StrongerBible

radah

רָדָה

HebrewH7287“have dominion, rule”

Appears 26 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 1:26Gen 1:28Lev 25:43Lev 25:46Lev 25:53Lev 26:17Num 24:19Jdg 14:9 (2×)1Ki 4:24(5:4)1Ki 5:16(30)1Ki 9:232Ch 8:10Neh 9:28Psa 49:14(15)Psa 68:27(28)Psa 72:8Psa 110:2Isa 14:2Isa 14:6Isa 41:2Jer 5:31Lam 1:13Ezk 29:15Ezk 34:4Jol 3:13(4:13)
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradera-DAHverb

What radah means

1

to rule, exercise dominion: to hold and exercise authoritative control as a sovereign, king, or appointed governor

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is the primary sense of the verb, covering the full spectrum of legitimate human governance over people, animals, or territory. The evidence from related languages points to a root meaning something like "drive a flock" or "lead as a herder," so the prototype is not a tyrant trampling subjects but a shepherd or drover conducting his charges. That pastoral background shows up in the inner-biblical correctives: Psalm 72 prays for a king who rules from sea to sea precisely in order to deliver the poor and needy, and Ezekiel 34 condemns Israel's rulers for misruling the flock God entrusted to them.

The verb is ethically neutral on its own. What tilts it positive or negative is the modifier: "with harshness" (sense 1b), "in anger," "by force" tip it brutal; a vegetarian blessing (Genesis 1:29), a prayer for justice (Psalm 72:2), or a context of peaceable imperium (1 Kings 4:24b: "he had peace") leave it celebratory. Both the strict prohibition in Leviticus 25 and the condemnation in Ezekiel 34 presuppose a permissible form of the same rule, what they forbid is the modifier, not the activity itself.

Nuances

1ato exercise sovereign or commissioned authority: the rule of a king, a representative of God, or the ideal governor of a realm
Gen 1:26Gen 1:28Num 24:191Ki 4:24(5:4)Neh 9:28Psa 49:14(15)Psa 68:27(28)Psa 72:8Psa 110:2Isa 14:2Isa 41:2Jer 5:31
Jer 5:31

Whether this occurrence takes the verb's rule sense (meaning 1) or its separate scrape-out sense (meaning 2).

  • majorityThe verb here means "rule": the priests exercise authority in cooperation with the prophets' direction.; Lundbom, Jack, Jeremiah 1-20, Anchor Yale Bible, 1999; McKane, William, Jeremiah vol. 1, ICC, 1986
  • minorityThe verb here means "scrape/profit": the priests rake in gain at the prophets' direction, placing this occurrence under the verb's separate meaning.; BDB, pp. 921-922 (notes this reading by Buhl as possible); HALOT, s.v. רָדָה II (lists as possible)
1bto administer as an official or overseer: bureaucratic or supervisory control over a workforce or territory
1Ki 5:16(30)1Ki 9:232Ch 8:10Ezk 29:15
1cto rule with harshness or force: domination that exploits or oppresses, always condemned or forbidden when described this way
Lev 25:43Lev 25:46Lev 25:53Lev 26:17Isa 14:6Ezk 34:4
2

to scrape out: to draw or extract something by pressing or pulling

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintyContested

A small cluster of evidence, chiefly Judges 14:9 and the later rabbinic baker's vocabulary (Mishnah Shabbat 1:11: רְדִיַּת הַפַּת, "scraping bread from the oven"), points to a separate, same-sounding word for extracting or scraping something out of a container. The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH, Gesenius) keep this clearly distinct from the "rule" word, and the ancient Greek translators confirm the difference: Judges 14:9 is rendered with a verb meaning "take out" rather than with any "rule" word. Whether the two are ultimately related is debated: a minority holds that both grow from a single underlying "press/tread" sense, but the mainstream treats them as two distinct words that merely sound alike.

Jdg 14:9 (2×)Jol 3:13(4:13)

What scholars say about radah

The standard lexica (BDB pp. 921-922, HALOT s.v. רָדָה I-II, DCH vol. 7, Zobel in TDOT XIII pp. 330-336, Nel in NIDOTTE 3:1055-1056) converge on two formally distinct roots: רָדָה I "to rule" and רָדָה II "to scrape out." The ruling root's ANE background, best captured by Akkadian redû / radû (CAD R) meaning "drive animals, lead, escort", suggests a herder or drover as the prototype, not a tyrant, which explains why the verb sits naturally alongside shepherd-king imagery in Psalms and Ezekiel. The verb's ethical neutrality in Leviticus 25 (where the prohibition targets the modifier בְּפֶרֶךְ, not the activity itself) is treated by Jacob Milgrom (Anchor Yale Bible Leviticus 23-27, 2001) as philologically decisive. The Genesis 1 dominion debate ranges from Lynn White Jr.'s "Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis" (Science 155, 1967) and Norman Habel's Earth Bible Project, which read the verbs as licensing exploitation, through the now-dominant benevolent-stewardship reading of von Rad (OTL Genesis), Gordon Wenham (WBC Genesis 1-15), Nahum Sarna (JPS Genesis), John Walton (IVP Lost World of Genesis One), and J. Richard Middleton (The Liberating Image, Brazos 2005), to the philological minimalism of James Barr ("Man and Nature: The Ecological Controversy," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 55/1, 1972) and Norbert Lohfink (Theology of the Pentateuch, Fortress 1994) who argue the English translations overtranslate the Hebrew.

Where scholars disagree about radah

Whether Genesis 1:26-28 uses this verb to commission benevolent stewardship or to license unrestricted human mastery over the natural world.

