Hebrew word · H1659

גָּשַׁשׁ

negashshah

to grope

To feel with the hands, grope, fumble for something you cannot see. Known in Hebrew only from this verse.

Appears 2 times in 1 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to feel with the hand, grope, stroke, feel

1a) (Piel) to grope, grope for, feel with the hand

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 59:10

Range of meaning

To feel with the hands, grope, fumble for something you cannot see. Known in Hebrew only from this verse. The meaning is clear from related words in other Semitic languages (Aramaic and Arabic forms meaning 'to feel, touch, probe') and from the parallel image in Deut 28:29, which uses the near-synonym mashash ('to feel about').

Against the English

'Grope' (KJV, WEB), 'feel our way' (BSB, YLT 'feel') are all accurate. BSB's 'feel our way along the wall' makes the picture clear: a hand on the wall, edging forward.

Used elsewhere in the period

Hebrew Bible: Isa 59:10 (twice) only. Compare Deut 28:29, 'you will grope (memashshesh) at noon as the blind man gropes in darkness', and Job 5:14; 12:25, where people 'grope in the dark at noon' (mashash) under God's judgment of the crafty. The LXX renders it with psēlaphaō, 'feel about', the verb also used of groping in Deut 28:29.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 59:10 נְגַֽשְׁשָׁ֤ה נְגַשֵּׁ֑שָׁה we grope for, we grope

    Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.

    Here: 'We grope', with hands out, feeling for something solid. The verb shows up only in this verse in the whole Hebrew Bible, both times here. It has the ending normally used for 'let us…', but here it simply describes what is happening, as often in later Hebrew.

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