to be strong enough to come out on top: strength that overpowers a rival, outlasts a threat, or hardens a face against shame
Hebrew has several verbs for being strong, and this one keeps its eye on the contest. When it turns up, some rival force is usually in view, and the question is which of the two will give way. In Judges the wording is almost a formula: a hand grows strong over someone, and that someone is beaten. Othniel's hand prevails over the king of Aram in Judges 3:10, and a few chapters later the hand of Midian prevails over Israel in Judges 6:2. The word is not about muscle in the abstract. It is about muscle that wins.
That competitive edge runs through the rest of its uses:
- God's hand is strong (Psalm 89:13) because nothing can push it aside.
- The springs of the deep are strong (Proverbs 8:28) because they surge until God sets them a limit.
- Wisdom is strong for the person who has it (Ecclesiastes 7:19), measured against ten rulers and coming out ahead.
- Even a rich man growing strong on the ruin he causes (Psalm 52:7) is described as winning, which is the bitter point of that psalm.
The surprising use is the face. To make a face strong, in Proverbs, is to set it hard so that shame cannot get through. The woman in Proverbs 7:13 does it to press her invitation past any objection; the wicked man in Proverbs 21:29 does it to bluff his way forward. English calls this a brazen or bold face, and the picture is the same: a face braced against anyone who might make it flinch.
The verb itself is rare, but its family is everywhere. The noun for strength (עֹז) built on the same three letters runs through the Psalms, and it is that noun, not the verb, that most readers have met.