Hebrew word · H7570

רָתַח

ratach

to boil

To boil, bubble up, seethe. It is a kitchen word for a pot boiling over a fire. Here it is passive and intensive: "to be made to boil".

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to boil

1a) (Piel) to cause to boil

1b) (Pual) to be made to boil

1c) (Hiphil) to cause to boil

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 Job 30:27

Range of meaning

To boil, bubble up, seethe. It is a kitchen word for a pot boiling over a fire. Here it is passive and intensive: "to be made to boil".

Against the English

KJV and YLT: "boiled". NASB: "seething". BSB and NIV: "churning". ESV: "in turmoil". WEB: "troubled". "Churning" and "turmoil" keep the agitation but lose the heat. "Troubled" loses nearly all of the image.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare. It is used of boiling meat in a pot (Ezek 24:5) and of Leviathan making the deep boil like a pot (Job 41:31, Hebrew 41:23). This passive form occurs only in Job 30:27. The Septuagint renders it ἐξέζεσεν ("boiled up/over"), and the Vulgate efferbuerunt ("boiled up").

Where it appears

Job · 2

  1. Job 30:27 רֻתְּח֥וּ they have been made to boil

    I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.

    Here: "Have been brought to the boil." This is the word for a cooking pot boiling. The form is passive, so something has done this to him. Job does not name who, but in verses 19–23 he has been speaking directly to God. This passive form occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible.

  2. Job 41:31 יַרְתִּ֣יחַ it makes boil

    He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron; he makes the sea like a jar of ointment.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 24:5 רַתַּ֣ח make boil

    Take the choicest of the flock and pile the fuel beneath it. Bring it to a boil and cook the bones in it.’

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