Definition

properly, to be erect (i.e. stand perpendicular); hence (causatively) to set up, in a great variety of applications, whether literal (establish, fix, prepare, apply), or figurative (appoint, render sure, proper or prosperous)

Etymology

a primitive root;

Where the KJV renders it

• certain(-ty)
• confirm
• direct
• faithfulness
• fashion
• fasten
• firm
• be fitted
• be fixed
• frame
• be meet
• ordain
• order
• perfect
• (make) preparation
• prepare (self)
• provide
• make provision
• (be
• make) ready
• right
• set (aright
• fast
• forth)
• be stable
• (e-) stablish
• stand
• tarry
• very deed

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.