To set in a row , i.e. arrange , put in order (in a very wide variety of applications)
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The Hebrew verb often transliterated arak means to arrange, set out, prepare, or place something in an ordered relation. Priests arrange wood and offerings, armies take their positions, a speaker prepares a case, a host sets a table, and a comparison places one thing alongside another for consideration.
Reader summary
Full entry for עָרַךְ (H6186) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb often transliterated arak means to arrange, set out, prepare, or place something in an ordered relation. Priests arrange wood and offerings, armies take their positions, a speaker prepares a case, a host sets a table, and a comparison places one thing alongside another for consideration.
The BSB source-word alignment has 75 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and arrayed themselves (4), lined up (3), and arrayed them (2), arrayed themselves (2), can compare (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 14:8. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (12), 1 Chronicles (9), Job (9), Psalms (7).
The Hebrew verb often transliterated arak means to arrange, set out, prepare, or place something in an ordered relation. Priests arrange wood and offerings, armies take their positions, a speaker prepares a case, a host sets a table, and a comparison places one thing alongside another for consideration. The shared idea is deliberate ordering, but the moral meaning comes from what is arranged, by whom, and toward what end.
The word can describe faithful worship, thoughtful prayer, legal argument, hospitality, warfare, or idolatrous practice. It therefore does not make order itself holy, nor does it authorize a leader to control people without limit. In 2 Samuel 23, an ordered covenant rests on God's securing work, while other passages show ordinary people responsibly preparing what a particular task requires.
Readers should follow each object and setting before drawing a theological conclusion.
Across worship, prayer, covenant, argument, hospitality, valuation, and battle, arak describes intentional arrangement while each passage supplies the arrangement's purpose and moral evaluation.
The fire on the altar shall be kept burning; it must not be extinguished. Every morning the priest is to add wood to the fire, arrange the burnt offering on it, and burn the fat portions of the peace offerings on it.
The priest's daily arrangement of wood and offering belongs to a commanded pattern of sustained altar service.
In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice; at daybreak I lay my plea before You and wait in expectation.
David deliberately lays his request before the Lord and then waits expectantly, joining ordered prayer with dependence.
Is not my house right with God? For He has established with me an everlasting covenant, ordered and secured in every part. Will He not bring about my full salvation and my every desire?
David describes God's covenant as ordered and secured, locating its stability in God's establishing action rather than human management.
See now, I have prepared my case; I know that I will be vindicated.
Job prepares his case in the midst of dispute, showing that the verb can organize words and reasons for presentation.
And Israel and the Philistines arrayed in formation against each other.
Israel and the Philistines arrange themselves in opposing formations, demonstrating the verb's frequent military use without endorsing every battle.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Arrange or prepare by systematic ordering; foundational to both military formation and liturgical/tabernacle organization in OT
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 76 lexical occurrence verses.
עָרַךְ is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Arak gives Scripture a flexible verb for bringing people, objects, words, or actions into deliberate order. Levitical worship uses such ordering in service of commands God has actually given. The psalmist orders his plea before the Lord but still watches and waits, so preparation is not control over God. Job arranges a case in order to speak truthfully about his suffering, while battle narratives use the same verb for opposing formations.
David's covenant language celebrates what God has ordered and secured rather than presenting human organization as the source of salvation. The lexeme therefore values fitting preparation without sanctifying every system. Healthy order remains accountable to its object and purpose. In Christian teaching, structures should help people worship truthfully, reason carefully, protect the vulnerable, and carry responsibilities faithfully.
They should never be treated as self-validating or used to replace prayer, conscience, correction, or God's authority.
Ps.5.3
Arak is a Hebrew verb whose concrete sense of arranging or setting in order extends naturally to battle formation, ritual preparation, setting a table, presenting a case, making a comparison, and assigning value. The surrounding object determines the best English rendering.
The New Testament likewise commends worship and communal life that are intelligible, peaceful, and fitting, while Jesus exposes traditions that displace God's commands or burden people. These themes support responsible order without turning one ancient arrangement into a universal institutional blueprint.