One variety of wheat cultivated in Egypt of old, and still encountered there, has several ears per stalk. (Compare Genesis 41:22, 23.) The varieties of wheat that have been commonly cultivated in Palestine in more recent years, and likely also in Bible times, are bearded, that is, having coarse, prickly hairs on the husks of the kernels.

True to God’s promise, the Israelites found Palestine to be a land of wheat and barley. (Deut. 8:8; 32:14; Ps. 81:16; 147:14) Not only did they have enough for themselves but they also were able to export grain. (2 Chron. 2:8-10, 15) In Ezekiel’s time, commodities from Judah and Israel, including “wheat of Minnith,” were being traded in Tyre.—Ezek. 27:17.

Wheat was sown in Palestine about the same time as the barley, in the month of Bul (October-November), after the early fall rains had sufficiently softened the soil for plowing. (Isa. 28:24, 25) The wheat harvest followed the barley harvest (Ruth 2:23; compare Exodus 9:31, 32), and was closely associated with the Festival of Weeks or Pentecost in the month of Sivan (May-June), at which time two leavened loaves made of wheat flour were presented as a wave offering to Jehovah. (Ex. 34:22; Lev. 23:17) After the wheat was threshed, winnowed and sifted, it was often stored in underground pits, a practice perhaps alluded to at Jeremiah 41:8.

The Bible also makes illustrative reference to wheat. It is used to represent persons acceptable to Jehovah, “the sons of the kingdom.” (Matt. 3:12; 13:24-30, 37, 38; Luke 3:17) Both Jesus and the apostle Paul mentioned wheat in illustrating the resurrection. (John 12:24; 1 Cor. 15:35-38) And Jesus likened the test to come upon his disciples, as a result of the trials he was about to undergo, to the sifting of wheat.—Luke 22:31.

WHEEL

The exact historical origin of the wheel is not known. Anciently, wooden planks were pegged together, rounded and furnished with a felloe or rim to form the early wheel. The spoked type was used on chariots, wagons and other vehicles. (Ex. 14:25; Isa. 5:28; 28:27) The ten copper carriages that Solomon made for use at Jehovah’s temple each had a copper axle and four chariotlike copper wheels one and a half cubits high, with hubs, spokes and felloes.—1 Ki. 7:27-33.

The potter fashioned earthenware vessels on a revolving horizontal disk called a potter’s wheel. (Jer. 18:3, 4) Also, a bucket might be lowered and raised in a cistern by means of rope attached to some type of wheel or windlass.—Eccl. 12:6.

ILLUSTRATIVE AND FIGURATIVE USE

According to the Hebrew Masoretic text, Proverbs 20:26 reads: “A wise king is scattering wicked people, and he turns around upon them a wheel.” This seems to allude to an action of a king comparable to the use of the wheel in threshing grain. (Compare Isaiah 28:27, 28.) The metaphor appears to indicate that the wise king acts promptly in separating wicked persons from righteous ones and in punishing the wicked. Thereby evil is suppressed in his domain. (Compare Proverbs 20:8.) However, by a slight alteration, this verse says that a wise king turns around upon the wicked “their own hurtfulness.”

The uncontrolled tongue is a “fire” that “sets the wheel of natural life aflame.” The entire round of one’s life can be set aflame by the tongue, even as a very hot axle can set a wheel on fire.—Jas. 3:6.

By the river Chebar in the land of the Chaldeans during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile, Ezekiel envisioned Jehovah riding upon a swift-moving chariotlike celestial vehicle. Its four wheels had rims filled with eyes, and within each wheel was another wheel apparently at right angles, making it possible to go forward or to either side without changing the angle of the wheels. Beside each wheel was a cherub, the cherubic living creatures and wheels moving in unison as spirit-directed. (Ezek. 1:1-3, 15-21; 3:13) The following year, Ezekiel had a similar vision, this time before the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem and indicating that soon that city and the temple would be destroyed in execution of Jehovah’s judicial decision. (Ezek. 8:1-3; 10:1-19; 11:22) Some sixty years thereafter, Daniel envisioned the Ancient of Days, Jehovah, seated upon a heavenly wheeled throne. Both throne and wheels were aflame, suggesting the approach of fiery divine judgment upon world powers.—Dan. 7:1, 9, 10; Ps. 97:1-3.

WHIP

This instrument, usually a flexible cord or leather lash with a handle, has been used since ancient times to beat humans (2 Chron. 10:11, 14) and in driving and directing animals.—Prov. 26:3; Nah. 3:2.

