CIRCUIT

sur'-kit, "a going around": Used to represent several Hebrew words in several senses, e.g. the sun's orbit (tequphah), Psalms 19:6; the vault of the heavens (chugh), Job 22:14 the King James Version; the circuit of the winds (cabhibh), Ecclesiastes 1:6 (see ASTRONOMY, I ); Samuel's visiting of communities (cabhabh), 1 Samuel 7:16. In the Revised Version (British and American) the idea of encircling or "fetching a compass" (the King James Version) is expressed by the phrase "to make a circuit" (hacebh), 2 Samuel 5:23; 2 Kings 3:9; and in the Revised Version, margin it indicates a plain (ha-kikkar), Nehemiah 3:22. The Greek perielthontes is translated in the same way (Acts 28:13), but the Revised Version, margin reads "cast loose," following the Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek reading perielontes.

Nathan Isaacs

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.