Continuity - Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old Testament Words
Usage Number: 1
Part Of Speech: Noun
Strong's Number: H8548
Original Word: tamîd
Usage Notes: "continuity." Tamîd is often used as a noun. In Num. 4:7, the word is used with "bread," literally meaning "the bread of continuity" (nasb, "the continual bread") or the bread that is "always there." In other groups of passages, the word emphasizes "regular repetition": for example, Exod. 29:42 mentions, literally, "the burnt offering of continuity" (nasb, "continual burnt offering"), or the offering made every morning and evening. The "daily sacrifice" of Dan. 8:11 is also this continual burnt offering.
The non-religious usage indicates that tamîd describes "continuity in time," in the sense of a routine or habit. Tamîd may also have the connotation of a routine that comes to an end when the job is completed: "And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search" (Ezek. 39:14).
Usage Number: 2
Part Of Speech: Adverb
Strong's Number: H8548
Original Word: tamîd
Usage Notes: "continually; at all times; ever." A cognate of this word appears in Arabic.
The word is used as an adverb meaning "continually." In its first occurrence, tamîd represents "uninterrupted action": "And thou shalt set upon the table showbread before me always" (Exod. 25:30). In Jer. 6:7, we read: "… Before me continually is grief and wounds." In many passages, tamîd bears the nuance of "regular repetition": "Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even …" (Exod. 29:38-39).
In poetic usage, tamîd is found in the context of a fervent religious expression: "Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net" (Psa. 25:15). It may express a firm belief in God's faithfulness: "Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me" (Psa. 40:11).