The Hebrew noun orach (variant spelling of H734 orach) means a path, way, or course of life. It appears approximately 58 times in the Old Testament, concentrated in the Psalms and Proverbs, where it serves as a central metaphor for the moral and spiritual direction of a life.
In the Wisdom tradition, the two paths form the foundational moral framework: there is the path of the righteous and the path of the wicked. Psalm 1 opens the entire Psalter with this contrast — the blessed man who meditates on God's law and the wicked whose orach leads to destruction (v. 6). Proverbs frequently contrasts the orach of wisdom with the orach of folly. The orach concept anticipates Jesus' words in Matthew 7:13–14 — the narrow path versus the broad road. It also resonates with the early Christian description of the faith as The Way (hodos, G3598). Every step a believer takes is a walking-out of their allegiance: whose path are you on? The righteous man's path "is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day" (Proverbs 4:18).