Beam
Beam the rendering in the Auth. Vers. of the following words: אֶרֶג, e'reg, a web, Jg 16:14; shuttle," Job 2:6; מָנוֹר, manor', a yoke, hence a weaver's frame, or its principal beam, 1Sa 17:7; 2Sa 21:19; 1Ch 11:23; 1Ch 20:5; גֵּב, geb, a board, 1Ki 6:9; כָּפִיס, kaphis', a cross-beam or girder (Sept. κάνθαρος), Hab 2:11; צֵלָע, tsela', a rib, hence a joint, 1Ki 7:3; "board," 6:15,16; "plank," 6:15; קוּרָה, kurah', a cross-piece or rafter, 2Ki 6:2,5; 2Ch 3:7; Song 1:17; עָב, ab, a projecting step, or architectural ornament like a moulding, answering for a threshold, 1Ki 7:6; "thick plank," Eze 41:25; כּרֻתוֹת, keruthoth', hewed sticks of timber. 1Ki 6:36; 1Ki 7:2,12; קָרָה (in Piel), to fit beams, hence to frame, Ne 3:3,6; Ps 104:3; of no Hebrews word (being supplied in italics) in 1Ki 6:6; δοκός, a stick of wood for building purposes, Mt 7:3-5; Lu 6:41-42. In these last passages, Lightfoot shows that the expressions of our Lord were a common proverb among the Jews, having reference to the greater sins of one prone to censure the small faults of another. The "mote, κάρφος, may be understood as any very small dry particle, which, by lodging in the eye, causes distress and pain, and is here given as the emblem of lesser faults in opposition to a beam for the greater, as also in the parallel proverb, "Strain [out] a gnat and swallow a camel" (Mt 23:24).
