"Lengthen thy cords, strengthen thy stakes" (Isaiah 54:2); an image from a tent (appropriate, as the Israelite church was symbolized by the tabernacle); it, when enlarged, needs at once longer cords and stronger stakes. The church must not merely seek new converts, but strengthen in faith existing members. So in Job 4:21, "is not their cord in them unstrung?" or "snapped," so that their earthly tabernacle comes down (2 Corinthians 5:1). In Ecclesiastes 12:6, "or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken," the meaning is, before life's gilded lamp suspended from on high by the cord of intertwined silk and silver, be broken by the snapping of the cord.

"The golden bowl" may hint at the skull; "the silver cord," the spinal marrow attached to the brain, white and precious as silver. "He hath loosed my cord" (Job 30:11) is animate from a bow unstrung (contrast Job 29:20). In Hosea 11:4, "I drew them with cords of a man," i.e., with human methods, as a father would draw his child by leading strings. In Micah 2:5, "cast a cord by lot" i.e. have any measured out possession, cords being used for measurement (Joshua 13:6; Psalms 16:6).