path, path’-wa (orach, nethibhah, etc.; tribos, trochia):

(1) In the Old Testament.--In addition to its obvious literal sense (e.g. Ge 49:17), it has very frequently a figurative meaning.

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(b) The term is also applied to God either (i) of the methods of the Divine Providence, God’s dealings with men (Ps 25:10; 65:11), or (ii) of the principles and maxims of religion and morality divinely revealed to man ("Show me thy ways, O Yahweh, teach me thy paths," Ps 25:4; compare Isa 2:3).

(2) In the Apocrypha we have the "paths" of Wisdom (tribos, Baruch 3:21,31); the "path" shown to men by the Law (semita, 2 Esdras 14:22); and a man’s "paths" (tribos, Tobit 4:10).

(3) In the New Testament the word occurs only in Mt 3:3 and parallel passages Mr 1:3; Lu 3:4 (of the forerunner’s work), and in Heb 12:13 (in the Old Testament ethical sense).

Pathway occurs in Pr 12:28 (derekh nethibhah) and The Wisdom of Solomon 5:10 (atrapos).

See Way.

D. Miall Edwards