International Standard Bible Encyclopedia · 1915
Undertake
un-der-tak':
"To take upon one's self," "assume responsibility," and so in Elizabethan English "be surety." In this sense in the King James Version Isaiah 38:14, "O Lord, .... undertake for me" (`arabh, the Revised Version (British and American) "be thou my surety"). Perhaps in the same sense in Sirach 29:19, although the idea is scarcely contained in the Greek verb dioko, "pursue." In the modern sense in 1 Esdras 1:28; 2 Macc 2:29; 8:10; the King James Version 2:27.