Hebrew word · H1464

גּוּד

yegudenu

to raid

To attack, press upon, raid. It is a rare verb, found only here (twice) and in Habakkuk 3:16 ("the people who will invade/attack us"). HALOT links it with the noun gĕdûd.

Appears 3 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to invade, attack

1a) (Qal) to attack

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 Genesis 49:19

Range of meaning

To attack, press upon, raid. It is a rare verb, found only here (twice) and in Habakkuk 3:16 ("the people who will invade/attack us"). HALOT links it with the noun gĕdûd.

Against the English

KJV "overcome" claims too much. The Hebrew says Gad will be raided, not that he will be defeated. WEB "press on" and YLT "assault" stay closer. BSB/ESV/NASB "attack/raid" are accurate.

How it drifted

KJV's "overcome" follows an older interpretive line (compare Vulgate accinctus praeliabitur, "girded, he will fight") rather than the bare meaning of the verb.

Used elsewhere in the period

Habakkuk 3:16 uses the same form yĕgûdennû ("will attack it/us"). The Septuagint renders it with peirateuō, "to raid, plunder", which keeps the hit-and-run sense.

From the study of Habakkuk 3:16

Range of meaning

To attack, press upon or raid. Related to gədûd, 'a raiding band, a troop of raiders'.

Against the English

'Invade' (BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV) is close, though it suggests a modern army. The Hebrew picture is of raiders who sweep in and plunder. KJV's 'invade them with his troops' brings out the 'band of raiders' picture but takes the suffix as 'them'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Outside this verse the verb appears only in Gen 49:19, Jacob's blessing of Gad, which uses the exact same form: 'Gad, a raiding band shall raid him (gədûd yəgûdennû), but he shall raid at their heels'. The noun gədûd is common (e.g. 1 Sam 30:8, 15 for the Amalekite raiders).

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 49:19 יְגוּדֶ֑נּוּ יָגֻ֥ד it will attack him, he will attack

    Gad will be attacked by raiders, but he will attack their heels.

    Here: "Will raid him." The verb is a future-type form with an emphatic object ending. The raid is presented as something that will keep happening to Gad, part of what his future holds (49:1). The verb comes from the same root as gĕdûd, so literally "a raid-band will raid him".

Habakkuk · 1

  1. Habakkuk 3:16 יְגוּדֶֽנּוּ׃ [which] attacks us it

    I heard and trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Decay entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Yet I must wait patiently for the day of distress to come upon the people who invade us.

    Here: From the word for a raiding band. The suffix can mean 'us' or 'him/it', and that is why translations differ. Most take it as 'that raids us': the raider will itself be raided.

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