Hebrew word · H7540
רָקַד
vaiyarkidem
to skip about
To skip, leap, jump about. It is used of young animals (Ps 29:6, 'he makes Lebanon skip like a calf'), children at play (Job 21:11), wild creatures (Isa 13:21), chariots jolting (Joel 2:5; Nah 3:2), and joyful dancing (1 Chr 15:29, David 'leaping/dancing' before the ark).
Appears 9 times in 9 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) to skip about
1a) (Qal) to skip about
1b) (Piel) to dance, leap
1c) (Hiphil) to make to skip
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 Ecclesiastes 3:4
- Range of meaning
To skip, leap, jump about. It is used of young animals (Ps 29:6, 'he makes Lebanon skip like a calf'), children at play (Job 21:11), wild creatures (Isa 13:21), chariots jolting (Joel 2:5; Nah 3:2), and joyful dancing (1 Chr 15:29, David 'leaping/dancing' before the ark).
- Against the English
'Dance' is accurate. YLT's 'skip' keeps the bouncing, leaping picture. A modern reader may imagine couples dancing or a performance. The Hebrew picture is energetic leaping for joy, usually in a festive group.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The usual opposite of lament in the Bible: Ps 30:11 [Heb 12], 'you turned my wailing (mispēd) into dancing (māḥôl)'. Lam 5:15, 'our dancing is turned to mourning'. Jer 31:13. The Septuagint has orchēsasthai and the Vulgate saltandi. Jesus' saying in Matt 11:17 / Luke 7:32 uses the same pair: 'we piped and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not beat your breasts'.
- Range of meaning
To skip, leap, dance. Used of joyful dancing (Ecclesiastes 3:4; 1 Chronicles 15:29, David dancing), of mountains 'skipping like rams' when God appears (Psalm 114:4, 6), of wild creatures dancing in ruins (Isaiah 13:21), and of an army like locusts that 'leap' over the mountaintops with 'the sound of chariots' (Joel 2:5). Here it is in the intensive verb pattern: repeated, violent bouncing.
- Against the English
KJV 'jumping', BSB/ESV/WEB/YLT 'bounding', NIV 'jolting'. 'Jolting' best fits a chariot on rough ground. 'Bounding' and 'jumping' keep the leaping picture. None keeps the word's ordinary sense of 'dancing', and so none keeps the dark irony.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Joel 2:5 is the closest parallel: rāqad with chariot noise in a scene of an invading army. Psalm 114 links the word with the earth reacting to God's coming.
- Range of meaning
To leap, skip or dance; any vigorous, bounding, rhythmic movement. The basic stem (as here) means to leap or dance; the intensive stem means to dance or whirl about; the causative stem means to make something leap.
- Against the English
KJV, BSB, ESV and WEB say "skipped"; NIV says "leaped." "Skipped" catches the bounce of lambs but in modern English sounds light, small and childish. "Leaped" or "danced" keeps more of the energy.
- How it drifted
English "skip" once meant to spring or bound in general (Coverdale and the KJV used it that way). Today it mostly suggests a child's light hop-step, which makes a picture of mountains convulsing sound smaller and cuter than it is.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Ecclesiastes 3:4, "a time to dance" (the opposite of mourning). 1 Chronicles 15:29, David dancing before the ark. Job 21:11, the children of the wicked dancing. Isaiah 13:21, wild goats (or goat-demons) leaping in ruined Babylon. Joel 2:5 and Nahum 3:2, chariots bounding and jolting in battle. Psalm 29:6 is the closest parallel: at the LORD's thunder-voice "he makes Lebanon leap like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox." The Greek translation (LXX) has eskirtēsan, "they leapt/frisked," the same verb used of the unborn John leaping in Luke 1:41. The Latin Vulgate has exultaverunt, "they exulted, leapt for joy."
Where it appears
1 Chronicles · 1
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1 Chronicles 15:29 מְרַקֵּ֣ד dancing
As the ark of the covenant of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she despised him in her heart.
Job · 1
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Job 21:11 יְרַקֵּדֽוּן׃ they leap about !
They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
Psalms · 3
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Psalm 29:6 וַיַּרְקִידֵ֥ם and he made skip them
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.
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Psalm 114:4 רָקְד֣וּ they skipped about
the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
Here: "They leapt / danced": a completed past action (Hebrew perfect). It is lively, bounding movement: dancing, jumping, the jolting of a chariot. This single verb also does the work for the second line, which leaves it out.
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Psalm 114:6 תִּרְקְד֣וּ you will skip about
O mountains, that you skipped like rams, O hills, like lambs?
Ecclesiastes · 1
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Ecclesiastes 3:4 רְקֽוֹד׃ to dance
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
Here: Springing and leaping for joy, the dancing of weddings, harvests and festivals. It is used elsewhere of calves and children skipping. It rhymes exactly with 'səpôd'.
Isaiah · 1
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Isaiah 13:21 יְרַקְּדוּ־ they will leap about
But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.
Joel · 1
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Joel 2:5 יְרַקֵּד֔וּן they leap !
With a sound like that of chariots they bound over the mountaintops, like the crackling of fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army deployed for battle.
Nahum · 1
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Nahum 3:2 מְרַקֵּדָֽה׃ jolting
The crack of the whip, the rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot!
Here: Literally 'dancing': the chariot bounces, jolts and careens as it races over the ground. The verb form makes the motion intense and repeated, and there is a grim irony in calling a war machine's charge a 'dance'.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.