Hebrew word · H7477
רָעַל
hare'alu
to quiver
'To quiver, tremble, reel.' Related to tarʿēlâ, 'reeling, staggering' (the 'cup of reeling', Isaiah 51:17, 22), and to reʿālôt, possibly fluttering veils (Isaiah 3:19). Here it is a passive causative, 'were made to quiver'.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) to quiver, shake, reel
1a) (Hophal) to be made to quiver or shake
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
- Range of meaning
'To quiver, tremble, reel.' Related to tarʿēlâ, 'reeling, staggering' (the 'cup of reeling', Isaiah 51:17, 22), and to reʿālôt, possibly fluttering veils (Isaiah 3:19). Here it is a passive causative, 'were made to quiver'.
- Against the English
'Brandished' (BSB/WEB/NIV/ESV/NASB) puts the soldiers in control. KJV 'shall be terribly shaken' has the trembling, but because it pictures trees it suggests the effects of a storm.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The verb occurs only here. The meaning comes from the related nouns in Isaiah and from cognates in Aramaic and Arabic (HALOT).
Where it appears
Nahum · 1
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Nahum 2:3 הָרְעָֽלוּ׃ they have been made to quiver
The shields of his mighty men are red; the valiant warriors are dressed in scarlet. The fittings of the chariots flash like fire on the day they are prepared, and the spears of cypress have been brandished.
Here: 'Have been made to quiver': the spears are shaken or brandished, a moving, trembling mass of shafts above the ranks. The root is related to words for reeling and trembling.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.