to cut into a hard surface: to engrave, to plow, or to shape raw material, and from there to work out a scheme in the mind
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
At its root this word is about cutting into something firm and leaving a mark. The same action covers a smith forging metal, a carver engraving stone, and a farmer driving a blade through the soil to open it for seed. All three are skilled, deliberate work that reshapes resistant material.
From that physical picture the word moves inward. Just as a craftsman cuts a design into wood or metal, a person can cut a plan into the mind, working it out detail by detail. In the Bible this figurative "work out a plan" sense is nearly always sinister, the quiet labor of plotting harm, though one proverb pointedly turns it the other way and speaks of those who devise good.
The thread that holds these uses together is purposeful shaping of something that resists you, whether that is iron, ground, or a course of action.
Nuances
1ato engrave or fabricate: skilled work that cuts a design into metal, stone, or wood
to be silent: to hold one's peace, say nothing, or be unresponsive like a deaf person
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This is a completely different idea from cutting and plowing, and most scholars treat it as a separate word that happens to be spelled the same. Here the sense is keeping still: not speaking, holding back a reply, leaving a matter alone.
The silence is rarely just neutral quiet. It carries weight. A father's silence when he hears his daughter's vow counts as consent, so saying nothing is itself a decision with legal force. A person's silence can be wise restraint, as when even a fool seems wise by keeping quiet. It can also be a painful failure to act, which is why the Psalms cry out to God not to stay silent, as though his silence were abandonment.
Closely tied to this is being deaf, since the ear that hears nothing and the mouth that says nothing are two sides of the same stillness.
Nuances
2ato be silent, to hold one's peace, to say nothing
the same verb also covers engraving metal and devising schemes, so plowing is only one face of a wider idea of cutting into a surfaceJer 17:1
Both
both name cutting open the soil to prepare it for plantingDeu 22:10
Only plow
the English "plow" is purely agricultural and carries none of the word's reach into metalwork or plotting
“devise”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“engrave”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How ḥaresh differs from similar Hebrew words
חָשָׁהanother word for being silent, but it leans toward holding still and saying nothing in a moment, where this word more often names a settled, deliberate silence
in the be-silent sense it leans toward refraining from speech or response: holding one's peace, saying nothing, staying out of a matter2Ki 18:36Job 13:5Pro 17:28
carries the idiom of standing down while another acts: be still and let the LORD fight, or keep silent in inner anguishExo 14:14Psa 32:3
Both
both mean to be or keep silent, and both appear in laments begging God not to stay silent to a desperate pleaPsa 28:1Isa 64:12
leans toward holding back or staying inactive, often as a restraint that ought to be broken: refusing to keep quiet about good news, or vowing not to stay still for Zion's sake2Ki 7:9Isa 62:1Isa 62:6
can name a stillness or calm beyond speech, as when a raging storm is hushedPsa 107:29Ecc 3:7
דָּמַםto fall silent or grow still, often suddenly and from shock, grief, or death, rather than the chosen restraint this word usually carries
rests on a farming and craft image: to plow, to engrave or work in metal, which is why its scheming sense is pictured as quietly furrowing a planGen 4:22Deu 22:101Ki 7:14
also means simply to be silent, to hold one's peace, which H2803 never doesExo 14:14Job 13:5
Both
both are used for devising or plotting evil against another, the mind quietly contriving harmPro 6:14Mic 2:1
names the ACTION of cutting into a surface, whether breaking open soil with a plow or engraving a hard surfaceDeu 22:10Jer 17:1
extends from physical cutting to figuratively "cutting out" a plan, so it can mean to devise or plot, usually something harmfulPro 6:14Pro 3:29
carries a separate, unrelated stream of meaning: to be silent, to hold one's peace, to keep stillGen 24:21Hab 1:13
Both
both reach back to the same root idea of working a hard material by cutting and shaping it: the verb is the act of fashioning, the noun is the one who fashionsJer 17:1Deu 27:15
names the PERSON who does skilled work, the craftsman or artisan, not the act itselfExo 35:352Sa 5:11
is the standing word for the idol-maker in the prophets' mockery, the worker in wood, metal, and stone who shapes a god that cannot saveIsa 44:12Jer 10:3
Is the ordinary word for saying nothing when a reply was expected, and such silence can settle a matter: a father or husband who hears a woman's vow and says nothing lets the vow stand.Num 30:4Num 30:11Gen 34:5
