(תְּקוּפָה, tekuphah') signifies the act of going round, as, for example, the apparent diurnal revolution of the sun around the earth (Psalms 19:6); it is also used with reference to the completion of a year in the original of 2 Chronicles 24:23; Exodus 34:22 (in which passages it is rendered "end"); or of the term of pregnancy in 1 Samuel 1:20 ("when ... was come about"). The Scriptures, however, afford us very little information as to the astronomical knowledge of the Jews. (See ASTRONOMY).
In Job 22:14, the Heb. word is different. (See CIRCLE). In 1 Samuel 7:16, and Ecclesiastes 1:6, also, a different form of expression is used in the original to signify, in the former passage (סָבִב, elsewhere usually rendered "compass"), a regular tour of inspection, and in the latter (סָבִיב ) the periodical series of gyrations, or, rather, directions of the winds, which in the East are quite regular in their seasons. In Sirach 24:5, the original word is γῦρος, the rotation of the heavens; but in 2 Maccabees 6:4, it is simply περίβολος, an enclosure, e.g. of the Temple.