Hebrew word · H7363

רָחַף

merachefet

to hover

In the intensive (piel) form: to hover, flutter, move gently to and fro, used of a bird over its nest. In the simple (qal) form: to tremble or shake.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 24, 2026

What it means

(Piel) to hover

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: In the intensive (piel) form: to hover, flutter, move gently to and fro, used of a bird over its nest. In the simple (qal) form: to tremble or shake.
Against the English: KJV 'moved' and NASB 1995 'was moving' are too vague. ESV/NIV/BSB/WEB/NLT 'hovering' is good. YLT 'fluttering' keeps the bird image. NRSV 'swept' and NJPS 'sweeping' fit the wind reading but lose the hovering. 'Brooding' (popular since Milton) relies on a Syriac cognate meaning 'to brood, cherish'.
How it drifted: 'Moved' in KJV English sounded less flat than it does now, but today it reads as plain motion and hides the bird picture.
Used elsewhere in the period: Deut 32:11: 'like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers (yeraḥep̄) over its young, spreading out its wings'. This is the only other piel use, in a poem where God also finds Israel in a 'tohu' wilderness (32:10). Jer 23:9 (qal): 'all my bones tremble'. In the Ugaritic Aqhat epic the cognate rḥp is used of eagles or birds of prey soaring. The Talmud (Hagigah 15a) has Ben Zoma liken the spirit to 'a dove hovering over her young without touching'.

Range of meaning: It occurs only three times in the Hebrew Bible. In the intensive form it describes hovering or fluttering: an eagle 'fluttering' over its young (Deut 32:11) and the Spirit of God 'hovering' over the waters (Gen 1:2). In the simple form, only here, it describes bones, and lexicons suggest 'tremble, shake' or 'grow soft, go slack' (BDB: 'grow soft, relax'). Related words support a basic idea of quivering or hovering movement: Ugaritic rḫp is used of birds of prey soaring (Aqhat epic), and Syriac raḥef means 'brood, hover'.
Against the English: KJV and WEB say 'shake', BSB and NASB 'tremble', YLT 'fluttered'. All are defensible. 'Tremble' catches the quivering; 'grow limp' catches the loss of strength. The Hebrew probably carries both: a body whose frame has gone loose and shaky.
Used elsewhere in the period: Gen 1:2; Deut 32:11; Ugaritic KTU 1.18 iv (eagles 'hovering'). The Septuagint renders esaleuthē ('were shaken') and the Vulgate contremuerunt ('trembled all together').

Range of meaning: In the intensive form used here (piel): to hover, flutter, move gently over something. Its only other use in this form is Gen 1:2, 'the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters'. Jer 23:9 has the simple form, of bones that 'tremble' or 'shake'.
Against the English: KJV and WEB 'fluttereth/flutters' suggests anxious flapping. 'Hovers' (BSB, NIV, NASB) better catches a bird staying poised over the nest. Neither English word can carry the echo of Genesis 1.
Used elsewhere in the period: In Ugaritic, the related verb rḥp is used of birds of prey (eagles/vultures) soaring or hovering, in the Aqhat epic. That confirms the word's home in bird imagery. Early Jewish interpreters already connected Gen 1:2 and Deut 32:11, and the Talmud (Hagigah 15a) likens the Spirit over the waters to a dove hovering over its young.

Genesis · 1

Genesis 1:2 מְרַחֶ֖פֶת [was] hovering

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Here: A participle, so the action is ongoing: 'was hovering'. The only other use of this form describes an eagle hovering or fluttering over its young (Deut 32:11). The picture is of something poised and watchful just above the water, ready to act. It agrees with the feminine noun ruach.

Deuteronomy · 1

Deuteronomy 32:11 יְרַחֵ֑ף it hovers

As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.

Here: 'It hovers', moving over the nest without landing on it. This verb in this form appears in only one other place in the Bible: Genesis 1:2, where God's Spirit 'hovers' over the waters.

Jeremiah · 1

Jeremiah 23:9 רָֽחֲפוּ֙ they have become weak

As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, and all my bones tremble. I have become like a drunkard, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD, because of His holy words.

Here: A rare verb. Its other two uses describe a bird hovering or fluttering (Deut 32:11) and the Spirit 'hovering' over the waters (Gen 1:2). Here it describes his bones shaking or going slack. His frame no longer holds him up.

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