Continuity
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words [1]
A. Noun.
Tâmı̂yd ( תָּמִיד , Strong'S #8548), “continuity.” Tâmı̂yd is often used as a noun. In Num. 4:7, the word is used with “bread,” literally meaning “the bread of continuity” (NASB, “the continual bread”) or the bread that is “always there.” In other groups of passages, the word emphasizes “regular repetition”: for example, Exod. 29:42 mentions, literally, “the burnt offering of continuity” (NASB, “continual burnt offering”), or the offering made every morning and evening. The “daily sacrifice” of Dan. 8:11 is also this continual burnt offering.
The nonreligious usage indicates that tâmı̂yd describes “continuity in time,” in the sense of a routine or habit. Tâmı̂yd may also have the connotation of a routine that comes to an end when the job is completed: “And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search” (Ezek. 39:14).
B. Adverb.
Tâmı̂yd ( תָּמִיד , Strong'S #8548), “continually; at all times; ever.” A cognate of this word appears in Arabic. Biblical Hebrew attests it in all periods.
The word is used as an adverb meaning “continually.” In its first occurrence, tâmı̂yd represents “uninterrupted action”: “And thou shalt set upon the table showbread before me always” (Exod. 25:30). In Jer. 6:7, we read: “… Before me continually is grief and wounds.” In many passages, tâmı̂yd bears the nuance of “regular repetition”: “Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually .—The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even …” (Exod. 29:38-39).
In poetic usage, tâmı̂yd is found in the context of a fervent religious expression: “Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net” (Ps. 25:15). It may express a firm belief in God’s faithfulness: “Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me” (Ps. 40:11).
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(n.) the state of being continuous; uninterupted connection or succession; close union of parts; cohesion; as, the continuity of fibers.
