Archaic KJV Word
Seek
Modern equivalent: look for
What Was Lost
The whole-being urgency. 'Seek the Lord with all your heart' meant pursue God the way a drowning person pursues air -- with your entire being, because your life depends on it. Darash was the intensity of a detective investigating a case, not someone glancing around a room.
Closest Survivor in Modern English
seek (still used in religious contexts but stripped of its desperation)
Peak Usage (1611)
KJV Deuteronomy 4:29 -- 'If thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him'; Jeremiah 29:13 -- 'Ye shall seek me, and find me'
Died still used but casualized (~1900)
Hebrew baqash/darash ('to seek with urgency/inquire diligently/pursue with your whole being') flattened into 'look for.' The desperation and whole-life commitment of seeking God became casual searching.
What Replaced It
“look for”
Casual and visual; baqash was an all-consuming pursuit with everything at stake
“search”
Methodical and detached; darash was urgent, personal, and involved the whole person
“try to find”
Half-hearted; seeking God was not 'trying' but committing everything to the pursuit