Hebrew word · H2791

חֶ֫רֶשׁ

cheresh

craftily

'Silently, secretly.' It comes from the root ḥ-r-sh, 'to be silent, deaf', and is used here as an adverb. This is the only place in the Bible it is used that way. The look-alike ḥeres means 'potsherd', and the same letters as a different word can mean 'craftsman'.

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

What it means

adv

silently, secretly

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 Joshua 2:1

Range of meaning

'Silently, secretly.' It comes from the root ḥ-r-sh, 'to be silent, deaf', and is used here as an adverb. This is the only place in the Bible it is used that way. The look-alike ḥeres means 'potsherd', and the same letters as a different word can mean 'craftsman'. HALOT and BDB both take it here as 'secretly'.

Against the English

BSB, NIV and WEB attach it to 'sent' ('secretly sent'). KJV attaches it to the spying ('to spy secretly'). YLT puts it at the end of the phrase ('silently'). The Hebrew word order puts it after 'spies', so either attachment works.

Used elsewhere in the period

This exact use appears nowhere else. As commonly noted, the Septuagint seems to have no separate equivalent for it.

Similar words

Where it appears

Joshua · 1

  1. Joshua 2:1 חֶ֣רֶשׁ secretly

    Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

    Here: 'Quietly, in secret.' The word appears only here as an adverb. It may go with 'sent' (kept secret from Israel) or with 'spying' (secret from Jericho). See debates.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 3:3 חֲרָשִׁ֖ים magic arts

    the commander of fifty and the dignitary, the counselor, the cunning magician, and the clever enchanter.

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