רָצָא

From the study of Ezekiel 1:14

Range of meaning

To run. This spelling (with a final aleph) appears only here. It is best explained as the verb רוּץ (ruts, 'run') written in a spelling influenced by Aramaic, like the similar spelling in Hosea 10:14. The form is an 'infinitive absolute': a verb form that names the action without saying who does it or when.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'ran' turns it into a simple past action. BSB 'darting' and the 'to and fro' of several modern versions catch the motion better. YLT 'are running' keeps the ongoing sense. No English version can fully reproduce the bare, tenseless 'running!' of the Hebrew.

Used elsewhere in the period

Hebrew can use the infinitive absolute in place of an ordinary finite verb to describe vivid or continuing action (Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar §113). Because of the odd spelling, some critics suggest emending it to יָצוֹא (yatso, 'going out'), to echo 'lightning went out' (yotse) in v. 13. In later Jewish mysticism the phrase ratso vashov ('running and returning') became a technical term: Sefer Yetzirah 1:8 cites it, and Hasidic teaching uses it for the soul's yearning toward God and its return to ordinary life.