Perpetual

Perpetual - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

PERPET'UAL, a. [L. perpetuus, from perpes, perpetis; per and pes, from a root signifying to pass.]

1. Never ceasing; continuing forever in future time; destined to be eternal; as a perpetual covenant; a perpetual statute.

[Literally true with respect to the decrees of the Supreme Being.]

2. Continuing or continued without intermission; uninterrupted; as a perpetual stream; the perpetual action of the heart and arteries.

3. Permanent; fixed; not temporary; as a perpetual law or edict; perpetual love or amity, perpetual incense. Exo 30.

4. Everlasting; endless.

Destructions are come to a perpetual end. Psa 9.

5. During the legal dispensation. Exo 29.

Perpetual curacy, is where all the tithes are appropriated and no vicarage is endowed.

Perpetual motion, motion that generates a power of continuing itself forever or indefinitely, by means of mechanism or some application of the force of gravity; not yet discovered,and probably impossible.

Perpetual screw, a screw that acts against the teeth of a wheel and continues its action without end.

Perpetually - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

PERPET'UALLY, adv. Constantly; continually; applied to things which proceed without intermission, or which occur frequently or at intervals, without limitation. A perennial spring flows perpetually; the weather varies perpetually.

The Bible and common prayer book in the vulgar tongue, being perpetually read in churches, have proved a kind of standard for language.

per-pet'-u-al, per-pet'-u-al-i, pur-pe-tu'-i-ti (`olam, netsach, [~tamidh):

Perpetual is usually the translation of `olam, properly, "a wrapping up" or "hiding," used often of time indefinitely long, and of eternity when applied to God; hence, we have, "for perpetual generations" (Ge 9:12); "the priesthood by a perpetual statute" (Ex 29:9; compare Ex 31:16; Le 3:17; 24:9, etc.); "placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it" (Jer 5:22, the Revised Version margin "an everlasting ordinance which it cannot pass"); "sleep a perpetual sleep" (Jer 51:39,57); "Moab shall be .... a perpetual desolation" (Ze 2:9), etc.; netsach, "preeminence," "perpetuity," "eternity" (often translated "for ever," Ps 9:6), is translated "perpetual" (Ps 74:3; Jer 15:18); natsach (participle) (Jer 8:5); tamidh, "continuance," generally rendered "continually," but sometimes "perpetual" or "perpetually" (Ex 30:8; Le 6:20).

"Perpetually" is the rendering of `adh, properly "progress," "duration," hence, long or indefinite time, eternity (usually in the King James Version rendered "for ever "), in Am 1:11, "His anger did tear perpetually"; and of kol ha-yamim, "all the days" (1Ki 9:3; 2Ch 7:16, "my heart shall be there perpetually"; compare Mt 28:20, pasas tas hemeras, literally, "all the days").

Perpetuity occurs in the Revised Version (British and American) of Le 25:23,30, "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity," "The house .... shall be made sure in perpetuity."

Perpetual is frequent in the Apocrypha, most often as the translation of aionios and kindred words, e.g. Judith 13:20, "a perpetual praise"; The Wisdom of Solomon 10:14, "perpetual glory," the Revised Version (British and American) "eternal"; Ecclesiasticus 11:33, "a perpetual blot," the Revised Version (British and American) "blame for ever"; 1 Macc 6:44, "a perpetual name," the Revised Version (British and American) "everlasting"; aenaos, "ever-flowing," occurs in The Wisdom of Solomon 11:6 (so the Revised Version); endeleches, "constant" (Ecclesiasticus 41:6, "perpetual reproach").

For "perpetual" (Jer 50:5; Hab 3:6) the Revised Version has "everlasting"; for "the old hatred" (Eze 25:15), "perpetual enmity"; for "perpetual desolation" (Jer 25:12) "desolate forever," margin "Hebrew `everlasting desolations.'"

W. L. Walker