Definition

to wait at the threshold

Etymology

a primitive root; properly, to snatch away, i.e. terminate; but used only as denominative from H5592 (סַף) (in the sense of a vestibule),

Where the KJV renders it

• be a doorkeeper

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.