StrongerBible

ragaz

רָגַז

HebrewH7264tremble, quake, ...

Appears 41 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 45:24Exo 15:14Deu 2:251Sa 14:151Sa 28:152Sa 7:102Sa 18:33(19:1)2Sa 22:82Ki 19:272Ki 19:281Ch 17:9Job 9:6Job 12:6Psa 4:4(5)Psa 18:7(8)Psa 77:16(17)Psa 77:18(19)Psa 99:1Pro 29:9Pro 30:21Isa 5:25Isa 13:13Isa 14:9Isa 14:16Isa 23:11Isa 28:21Isa 32:10Isa 32:11Isa 37:28Isa 37:29Isa 64:2(1)Jer 33:9Jer 50:34Ezk 16:43Jol 2:1Jol 2:10Amo 8:8Mic 7:17Hab 3:7Hab 3:16 (2×)
Root family
Word studyResearch-graderah-GAHZverb

What ragaz means

to shake: to be thrown into violent, involuntary motion, whether the earth quaking, a person trembling, or an inward shuddering of dread, grief, or excitement

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

At its root this word names one thing: a violent shaking that comes over a body without its consent. The same word can describe mountains heaving, a nation's knees buckling in fear, a grieving father's whole frame convulsing, or the ground rocking in an earthquake. Hebrew lets that single picture of being shaken run all the way from the physical world into the human heart, so the senses below are not separate words but one shaking seen in different settings.

The setting usually tells you which shade is meant. When the subject is the created world (earth, mountains, the deep, the sky), it is a literal quaking, almost always at God's approach. When the subject is a crowd of people, it is terror. When the subject is one person, it is the bodily shudder of grief, dread, or eager anticipation. When God or a human agent is the one doing it to something else, the word turns causative: to make a thing shake, to rouse it up, or to provoke.

One further shade matters for readers of the New Testament. In later Hebrew, and especially in Aramaic, this word narrowed to mean plain anger, and that narrowing reached the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament. So the call to tremble in Psalm 4:4 was rendered in Greek as be angry, which is the form the apostle Paul later quoted. In the Hebrew itself, though, anger is only a faint, late edge of a word whose heart is shaking, not rage.

Nuances

1aof the created world: to quake and heave, said of the earth, mountains, the deep, and the sky, almost always as God draws near
2Sa 22:8Psa 18:7(8)Psa 77:16(17)Psa 77:18(19)Isa 5:25Jol 2:10Amo 8:8Hab 3:7
1bof peoples and nations: to tremble in dread, the terror that runs through a crowd before God or his judgment
Exo 15:14Deu 2:25Psa 4:4(5)Psa 99:1Isa 32:10Isa 32:11Isa 64:2(1)Jol 2:1Mic 7:17
1cof a single person: to shudder and convulse inwardly, the bodily reaction of grief, anguish, or dread
2Sa 18:33(19:1)Hab 3:16 (2×)
1dto be unsettled, driven from one's rest or place, used of a people disturbed in their land or the dead disturbed in death
1Sa 14:152Sa 7:101Ch 17:9Pro 30:21Jer 33:9
1eto bestir or rouse oneself, to stir into agitated motion, whether the grave waking to meet a dead king or a defiant ruler working himself up against God
2Ki 19:272Ki 19:28Isa 14:9Isa 28:21Isa 37:28Isa 37:29
1fto make something shake, to rouse or disturb it, and at its sharpest edge to provoke: said of God or a person acting on another
1Sa 28:15Job 9:6Job 12:6Isa 13:13Isa 14:16Isa 23:11Jer 50:34Ezk 16:43
1gto rage or be worked up to the point of strife, the faint, late edge of the word where shaking shades into anger
Gen 45:24Pro 29:9

