Hebrew word · H1726

דַּהֲרָה

daharot

rushing

A rushing gallop, a furious dash. The root d-h-r is very rare. Besides this verse it appears only in Nahum 3:2, sus doher, 'galloping horse', in a battle scene next to 'the crack of the whip, the rumble of the wheel, … the bounding chariot'. In later Hebrew and Aramaic it means to gallop or rush.

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

What it means

dashing, rushing, galloping

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 Judges 5:22

Range of meaning

A rushing gallop, a furious dash. The root d-h-r is very rare. Besides this verse it appears only in Nahum 3:2, sus doher, 'galloping horse', in a battle scene next to 'the crack of the whip, the rumble of the wheel, … the bounding chariot'. In later Hebrew and Aramaic it means to gallop or rush.

Against the English

KJV 'pransings' and WEB 'prancing' sound like showy, high-stepping display. NASB's 'dashing, the dashing' and ESV and NIV's 'galloping, galloping' keep the speed and the doubling. BSB's 'mad galloping' keeps the frenzy but drops the repetition.

How it drifted

In 1611 'prance' could mean a horse rearing and springing in spirited motion, which was nearer the sense. Today 'prancing' means dainty, showy stepping, like a parade horse or a dressage display. That is the opposite of a terrified stampede or a full-speed charge.

Used elsewhere in the period

Nahum 3:2 is the only other biblical use. The Greek translators clearly struggled with it: one manuscript tradition just spells out the Hebrew sounds (something like amadarōth), and another paraphrases it as 'in haste they hastened'.

Where it appears

Judges · 2

  1. Judges 5:22 מִֽדַּהֲר֖וֹת דַּהֲר֥וֹת from [the] galloping, [the] galloping of

    Then the hooves of horses thundered—the mad galloping of his stallions.

    Here: 'From the gallopings': the little word 'from' (mi-) gives the cause. The hooves pounded because of the furious galloping. The plural suggests many gallops, one after another.

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