Hebrew word · H4035

מְגוּרָה

umegurotam

fear

There are two words with this spelling. (1) From the root gur 'to dread' comes 'fear, terror' (Proverbs 10:24; the plural appears in Psalm 34:4 [Hebrew 34:5] and Isaiah 66:4). (2) A word for a storage place for grain, a 'granary' or 'storehouse'. Sense (2) appears clearly only here.

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

What it means

1) fear, terror

2) storehouse, granary

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 Haggai 2:19

Range of meaning

There are two words with this spelling. (1) From the root gur 'to dread' comes 'fear, terror' (Proverbs 10:24; the plural appears in Psalm 34:4 [Hebrew 34:5] and Isaiah 66:4). (2) A word for a storage place for grain, a 'granary' or 'storehouse'. Sense (2) appears clearly only here. A closely related form, mammegurot ('granaries'), appears in Joel 1:17, also in a passage about a failed harvest.

Against the English

KJV, WEB, YLT and BSB all say 'barn'. That is reasonable, but a modern 'barn' calls up a large timber building for animals and hay. An Israelite grain store was more likely a plastered pit, a silo or a storeroom of jars.

How it drifted

Strong's dictionary lists 'fear' first because that is the more common word. Its listing has merged the two homonyms, so the supplied gloss 'fear' is misleading for this verse.

Used elsewhere in the period

HALOT and BDB list a separate entry 'storehouse' for Haggai 2:19. Joel 1:17 ('the storehouses are desolate, the granaries are broken down') uses the closely related form in a parallel scene of crop failure. Excavations across Iron Age and Persian-period Judah have found many grain pits and silos.

From the study of Isaiah 66:4

Range of meaning

From gûr, 'to dread, be afraid.' It means a fear, a terror, especially the thing dreaded. It occurs in Psalm 34:4 (Eng.; 'delivered me from all my fears'), Proverbs 10:24 ('what the wicked dreads will come upon him') and Isaiah 66:4.

Against the English

KJV and WEB: 'their fears.' BSB: 'terror upon them.' NIV and ESV are similar to 'what they dread.' NJPS: 'the very thing they dread.' BSB drops the word 'their' and so makes it a general terror rather than the particular disaster these people already fear.

Used elsewhere in the period

Proverbs 10:24 is a very close parallel in wisdom literature: məgôrat rāšāʿ hîʾ təvôʾennû, 'the dread of the wicked, it will come to him.' Isaiah uses the same verb 'come' (here in the 'make come' form). This suggests the prophet is drawing on a proverb.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 66:4 וּמְגֽוּרֹתָם֙ and fears their

    So I will choose their punishment and I will bring terror upon them, because I called and no one answered, I spoke and no one listened. But they did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.”

    Here: 'and their dreads': the very things they are afraid of. The word means the object of fear, not a feeling sent from outside. Proverbs 10:24 makes the same point: 'what the wicked dreads will come upon him.'

Haggai · 1

  1. Haggai 2:19 בַּמְּגוּרָ֔ה in the granary

    Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.”

    Here: 'In the storehouse', meaning a grain store, often a pit or silo rather than a timber barn. The supplied dictionary gloss 'fear' belongs to a different word spelled the same way. Context requires 'granary'.

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