  • majorityThe verb in Genesis 1 is royal-functional language delegating vice-regency: humanity as God's image represents God's ordering, life-giving rule and must exercise dominion accordingly. The vegetarian provision of v. 29, the imago Dei frame, the ANE royal-image background, and inner-biblical correctives (Psalm 72, Ezekiel 34) collectively constrain the kind of rule envisioned.; von Rad, Gerhard, Genesis, OTL, rev. 1972; Wenham, Gordon, Genesis 1-15, WBC, 1987; Middleton, J. Richard, The Liberating Image, Brazos Press, 2005; Walton, John, The Lost World of Genesis One, IVP Academic, 2009; Barr, James, 'Man and Nature,' Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 55/1 (1972); Lohfink, Norbert, Theology of the Pentateuch, Fortress, 1994
  • minorityThe verbs in Genesis 1 are genuinely forceful and should not be softened by appeal to the imago Dei or later biblical texts; they establish strong human authority over the natural world, and the ecological crisis Wirkungsgeschichte reflects their real meaning.; White, Lynn Jr., 'The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,' Science 155 (1967); Habel, Norman, and the Earth Bible Project, Sheffield Academic, 2000-2002

Whether the form in Joel 3:13 (Hebrew 4:13) belongs to this root or to יָרַד "to go down."

  • majorityThe form רְדוּ here is more likely from יָרַד, since Hebrew has a dedicated verb for treading grapes (דָּרַךְ) and the imagery of descending into the winepress fits the motion verb better.; BDB, p. 432 (entry relocates the form); Wolff, Hans Walter, Joel and Amos, Hermeneia, 1977
  • minorityThe form may belong to רָדָה with the concrete sense "tread," which is attested in the cognate evidence (Arabic radā).; Crenshaw, James, Joel, Anchor Bible, 1995

Whether Jeremiah 5:31 uses this verb in the ruling sense ("the priests rule at their direction") or the scraping sense ("the priests scrape into their hands," meaning they profit).

  • majorityThe verb here means "rule": the priests exercise authority in cooperation with the prophets, their hands directing that rule.; Lundbom, Jack, Jeremiah 1-20, Anchor Yale Bible, 1999; McKane, William, Jeremiah vol. 1, ICC, 1986
  • minorityThe verb here means "scrape/profit": the priests rake in at the direction of the false prophets, placing this occurrence under רָדָה II.; BDB, pp. 921-922 (notes this reading by Buhl as possible); HALOT, s.v. רָדָה II (lists as possible)
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, pp. 921-922, s.v. רָדָהlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. רָדָה I and רָדָה IIlexicon
  • DCH, vol. 7, s.v. רָדָהlexicon
  • Zobel, H.-J., TDOT XIII (2004), pp. 330-336 (= TWAT VII, 1993, cols. 351-358)dictionary
  • Nel, P.J., NIDOTTE 3:1055-1056, s.v. רדהdictionary
  • Milgrom, Jacob, Leviticus 23-27, Anchor Yale Bible 3B, 2001, pp. 2219-2226commentary
  • von Rad, Gerhard, Genesis, OTL, rev. 1972commentary
  • Wenham, Gordon, Genesis 1-15, WBC, 1987, pp. 32-33commentary
  • Sarna, Nahum, Genesis, JPS Torah Commentary, 1989, pp. 12-13commentary
  • Walton, John, The Lost World of Genesis One, IVP Academic, 2009monograph
  • Middleton, J. Richard, The Liberating Image, Brazos Press, 2005monograph
  • Barr, James, 'Man and Nature: The Ecological Controversy and the Old Testament,' Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 55/1 (1972): 9-32article
  • Lohfink, Norbert, 'Subdue the Earth? Genesis 1:28,' in Theology of the Pentateuch, Fortress, 1994, pp. 1-17monograph
  • Huehnergard, John, 'Further South Semitic Cognates to the Akkadian Lexicon,' in Semitic Studies in Honor of Wolf Leslau, Harrassowitz, 1991, pp. 698-699article
  • Block, Daniel, Ezekiel 25-48, NICOT, 1998commentary
  • Hossfeld, Frank-Lothar and Zenger, Erich, Psalms 2, Hermeneia, 2005commentary
  • White, Lynn Jr., 'The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,' Science 155 (1967): 1203-1207article
  • Bauckham, Richard, Bible and Ecology: Rediscovering the Community of Creation, Baylor/DLT, 2010monograph

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

All attested forms of רָדָה

qal participle m p absolute

רֹדִים

1Ki 5:16, 1Ki 9:23, 2Ch 8:10

qal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיִּרְדּוּ

Neh 9:28, Psa 49:14

qal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיִּרְדֵּ, וַיִּרְדֶּ

Jdg 14:9, Lam 1:13

qal consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְרָדוּ

Lev 26:17, Isa 14:2

qal imperative 2mp

רְדוּ

Gen 1:28, Jol 3:13

qal imperfect 2ms

תִרְדֶּה

Lev 25:43, Lev 25:46

qal jussive 3ms

יֵרְדְּ

Num 24:19, Psa 72:8

qal participle m s absolute

רֹדֶה

1Ki 4:24, Isa 14:6

hiphil jussive 3ms

יַרְדְּ

Isa 41:2

qal conjunctive-imperfect 3mp

וְיִרְדּוּ

Gen 1:26

qal imperative 2ms

רְדֵה

Psa 110:2

qal imperfect 3mp

יִרְדּוּ

Jer 5:31

qal imperfect 3ms

יִרְדֶּ

Lev 25:53

qal infinitive-construct construct

רְדוֹת

Ezk 29:15

qal participle m s construct

רֹדֵ

Psa 68:27

qal perfect 2mp

רְדִיתֶם

Ezk 34:4

qal perfect 3ms

רָדָה

Jdg 14:9