to meet or come upon someone or something, whether by chance or on purpose
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
At its root the word means "to make contact": one person, place, or thing comes up against another. Every other thing the word does grows out of this single picture of two parties meeting, and the contact it names tends to be sudden rather than gradual.
The meeting itself is neutral. Whether it turns friendly, hostile, or pleading depends entirely on who is meeting whom and why. Here the meeting is simply that:
Jacob happens upon a certain place at nightfall
messengers of God meet him on the road
Saul runs into a band of prophets
The same plain sense covers stumbling onto your enemy's stray ox.
Because the contact can be accidental, the word often carries the flavor of running into something unexpectedly, the way we say we ran into an old friend. When God is the one who does the meeting, it can shade into coming graciously to someone's aid.
Nuances
1ato meet or come upon a person, place, or thing
Gen 28:11*Gen 32:1(2)Exo 5:20Exo 23:41Sa 10:5Amo 5:19
1bof God: to meet someone with favor, coming to their aid
Isa 64:5(4)*
2
of a border or boundary: to reach, touch, or run up to a place
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
When the subject is a territorial boundary rather than a person, the same idea of making contact becomes geographic: the border reaches a town, touches a river, or runs up against a hill. This is a set technical use in the lists that map out the tribal lands, and several scholars think this concrete, physical sense of contact may be the oldest use of the word, the one from which meeting a person and even falling upon a person branch off.
The boundary is pictured almost as a traveler that meets the next landmark on its route. Translators usually render it "reach" or "touch", but the underlying word is the very same one used when two people meet.
Jos 16:7Jos 17:10Jos 19:11 (2×)Jos 19:22Jos 19:26Jos 19:27Jos 19:34 (2×)
3
to fall upon someone: to attack, strike down, or kill
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
When a meeting is hostile, the word sharpens into violence. To fall upon a person is to assault them or, very often, to execute them. The step from meeting to killing is short in the language: an enemy who meets you may strike, so the same verb that pictures an encounter can name the deadly blow that ends it.
In the historical books this becomes almost a technical term for a commissioned killing at close quarters. In a string of royal orders the command go, fall upon him plainly means "put him to death": the king has ordered the death, and the verb names the moment the killer closes with the victim and strikes. It is not the ordinary vocabulary of battle but the language of a sanctioned execution, as when Solomon sends his officer to cut down one man after another, or the law of the avenger of blood describes the avenger both finding and dispatching the killer in a single act.
The milder edge of this meaning is to harm or assault without necessarily killing, as when a woman is warned she might be molested in a strange field, or travelers fear that pursuers will set upon them. The word can also be turned around so that God is the one who makes a blow or a burden fall on a person.
Nuances
3ato attack and kill: to strike down, execute, or put to death
3bto fall upon in order to harm or assault, short of killing
Jos 2:16Jdg 18:25Rut 2:22Isa 47:3*
Isa 47:3
How to read the verb in Isaiah 47:3, where God announces vengeance and then applies this verb to "no person." The word can carry a hostile-encounter sense, a sparing or considering sense, and a pleading or intercession sense, and the three readings give three different meanings to the line.
contestedIt means God will let no human being get in his way or obstruct him, taking the verb as a hostile encounter with no preposition.; J. Goldingay and D. Payne, Isaiah 40-55 (ICC, 2006)
contestedIt means God will spare no one, taking the verb as showing consideration to someone. This lies behind many modern English versions.; C. Westermann, Isaiah 40-66 (OTL, 1969)
contestedIt means God will let no one intercede or plead for mercy, taking the verb in its pleading sense. This is the reading of the ancient Aramaic paraphrase and later Jewish tradition.; S. Paul, Isaiah 40-66 (ECC, 2012); Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 47:3
3cof God: to make a blow or a burden fall upon someone, to lay it on them
Job 36:32*Isa 53:6*
4
to approach someone with a request: to entreat, urge, plead, or intercede
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested
A meeting can also be an approach with a request. To go up to someone and press a need on them is to entreat or urge them. When the appeal is made on behalf of a third party, it becomes to plead for them or to intercede. Abraham asks his neighbors to speak to a man for him, and Ruth begs Naomi to stop urging her to turn back.
This meaning carries special weight in prayer. Hebrew has more ordinary words for praying, so choosing this one signals something stronger: pressing hard, accosting a king or God as an advocate presses a case. To meet God with a petition on someone else's behalf is to intercede, and God can forbid a prophet to do it or challenge people to try it. The word names the act of standing between two parties and pleading for one of them.
Its most discussed appearance is in the song of the suffering servant, where the servant pleads for the very wrongdoers whose guilt has been laid on him. Because the same word can mean both "having a load placed on you" and "pleading for others", and both ideas sit side by side in that passage, scholars read the servant's act in more than one way.
