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The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online

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WEST

(1) Usually (yam), "sea" because the Mediterranean lies to the West of Palestine; not usually in figurative expressions; but compare Hosea 11:10. (2) Often (ma`arabh); compare Arabic (gharb), and (maghrib), "west" (maghrib-ush-shems), or simply (maghrib), "sunset." (3) (mebho' ha-chemesh), "entrance of the sun," (mabho', bo'), "to come in." (Just as mizrach, is the rising of the sun, or east, so mabho' (or ma'arabh], is the setting of the sun, or west: "From the rising of the sun (mizrach-shemesh) unto the going down (mabho) thereof" (Psalms 50:1; compare Psalms 113:3; Malachi 1:11).) (4) (dusme, from duo), "to enter," "sink," "set." The Greek usage is parallel to the Hebrew just cited: "Many shall come from the east anatole, "rising") and the west" (dusme, "setting") (Matthew 8:11).

The chief figurative use of the word "west" is in combination with "east" to denote great or infinite distance, as:

"As far as the east is from the west,

So far hath he removed our transgressions

from us" (Psalms 103:12).

Alfred Ely Day