now: at this present point in time, as opposed to the past or the future
This is the ordinary Hebrew word for "now." At its core it marks the present moment, the point in time the speaker is standing in, set off from what came before and what will come after. Most of its hundreds of appearances are simply that: now, at this time, as things currently stand.
But a word for "now" naturally does more than mark the clock. Speakers use it to pivot. Having laid out the situation, a speaker says "and now" and turns to what should be done about it, so the word becomes a hinge between a reason and a request or command. This is by far its most common job in conversation and prayer, and it is the same word doing the same thing: "given where we now are, here is what follows."
It also stretches in the other direction. In statements about what would or should have happened, it carries the sense of "by now" or "already," picturing a result that the present moment either confirms or, in a regret, denies ("by now you would have sent me away empty"). These are not separate words but one word's natural range, anchored throughout in the present.