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nor finding thine own pleasure …” (Isa. 58:13). Cf. Gen. 24:21: “And the man wondering
at her held his peace, to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not”
(cf. Deut. 28:29).
In another emphasis this word connotes how and what one does, a “manner, custom,
behavior, mode of life”: “Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in
unto us after the manner of all the earth” (Gen. 19:31). In 1 Kings 2:4
is applied to
an activity that controls one, one’s life-style: “If thy children take heed to their way, to
walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee
… a man on the throne of Israel.” In 1 Kings 16:26
is used of Jeroboam’s attitude:
“For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he
made Israel to sin.…” Deeds, or specific acts, may be connoted by this noun: “Lo, these
are parts of his ways; but how little a portion is heard of him? But the thunder of his
power who can understand?” (Job 26:14).
4
refers to a “condition” in the sense of what has happened to someone. This is
clear by the parallelism of Isa. 40:27: “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel,
My way is hid from the Lord, and [the justice due to me is passed away] from my God?”
In one passage
signifies the overall course and fixed path of one’s life, or his
“destiny”: “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that
walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23).
Finally, this word sometimes seems to bear the meaning of its Ugaritic cognate,
“power” or “rulership”: “Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed
against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways [
NASB
“favors”] to the strangers
under every green tree …” (Jer. 3:13; cf. Job 26:14; 36:23; 40:19; Ps. 67:2; 110:7;
119:37; 138:5; Prov. 8:22; 19:16; 31:3; Hos. 10:13; Amos 8:14). Some scholars,
however, contest this explanation of these passages.
(
, 734), “way; path; course; conduct; manner.” Cognates of this word
appear in Akkadian, Arabic, and Aramaic. Its 57 occurrences in biblical Hebrew are all in
poetry except Gen. 18:11.
In meaning this word parallels Hebrew
, which it often synonymously parallels.
First,
means “path” or “way” conceived as a marked-out, well-traveled course:
“Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels …”
(Gen. 49:17). In Judg. 5:6 the word means “highway”: “In the days of Shamgar … the
highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through byways.” When the sun is
likened to a “strong man” who rejoices “to run a race” (Ps. 19:5),
represents a race
course rather than a highway or a primitive, snake-laden path. The man who makes his
path straight goes directly on his journey, not turning aside for the beckoning harlot
(Prov. 9:15). So here the word represents the “course” one follows between his departure
and arrival conceived in terms of small units, almost step by step. In Ps. 8:8 the word
represents the ocean currents: “… The fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and
whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.”
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signifies the ground itself as the path upon which one treads: “He pursued
them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet” (Isa. 41:3).