Bible dictionaries
Increase
What Bible dictionaries say about “Increase”, one article after the other.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
Increase - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)
INCRE'ASE, v.i. [L. incresco; in and cresco, to grow.]
1. To become greater in bulk or quantity; to grow; to augment; as plants. Hence, to become more in number; to advance in value, or in any quality good or bad. Animal and vegetable bodies increase by natural growth; wealth increases by industry; heat increases, as the sun advances towards the meridian; a multitude increases by accession of numbers; knowledge increases with age and study; passion and enmity increase by irritation, and misery increases with vice.
The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another. 1 Th 3.
2. To become more violent; as, the fever increases; the pain increases; cold, wind or a storm increases.
3. To become more bright or vivid; as, the light increases.
4. To swell; to rise.
The waters increased and bore up the ark. Gen 7.
5. To swell; to become louder, as sound.
6. To become of more esteem and authority.
He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3.
7. To enlarge, as the enlightened part of the moon's disk.
INCRE'ASE, v.t. To augment or make greater in bulk, quantity or amount; as, to increase wealth or treasure; to increase a sum or value.
1. To advance in quality; to add to any quality or affection; as, to increase the strength of moral habits; to increase love, zeal or passion.
2. To extend; to lengthen; as, to increase distance.
3. To extend; to spread;as, to increase fame or renown.
4. To aggravate; as, to increase guilt or trespass.
INCRE'ASE, n. Augmentation; a growing larger; extension.
Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end. Isa 9.
1. Increment; profit; interest; that which is added to the original stock.
Take thou no interest of him or increase; but fear thy God. Lev 25.
2. Produce, as of land.
Then shall the earth yield her increase. Psa 67.
3. Progeny; issue; offspring.
All the increase of thy house shall die in the flower of their age. 1 Sam 2.
4. Generation.
5. The waxing of the moon; the augmentation of the luminous part of the moon, presented to the inhabitants of the earth.
Seeds, hair, nails, hedges and herbs will grow soonest,if set or cut in the increase of the moon.
6. Augmentation of strength or violence; as increase of heat, love or other passion; increase of force.
7. Augmentation of degree; as increase of happiness or misery.
Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)
The article in Easton + Webster 1828International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)
in'-kres, (noun), in-kres' (verb): Employed in the English Bible both as verb and as noun, and in both cases to represent a number of different words in the original. As a verb it is used in the ordinary sense of the term. As a noun it is usually used of plant life, or of the herds and flocks, to denote the fruitage or the offspring; more rarely of money, to denote the interest. As examples of the different terms translated by this word, students who read Hebrew or Greek may compare De 7:22; Pr 16:21; Job 10:16 the King James Version; Job 12:23; Nu 18:30; De 7:13; Eze 22:12 in the Old Testament, and Joh 3:30; 1Co 3:6; Col 2:19; Eph 4:16 in the New Testament.
Russell Benjamin Miller
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2
The article in ISBE 1915