strāt, strāt´’n, strāt´il: The word “strait” and its compounds are used in English Versions of the Bible in the literal sense of “narrow” (car, [2Ki 6:1]; [Isa 49:20]; mūcāḳ, [Job 37:10];’ācal, [Eze 42:6]) and in the figurative sense of “strict” (shābha‛, [Exo 13:19]; ṣāghar, [Jos 6:1]; cārar, “to be distressed,” [2Sa 24:14] parallel; yācar, [Job 20:22]; mēcar, [Lam 1:3]). In Apocrypha the verb “straitened” occurs in Susanna verse 22. In the New Testament we have stenós ([Mat 7:13] f parallel, the Revised Version (British and American) “narrow”; polús, “much”; so the Revised Version (British and American) [Mar 3:12]; [Mar 5:43]; sunéchō, “to urge,” “hold together,” [Luk 12:50]; [Php 1:23]). It occurs in its superlative form in [Act 26:5], “After the straitest (akribéstatos, “most exact,” “scrupulous”) sect of our religion,” i.e. “the most precise and rigorous in interpreting the Mosaic Law, and in observing the more minute precepts of the Law and of tradition” (Thayer, Lexicon, under the word; compare [Act 22:3]). See also STRAIGHT, STRAIGHTWAY.
