to put something in a position: to set it down somewhere, turn it into something, assign it to a role, or fix it in place so it stays
At its core this verb is the act of deliberately placing something. Someone takes a thing and puts it where they intend it to be. The hand that does the placing is almost always in view, so the word carries a sense of purpose: this did not just end up here, someone set it here.
From that one action the word fans out in ways that all stay close to it. You can place an object in a spot. You can place a person into a position by appointing them. You can place a charge or a burden onto someone's shoulders. You can place your attention on a matter by setting your heart toward it. And you can place a thing into a new state altogether, turning a city into rubble or a person into a laughingstock, which is the Bible's ordinary way of saying make this into that.
The senses below sort these uses, but they are shades of one act, not separate words. The line between them is often just what gets placed and where. Placing a crown on a head and placing a man over a kingdom are the same verb doing the same thing at different scales.
Because the word is so plain and so common, English translators reach for a different word almost every time (put, set, lay, make, appoint, give, turn into), which can hide the fact that one Hebrew verb is underneath them all.