2. ' Go ' is sometimes superfluous or nearly so, as in Jos 9^ 'They diil work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors ' ('"i.'a'j'l '3^'i.) ; Is 37" ' So Sennacherib king of Assyria dei)arted, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh' l^v'.'l ^^:!). Somewhat similar is the very frequent use of 'go' immediately before some other verb, as ■2 K 1' ' There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us. Go, turn again unto the king that sent you.' Occasionally a pronoun intervenes between the verbs, as I K '20** ' Then he said. Go ye, bring him.' In AV the us.age is almost conlined to the iuiperat. , though .some other moods occur, as 1 S 2'.)' ' What hast thou fo\ind in thy servant . . . that I may not go fight against the enemies of my lord, the king?' (RV 'go and fight'). Cf. iJhaks. Hamlet, I. v. 132—
' And for my own poor part. Look you, I'll go pray.'
In these phrases the verb to 'go' has no such in- dependent meaning as we associate with it, imply- ing removal from a place ; it expresses no more than the setting about the act contained in the following verb. And this is often all that it con- tains when ' and ' comes between the two verbs, as Dt 31' ' And Moses went and spoke the.se words to all Israel ' ; Ex 2' ' And there went a man of the house of Levi, .and took to wife a daughter of Levi ' ; 2 K 3' ' And he went and sent to jehosha- phat the king of Judali, saying. The king of Moab hath rebelled agaiust me' (see 'Go to' below)- This auxiliary use of 'go' is seen also in ex- pressions like 'go childless' Gn 15- {'Till, ^y^ "J¥'. which may mean, however, 'and lam going lience [i.e. to die] childless [lit. ' naked '],' as Del., Dillm., Spurrell, and RVm) ; ' go mourning,' Job 30-* (nip n-:n >ih^ 'r\:'?ri, Dav. ' I go blackened, not by the .-un,' so RVm) ; ' go crouching,' Sir 12" (TropevijTai iriryKCKvtpui) ; 'go gay,' Bar 6" (napdivif <fii\oKicr /^ii], EV 'for a virgin that loveth to go gay,' Giliord ' fond of ornament,' the only occurrence of the Gr. word in LXX or NT). Of. Shaks. Othello, II. i.
' She that w.as ever fair, and never proud ; Had tongue at will, and yet was never loud ; Never laoli'd gold, and yet went never gay.'
And Milton, University Carrier, ii. 22 —
' Ease was his chief disease, and to judge right. He di'd for heaviness that hia cart went light.*
3. To go is often to proceed, advance, make progress, whether literally or figuratively, as Shaks. I Henry IV. I. iii. 292—
' No further go in this Than I by letters shall direct your course.'
In 2 Mac 4'" we find the unusual expression (it does not occur in Shaks.) 'a man far gone in years,' which RV retains. The Gr. (trpofif-ii-nKii^ Trill v^tKtav) is common enough, the identical phrase occurring again in 6'*, where it is tr'' ' an aged man,' RV 'well stricken in years.' Cf. Gn 24' ' And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age,' .Wm'gone into days.' But the most important use of ' go ' in this fig. sense is to express the progress of an undertaking, as in 2 S 1* ' And David said unto him. How went the matter?'
{•\^y .i.-ii-n-, lit., as AVm, ' What was the thing ? ') ; and To 10* ' 1 will send to thy father, and tlicy shall declare unto him how things go with thee' (rd Kara ffi). (_'f. Tintl. Prolofji^ to the Pent, of 1534, ' Then go to and reade the -storyes of the byble for thj' lerninge and comforte, and se every thinge practj'scd before thyne ej'es : for accordinge to those ensamples shall it goo with the and all men untill the worldes ende.' Cf. also Job S'" Cov. ' Even so goeth it with all them, that forget (!od,' and Hos 10'° Cov. 'Even so shal it go with you (o Bethel) because of youre malicious wickednes.' So Shaks. Winter's Talc, III. ii. 21S—
' Howe'er the business goes, you have mode fault r the boldness of your speech.'
The idiom is not obsolete ; on the contrary, it has lately received a further and bolder extension, which may be illustrated by the following quota- tion from Harper's Magazine, Ixxvi. SOS, ' Society has invented no inlliction equal to a large dinner that does not go, as the phrase is. Why it does not go when the viands are good and the company is bright, is one of the acknowledged mysteries.' More frequently, however, some adverb accom- panies 'go,' to i;x|iress tlie manner of ]in)'_'ress. In AV we find : (1) Gn well, Dt 4-'" ' that it may go well with thee'; Heb. n^ do", which occurs also 516 1225. 28 (EV ' go well with '), 5^6»- '» 22' (EV ' be well with'); and the similar phrase^ 3tei in 5*" (EV ' that it may be well with '), 19'» (EV ' go well with '). The Eng. jihrase occurs also in 2 Oh 12'* ' in Judah things went well ' (d'^id d-i^t .rn) ; Pr II '" 'When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth' (D-p'is dim); To 12" 'it shall go weil with you' (dprjv-q unlv (arai, RV 'ye shall have peace ); 14' ' tliat it may go well with thee' (iVa ffoi Ka\u>$ y, RV 'that it may be well with thee') ; Sir 1" ' Whoso feareth the Lord, it shall go well with him at the last' (ri? tpo^ov/icntfi rbv Ki'pioi' el iGTai iir' ej^drwy).* Cf. Shaks. K. John, III. iv. 4—