Change

Change - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

CHANGE, v.t.

1. To cause to turn or pass from one state to another; to alter, or make different; to vary in external form, or in essence; as, to change the color or shape of a thing; to change the countenance; to change the heart or life.

2. To put one thing in the place of another; to shift; as, to change the clothes

Be clean and change your garments. Gen 35.

3. To quit one thing or state for another; followed by for; as, persons educated in a particular religion do not readily change it for another.

4. To give and take reciprocally; as, will you change conditions with me?

5. To barter; to exchange goods; as, to change a coach for a chariot.

6. To quit, as one place for another; as, to change lodgings.

7. To give one kind of money for another; to alter the form or kind of money, by receiving the value in a different kind, as to change bank notes for silver; or to give pieces of a larger denomination for an equivalent in pieces of smaller denomination, as to change an eagle for dollars, or a sovereign for sixpences, or to change a dollar into cents; or on the other hand, to change dollars for or into eagles, giving money of smaller denomination for larger.

8. To become acid or tainted; to turn from a natural state of sweetness and purity; as, the wine is changed; thunder and lightning are said to change milk.

To change a horse, or to change hand, is to turn or bear the horses head from one hand to the other, from the left to the right, or from the right to the left.

CHANGE, v.i.

1. To be altered; to undergo variation; as, men sometimes change for the better, often for the worse.

I am Jehovah; I change not. Mal 3.

2. To pass the sun, as the moon in its orbit; as, the moon will change the 14th of this month.

CHANGE, n.

1. Any variation or alteration in form, state, quality, or essence; or a passing from one state or form to another; as a change of countenance; a change of habits or principles.

2. A succession of one thing in the place of another; vicissitude; as a change of seasons; a change of objects on a journey; a change of scenes.

3. A revolution; as a change of government.

4. A passing by the sun, and the beginning of a new monthly revolution; as a change of the moon.

5. A different state by removal; novelty; variety.

Our fathers did, for change, to France repair.

6. Alteration in the order of ringing bells; variety of sounds.

Four bells admit twenty-four changes in ringing.

7. That which makes a variety, or may be substituted for another.

Thirty changes of raiment. Judg 14.

8. Small coins of money, which may be given for larger pieces.

9. The balance of money paid beyond the price of goods purchased.

I give the clerk a bank note for his cloth, and he gave me the change.

10. The dissolution of the body; death.

All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Job 14.

11. Change for exchange, a place where merchants and others meet to transact business; a building appropriated for mercantile transactions.

12. In arithmetic, permutation; variation of numbers. Thirteen numbers admit of 6,227, 020, 800 changes, or different positions.

chanj: A word which seeks to express the many shades of meaning contained in 13 variations of 9 Hebrew words and 5 Greek. These signify, in turn, "to change" "to exchange," "to turn," "to put or place," "to make other" i.e. "alter," "to disguise oneself." chalaph, and its derivatives, occuring often, indicates "to pass away," hence, alter, renew, e.g.:

(1) "changes of raiment" (Ge 45:22; Jud 14:12,13,19);

(2) "changed my wages ten times" (Ge 31:7,41);

(3) heavens changed "as a vesture" (Ps 102:26);

(4) "changes and warfare" (Job 10:17), i.e. relays of soldiers as illustrated in 1Ki 5:14 (the Revised Version, margin "host after host is against me");

(5) "till my change come" (the Revised Version (British and American) "release"), i.e. death (Job 14:14);

(6) "changed the ordinances" (the American Standard Revised Version "violated the statutes"), i.e. disregarded law (Isa 24:5);

(7) change of mind (Hab 1:11 the King James Version). Used also of change of character, haphakh:

(1) of leprosy, "changed unto white" (Le 13:16);

(2) figuratively of the moral life, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" (Jer 13:23); so also mur, and derivatives, "changed their gods" and "their glory," etc. (Ps 106:20; Jer 2:11; Ho 4:7).

Other words used to indicate change of name (2Ki 24:17); of day and night (Job 17:12); of times and seasons (Da 2:21); of countenance. (Da 7:28); of behavior (1Sa 21:13); God's unchangeableness, "I, Yahweh, change not" (Mal 3:6).

In the New Testament the word has to do chiefly with spiritual realities:

(1) metatithemi, of the necessary change of the priesthood and law under Christ (Heb 7:12);

(2) allatto, of His changing the customs of Moses (Ac 6:14);

(3) of moral change, e.g. debasement (Ro 1:23,25,26);

(4) of bodily change at the resurrection (1Co 15:51,52; metaschematizo, Php 3:21 the King James Version);

(5) metaballo, of change of mind in presence of a miracle (Ac 28:6);

(6) of the change to come over the heavens at the great day of the Lord (Heb 1:12; compare 2Pe 3:10,12).

Figurative uses indicated separately in the course of the article.

Dwight M. Pratt