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connotes “extending something outward and toward” something or someone.
So God told Moses: “… I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great
judgments” (Exod. 6:6). This is a figure of God’s active, sovereign, and mighty
involvement in the affairs of men. So this phrase means “to stretch out” something until it
reaches a goal. The verb can also mean “to stretch out toward” but not to touch or reach
anything. God told Moses to tell Aaron to take his staff in hand (cf. Exod. 9:23) and
“stretch it out.” This act was to be done as a sign. The pointed staff was a visible sign that
God’s power was directly related to God’s messengers: “… Take thy rod, and stretch out
thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their
ponds … ,” over all the water in Egypt (Exod. 7:19). God “stretched out” (offered) 3
things to David (1 Chron. 21:10); this is a related sense with the absence of anything
physical being “stretched out.”
This verb may connote “stretch out” but not toward anything. When a shadow
“stretches out,” it lengthens. Hezekiah remarked: “It is a light thing for the shadow to go
down ten degrees …” (2 Kings 20:10), to grow longer.
:
may be used in this sense
without an object and referring to a day. The Levite was asked to “comfort thine heart, I
pray thee. And they tarried until afternoon [literally, the “stretching” (of the day, or of the
shadows)] …” (Judg. 19:8). “To stretch out” one’s limbs full length is to recline: “And
they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar …” (Amos 2:8). This
is a figure of temple prostitution. This verb may also mean “to extend” in every direction.
It represents what one does in pitching a tent by unrolling the canvas (or skins sewn
together) and “stretching it out.” The end product is that the canvas is properly “spread
out.” Abram “pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east …” (Gen.
12:8—the first appearance of the word). This act and its result is used as a figure of
God’s creating the heavens: “… Which alone spreadeth out the heavens …” (Job 9:8).
This verb also implies “stretching down toward” so as to reach something. Earlier in
the Bible Rebekah was asked to “let down thy pitcher, … that I may drink” (Gen. 24:14);
she was asked to “stretch it down” into the water. This is the nuance when God is said to
have “inclined [stretched down] unto me, and heard my cry” (Ps. 40:1). Issachar is
described as a donkey which “bowed his shoulder to bear [burdens]” (Gen. 49:15). In
somewhat the same sense the heavens are bowed; the heavens are made to come closer to
the earth. This is a figure of the presence of thick clouds: “He bowed the heavens also,
and came down: and darkness was under his feet” (Ps. 18:9). The somewhat new element
here is that the heavens do not touch the speaker but only “stretch downward” toward
him.
This verb may mean “to turn aside” in the sense of “to visit”: “… Judah went down
from his brethren, and turned in to [visited] a certain Adullamite …” (Gen. 38:1).
Another special nuance appears in Num. 22:23, where it means “to go off the way”: “And
the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way … , and the ass turned aside out of
the way.…” Applied to human relationships, this may connote seduction: “With her
much fair speech she caused him to yield …” (Prov. 7:21).
B. Nouns.
(
6
, 4294), “rod; staff; tribe.” This noun occurs about 250 times. In Gen.
38:18 the word refers to a shepherd’s “staff”: “And he said, What pledge shall I give
thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand.” The