Sitting

Sitting - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

The attitude generally assumed in Palestine by those who were engaged in any kind of work. "The carpenter saws, planes, and hews with his hand-adze, sitting on the ground or upon the plank he is planning. The washerwoman sits by the tub; and, in a word, no one stands when it is possible to sit. Shopkeepers always sit, and Levi sitting at the receipt of custom (Matt. 9:9) is the exact way to state the case.", Thomson, Land and Book.

Sitting - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

SIT'TING, ppr.

1. Resting on the buttocks, or on the feet, as fowls; incubating; brooding; being in the actual exercise of authority, or being assembled for that purpose.

2. a. In botany, sessile.

SIT'TING, n.

1. The posture of being on a seat.

2. The act of placing one's self on a seat; as a sitting down.

3. The act or time of resting in a posture for a painter or take the likeness. For a portrait, six or seven sittings may be required.

4. A session; the actual presence or meeting of any body of men in their seats, clothed with authority to transact business; as a sitting of the judges of the king's bench; a sitting of the house of commons; during the sitting of the supreme court.

5. An uninterrupted application to business or study for a time; course of study unintermitted. For the understanding of any one of Paul's epistles, I read it through at one sitting.

6. A time for which one sits, as at play, at work or on a visit.

7. Incubation; a resting on eggs for hatching; as fowls. The male bird amuses the female with his songs, during the whole time of her 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 (Mal 3:3; Mt 9:9; 26:55 (compare Mt 5:1; Lu 4:20; 5:3); Mr 14:18; Lu 18:35; Joh 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 (Ps 1:1; 26:5; Lu 13:29; Re 3:21);

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

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

M. O. Evans