to hurry: to act quickly, without delay, or to be quick and rash by nature.
At its center this word is about speed. Someone does something at once, with no time lost. In story after story it pairs with a second verb to say how an action was done: a person hurries and fetches, hurries and bows, hurries and answers. Read smoothly, that simply means he quickly fetched, quickly bowed, quickly answered. The word is the engine of urgency in Hebrew narrative, and it covers everything from Abraham rushing to feed three guests to a city dragged off into sudden ruin.
The same speed shows up as a plea. When a person in trouble cries out to God, this is often the word they reach for: do not delay, come quickly, answer soon. Here the hurry is not careless but desperate, the urgency of someone who cannot wait for rescue.
There is also a darker turn the word can take. Used of a person's character rather than a single act, it describes someone who is quick in the wrong way: rash, impulsive, jumping ahead without thought. A heart that is hasty in this sense is unsteady, and a nation that is hasty is reckless and dangerous. The thread that ties all of this together is speed, but speed can be eager help, urgent prayer, or thoughtless haste, and the context decides which.