Spread Out
Spread Out [1]
Pâraś ( פָּרַשׂ, Strong'S #6566), “to spread out, scatter, display.” Found in both ancient and modern Hebrew, this word occurs approximately 65 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. It is found for the first time in Exod. 9:29: “… I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord.…” Such stretching of the hands probably reflected the characteristic posture of prayer in the Bible (cf. Ps. 143:6; Isa. 1:15).
Pâraś sometimes expresses the “spreading out” of a garment to its widest extent (Judg. 8:25). It is commonly med of wings’ “being spread,” opened fully (Deut. 32:11; 1 Kings 6:27). “To spread out” a net is to set a snare or trap (Hos. 7:12). Sometimes “to spread out” is “to display”: “… A fool layeth open his folly” (Prov. 13:16). “To spread” may mean “to cover over” and thus to hide from vision: “And the woman took and spread a covering over the well’s mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known” (2 Sam. 17:19). In some instances, “to spread” may have a more violent meaning of “to scatter”: “… They that remain shall be scattered toward all winds …” (Ezek. 17:21).
