ne.tsach denotes an unbounded or enduring extent, especially in statements and questions about what lasts without end.

The attested uses chiefly mark duration without an endpoint: an action, condition, or outcome is presented as continuing indefinitely, whether affirmed, denied, or questioned. A smaller group presents enduring extent or endurance in clauses concerning lasting status, strength, or the limit of an experience.

1. Duration without an endpoint · dominant

   The absolute noun occurs in clauses that ask whether the sword will continue, describe anger or desolation as continuing, or deny that a condition will last indefinitely. In 2 Samuel 2:26 the APB renders the question, “Shall the sword devour forever?”; Isaiah 25:8 places the form in the announcement that death will be swallowed up; and Psalm 103:9 twice frames contention and anger as not continuing forever.

   2 Samuel 2:26Isaiah 25:8Isaiah 34:10Isaiah 57:16Psalm 103:9Lamentations 5:20
2. Enduring extent or endurance · occasional

   In a smaller set of clauses, the noun is associated with an enduring quality, status, or limit rather than a straightforward temporal assertion. In 1 Chronicles 29:11 the APB includes “the perpetuity” among what belongs to the LORD, while Lamentations 3:18 uses a construct form in the speaker’s declaration, “My endurance has perished”; Job 34:36 speaks of testing Job “to the limit,” though the translation does not isolate the term’s contribution.

   1 Chronicles 29:11Lamentations 3:18Job 34:36Job 14:20Psalm 9:191 Samuel 15:29

In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the verses, the APB often expresses the clause with “forever,” “never,” or “perpetuity,” and in some contexts leaves the term’s specific English counterpart unclear, as in “to the limit.” Because the APB is a whole-verse translation, these renderings confirm the clauses’ broad presentation but do not by themselves define each occurrence.