Bible Dictionary
Foam
Foam may describe froth on water or at the mouth. Scripture uses it figuratively for helplessness and shame, and literally of the boy who suffered convulsions from an unclean spirit.
Definition
Foam is froth formed on water or at the mouth. In one Old Testament passage, the word may instead mean twigs or chips, describing something helpless on the surface of water.
Biblical Usage
Hosea compares Samaria’s king to foam or chips on water, portraying helplessness before an irresistible current. In the New Testament, foaming illustrates the boy’s convulsions, while Jude compares false teachers to foaming waves displaying their shame.
Historical Background
Different Hebrew and Greek words underlie these uses. The word in Hosea is related to breaking into pieces or anger and is rendered “twigs” or “chips” in some versions.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(Hos. 10:7), the rendering of ketseph, which properly means twigs or splinters (as rendered in the LXX. and marg. R.V.). The expression in Hosea may therefore be read, “as a chip on the face of the water,” denoting the helplessness of the piece of wood as compared with the irresistable current.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>fom (qetseph (Ho 10:7); aphros (Lu 9:39), aphrizo (Mr 9:18,20), epaphrizo (Jude 1:13)):</p><p>Qetseph from qatsaph, "to break to pieces," or "to break forth into anger," "to be angry," occurs often in the sense of "wrath" or "anger" (e.g. Nu 1:53; Ps 38:1, etc.), and in this passage has been rendered "twigs" or "chips," "As for Samaria, her king is cut off, as foam (the Revised Version, margin "twigs") upon the water" (Ho 10:7). The other references are from the New Testament. In Jude, evil-doers or false teachers are compared to the "wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame." In Mark and Luke the references are to the boy with a dumb spirit who foamed at the mouth.</p><p>Alfred Ely Day</p>