רָצַד

From the study of Psalm 68:16

Range of meaning

This is the verb's only appearance in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning has to be worked out from context and related languages. Arabic raṣada means 'to watch, keep an eye on, lie in wait'. That points to 'watch closely' or 'eye with hostility', and here 'look on with envy or resentment'. BDB gives 'watch stealthily', HALOT 'look with envy, with hostility'.

Against the English

BSB, WEB, NASB and YLT: 'envy'. ESV: 'look with hatred'. NJPS: 'why so hostile'. KJV: 'leap'. The modern versions agree on a hostile, jealous stare. They differ on whether it leans toward envy (wanting what the other has) or hostility (resenting the other).

How it drifted

KJV's 'leap' goes back to medieval Jewish interpreters, who likely linked rāṣad with rāqad ('skip, dance'; compare Ps 114:4, 'the mountains skipped like rams'). Comparison with related languages has since moved scholars toward 'watch jealously'. 'Leap' is not a shift in English meaning. It is an older guess that has mostly been given up.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has hypolambanete ('why do you suppose / take up [a notion]?'), and the Latin Vulgate (Gallican Psalter) follows with suspicamini ('why do you suspect?'). Both show that ancient translators were also unsure of the word. Jerome's later translation from the Hebrew renders it as quarreling or contending, which again points to hostility.