Meaning
Lover luv'-er ('ohebh, 'ahebh): In the Old Testament 'ohebh, from 'ahebh, "to love," is sometimes "lover" in the sense of "friend," in the older English sense of the word (1Ki 5:1, "Hiram was ever a lover of David"; Psa 38:11, Psa 88:18, Lam 1:2); more frequently it has the meaning of "lover" in the special sense, sometimes in the evil sense of the word (Jer 22:20, Jer 22:22, Jer 30:14, Eze 16:33, Eze 16:36 f, etc.; Hos 2:5, Hos 2:7, Hos 2:10, etc.); `aghabh, "to love" (Jer 4:30), rea`, "companion" (Jer 3:1), and ahabhim, "loves" (Ho 8:9), are also translated "lovers" in this sense.
In the New Testament the simple word "lover" does not occur, but we have various compound words, philotheos "lover of God" (2Ti 3:4); philagathos, "lover of good," and philoxenos, "lover of hospitality" (Tit 1:8); philautos, "lover of self" (2Ti 3:2); philedonos, "lover of pleasure" (2Ti 3:4).
In the Revised Version (British and American) we have, for "a lover of hospitality" (Tit 1:8), "given to"; for "covetous" (Luk 16:14, 2Ti 3:2), "lovers of money"; for "not covetous" (1Ti 3:3), "no lover of money"; for "despisers of them that are good" (2Ti 3:3), "no lovers of good."
W. L. Walker
