a.vah describes being bent or made distorted, whether of a body, paths or land, or a morally crooked way.

The occurrences show distortion or bending in bodily and spatial settings: a speaker is bent, the earth’s face and paths are altered, and bodily distress is described. They also show making conduct or character crooked, as people pervert their way, a speaker confesses twisting what is upright, and a heart is characterized as twisted.

1. Bending or distorting bodies, land, and paths · dominant

   In Isaiah 21:3, the Niphal perfect first-person form occurs amid anguish and labor-like pangs; the APB renders the clause, "I was bent from hearing." Isaiah 24:1 and Lamentations 3:9 use Piel forms where the APB describes the earth’s face and the speaker’s paths as altered, while Psalm 38:7 places a Niphal first-person form in a statement of bodily affliction.

   Isaiah 21:3Isaiah 24:1Lamentations 3:9Psalm 38:7
2. Making conduct or character crooked · common

   In Jeremiah 3:21, the Hiphil perfect plural form is given as the reason for Israel’s weeping: the APB renders that they "have perverted their way." In Job 33:27, a first-person Hiphil perfect appears in confession alongside sinning and what is upright; Proverbs 12:8 uses a Niphal participle in the contrast between understanding and a twisted heart.

   Jeremiah 3:21Job 33:27Proverbs 12:8

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB variously presents the clauses with "bent," "twists," "perverted," "twisted," and "twisted heart." In Psalm 38:7, it gives the surrounding bodily-affliction statement without an identifiable English rendering for the term.