StrongerBible

rosh

רֹאשׁ

HebrewH7218“head, chief, ...”

Appears 600 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 2:10Gen 3:15Gen 8:5Gen 11:4Gen 28:12Gen 28:18Gen 40:13Gen 40:16Gen 40:17Gen 40:19Gen 40:20 (2×)Gen 47:31Gen 48:14 (2×)Gen 48:17 (3×)Gen 48:18Gen 49:26Exo 6:14Exo 6:25Exo 12:2Exo 12:9Exo 17:9Exo 17:10Exo 18:25Exo 26:24Exo 28:32Exo 29:6Exo 29:7Exo 29:17Exo 36:29Exo 36:38Exo 38:17Exo 38:19Exo 38:28Lev 1:8Lev 1:12Lev 1:15Lev 8:20Lev 9:13Lev 10:6Lev 13:29Lev 13:30Lev 19:27Lev 21:5Num 1:4Num 1:16Num 1:49Num 7:2Num 10:4Num 10:10Num 13:3
Word studyResearch-gradeROSHnoun

What rosh means

head: the head on a body, and from that picture the top of a thing, the person in charge, the start of something, the choicest part, and the total of a count.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is one word whose many uses all radiate from a single picture: the head that sits highest on a body and directs it. The lexicons and the comparative Semitic evidence agree that this is one rich word, not several look-alikes, and that the same network of uses (head, top, chief, beginning, best, sum) was already in place across the ancient Semitic languages long before Hebrew.

From that one picture the senses fan out along two lines. Because the head is the highest part, the word names the top or summit of anything tall, a mountain, a tower, a stairway. Because the head directs the body, it names the one who leads, the chief of a clan, an army, or a nation, and this leadership use is common, especially in laws and lists of officials.

The idea of "first" then branches again. First in time becomes the beginning or opening of a period, the first month, the head of the year. First in rank becomes the choicest or finest, the best spices, the chief joy. And first in counting becomes a sum or grand total, which is why taking a census is literally "lifting the head" of the people.

A few further uses keep the same body-part picture underneath: an army split for a surprise attack moves in "heads," separate companies, and a river that breaks apart has "heads," its branches or sources. Readers should not confuse any of this with a different word spelled the same way that means a bitter or poisonous plant, and so venom or gall; that is a separate word with its own dictionary number.

Nuances

1athe head, the part of the body that sits at the top and holds the face; the place hands are laid, hair grows, and a crown or oil is set.
TranslatabilityDirect
Gen 3:15Gen 48:14 (2×)Gen 48:17 (3×)Gen 48:18Exo 29:7Exo 29:10Lev 1:4Lev 8:12Lev 13:40Lev 16:21Num 6:5Num 6:9
1bthe top or summit of something tall: a mountain, a tower, a stairway, a pillar, the head of a stalk or branch.
Gen 8:5Gen 11:4Gen 28:12Exo 17:9Exo 17:10Exo 19:20Exo 24:17Exo 34:2Num 14:40Num 14:44Num 21:20Jdg 9:7
1cthe chief, the leader, the one with authority: the head of a clan, an army, a city, or a nation.
Exo 6:14Exo 6:25Num 1:16Num 25:15Num 30:1(2)Num 36:1Deu 1:15Deu 5:23Deu 28:13Deu 28:44Jos 22:21Jdg 10:18
1dthe beginning or first in time: the opening of a period, the first month, the head of the year, the earliest point.
Exo 12:2Num 10:10Num 28:11Deu 33:15Jdg 7:19Psa 119:160Pro 1:21Pro 8:23Pro 8:26Isa 51:20Ezk 16:25Ezk 40:1
1ethe choicest or finest: the best of a kind, the foremost in worth.
Exo 30:23Psa 137:6Sng 4:14Ezk 27:22
1fthe sum or total of a count: the full number reached when a group is numbered, as in taking a census.
Exo 30:12Lev 6:5Num 1:2Num 1:49Num 4:2Num 4:22Num 5:7Num 26:2Num 31:26Num 31:49Jdg 5:30Psa 139:17
1ga company or division: one of the separate bands an army is split into for attack.
Jdg 7:16Jdg 7:20Jdg 9:34Jdg 9:37Jdg 9:43Jdg 9:44 (2×)1Sa 11:111Sa 13:171Sa 13:181Ch 12:23Job 1:17
1ha source or branch of a river: one of the streams a single river divides into.
Gen 2:10
Gen 2:10

Whether the four "heads" into which Eden's river divides are upstream sources (headwaters) or downstream branches.