King Rehoboam boasted that, whereas his father Solomon had chastised the Israelites with “whips”, he would do so with “scourges.” Though Rehoboam’s expression was figurative, the scourges alluded to may have been lashes equipped with sharp points, since the Hebrew word (ʽaq·rab·bimʹ) for “scourges” literally means “scorpions.”

Eliphaz the Temanite spoke of the “whip of a tongue.” (Job 4:1; 5:21) Apparently the allusion was to the use of the tongue to inflict injury, as in slandering and speaking abusively.—Compare Proverbs 12:18; James 3:5-10.

At Passover time of 30 C.E., “after making a whip of ropes, [Jesus] drove all those with the sheep and cattle out of the temple.” Indicating that Jesus used the whip only on the animals, not on the men with the sheep and cattle, is the fact that he evicted the sellers of doves verbally, not with the whip. Also, by driving out the cattle with the whip, he upset their business activity, and the men would naturally follow after their cattle, to round them up.—John 2:13-17.

WHITE

See COLORS.

WICKEDNESS

Anyone who does not conform to God’s standard of moral excellence is wicked, bad, evil or worthless. Like the Greek word po·ne·riʹa (Matt. 22:18; Mark 7:22; Luke 11:39; Acts 3:26; Rom. 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:8; Eph. 6:12), the adjective, noun and verb forms drawn from the Hebrew root ra·shaʽʹ designate that which is wicked. (Gen. 18:23; 2 Sam. 22:22; 2 Chron. 20:35; Job 34:8; Ps. 37:10; Isa. 26:10) Po·ne·rosʹ (related to po·ne·riʹa) often signifies that which is evil or wicked in a moral sense (Luke 6:45) and can apply to something that is bad or worthless in a physical sense, as when Jesus Christ spoke of “worthless fruit.” (Matt. 7:17, 18) This word can also describe something that is hurtful and, at Revelation 16:2, has been rendered “painful” (AT, TEV) and “malignant.”—NE, NW.

WHY WICKEDNESS PERMITTED

Satan the Devil, who caused the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, to rebel against God, stands in opposition to God’s righteous standard and is appropriately termed “the wicked one.” (Matt. 6:13; 13:19, 38; 1 John 2:13, 14; 5:19) The rebellion initiated by Satan called into question the rightfulness and righteousness of God’s sovereignty, that is, whether God’s rulership over his creatures is exercised righteously and in their best interests. The fact that Adam and Eve rebelled also raised another issue: Would all other intelligent creatures prove unfaithful and disloyal to God when obedience appeared to bring no material benefits? Satan’s claim respecting faithful Job implied that they would do so. Satan said: “Skin in behalf of skin, and everything that a man has he will give in behalf of his soul. For a change, thrust out your hand, please, and touch as far as his bone and his flesh and see whether he will not curse you to your very face.”—Job 2:4, 5.

Time was required to settle the issues that had been raised. Hence, Jehovah God, by permitting wicked persons to continue living, made it possible for others to share in proving Satan’s claim to be false by serving God faithfully under unfavorable and trialsome circumstances. God’s permission of wickedness has also provided an opportunity for individuals to abandon a wrong course and to subject themselves willingly to God’s righteous laws. (Isa. 55:7; Ezek. 33:11) So God’s holding back for a time from destroying the wicked serves to spare the righteously disposed ones by allowing time for them to prove their love and devotion to Jehovah.—Rom. 9:17-26.

Additionally, Jehovah God makes use of circumstances in such a way that the wicked themselves unwittingly serve his purpose. Though they oppose God, he is able to restrain them to the extent necessary to preserve his servants in their integrity, and to cause their actions to bring his righteousness to the fore. (Rom. 3:3-5, 23-26; 8:35-39; Ps. 76:10) This thought is expressed at Proverbs 16:4: “Everything Jehovah has made for his purpose, yes, even the wicked one for the evil day.”

A case in point is the Pharaoh on whom Jehovah, through Moses and Aaron, served notice for the release of the enslaved Israelites. God did not make this Egyptian ruler wicked, but he did allow him to continue living and also brought about circumstances that caused Pharaoh to manifest himself as being wicked and deserving of death. Jehovah’s purpose in doing this is revealed at Exodus 9:16: “For this cause I have kept you in existence, for the sake of showing you my power and in order to have my name declared in all the earth.”

The ten plagues visited upon Egypt, climaxed by the destruction of Pharaoh and his military forces in the Red Sea, were an impressive demonstration of Jehovah’s power. (Ex. 7:14–12:30; Ps. 78:43-51; 136:15) For years afterward the nations round about were still talking about it, and God’s name was thus being declared throughout the earth. (Josh. 2:10, 11; 1 Sam. 4:8) Had Jehovah killed Pharaoh immediately, this grand display of God’s power to His glory and for the deliverance of his people would not have been possible.

