West - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

WEST

(1) Usually (yam), "sea" because the Mediterranean lies to the West of Palestine; not usually in figurative expressions; but compare Hosea 11:10.

(2) Often (ma`arabh); compare Arabic (gharb), and (maghrib), "west" (maghrib-ush-shems), or simply (maghrib), "sunset."

(3) (mebho' ha-chemesh), "entrance of the sun," (mabho', bo'), "to come in." (Just as mizrach, is the rising of the sun, or east, so mabho' (or ma'arabh], is the setting of the sun, or west:

"From the rising of the sun (mizrach-shemesh) unto the going down (mabho) thereof" (Psalms 50:1; compare 113:3; Malachi 1:11).)

(4) (dusme, from duo), "to enter," "sink," "set." The Greek usage is parallel to the Hebrew just cited:

"Many shall come from the east anatole, "rising") and the west" (dusme, "setting") (Matthew 8:11).

The chief figurative use of the word "west" is in combination with "east" to denote great or infinite distance, as:

"As far as the east is from the west,

So far hath he removed our transgressions

from us" (Psalms 103:12).

Alfred Ely Day

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