Prevent

King James Dictionary

Prevent', L proevenio, supra.

1. To go before to precede.

I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried.  Psalms 119

2. To precede, as something unexpected or unsought.

The days of my affliction prevented me.  Job 30

 2 Samuel 22

3. To go before to precede to favor by anticipation or by hindering distress or evil.

The God of my mercy shall prevent me.  Psalms 59

Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favor.

4. To anticipate.

Their ready guilt preventing thy commands.

5. To preoccupy to pre-engage to attempt first.

Thou hast prevented us with overtures of love.

In all the preceding senses, the word is obsolete.

6. To hinder to obstruct to intercept the approach or access of. This is now the only sense. No foresight or care will prevent every misfortune. Religion supplies consolation under afflictions which cannot be prevented. It is easier to prevent an evil than to remedy it.

Too great confidence in success, is the likeliest to prevent it.

PREVENT', To come before the usual time. Not in use.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

PREVENT . To ‘prevent’ in the Eng. of AV [Note: Authorized Version.] is to ‘be before,’ ‘anticipate,’ ‘forestall,’ as   Psalms 119:147 ‘I prevented the dawning of the morning and cried’ (Amer. Revision has ‘anticipated’ here, but the Eng. Revisers retain ‘prevented’). Sometimes it is to forestall for one’s good, as   Psalms 59:10 ‘The God of my mercy shall prevent me’; and sometimes for one’s hurt, as   Psalms 18:5 ‘The snares of death prevented me’; but the mod. idea of merely ‘hindering’ never occurs in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Prevent, and Prevented .  Job 3:12;  Job 41:11;  Psalms 59:10;  Psalms 79:8;  Psalms 88:13;  Psalms 119:148;  Matthew 17:25. These words in the A. V. never mean, as at present, "to hinder," but "to go before," "to anticipate."  1 Thessalonians 4:15.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( v. i.) To come before the usual time.

(2): ( v. t.) To intercept; to hinder; to frustrate; to stop; to thwart.

(3): ( v. t.) To go before; to precede; hence, to go before as a guide; to direct.

(4): ( v. t.) To be beforehand with; to anticipate.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

In the Bible means, not to hinder, but to proceed,  Psalm 59:10   1 Thessalonians 4:15; to anticipate,  Psalm 119:147,148   Matthew 17:25; or to seize,  2 Samuel 22:6   Job 30:27 .

Morrish Bible Dictionary

'To go before,' anticipate (from the Latin praevenio ) 'to come before.'  Psalm 18:5,18;  Psalm 21:3;  Psalm 59:10;  Matthew 17:25;  1 Thessalonians 4:15 , etc.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

 1—Thessalonians 4:15 Matthew 17:25

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

prḗ - vent ´ ( קדם , ḳādham  ; προφθάνω , prophthánō , φθάνω , phthánō ): "Prevent" occurs in the King James Version in the literal but obsolete sense of "to come or go before," "to anticipate," not in the sense of "to hinder." It is the translation of ḳādham , "to be sharp," "to be in front," "to be beforehand" (  2 Samuel 22:6 ,  2 Samuel 22:19 , the Revised Version (British and American) "came upon"  Job 3:12 , the Revised Version (British and American) "receive";  Job 30:27 , "are come upon";  Job 41:11 , "first given";  Psalm 18:5 ,  Psalm 18:18 , "came upon";  Psalm 21:3 , the American Standard Revised Version "meetest";  Psalm 59:10 , the American Standard Revised Version "meet";  Psalm 79:8 , the American Standard Revised Version "meet";  Psalm 88:13 , "come before";  Psalm 119:147 ,  Psalm 119:148 , the American Standard Revised Version "anticipated";  Isaiah 21:14 , "did meet";  Amos 9:10 , the American Standard Revised Version "meet"). In the New Testament prophthanō , with same meaning, is translated "prevent" ( Matthew 17:25 , "Jesus prevented him," the Revised Version (British and American) "spake first to him"); phthanō ( 1 Thessalonians 4:15 , "shall not prevent," the Revised Version (British and American) "shall in no wise precede"). "Prevent" in the above sense occurs in The Wisdom of Solomon 6:13, the Revised Version (British and American) "forestalleth" ( phthanō ); 16:28, "we must prevent the sun to give thee thanks," the Revised Version (British and American) "rise before."

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(some form of קָדִם , Φθάνω , both meaning to Precede or Anticipate ) is understood, in our translation of the Scriptures, only in the old Latin sense, as denoting —

1. To Come Before one is expected or sought ( Job 30:27);

2. To Go Before , or be sooner ( Psalms 119:147). One is happily disappointed when favors come unasked ( Job 3:12;  Psalms 18:18), or unhappily, when snares and afflictions come unexpectedly ( 2 Samuel 22:6).