Sitting

"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).