Hebrew word · H7285

רֶ֫גֶשׁ

beragesh

scheming

It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning comes from related words. The verb rāgash appears in Ps 2:1 ("why do the nations rage / throng together?"). The masculine noun regesh means "throng" in Ps 55:14.

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

What it means

throng, in company

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 Psalm 64:2

Range of meaning

It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning comes from related words. The verb rāgash appears in Ps 2:1 ("why do the nations rage / throng together?"). The masculine noun regesh means "throng" in Ps 55:14. In Biblical Aramaic the verb (haph'el) is used three times in Dan 6:6, 11, 15 of the officials who "came thronging / came by agreement" to trap Daniel: a crowd moving together with a plot. The range is "commotion, noisy crowd, agitated gathering", often with the overtone of a crowd acting together against someone.

Against the English

KJV "insurrection", YLT "tumult", WEB "noisy crowd", BSB "mob". Some modern versions take it as "plots" or "scheming" because of the Daniel 6 usage. Each choice picks one side: the noise and crowd, or the shared purpose. The Hebrew likely holds both, a crowd stirred up in agreement.

How it drifted

KJV "insurrection" meant in 1611 a rising up or tumultuous uprising of people. Today it suggests armed revolt against a government. That is not the picture here.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 2:1; Ps 55:14 [Heb 15]; Dan 6:6, 11, 15 (Aramaic). The Greek Septuagint renders it plēthos, "multitude", and the Latin Vulgate (from the Greek) has multitudine. Jerome's translation from the Hebrew is usually cited as tumultu, "uproar."

Similar words

Where it appears

Psalms · 2

  1. Psalm 55:14 בְּרָֽגֶשׁ׃ in a crowd

    We shared sweet fellowship together; we walked with the crowd into the house of God.

  2. Psalm 64:2 מֵ֝רִגְשַׁ֗ת from [the] unrest of

    Hide me from the scheming of the wicked, from the mob of workers of iniquity,

    Here: "From the throng / uproar of." The word appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. Related words point to a noisy, agitated crowd that gathers in common purpose. It balances the quiet secret circle of the first line: hidden plotting, then open mob.

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