to let go: to release a person from a duty, let something out that was held back, or break free of a grip
At its heart this verb is about letting go. Something that was being held, a work shift kept at its post, water penned behind an embankment, a man cornered in a room, is loosed and allowed to go its own way. That one idea runs under every place the word appears.
The range is wide because Hebrew lets a single verb cover both sides of the act, the letting go and the being let go:
- a priest who refuses to release the temple divisions from their turn of duty (2 Chronicles 23:8)
- singers already off duty in their chambers because their work runs day and night (1 Chronicles 9:33)
- a person who lets water out, a small breach that ends in a flood (Proverbs 17:14)
- a man who breaks loose from another's presence and gets away (1 Samuel 19:10)
Two uses stretch the picture further. In Psalm 22:7 mockers open their lips wide at the sufferer, a gesture of contempt that English versions give as sneering or shooting out the lip. And the builders of Solomon's temple carve open flowers into the cedar walls and the olive wood doors (1 Kings 6:18), blossoms shown parted rather than shut in the bud.
Nearby words divide this ground differently. The ordinary verb for sending someone off is שָׁלַח, and the verb for getting clear to safety is מָלַט, which stands in the very same sentence as this word in 1 Samuel 19:10: David breaks away from Saul, and then he escapes.