kum'-pas, kum'-pas-iz: "Compass," noun, is the translation of chugh, "a circle," "vault" or "arch" ("when he set a compass upon the face of the depth"Pr 8:27the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American), the American Standard Revised Version "circle"; compareJob 26:10; and seeCIRCLE;VAULT OF EARTH); of karkobh, "a margin" "border" (Ex 27:5, "the compass of the altar," the Revised Version (British and American) "the ledge round," so 38:4); the phrase "to fetch a compass" is the translation of sabhabh, "to turn about," "go round about" (Nu 34:5;Jos 15:3, the Revised Version (British and American) "turn about,"2Sa 5:23;2Ki 3:9, the Revised Version (British and American) "make a circuit"); of perierchomai, "to go about" (Ac 28:13, the Revised Version (British and American) "made a circuit"; margin "Some ancient authorities read cast loose"; seeCIRCUIT).
"Compasses" is the Revised Version (British and American) for "compass," mechughah, an instrument for describing a circle: "He marketh it out with the compasses" (Isa 44:13) in making an idol.
The verb "to compass" occurs frequently in the senses of "to surround" and "to go round about," e.g.Ge 2:11, "which compasseth the whole land of Havilah,"De 2:1, "We compassed (went around) mount Seir many days"; inJer 31:22we have "A new thing on the earth: a woman shall compass a man," the Revised Version (British and American) "encompass"; possibly as a suitor; but more probably as a protector. In those happy days, the protection of women (under God, 31:28) will be sufficient, while the men are at their work; "to encompass" ("The cords of death compassed me"Ps 18:4; "the waves of death,"2Sa 22:5). "To gird" (Isa 50:11the Revised Version (British and American)); "to lie around," "to be laid around" (Heb 5:2, "compassed with infirmity" (clothed with it);Heb 12:1, "compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses").
In Apocrypha we have "compassed about with yawning darkness" (The Wisdom of Solomon 19:17); "compassed the circuit of heaven" (Ecclesiasticus 24:5); "compassed with pomegranates of gold" (Ecclesiasticus 45:9); "The rainbow compasseth the heaven" (Ecclesiasticus 43:12); the course of the sun (1 Esdras 4:34).
W. L. Walker