StrongerBible

karar

כָּרַר

HebrewH3769“danced, whirling”

Appears 2 times · tap a cell to see the verses

2Sa 6:142Sa 6:16
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradekah-RAHRverb

What karar means

to whirl: to dance by spinning and turning the whole body, thrown into the motion with full strength.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyContested

This verb turns up only twice in the Bible, and both times in the same moment: David bringing the ark of the covenant up to Jerusalem, moving in front of it with everything he has (2 Samuel 6:14, 16). Everything we can say about it therefore comes from the company it keeps and from related languages, not from watching it work across many different settings.

The clues point in one direction, toward turning and spinning:

  • The word is built on a doubled pattern that Hebrew tends to use for repeated, back-and-forth, or circling movement.
  • Its relatives in Arabic and in later Aramaic mean to go round, to wheel about, to come back around again.
  • In 2 Samuel 6:16 it stands next to another rare verb for leaping or skipping (פָּזַז), so it belongs with athletic, whole-body motion.
  • When a later writer retold the same scene in 1 Chronicles 15:29, he swapped in the everyday Hebrew word for dancing (רָקַד), which shows how a Hebrew reader heard it.

The standard dictionaries treat "dance" as the shade this particular word takes on rather than its bare core, which they give as something closer to "turn" or "go round." That is why translations reach for "whirling" as readily as for "danced."

Not every ancient reader agreed. The old Greek translation of Samuel, and Josephus after it, took the word to mean striking up music on instruments rather than dancing, and the Aramaic version read it as "praising." A few modern scholars have followed the Greek. Most have not, mainly because of that later retelling and because Michal's contempt at the window makes better sense of a body flinging itself about than of a king plucking strings.

2Sa 6:142Sa 6:16

What scholars say about karar

The verb is attested only in the reduplicating Pilpel participle מְכַרְכֵּר at 2 Samuel 6:14, 16, and the reference lexica converge on a core sense of turning or whirling: BDB (502) glosses the form as dancing, literally whirling, and reconstructs a root sense move around, then surround, enclose, recur, citing Arabic karra (return, repeat, attack anew, advance and retreat); HALOT (s.v. כרר) compares Arabic krkr and kwr II, to roll or roll up; DCH 4 lists the verb as attested only in this participle and glosses dance, whirl. Julian Morgenstern (JAOS 36, 1916: 321-332) treated KRR as one of three Hebrew dance roots alongside HGG and HLL, and Mayer Gruber (Biblica 62.3, 1981: 328-346) placed it within the same dance-derived vocabulary. Comparative support for a core notion of repeated turning is strongest in Arabic karra/karkara and in Aramaic and Late Hebrew כִּרְכֵּר (go round, encircle), with the Mishnaic noun כִּרְכָּר used of a weaver's shuttle; the Ugaritic KRR of KTU 1.4 iv 29-30, where El does ykrkr with his digits, is contested, since Yitzhak Avishur (VT 26, 1976: 257-261) and Gösta Ahlström (VT 28, 1978: 100-101) read it as a hand or finger gesture supporting instrumental music, while David P. Wright (JBL 121, 2002: 218-221) argues the action is not specific to one body part. The Septuagint of 2 Kingdoms renders the form with ἀνακρούεσθαι, to strike up music, and P. Kyle McCarter (Anchor Bible 9, 1984: 164-171) accordingly reconstructs כְּלֵי עֹז behind MT בְּכָל־עֹז and translates instrumental performance; Josephus (Ant. 7.85), Targum Jonathan (מְשַׁבַּח, praising) and the Peshitta belong to the same music or praise tradition, while the Vulgate (saltabat, subsilientem atque saltantem) and, decisively for most scholars, the Chronicler's substitution of מְרַקֵּד וּמְשַׂחֵק at 1 Chronicles 15:29 support dance. Barthélemy's Critique textuelle committee (1:242-243) retained MT against the emendation, judging בְּכָל־עֹז to suit strenuous dancing. Since this stretch of Kingdoms is kaige-revised, the Greek witness carries less weight here than the Greek of Samuel usually does, though 4QSam-a is fragmentary at the relevant words. Whether the nouns כִּכָּר (round loaf, district, talent), כַּר (lamb) and כִּרְכָּרוֹת (Isaiah 66:20) derive from this verb is unproven, and the BDB etymology of כַּר in particular has been criticized.

