Ascend

a-send': By derivation the English word implies motion from a lower place to (not merely toward) a higher one; and usage tends to restrict it to cases where the beholder is in the lower, not the higher, position. the King James Version uses it 39 times in all:

(1) of the going up of vapor (Ps 135:7), flame (Judg 20:40), or smoke (Rev 8:4);

(2) of travel from one place to another (Acts 25:1) or of the course of a boundary (Josh 15:3);

(3) of coming up from the underworld (1 Sam 28:13; Rev 11:7; Rev 17:8); and

(4) of the going up (of men, angels, our Lord) from earth to the skies or to heaven (Gen 28:12; John 3:13). the Revised Version (British and American) uses the appropriate form of "to go up" in all cases falling under (2) and (3); in those under (4) it retains "ascend" with an occasional change in tense; under (1) it retains "ascend" everywhere in Old Testament (Exod 19:18; Josh 8:20; Josh 8:21; Ps 135:7 parallel Jer 10:13 parallel Jer 51:16) except Judg 20:40, but substitutes "went up," "goeth up," in New Testament (Rev 8:4; Rev 14:11).

The like change in the Old Testament passages would make the usage of the Revised Version (British and American) uniform.

F. K. Farr