Meaning
Strong's Number: H7368
Original Word: rahaq
Usage Notes: "far." A common Semitic term, this word was known in ancient Akkadian and Ugaritic long before the Hebrew of the Old Testament. Rahaq is a common word in modern Hebrew as well. The word is used about 55 times in the Hebrew Old Testament and it occurs for the first time in Gen 21:16.
Rahaq is used to express "distance" of various types. It may be "distance" from a place (Deut 12:21), as when Job felt that his friends kept themselves "aloof" from him (Job 30:10). Sometimes the word expresses "absence" altogether: "… the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me …" (Lam 1:16). "To be distant" was also "to abstain": "Keep thee far from a false matter" (Exod 23:7).
Sometimes rahaq implies the idea of "exile": "… the Lord [removes] men far away" (Isa 6:12). "To make the ends of the land distant" is "to extend the boundaries": "… thou hast increased the [borders of the land]" (Isa 26:15).
