broad, wide: reaching far across a space, and by extension stretching beyond ordinary limits
At its root this word measures width: something that stretches far from side to side. It is the everyday word for a spacious land, a thick city wall, a wide sea, or a gaping breach. In this plain sense it simply describes physical extent, and English "broad" or "wide" fits it cleanly. It is closely tied to the verb of the same family (רָחַב), which means to grow wide or to make room.
From that spatial core the word reaches into the figurative. A commandment can be "broad" in the sense of limitless scope (Psalm 119:96), and to walk "in a broad place" is to move without constraint, a picture of freedom (Psalm 119:45). Here breadth has become a metaphor for room, openness, and liberty, close to the noun for an open expanse (מֶרְחָב).
The same image turns dark when it is applied to the inner person. A heart or an appetite that is "broad" is one that has swollen past its proper size. The person "broad of heart" is the arrogant person who thinks too highly of himself (Psalm 101:5; Proverbs 21:4), and the one "broad of soul" is the greedy person whose craving has no bottom (Proverbs 28:25). The width that is admirable in a land becomes a fault in a heart.