the side, flank, or edge of a body, object, or place; also used to mean beside or alongside
At its core this word names a side: the flank of a body, the face or edge of an object, or the space right next to something. Across all its uses the plain English word side carries the sense with almost no loss, which is why a reader rarely needs to look beyond a translation.
The word stretches naturally from one kind of side to another. It can be the flank of a person or animal (lying on one side, a sword thrust into the side, a child carried on the hip). It can be the side of a made thing: the wall of the ark, the branches coming out of the sides of the lampstand, the rings on the two sides of the altar. Very often it works almost like the word beside, marking where one thing sits next to another: sitting beside the reapers, a book set beside the ark, a town that lies beside another.
In a handful of places the picture turns figurative. To say enemies will be thorns in your sides is to say they will be a constant, close-up irritation you cannot shake off, not a single wound but an ongoing affliction pressed right against you.