מֶרְחָק

2 Samuel 15:17 הַמֶּרְחָֽק׃ the distance

So the king set out with all the people following him. He stopped at the last house,

Psalm 138:6 מִמֶּרְחָ֥ק from a distance

Though the LORD is on high, He attends to the lowly; but the proud He knows from afar.

Here: "From a distance." The opposite of the close attention given to the lowly. God does notice the arrogant, but from far off, without coming near.

Proverbs 25:25 מֶרְחָֽק׃ distance

Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.

Here: 'Distance': a land of distance is a far country. The point is the long gap in time and space during which no word could arrive.

Proverbs 31:14 מִ֝מֶּרְחָ֗ק from a distance

She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.

Isaiah 8:9 מֶרְחַקֵּי־ [the] distant places of

Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!

Here: "Far-off places of". These are the remote regions at the edge of the known world. The phrase reaches past Aram and the northern kingdom of Israel to empires like Assyria.

Isaiah 10:3 מִמֶּרְחָ֣ק [which] from a distance

What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

Here: 'From far off.' This points to a distant foreign army, Assyria, which Isaiah elsewhere calls 'a nation far away' that God whistles up (5:26). The ruin does not come from inside Judah's own politics, which these men controlled.

Isaiah 13:5 מֶרְחָ֖ק distance

They are coming from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens—the LORD and the weapons of His wrath—to destroy the whole country.

Isaiah 17:13 מִמֶּרְחָ֑ק from a distance

The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.

Here: 'Far off' — they run until they are a long way off. The Hebrew 'from a distance' here means 'to a great distance': the rout is complete.

Isaiah 30:27 מִמֶּרְחָ֔ק from a distance

Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar, with burning anger and dense smoke. His lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a consuming fire.

Here: 'From a far place.' This echoes old songs in which God marches out from his distant home (Sinai, Seir, Teman) to fight for his people. The point is that this help comes from outside human reach.

Isaiah 33:17 מַרְחַקִּֽים׃ distances

Your eyes will see the King in His beauty and behold a land that stretches afar.

Here: 'Distances' (plural). The phrase can mean a land that stretches far into the distance, with wide horizons, or a far-off country. In the context of a city shut in by siege, most commentators take it as the first: the eyes can again range over open country to the horizon.

Isaiah 46:11 מֶרְחָ֖ק distance

I summon a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far-off land. Truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, and I will surely do it.

Here: 'Far-off'. Isaiah 13:5 uses the same phrase for the armies (the Medes, 13:17) that come against Babylon 'from a far land'. The distance makes the point stronger: God can summon a ruler from beyond Babylon's horizon.

Jeremiah 4:16 הַמֶּרְחָ֑ק <the> distance

Warn the nations now! Proclaim to Jerusalem: “A besieging army comes from a distant land; they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.

Jeremiah 5:15 מִמֶּרְחָ֛ק from a distance

Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD. “It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.

Here: 'From far off.' This echoes the covenant curse in Deuteronomy 28:49 ('a nation from far away'). The enemy comes from beyond Judah's known world and its usual politics.

Jeremiah 6:20 מֶרְחָ֑ק distance

What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.”

Here: 'Distance': 'from a land of distance', meaning a far-off country, probably India, by way of Arabian or Phoenician traders. Distance meant cost. The people were going to great lengths and expense.

Jeremiah 8:19 מַרְחַקִּ֔ים distance<s>

Listen to the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?”

Here: Plural, “distances”. Either a far-off land (the cry of exiles, heard ahead of time) or the land in all its distances, a cry going up across the whole country. See debates.

Jeremiah 31:10 מִמֶּרְחָ֑ק from a distance

Hear, O nations, the word of the LORD, and proclaim it in distant coastlands: “The One who scattered Israel will gather them and keep them as a shepherd keeps his flock.

Here: Literally 'from distance'. Most likely it describes the coastlands as 'far-off'. It could also mean the message is called out 'from afar'. Either way it stresses how far the news must travel.

Ezekiel 23:40 מִמֶּרְחָ֑ק from a distance

Furthermore, you sisters sent messengers for men who came from afar; and behold, when they arrived, you bathed for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with jewelry.

Here: 'From far away.' The same idea is used of the Babylonian envoys who visited Hezekiah 'from a far country' (2 Kings 20:14; Isaiah 39:3). It points to the distant empires, Assyria and Babylon.

Zechariah 10:9 וּבַמֶּרְחַקִּ֖ים and in the distant places

Though I sow them among the nations, they will remember Me in distant lands; they and their children will live and return.

Here: 'The far-off places', the far ends of the dispersion. The Hebrew accent marks put this phrase with the next verb: it is out there, far away, that they will remember.