Is the word for God's own silence, and prayer turns that silence into a complaint: do not stay silent toward me.Psa 28:1Psa 83:1Psa 50:21Hab 1:13
Carries a note of good sense in the wisdom books, where keeping quiet is praised as the mark of someone who knows when not to speak.Pro 11:12Job 13:5
Reaches past speech to being unresponsive in general, so it can even describe ears that hear nothing.Mic 7:16
Shares its spelling with a busy family of cutting work: driving a blade through soil, cutting a design into metal or stone, and from there the quiet labor of working out a scheme against a neighbor.Deu 22:10Jer 17:1Pro 6:14
Both
Both can name a silence a person chooses, holding back words he had every opportunity to say.Psa 39:9Job 6:24Isa 36:21
Both show up in prayer and lament, where staying silent is not calm but costly and the one keeping it suffers for it.Psa 39:2Psa 32:3
Keeps its eye on the mouth itself. The silence it names is words that will not come out, and the verses around it speak of a tongue, lips, or a mouth held shut.Ezk 3:26Psa 39:9Isa 53:7
Can mean the outright loss of speech, a mouth stopped from outside so the person could not answer even if he wished to, and it is lifted when the mouth is opened again.Ezk 24:27Ezk 33:22Dan 10:15
Is used for silencing that comes as a punishment, where lying lips are shut as a matter of justice rather than by the speaker's own choice.Psa 31:18
Its lookalike sense has nothing to do with speech at all: it is the harvest word for tying cut grain into sheaves, and it turns up that way only in Joseph's dream.Gen 37:7
It describes a person sitting on words they could have spoken: watching without comment, hearing bad news and saying nothing, or letting an insult pass unanswered.Gen 24:21Gen 34:51Sa 10:27
Saying nothing can carry legal force with this word: a father or a husband who hears a woman's vow and stays quiet has thereby let it stand, so his silence is counted as agreement.Num 30:4Num 30:7Num 30:11Num 30:14
It is the word used for God's own silence, which the psalms protest as an emergency and which God himself explains as restraint that was mistaken for approval.Psa 28:1Psa 83:1Psa 109:1Psa 50:21
It weighs silence as a lasting condition with a price or a payoff: guilt left unspoken wearing a person down, or quiet making even a fool look wise.Psa 32:3Pro 17:28Pro 11:12Job 13:5
Both
Both can be an order to stop talking, and English Bibles reach for the same wording for either one, rendered "be silent" or "hold your peace".Jdg 3:19Exo 14:142Ki 18:36
In both, the quiet is chosen or imposed by someone rather than being an inability to speak, and in both it is loaded with meaning: reverence, restraint, or fear rather than an empty pause.Hab 2:202Sa 13:20
It is a hushing cry rather than a description: one short word thrown at a noisy crowd to stop the noise on the spot. Caleb uses it to quiet the people in front of Moses, Ehud uses it to clear a room of attendants, and the Levites use it to settle a weeping assembly.Num 13:30Jdg 3:19Neh 8:11
It is the standard call for hushed awe when God is present or about to act, addressed to the whole earth or to all people at once rather than to one person holding back a reply.Hab 2:20Zep 1:7Zec 2:13
It can mark the frightened hush of people who dare not speak in the middle of disaster, where saying anything at all feels dangerous.Amo 6:10Amo 8:3
ḥaresh in the other biblical languages
ἀροτριάωGreek“to plow”the Greek verb for plowing the ground, matching this word's farming sense without its extra meanings of engraving or scheming
is wholly about keeping silent: a person, a crowd, or even the wind and sea falling quiet at a commandMrk 4:39Luk 19:40
often pictures being hushed or refusing to answer, whether a crowd telling the blind to be quiet or Jesus held under pressureMrk 10:48Mat 26:63
What scholars say about ḥaresh
The standard lexicons treat this spelling as covering two (and arguably more) distinct roots. BDB and HALOT separate a root meaning "cut in, engrave, plow, fabricate" (with the figurative "devise") from a homonym meaning "be silent, be deaf." The engraving and plowing senses share an obvious physical core of cutting into resistant material, and the figurative "plot" grows naturally from the picture of working something out. The silence meaning has no convincing link to cutting and is widely judged a separate word. A handful of verses use a form normally tied to one sense for the other meaning, which keeps the split from being perfectly clean.
Where scholars disagree about ḥaresh
Whether this spelling represents one polysemous word or two (or more) unrelated words that happen to look alike.
majorityTwo separate roots: one for cutting, engraving, plowing, and scheming, and a distinct word for being silent or deaf. The two share no plausible common meaning.; BDB, s.v. חרשׁ I and חרשׁ II; HALOT, s.v. חרשׁ
minorityMore than two roots should be distinguished, splitting the engraving and plowing uses as well.; DCH, s.v. חרשׁ