Wrest

Wrest - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

WREST, v.t. [G., to wrest, to snatch or pull, to burst, to tear.]

1. To twist or extort by violence; to pull or force from by violent wringing or twisting; as, to wrest an instrument from anothers hands.

2. To take or force from by violence. The enemy made a great effort, and wrested the victory from our hands.

But fate has wrested the confession from me.

3. To distort; to turn from truth or twist from its natural meaning by violence; to pervert.

Wrest once the law to your authority.

Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the poor. Exo 23.

Which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 2 Pet 3.

WREST, n.

1. Distortion; violent pulling and twisting; perversion.

2. Active or moving power. [Not used.]

3. An instrument to tune.

rest: Found in the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) 3 times in the writings of Moses, namely, Ex 23:2,6; De 16:19. In all three places it refers to twisting, or turning aside, or perverting judgment or justice. In De 24:17 the Revised Version (British and American) has "wrest" where the King James Version has "pervert."

In Ps 56:5 ('atsabh); 2Pe 3:16 (strebloo), it refers to the word or words of God in the Scriptures. In the Psalms the servant of God, who speaks in God's name, complains that the enemies "wrest," misinterpret, misapply and pervert his words. In Peter it is the ignorant and unstedfast who so pervert and misuse some of the difficult words of Paul, and they do it to their own destruction--a most earnest warning against carelessness and conscienceless indifference in interpreting Scripture.

G. H. Gerberding