The meaning of Consume in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
kon-sum' (akhal, kalah, tamam; analisko): In Old Testament 'akhal ("to eat," "devour") occurs very frequently, and is translated "consumed" (Genesis 31:40; Exodus 15:7; Psalms 78:63, etc.); kalah ("to finish") is also frequently translated "consume," "consumed" (Genesis 41:30; Exodus 32:10; Psalms 59:13, etc.); tamam, "to be perfect," "finished" (Numbers 17:13; Deuteronomy 2:15; Psalms 73:19, etc.). There are many other words translated "consume" and "consumed," e.g. cuph, "to end" (Jeremiah 8:13; 1:44; Zephaniah 1:2-3); balah, "to fade," "wear away" (Job 13:28; Psalms 49:14); gazal, implying violence (Job 24:19); caphah, "to end" (Genesis 19:15, Genesis 19:17; Isaiah 7:20, etc.); ashesh, "to be old" (Psalms 6:7; Psalms 31:9-10 the King James Version); maqaq, "to become completed" (Ezekiel 4:17; Zechariah 14:12 bis); 'asah kalah is rendered "utterly consume" (Nehemiah 9:31); analisko, "to use up," occurs in Luke 9:54; Galatians 5:15; II Thessalonians 2:8 (the King James Version); dapanao, "to spend," is translated "consume" in James 4:3 (the Revised Version (British and American) "spend"); katanalisko, "to consume utterly," occurs only in Hebrews 12:29; "for our God is a consuming fire."
In the Revised Version (British and American) "devour," "devoured" are several times substituted for "consume," "consumed," e.g. Job 20:26; Jeremiah 49:27; Numbers 16:35; "boil well" (Ezekiel 24:10); for "be consumed with dying" (Numbers 17:13), "perish all of us"; "consume" is substituted for "corrupt" in Matthew 6:19; "my spirit is consumed," for "my breath is corrupt" (Job 17:1); instead of "the flame consumeth the chaff" (Isaiah 5:24) we have "as the dry grass sinketh down in the flame"; and for "whom the Lord shall consume" (II Thessalonians 2:8), the Revised Version (British and American) reads (after a different text) "whom the Lord Jesus shall slay," "consume" in the American Revised Version, margin.
W. L. Walker
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