Hebrew word · H100

אַגְמֹן

ve'agmon

bulrush

A rush or reed growing in marshes (from ʾagam, 'pool, marsh'). It appears in Isa 9:14 [9:13 Heb] and 19:15, where 'palm branch and rush' stands for high and low, and in Job 40:26 [41:2 Eng], a rush-rope through Leviathan's nose.

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) rush, bulrush

1a) used as cord or line (of twisted rushes or spun of rush fibre)

1b) of the lowly, insignificant (metaph)

2) sad, drooping

1a) of line of bulrushes

1b) bowing of the head (fig.)

1c) of the lowly (metaph)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 58:5

Range of meaning

A rush or reed growing in marshes (from ʾagam, 'pool, marsh'). It appears in Isa 9:14 [9:13 Heb] and 19:15, where 'palm branch and rush' stands for high and low, and in Job 40:26 [41:2 Eng], a rush-rope through Leviathan's nose.

Against the English

KJV and ASV have 'bulrush'; most modern versions have 'reed'. Either is fine. The point is the drooping head of a stem.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint seems to read it differently, as bending the neck 'like a ring/hoop' (krikos), and the Latin Vulgate follows with quasi circulum. Both stress the bent shape rather than the plant.

From the study of Isaiah 9:14

Range of meaning

A rush or bulrush that grows in marshes and pools (related to agam, 'pool, marsh'). It is used for a drooping head (Isa 58:5, 'to bow down one's head like a reed'), for a rope of twisted rushes (Job 41:2 [Heb 40:26]), and possibly for burning rushes (Job 41:20 [Heb 41:12]).

Against the English

'Reed' (BSB, WEB), 'rush' (KJV) and 'bulrush' are all reasonable. The point English can miss is status: this is a cheap, low, bending marsh plant, the opposite of the high, prized palm.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 19:15 pairs it again with kippah. The Septuagint renders it mikron, 'small', which confirms that ancient readers took the pair as 'great and small'.

Where it appears

Job · 2

  1. Job 41:2 אַגְמ֣וֹן a cord

    Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

  2. Job 41:20 וְאַגְמֹֽן׃ and bulrush[es]

    Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.

Isaiah · 3

  1. Isaiah 9:14 וְאַגְמ֖וֹן and bulrush

    So the LORD will cut off Israel’s head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day.

    Here: A rush growing in marshy pools (compare agam, 'pool, marsh'). It is low, common and easily bent (Isa 58:5). It restates 'tail': the lowly ones.

  2. Isaiah 19:15 וְאַגְמֽוֹן׃ ס and bulrush

    There is nothing Egypt can do—head or tail, palm or reed.

  3. Isaiah 58:5 כְּאַגְמֹ֜ן like a bulrush

    Is this the fast I have chosen: a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD?

    Here: 'Like a rush.' This is a marsh plant whose tall stem droops at the top. The picture is of a head drooping on cue, a gesture of grief that costs nothing.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.