- Waters of chaos
- The seas conceived as monsters who challenged Yahweh's power and authority. Also see Chaos. See Chapter 1.
- Wilderness wanderings
- (also called the wilderness sojourn) The forty year period after the exodus from Egypt when the Israelites lived in the Sinai peninusla before they entered the Promised Land.
- Wisdom
- A comprehensive term used in reference to the distinctive wisdom literature and wisdom outlook of Israelite, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian cultures; suggests a perspective on understanding the world dominated by the use of reason, a search for order, and teaching moral behavior. See Chapter 14.
- Wisdom literature
- In the Hebrew Bible, those books of a predominantly didactic (Proverbs) or philosophical (Job, Ecclesiastes) cast; in the Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon belong to the didactic tradition of wisdom literature. See Part 3 Introduction, Part 3 Wisdom Literature.
- Writings
- The third main division of the Hebrew Bible, the ketuvim; it is the k of Tanak. See Part 3.
- Written torah
- (also called written law) See Oral torah. See Conclusion.