to be deep, or to make something deep: to reach far down, out of sight or out of reach
This word is about downward distance. Once it simply reports that something is deep: in Psalm 92:5 God's thoughts run further down than a person can follow, set beside the greatness of his works. Every other time the word says that someone made something deep, and Hebrew lets that one action spread in several directions at once.
- Something is dug or set far down, as with the burning place made ready in Isaiah 30:33.
- People take themselves down out of reach, which is what Dedan and Hazor are ordered to do when an army is coming.
- A plan is pushed down out of sight, which is how the schemers of Isaiah 29:15 expect to keep God from seeing it.
- An action is carried far, so that a nation goes deep into turning away from God.
The last of those is the hardest to see in English, because Hebrew can set this word beside a second verb and let it say how far that second action went. In Isaiah 31:6 the people have made their revolt deep, and in Hosea 9:9 they have gone deep in ruining themselves. English has to supply an adverb, and the depth stops sounding like a place.
The prophets nearly always aim the word downward in the wrong direction: deep in revolt, deep in corruption, deep in secrecy, or deep in a hiding place where an enemy will not find you. The matching adjective (עָמֹק) simply calls a thing deep, while this word says that a thing became deep or was driven deep, usually by someone with a reason.