Nuances
4ato entreat or urge a person: to press a request on someone
Gen 23:8Rut 1:16Jer 36:25
4bto plead with God or intercede on another's behalf
What the servant does for transgressors in Isaiah 53:12. The grammar matches the ordinary way of saying one pleads on another's behalf, yet the passage also continues the violent image from verse 6, where guilt is made to strike the servant, so the act can be read as pleading, as interposing oneself, or as both together.
contestedHe made intercession, verbally pleading for them. The grammar matches the standard way of saying one pleads on another's behalf, and the parallel line "he bore the sin of many" points to the work of a priest or prophet standing between God and people.; B. Childs, Isaiah (OTL, 2001); J. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66 (NICOT, 1998); S. Paul, Isaiah 40-66 (ECC, 2012)
contestedHe interposed himself, stepping into the transgressors' place, continuing the imposition of their guilt from verse 6 rather than merely speaking for them.; C. Westermann, Isaiah 40-66 (OTL, 1969); J. Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 40-55 (Anchor Bible, 2002)
contestedBoth at once: the poet deliberately uses the word's full range, so the servant who was struck on behalf of sinners now also stands as their advocate.; J. Goldingay and D. Payne, Isaiah 40-55 (ICC, 2006)
the original can shade from a chance meeting into either a deadly assault or an urgent plea, a range the plain English word does not suggestGen 32:1Amo 5:19
Both
both name two parties coming into contact, whether by chance or on purposeGen 28:11Exo 5:20
Only meet
in English the word sounds calm and often friendly, hiding the fact that the same original word can name a killing or a desperate appeal
the original is the very same word used for a peaceful meeting, so its violent uses are a hardening of that meeting sense rather than a separate term for attack1Ki 2:25Jdg 8:21
Both
both describe coming forcefully against a person to strike them down1Sa 22:18Num 35:19
Only fall upon
the English phrase reads as purely hostile, missing that the word elsewhere means simply to meet or even to plead
the original pictures intercession concretely, as going up to meet someone and press a plea, the same physical approach used for an ordinary encounterIsa 53:12Jer 7:16
Both
both name pleading on behalf of another before a higher partyIsa 59:16
Only intercede
the English word is a formal, almost legal term that loses the plain image of simply going to someone to press a request
“reach”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“entreat”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How paga differs from similar Hebrew words
פָּגַשׁthe closest word for simply meeting or running into someone, but it stays neutral and never develops the violent attack sense or the pleading intercession sense that this word carries
Carries a violent sense the other word never has: to fall upon someone and strike them down, the standard verb for an ordered execution or a deadly assault.1Ki 2:25Jdg 8:212Sa 1:15
Develops a sense of pressing a request on someone: to plead with, urge, or stand between God and people to intercede for them.Isa 53:6Isa 59:16Jer 7:16
Used geographically of a border running up against a place, where one territory touches or reaches another.Jos 19:11Jos 19:22Jos 19:34
Both
Both can mean simply to meet or come upon someone along the way, a neutral encounter with no hint of violence.Gen 28:11Gen 32:17
קָרָאto encounter or come to meet, often of an event or fate befalling a person, where this word more often pictures one party deliberately falling upon or pressing a request on another
Carries a violent, lethal edge: to fall upon someone and strike them down. It is the word for ordering an execution or cutting an enemy down.1Ki 2:251Ki 2:342Sa 1:15
Can mean to fall upon someone with a plea, to press a request hard enough that it becomes intercession on another's behalf.Isa 53:12Jer 7:16Jer 27:18
Used of a territory's boundary reaching or touching another, where no personal meeting is in view at all.Jos 16:7Jos 19:11Jos 19:22
Both
Both can mean simply to encounter or come upon someone, the plain neutral meeting that carries neither violence nor ceremony.Exo 5:3Exo 5:20
The standard word for deliberately going out to meet an arriving person, the ceremonial or welcoming reception of someone on their way.Gen 14:17Gen 18:2Exo 18:7
Used of an event or disaster befalling a person, something that happens to someone rather than someone meeting someone.Gen 42:4Gen 49:1
נָגַעto touch or reach, overlapping in the plain sense of making contact and of a boundary reaching a landmark, but without this word's developed senses of attacking and interceding
Names meeting or coming upon a person, an encounter between people rather than contact with a thing.Gen 32:1Exo 5:20
Carries derived senses that grow out of meeting a person: falling on someone to kill, and pleading with someone on another's behalf.1Sa 22:18Isa 53:12Jer 7:16
Both
Both can describe one thing reaching another so that they touch, as when a territory's border runs up against the next.Exo 4:25Jos 19:11
Names bare physical contact between a person and a thing: touching an object, a body, or a holy item, with the ritual purity stakes that contact carries.Gen 3:3Lev 5:2Num 19:11
Describes a blow or affliction striking a person, where the contact is a strike rather than an encounter.Gen 12:17Gen 32:25
paga in the other biblical languages
συναντάωGreek“to meet”the ordinary Greek word for meeting someone, the usual counterpart for the plain encounter sense but without the attack or intercession range
