Compass; Compasses

kum´pas, kum´pas-iz: “Compass,” noun, is the translation of חוּג, ḥūgh, “a circle,” “vault” or “arch” (“when he set a compass upon the face of the depth” Pro 8:27 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American), the American Standard Revised Version “circle”; compare Job 26:10; and see CIRCLE; VAULT OF EARTH); of כּרכּב, karkōbh, “a margin” “border” (Exo 27:5, “the compass of the altar,” the Revised Version (British and American) “the ledge round,” so Exo 38:4); the phrase “to fetch a compass” is the translation of סבב, sābhabh, “to turn about,” “go round about” (Num 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 periérchomai, “to go about” (Act 28:13, the Revised Version (British and American) “made a circuit”; margin “Some ancient authorities read cast loose”; see CIRCUIT).

“Compasses” is the Revised Version (British and American) for “compass,” מהוּגה, m^eḥūghāh, 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. Gen 2:11, “which compasseth the whole land of Havilah,” Deu 2:1, “We compassed (went around) mount Seir many days”; in Jer 31:22 we 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, Jer 31:28) will be sufficient, while the men are at their work; “to encompass” (“The cords of death compassed me” Psa 18:4; “the waves of death,” 2Sa 22:5). “To gird” (Isa 50:11 the 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).