Hebrew word · H1457

גָּהַר

vaiyighar

to bend (down)

To bend down, crouch, stoop. It is used of a body folding itself over, either toward the ground or over something. BDB gives 'bend, crouch'. HALOT gives 'bend down'.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

(Qal) to bend, crouch

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 1 Kings 18:42

Range of meaning

To bend down, crouch, stoop. It is used of a body folding itself over, either toward the ground or over something. BDB gives 'bend, crouch'. HALOT gives 'bend down'.

Against the English

KJV says 'cast himself down', which suggests a sudden or dramatic flinging of the body. WEB and ESV say 'bowed himself down', which sounds like the normal worship bow. YLT says 'stretcheth himself out', which gives the opposite picture to a crouch. BSB 'bent down' and NASB 'crouched' are closer.

How it drifted

Older translators tied the verb to its uses in 2 Kings 4:34–35, where Elisha lies stretched over the child, and drew 'stretch' or 'cast down' from there. In English, 'bowed down' also slides toward the familiar picture of worship-prostration. Hebrew has a separate, common verb for that (hishtaḥawāh), and the narrator does not use it here.

Used elsewhere in the period

Only three uses in the whole Hebrew Bible: 1 Kgs 18:42 and 2 Kgs 4:34, 35. The Greek Septuagint renders it here with a verb meaning 'stooped' or 'bent over'. In 2 Kings 4 Elisha 'bends over' the dead boy and the boy comes back to life.

Where it appears

1 Kings · 1

  1. 1 Kings 18:42 וַיִּגְהַ֣ר and he crouched

    So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the summit of Carmel, bent down on the ground, and put his face between his knees.

    Here: A rare verb meaning to bend or crouch down. It is not the usual word for bowing in worship. The only other places it appears are 2 Kings 4:34–35, where Elisha bends over a dead child who then revives.

2 Kings · 2

  1. 2 Kings 4:34 וַיִּגְהַ֖ר and he crouched

    Then Elisha got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, and hand to hand. As he stretched himself out over him, the boy’s body became warm.

  2. 2 Kings 4:35 וַיִּגְהַ֣ר and he crouched

    Elisha turned away and paced back and forth across the room. Then he got on the bed and stretched himself out over the boy again, and the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

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