SITTING

sit'-ing (yashabh, "to sit down or still," daghar, "to brood," "hatch"; kathezomai, "to sit down," anakeimai, "to lie back," "recline"): The favorite position of the Orientals (Malachi 3:3 Matthew 9:9; Matthew 26:55 (compare Matthew 5:1 Luke 4:20; Luke 5:3); Mark 14:18 Luke 18:35 John 2:14, etc.).

"In Palestine people sit at all kinds of work; the carpenter saws, planes, and hews with his hand-adze, sitting upon the ground or upon the plank he is planing. The washerwoman sits by the tub, and, in a word, no one stands where it is possible to sit..... On the low shopcounters the turbaned salesmen squat in the midst of the gay wares" (LB, II, 144, 275; III, 72, 75).

Figurative:

(1) To sit with denotes intimate fellowship (Psalm 1:1; Psalm 26:5 Luke 13:29 Revelation 3:21);

(2) to sit in the dust indicates poverty and contempt (Isaiah 47:1), in darkness, ignorance (Matthew 4:16) and trouble (Micah 7:8);

(3) to sit on thrones denotes authority, judgment, and glory (Matthew 19:28).

M. O. Evans