Where scholars disagree about karar

Whether the verb describes a whirling dance or the striking up of music on instruments.

  • majorityThe verb means to whirl, hence to dance with a turning, leaping motion. The pairing with the leaping verb מְפַזֵּז in 2 Samuel 6:16, the Chronicler's substitution of the ordinary dance verb מְרַקֵּד at 1 Chronicles 15:29, the Vulgate's saltabat, and the Arabic, Ugaritic and Aramaic evidence for a core sense of repeated turning all converge on dance; Michal's disgust also fits a dance that risked exposure better than it fits instrument playing.; F. Brown, S. R. Driver, C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), 502; L. Koehler, W. Baumgartner, J. J. Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (1994-2000), s.v. כרר; D. J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 4, s.v. כרר; David P. Wright, "Music and Dance in 2 Samuel 6," Journal of Biblical Literature 121, no. 2 (2002): 218-221; Mayer I. Gruber, "Ten Dance-Derived Expressions in the Hebrew Bible," Biblica 62, no. 3 (1981): 328-346; Dominique Barthélemy, Critique textuelle de l'Ancien Testament, vol. 1, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 50/1 (1982), 242-243
  • minorityThe verb means to strike up or play on instruments, following the Septuagint of 2 Kingdoms 6:14, 16, which renders it with ἀνακρούεσθαι, and Josephus, who has David playing the lyre. On this reading MT בְּכָל־עֹז is to be reconstructed as כְּלֵי עֹז, instruments of might, and the Ugaritic krkr of the Baal Cycle denotes a hand or finger movement suited to playing.; P. Kyle McCarter Jr., II Samuel, Anchor Bible 9 (1984), 164, 166, 171; Yitzhak Avishur, "krkr in Biblical Hebrew and in Ugaritic," Vetus Testamentum 26 (1976): 257-261; Gösta W. Ahlström, "krkr and tpd," Vetus Testamentum 28 (1978): 100-101
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • F. Brown, S. R. Driver, C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1906), 502lexicon
  • L. Koehler, W. Baumgartner, J. J. Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, trans. M. E. J. Richardson (Leiden: Brill, 1994-2000), 2, s.v. כררlexicon
  • D. J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993-2011), vol. 4, s.v. כררlexicon
  • P. Kyle McCarter Jr., II Samuel, Anchor Bible 9 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984), 164, 166, 171, 184commentary
  • David P. Wright, "Music and Dance in 2 Samuel 6," Journal of Biblical Literature 121, no. 2 (2002): 201-225article
  • Julian Morgenstern, "The Etymological History of the Three Hebrew Synonyms for To Dance, HGG, HLL and KRR, and Their Cultural Significance," Journal of the American Oriental Society 36 (1916): 321-332article
  • Mayer I. Gruber, "Ten Dance-Derived Expressions in the Hebrew Bible," Biblica 62, no. 3 (1981): 328-346article
  • Dominique Barthélemy, Critique textuelle de l'Ancien Testament, vol. 1, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 50/1 (Fribourg: Editions Universitaires; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1982), 242-243monograph
  • Yitzhak Avishur, "krkr in Biblical Hebrew and in Ugaritic," Vetus Testamentum 26 (1976): 257-261article
  • Gösta W. Ahlström, "krkr and tpd," Vetus Testamentum 28 (1978): 100-101article
  • Hans Wilhelm Hertzberg, I & II Samuel: A Commentary, Old Testament Library, trans. J. S. Bowden (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964), 280-281commentary
  • A. A. Anderson, 2 Samuel, Word Biblical Commentary 11 (Dallas: Word, 1989), 105commentary
  • Robert Alter, The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), 227commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of כָּרַר

piel participle m s absolute

מְכַרְכֵּר

2Sa 6:14, 2Sa 6:16