The Scriptures give assurance that the time will come when wickedness will no longer exist, as all who stand in opposition to the Creator will be destroyed when His permission of wickedness will have served its purpose.—2 Pet. 3:9-13; Rev. 18:20-24; 19:11–20:3, 7-10.

WIDOW

[Heb.,ʼal·ma·nahʹ, widow; Gr., kheʹra, widow (also, metaphorically, one bereaved)].

A woman who has lost her husband in death and has not remarried. Death of the husband severed the marriage bond, leaving the widow free to remarry if she chose to do so. (Ruth 1:8-13; Rom. 7:2, 3; 1 Cor. 7:8, 9) Under the patriarchal arrangement, and later under the Mosaic law, the brother of a man who had died childless was to take his brother’s widow as his wife and have a child by her, to carry on the line of her deceased husband.—Gen. 38:8; Deut. 25:5-10; Ruth 4:3-10; see BROTHER-IN-LAW MARRIAGE.

Upon the death of their mate, widows could return to the house of their father. (Gen. 38:11) In the Law, specific provision to this effect was made for the daughter of a priest who became widowed or was divorced. Since the priest received tithes for his household’s sustenance, the daughter could share in this provision. This assured that she would not face poverty, and thus avoided any reproach upon the priesthood. (Lev. 22:13) For those widows who had no such support or protection, provisions were made in God’s law for them to enjoy gleaner’s rights in the fields, olive groves and vineyards (Deut. 24:19-21), to participate in the bounteous celebration each year at festivals (Deut. 16:10-14) and, every third year, to share in the tithes that were contributed by the nation.—Deut. 14:28, 29; 26:12, 13.

CONCERN OF JEHOVAH AND JESUS CHRIST FOR WIDOWS

Jehovah spoke of himself as the One “executing judgment for the fatherless boy and the widow.” (Deut. 10:18) Strong injunctions are given in the Law as to the administration of full and equal justice to widows. (Ex. 22:22-24; Deut. 24:17) A curse was pronounced upon those perverting the judgment of widows (Deut. 27:19), and proper treatment of widows was urged in the writings of the prophets.—Isa. 1:17, 23; 10:1, 2; Jer. 22:3; Ezek. 22:7; Zech. 7:9, 10; Mal. 3:5.

Jesus displayed his concern for the welfare of the widows in Israel when he condemned the scribes as “the ones devouring the houses of the widows.”—Mark 12:38-40; Luke 20:46, 47.

CHRISTIAN ASSISTANCE TO WIDOWS

During the emergency that arose in the Christian congregation shortly after the day of Pentecost, 33 C.E., the Greek-speaking widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. When this was brought to the attention of the apostles they considered the matter so important that they appointed “seven certified men . . . full of spirit and wisdom” to supervise the distribution of food with equity.—Acts 6:1-6.

The apostle Paul, at 1 Timothy 5:3-16, gave complete instructions for the loving care of widows in the Christian congregation. The congregation was to care for destitute widows. But if the widow had children or grandchildren, they should assume the responsibility of providing for her needs, or, as Paul instructed, “if any believing woman has widows [that is, widows related to her], let her relieve them, and let the congregation not be under the burden. Then it can relieve those who are actually widows [that is, actually bereaved, without help].” A widow put on the list for material help by the congregation was one “who has become not less than sixty years old,” having a good record of morality, of faithful, loving devotion to Jehovah and of hospitality and love toward others. On the other hand, the apostle recommends that young widows remarry, bear children and manage a household, thereby avoiding the snare of sexual impulses and the danger of being “unoccupied, . . . gossipers and meddlers in other people’s affairs.”

Jesus’ half-brother James highlighted the importance of looking after orphans and widows in their tribulation when he set it parallel with keeping oneself without spot from the world, as a requisite for worship that is clean and undefiled from God’s stand-point.—Jas. 1:27.

Among the widows of notable faith are Tamar (Gen. 38:6, 7), Naomi and Ruth (Ruth 1:3-5), Abigail (1 Sam. 25:37, 38, 42), the widow of Zarephath (1 Ki. 17:8-24) and Anna the prophetess (Luke 2:36, 37; compare Luke’s description of Anna with the qualifications of a worthy widow as outlined by Paul at 1 Timothy 5:3-16 discussed in a foregoing paragraph). Also, an unnamed widow was highly commended by Jesus because she contributed all of what she had to the temple.—Mark 12:41-44.

FIGURATIVE USE

Cities, when cast off and desolated, are symbolically likened to widows. (Lam. 1:1; compare Jeremiah 51:5.) Babylon the Great, “the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth,” boasts, like her type, ancient Babylon, that she will never become