worship the “wild beast” and its image, at Revelation 14:9-11.

TRANSITORINESS

Just as smoke normally dissipates quickly and disappears, so it sometimes figuratively denotes that which is transitory. It is used with regard to: God’s enemies (Ps. 68:2), idol worshipers (Hos. 13:3) and the shortened life of the afflicted one.—Ps. 102:3.

OTHER FIGURATIVE USES

“As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so the lazy man is to those sending him forth,” says the proverb. Just as smoke causes the eyes to sting and smart, so the one who employs a lazy man does so to the injury of his own purposes.—Prov. 10:26.

The psalmist, waiting for Jehovah to comfort him, says: “I have become like a skin bottle in the smoke.” (Ps. 119:83) Skin bottles, such as used in the Middle East, hanging on the wall when not in use, became dried up and shriveled from the smoke of the house. So the psalmist had become at the hands of those persecuting him.

ILLUSTRATIVE USE

Jehovah, in describing his creations to Job, calls attention to Leviathan, saying: “Out of [its] nostrils smoke goes forth, like a furnace set aflame even with