to turn so as to face a direction, person, or thing, with all that the turn implies: to look toward, attend to, or move away from
At its root this verb is about which way a person, an army, or even a life is now facing. The body pivots, the eyes lift, the path bends, and that change of orientation is the whole of the word. Everything it comes to mean grows out of that one picture of turning to face.
From there the direction of the turn carries the weight. To turn your face toward someone can mean simply to look that way, or it can mean to give them your full regard, which is why a desperate person begs God to turn toward them. To turn toward something can also be a betrayal, as when Israel turns to idols or to mediums. To turn away is to abandon, to defect, to set your back to what you once faced.
Two settled idioms sit on top of this. When the day itself turns, Hebrew speaks of the time toward evening or toward morning, the hinge between light and dark. And in a stronger, deliberate use the verb means to clear a space by turning its contents out, whether sweeping a house empty or clearing a road so an important traveler can pass.
Because the turn can be toward or away, gracious or treacherous, the same word can describe God bending to hear a prayer and a heart bending away to other gods. The reader has to watch where the face is pointed and who or what it is pointed at.