  • contestedHeadwaters or upstream sources, fitting Eden as the cosmic source of the world's rivers.; Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, Word Biblical Commentary 1 (Waco: Word, 1987), 64-66
  • contestedDownstream branches: the single river divides as it flows out, on the analogy of a delta.; E. A. Speiser, Genesis, Anchor Bible 1 (Garden City: Doubleday, 1964), 16-17; Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis: The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: JPS, 1989), 19-20

What scholars say about rosh

The standard lexicons (BDB, HALOT, DCH, Gesenius 18th ed.) and the two great theological dictionaries treat this as a single noun with a wide, well-developed range, not as separate homonyms, and the comparative Semitic evidence (Akkadian resu, Ugaritic ris, Aramaic, Arabic) shows the same network of senses was already pan-Semitic and ancient. The literal sense is the head on a body; from it the lexicons trace figurative uses that all stay tied to that image: the top or summit of a tall object, the chief or leader of a group (about 170 to 180 of the roughly 600 occurrences), the first or beginning of a time, the choicest or finest of a kind, the sum or total of a numbered group (the census idiom of "lifting the head"), a company or division of an army, and a branch or source of a river. The leadership use is especially frequent in administrative and military contexts and is heavily multiplied in the late "heads of fathers' houses" idiom of Chronicles. Two edges remain debated: whether Genesis 2:10's four "heads" are upstream sources or downstream branches, and which season Ezekiel 40:1's "head of the year" marks. A larger debate sits on the Greek side rather than the Hebrew: how the leader sense relates to its usual Greek rendering and what that implies for the New Testament. The lexicons keep this word distinct from the identically spelled noun meaning a bitter or poisonous plant (venom or gall), which has its own entry and is unrelated.

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 (Brown-Driver-Briggs), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1906), 910-913, s.v. ראשׁ Ilexicon
  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: Brill, 1994-2000), 3:1164-1168, s.v. ראשׁ Ilexicon
  • DCH (David J. A. Clines, ed.), The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 7 (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2010), 387-406, s.v. ראשׁlexicon
  • Hans-Peter Müller, "ראשׁ," in Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament (TLOT), trans. M. E. Biddle (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1997), 3:1184-1194dictionary
  • H.-J. Fabry, "ראשׁ rōʾš," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), trans. D. E. Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 13:248-261dictionary
  • Eugene E. Carpenter (with G. H. Johnston), "ראשׁ," in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDOTTE), ed. W. A. VanGemeren (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 3:1015-1020dictionary
  • James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961), 217-218monograph
  • Jacob Milgrom, Numbers: The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: JPS, 1990), 4-6commentary

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

All attested forms of רֹאשׁ

m s construct

רֹאשׁ

Gen 40:20, Gen 40:20, Gen 47:31, Gen 48:14, Gen 48:14, Gen 48:17, Gen 48:17, Gen 48:17

m p construct

רָאשֵׁי

Gen 8:5, Exo 6:14, Exo 6:25, Num 1:16, Num 7:2, Num 10:4, Num 10:10, Num 13:3

m s absolute

רֹאשׁ, רֹּאשׁ

Gen 3:15, Lev 1:8, Lev 8:20, Lev 9:13, Lev 13:29, Lev 13:30, Num 1:4, Num 14:4

m s construct

רֹאשׁוֹ

Gen 11:4, Gen 28:12, Gen 48:18, Exo 12:9, Exo 26:24, Exo 28:32, Exo 29:6, Exo 29:7

m s construct

רֹאשִׁי, רֹּאשִׁי

Gen 40:16, Gen 40:17, Jdg 16:13, Jdg 16:17, 1Sa 28:2, 2Ki 4:19, 2Ki 4:19, 2Ki 6:32

m s construct

רֹאשָׁם

Lev 21:5, Num 1:49, Jos 7:6, Jdg 8:28, Jdg 9:57, 1Ch 4:42, 2Ch 20:27, Neh 4:4

m p absolute

רָאשִׁים

Gen 2:10, Exo 18:25, Deu 1:15, Jdg 7:16, Jdg 7:20, Jdg 9:34, Jdg 9:43, Jdg 9:44

m p construct

רָאשֵׁיהֶם

Exo 36:38, Exo 38:17, Exo 38:19, Exo 38:28, 1Ki 20:32, 2Ki 10:7, 1Ch 12:32, Job 2:12

m s construct

רֹאשֶׁךָ, רֹאשְׁךָ

Gen 40:13, 2Sa 1:16, 1Ki 2:37, 1Ki 2:44, 2Ki 2:3, 2Ki 2:5, Pro 1:9, Oba 1:15

m s construct

רֹאשָׁהּ

Gen 28:18, Deu 21:12, 2Sa 13:19, 2Sa 13:19, 2Ki 9:30, Est 2:17, Zec 4:2, Zec 4:2

m p construct

רָאשֵׁיכֶם

Lev 10:6, Deu 1:13, Deu 29:10, Psa 24:7, Psa 24:9, Isa 29:10, Ezk 24:23

m s construct

רֹאשֵׁנוּ

Jos 2:19, 1Ki 20:31, Psa 66:12, Lam 5:16

m s construct

רֹאשֵׁךְ

Sng 7:5, Sng 7:5, Jer 2:37, Ezk 16:12

m p construct

רָאשָׁיו, רֹאשָׁיו

Jos 23:2, Jos 24:1, Isa 15:2

m s construct

רֹאשְׁכֶם

Lev 19:27, Jol 3:4, Jol 3:7

c s construct

רֹאשׁוֹ

Jdg 16:14

m p construct

רָאשֵׁינוּ

1Ch 12:19

m p construct

רָאשֵׁיהֶן

Ezk 23:42

m p construct

רָאשֶׁיהָ

Mic 3:11

m s construct

רֹאשָׁן

Lam 2:10