Knee, Kneel
KNEE, KNEEL.The knees are often referred to in Scripture as the place where weakness of the body, from whatever cause, readily manifests itself: e.g. from terror (Job 4:4, Dan 5:8), or fasting (Psa 109:24). The reference in Deu 28:35 seems to be to joint leprosy, in which, after the toes and fingers, the joints of the larger limbs are attacked (Driver, Deut. in loc.). The laying of children on the knees of father or grandfather seems to have involved recognition of them as legitimate members of the family (Gen 30:8; Gen 50:23). In many passages of Scripture kneeling is spoken of as the attitude assumed in prayer (1Ki 8:54, Psa 95:8, Dan 6:10, Act 20:36 etc.). To bow the knee is equivalent to worship (1Ki 19:18, Isa 45:23, Rom 14:11 etc.). To fall upon the knees before a superior is an act at once of reverence and of entreaty (2Ki 1:13, Mat 17:14, Luk 5:8 etc.). In the court of an Eastern judge the writer has often seen men prostrate themselves, and then make their plea, resting upon their knees.
W. Ewing.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Knee, Kneel
ne, nel (knee, , berekh; Aramaic , ‘arekhubbah; , gonu; kneel; , barakh; Aramaic , berakh; , gonupeteo): Most of the uses are obvious, and the figurative use of knees as the symbol of strength (Job 4:4; Heb 12:12, etc.) needs no explanation. The disease of the knees mentioned in Deu 28:35 is perhaps some form of leprosy. In Job 3:12 the knees seem to be used for the lap, as the place where a child receives its first care. Three times in Gen the knees appear in connection with primitive adoption customs. In Job 30:3 a fiction is enacted that purports to represent Rachel as the actual mother of Bilhah’s children. By a somewhat similar rite in 48:12, Jacob (the knees here are Jacob’s, not Joseph’s) adopts Ephraim and Manasseh, so that they are counted as two of the twelve patriarchs and not as members of a single Joseph tribe. In the same way Machir’s children are adopted by Joseph in 50:23, and this is certainly connected with the counting of Machir (instead of Manasseh) as one of the tribes in Jdg 5:14. See TRIBES; and for the idea underlying this paternal adoption, compare THIGH. From among classical instances of the same customs compare Homer, Odyssey, xix. 401 ff, where Autolukos, grandfather of Ulysses, receives the newborn grandchild on his knees and gives him his name. Thus also we have to understand the numerous representations in Egyptian sculpture, showing the king as an infant on the knees or the lap of a goddess.
Kneeling was less commonly an attitude of prayer among the Jews than was standing, but references to kneeling are of course abundant. For kneeling (or prostrating one’s self) before a superior, see ATTITUDES, 2; SALUTATION.