Take

TAKE tak:

Most of the very numerous examples of this word are still in good use and only a few call for special attention. "To take" in the sense of "capture" is still common, but when a person or living animal is in point, modern English usually adds "prisoner" or "captive." English Versions of the Bible not infrequently has this addition (Genesis 14:14, etc.), but more commonly "take" is used without it (Joshua 10:39; Job 5:13; Sirach 23:21; John 7:30, etc.). An occasional obscurity is thus caused, as in Genesis 27:3, "take me venison" for "hunt venison for me." "To take advice" (2 Chronicles 25:17; the King James Version Judges 19:30, the Revised Version (British and American) "counsel") is "to reflect," not "to consult others" (compare 1 Kings 12:28; but contrast 2 Kings 6:8, etc.). "To take knowledge of" is "to learn thoroughly," "investigate" (1 Samuel 23:23, etc.), as is "to take notice of" (2 Samuel 3:36). "To take an oath of" (Genesis 50:25, etc.) is "to exact an oath of." "To be taken with a disease" in the King James Version Matthew 4:24; Luke 4:38 is "to suffer with" (the Revised Version (British and American) "be holden with"), but in 1 Macc 9:55; 2 Macc 9:21 (the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American)), the context gives the force "be attacked by," as in modern English Compare the King James Version Luke 8:37 (the Revised Version (British and American) "holden"); Micah 4:9 (the Revised Version (British and American) "take hold of"). "Take" occurs in the sense "overtake" in the King James Version Genesis 19:19 (the Revised Version (British and American) "overtake"); Sirach 36:26. "Take away" has sometimes a more forcible significance than in modern English, as in the King James Version Leviticus 6:2, "a thing taken away by violence" (the Revised Version (British and American) "robbery"); Daniel 11:12, the King James Version "He hath taken away the multitude," where the meaning is "swept away" (compare the Revised Version margin "carried away"; the Revised Version (British and American) "shall be lifted up" is inappropriate here). So in "lest he take thee away with his stroke" (the King James Version Job 36:18), "take away" means simply "slay." (The text here is intensely obscure, and the Revised Version (British and American) has followed a different interpretation.) So "to be taken away" may mean simply "to die," as in Ezekiel 33:6; The Wisdom of Solomon 14:15; Sirach 16:9; 19:3; Mark 2:20, although in 1 Corinthians 5:2 it means "to be expelled." "To take away judgment" or "right" (Job 27:2; 34:5; Acts 8:33) is "to refuse it," but in Zec 3:15 English Versions of the Bible means "the sentence against thee is canceled" (the Hebrew text is dubious). Nehemiah 5:2 the King James Version has "take up" for "get" (so the Revised Version (British and American)), perhaps with the connotation "on credit." "Take up" is also used frequently for "utter solemnly" (Numbers 23:7; Isaiah 14:4, etc.), a use due to the Hebrew "lift up," "exalt" (nasa'). For "take up" in the sense of "lift" (physically), compare Isaiah 40:15; Acts 7:43; the King James Version 21:15. "Take care" in Tobit 5:20; 1 Corinthians 9:9 the King James Version (the Revised Version (British and American) "to care") means "be anxious about," "have in mind" And the very obscure "scurrility in the matter of giving and taking" (Sirach 41:19) is explained by the Hebrew to mean "refusing the gift for which thou art besought." The following phrases are archaic, but hardly need explanation: "Take indignation" (Nehemiah 4:1); "take wrong" (1 Corinthians 6:7); "take up in the lips" (Ezekiel 36:3; the King James Version Ps 16:4, "take .... into my lips," the Revised Version (British and American) "take .... upon my lips"); and in the King James Version "take to record" (Acts 20:26, the Revised Version (British and American) "testify unto"); "take shame" (Micah 2:6 the King James Version).

Burton Scott Easton

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Bibliography Information

Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'TAKE'".  "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia".  1915.