Carries a forceful, often deadly sense the Greek word never has: to fall upon and strike a person down, to kill on command.Jdg 8:211Sa 22:181Ki 2:25
Can mean to press someone with a plea, to fall on them with a request, even to step in on another's behalf before God, a relational and intercessory weight the Greek word lacks.Jer 7:16Isa 53:12Isa 59:16
Used of land touching land: a boundary that reaches and runs up against the next territory.Jos 16:7Jos 19:11Jos 19:22
Both
At its plainest, each word simply means to come upon or run into someone. Greek translators reach for the Greek word exactly where the Hebrew word means a neutral encounter, two parties meeting along the way.Gen 28:11Luk 9:37
Stays an ordinary, neutral verb for coming face to face with someone, with no violence implied. A person meets a person on the road or at a doorway.Luk 9:37Luk 22:10Act 10:25
Stretches to events meeting a person: it can describe what is about to happen to someone, the things that lie ahead of them, a use the Hebrew word does not have.Act 20:22
ἐντυγχάνωGreek“to call on”the Greek word for interceding or pleading on another's behalf, matching this word's intercession sense, and the term the New Testament uses for Christ interceding for his people
Often means simply to meet or come upon someone or something, with no pleading involved.Gen 28:11Gen 32:1
Can mean to fall violently upon a person, that is to strike them down or kill them.1Ki 2:25Jdg 8:21Num 35:19
Used of a territory reaching or touching a boundary line, a purely spatial sense.Jos 16:7Jos 19:11
Both
Both name pleading with someone on behalf of another. The Hebrew word supplies the picture the Greek word later carries: the suffering servant who makes intercession for wrongdoers, language the New Testament takes up for Christ and the Spirit interceding for believers.Isa 53:12Rom 8:34
Both can name the urging of God to act or not to act for a particular person, whether pressing him to spare or appealing to him to intervene.Jer 7:16Rom 11:2
Always names a personal appeal made to someone on another party's behalf, whether pleading for a person or pressing a case against one.Act 25:24
Carries the settled theological weight of one person standing before God to plead for others, the work attributed to the Spirit and to the risen Christ.Rom 8:27Rom 8:34Heb 7:25
most often has a physical sense of striking or falling upon someone, usually to kill, which the Greek word never carries.Jdg 8:211Sa 22:181Ki 2:25
can mean simply to meet or come upon someone or something by encounter, with no idea of pleading.Gen 28:11Gen 32:1
is used in a purely geographic way, of a boundary that reaches or touches a place, a sense the Greek word has nothing like.Jos 16:7Jos 19:11
can mean to press or urge a person face to face, as when Ruth begs Naomi not to push her away.Rut 1:16
Both
both name the act of interceding, of pleading with God on another person's behalf. In the Hebrew word this is one branch of its range, seen most famously where the servant makes intercession for the guilty; in the Greek word it is the whole meaning.Isa 53:12Rom 8:26
both can describe someone stepping into the gap to plead for others when no one else will, whether a prophet forbidden to pray for a doomed people or the Spirit praying within believers.Jer 7:16Rom 8:26
means only one thing: to step in and plead on someone else's behalf. It has no physical or spatial sense at all, unlike the Hebrew word whose pleading meaning is just one branch of a much wider range.Rom 8:26
is used of the Spirit pleading for believers with wordless groaning, a specifically divine act of standing in for someone who cannot pray as they ought.Rom 8:26
What scholars say about paga
The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) and TDOT (Maiberger) treat פגע as a single polysemous root whose core idea is forceful contact, from which the senses to reach a boundary, to fall upon and kill, and to entreat or intercede all derive by contextual specialization; none posits homonyms, and the preposition often decides the sense. The strongest cognates are Aramaic and Syriac (the same broad field) and Arabic fajaʿa (a sudden hostile blow), supporting a primary sense of impingement. Commentators (Milgrom on Numbers 35, McCarter on 1 Samuel, Cogan on 1 Kings) identify a near-technical use for authorized close-quarters execution in the Deuteronomistic narrative. The hiphil concentrates in Isaiah 53:6 (God making iniquity fall on the servant) and the intercessory uses at Isaiah 53:12, 59:16, and Jeremiah 15:11.Isaiah 53:12 is the interpretive hinge: BDB, Childs, Oswalt, and S. Paul defend verbal intercession on the syntax, Westermann and Blenkinsopp read substitutionary interposition, and Goldingay and Payne argue the poet exploits the whole range at once. The Septuagint uses no single Greek verb, rendering Isaiah 53:6 and 53:12 alike with paradidomi (hand over) while Isaiah 59:16 gets antilambano; NIDOTTE traces the New Testament intercession language (Romans 8:34;Hebrews 7:25) back past the Greek to the Hebrew of 53:12. Job 36:32 is textually obscure and left unclassified.
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
BDB, s.v. פָּגַעlexicon
HALOT, s.v. פגעlexicon
DCH, s.v. פגעlexicon
P. Maiberger, "pāḡaʿ," TDOT 11:470-476theological-dictionary
NIDOTTE, s.v. פגע (vol. 3)theological-dictionary
J. Milgrom, Numbers (JPS Torah Commentary, 1990)commentary
P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (Anchor Bible, 1980)commentary
M. Cogan, I Kings (Anchor Bible, 2001)commentary
J. Goldingay and D. Payne, Isaiah 40-55 (ICC, 2006)commentary
J. Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 40-55 (Anchor Bible, 2002)commentary
W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah 1 (Hermeneia, 1986)commentary