What scholars say about ragaz

The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH, Gesenius) and theological dictionaries (TDOT, by Bent Otzen; NIDOTTE, by Van Pelt and Kaiser) converge on a single Grundbedeutung of violent involuntary motion produced by strong emotion, with the affective specifications (fear, awe, grief, eager excitement, rage) contextually supplied. HALOT explicitly treats the dominant Aramaic and post-biblical sense of anger as a secondary development. The comparative-Semitic evidence supports a primary physical sense: Arabic preserves the concrete رَجَزٌ (a camel's trembling disease) and the jerky رَجَز meter, alongside biradical رَجَّ to convulse; the early Phoenician Tabnit and Eshmunazar tomb inscriptions use the causative for disturb a resting place (DNWSI). Aramaic and Syriac (Sokoloff; Payne Smith) show the inverse specialization to anger, attested already at Zinjirli. Akkadian offers no secure cognate, making the root a West-Semitic isogloss (Huehnergard, Kogan). The qal is stative-intransitive (subjects quake or tremble), the hiphil causative (make shake, rouse, or provoke, as in those who provoke God, Job 12:6), and the rare hithpael appears only in the Sennacherib oracle (2 Kings 19:27-28 par. Isaiah 37:28-29). Two cruxes turn on the trembling-versus-anger axis: Genesis 45:24, where Rashbam, Westermann, Speiser, Fox, and Skinner read be agitated against the Targumic and Septuagint do not quarrel / be angry, and Psalm 4:5 (English 4:4), where Kraus, Hossfeld-Zenger, Dahood, Alter, and Goldingay read tremble against the Septuagint's be angry that Paul quotes in Ephesians 4:26. Clines argues the polysemy of the related noun in Job is a deliberate literary feature, not a lexicographer's embarrassment.

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

  • Brown-Driver-Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1907), 919-920, s.v. רגזlexicon
  • HALOT (Brill, 1994-2000), vol. 3, s.v. רגז Ilexicon
  • Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, ed. David J. A. Clines, vol. 7 (Sheffield, 2010), s.v. רגזlexicon
  • Bent Otzen, רגז, in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. XIII (Eerdmans)dictionary
  • M. V. Van Pelt and W. C. Kaiser, Jr., רגז, in NIDOTTE, ed. W. A. VanGemeren (Zondervan, 1997), vol. 3, §7639dictionary
  • David J. A. Clines, Job 1-20 (WBC, 1989), 91, 99-101commentary
  • Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 1-59 (Fortress/Augsburg)commentary
  • Peter C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC, 1983)commentary
  • Claus Westermann, Genesis 37-50 (Continental Commentary)commentary
  • Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians (WBC 42, 1990), 301-303commentary
  • Edward William Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon (London, 1863-93), s.v. رجزlexicon

All attested forms of רָגַז

qal imperfect 3mp

יִרְגְּזוּ, יִרְגָּזוּ

Psa 77:16, Psa 99:1, Jol 2:1, Mic 7:17, Hab 3:7, Exo 15:14, 2Sa 22:8, Psa 18:7

hithpael infinitive-construct construct

הִתְרַגֶּזְ

2Ki 19:27, 2Ki 19:28, Isa 37:28, Isa 37:29

qal perfect 3fs

רָגְזָה

Psa 77:18, Pro 30:21, Isa 14:9, Jol 2:10

qal imperfect 3ms

יִרְגַּז, יִרְגָּז

2Sa 7:10, 1Ch 17:9, Isa 28:21

hiphil participle m s absolute

מַרְגִּיז, מַּרְגִּיז

Isa 14:16, Job 9:6

qal consecutive-imperfect 3fs

וַתִּרְגַּז

1Sa 14:15, Hab 3:16

qal consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְרָגְזוּ

Deu 2:25, Jer 33:9

hiphil consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְהִרְגִּיז

Jer 50:34

hiphil imperfect 1cs

אַרְגִּיז

Isa 13:13

hiphil participle m p construct

מַרְגִּיזֵי

Job 12:6

hiphil perfect 2ms

הִרְגַּזְתַּ

1Sa 28:15

hiphil perfect 3ms

הִרְגִּיז

Isa 23:11

qal consecutive-imperfect 2fs

וַתִּרְגְּזִי

Ezk 16:43

qal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיִּרְגְּזוּ

Isa 5:25

qal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיִּרְגַּז

2Sa 18:33

qal consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְרָגַז

Pro 29:9

qal imperative 2mp

רִגְזוּ

Psa 4:4

qal imperative 2ms

רְגָזָה

Isa 32:11

qal imperfect 1cs

אֶרְגָּז

Hab 3:16

qal imperfect 2fp

תִּרְגַּזְנָה

Isa 32:10

qal imperfect 3fs

תִרְגַּז

Amo 8:8

qal jussive 2mp

תִּרְגְּזוּ

Gen 45:24