Hebrew word · H7267

רֹ֫גֶז

rogez

turmoil

Agitation, turmoil, quaking, trouble, and from that, raging anger. The root rgz means to shake or tremble.

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 07, 2026

What it means

1) agitation, excitement, raging, trouble, turmoil, trembling

1a) turmoil, disquiet, raging

1b) trembling, trepidation

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: Agitation, turmoil, quaking, trouble, and from that, raging anger. The root rgz means to shake or tremble.
Against the English: KJV, NIV, ESV and NASB have 'wrath', YLT 'anger'. These are accurate in context but lose the picture of violent, shaking turbulence.
Used elsewhere in the period: Job 3:26 and 14:1 ('few of days and full of trouble'); Job 37:2 (the 'rumbling' of God's voice); Isa 14:3. The verb appears in Exod 15:14 ('peoples heard, they trembled'), and in Hab 3:7 and 3:16 ('my belly trembled… I tremble').

Range of meaning: Agitation, trembling, turmoil, raging, restless upheaval. The verb rāgaz means to quake or shake: mountains (Isa 5:25), the earth (Isa 13:13), people in fear or anger. The noun is rare. It can mean inner unrest (Job 3:26), the rumble of thunder (Job 37:2), or divine wrath (Hab 3:2, "in rōgez remember mercy").
Against the English: KJV "fear" narrows it to one emotion. BSB "torment" makes it sound like suffering inflicted by a torturer. WEB/YLT "trouble" and most modern "turmoil" are closer. At its core the word means being shaken, never settled.
How it drifted: The KJV's "fear" makes the word seem to be about an inner emotion. In Hebrew it is about a whole condition of being shaken up, the exact opposite of nûaḥ (settling).
Used elsewhere in the period: Job 3:17: "There the wicked cease from rōgez, and there the weary are at rest (yānûḥû)". This is the same pairing of turmoil and rest found here. Job 3:26: "I have no ease, no quiet, no rest, but rōgez comes." Isaiah 14:9 and 14:16 use the verb rāgaz of the underworld "stirred up" at the tyrant's arrival and of the king who "made the earth tremble."

Range of meaning: From rāgaz, 'to quake, tremble, shake, be agitated' (used of the earth shaking, of nations in uproar, of people trembling in fear or rage). The noun means agitation, turmoil, unrest, commotion. It can also mean rage (Hab 3:2, God's 'wrath'; 2 Kgs 19:27–28 of raging) or the rumble of thunder (Job 37:2).
Against the English: KJV, ESV, NIV, WEB and BSB use 'trouble'. NASB uses 'turmoil', which is closer to the root's picture of shaking. The Vulgate and the Prayer Book tradition use 'misery', and the Greek Septuagint uses 'wrath' (orgē). Modern 'trouble' tends to mean problems or difficulties. The Hebrew word is the condition of being shaken and never at rest.
How it drifted: In the 1600s, 'trouble' still strongly meant disturbance or agitation (as in 'troubled waters'). Today it mostly means problems or difficulty, which drops the sense of inner and outer unrest.
Used elsewhere in the period: rōgez is one of Job's key words. Job 3:17: in death 'the wicked cease from rōgez, and there the weary are at rest.' Job 3:26, the climax of his first lament: 'I have no ease, no quiet, no rest, but rōgez comes.' Isaiah 14:3 sets it against rest: 'the LORD gives you rest from your pain and turmoil (rōgez).'

Job · 5

Job 3:17 רֹ֑גֶז turmoil

There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest.

Here: Churning commotion: rage, restless agitation, the quaking upheaval they live in and cause. It is the same word Job uses of himself in v. 26 ("and turmoil comes"). The wicked in the grave have finally lost the very thing that will not leave Job alone.
Job 3:26 רֹֽגֶז׃ פ turmoil

I am not at ease or quiet; I have no rest, for trouble has come.”
Job 14:1 רֹֽגֶז׃ turmoil

“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.

Here: From a root meaning to shake, quake or tremble. It is restless agitation: churning, upheaval, no peace. It covers both the troubles that shake a person from outside and the inner turmoil they cause. It is the opposite of rest.
Job 37:2 בְּרֹ֣גֶז to [the] raging of

Listen closely to the thunder of His voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.

Here: 'To the turmoil of…' The word means violent shaking or agitation: the churning of a troubled life (Job 3:26), the fury of a warhorse (39:24), even divine wrath (Habakkuk 3:2). Here it is the shuddering, raging crash of thunder.
Job 39:24 וְ֭רֹגֶז and excitement

Trembling with excitement, he devours the distance; he cannot stand still when the ram’s horn sounds.

Isaiah · 1

Isaiah 14:3 וּמֵרָגְזֶ֑ךָ and from turmoil your

On the day that the LORD gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced,

Here: "And from your shaking/agitation." The root means to tremble or quake. The noun is restless upheaval, the opposite of rest. Job 3:17 sets the same pair side by side: there the wicked stop their rōgez and the weary are at rest.

Habakkuk · 1

Habakkuk 3:2 בְּרֹ֖גֶז in wrath

O LORD, I have heard the report of You; I stand in awe, O LORD, of Your deeds. Revive them in these years; make them known in these years. In Your wrath, remember mercy!

Here: God's anger pictured as a shaking, stirred-up turbulence. It shares a root with the trembling of the nations (3:7) and of Habakkuk himself (3:16).

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