Hebrew word · H7573
רָתַם
retom
to bind
To bind, tie, fasten. Here it means hitching a chariot to its horses.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
(Qal) to bind, attach
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 bind, tie, fasten. Here it means hitching a chariot to its horses.
- Against the English
English versions agree in sense: 'bind' (KJV, YLT), 'harness' (BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV). Some add 'and flee' (NLT), which reads in one interpretation.
- Used elsewhere in the period
This is the only occurrence in the Hebrew Bible. The meaning comes from related words: in later Hebrew and Aramaic it means to tie or bind, and Arabic ratama refers to tying a thread around a finger as a reminder. The Greek Septuagint renders it as 'noise' ('a noise of chariots and horsemen'), and the Vulgate also has a 'noise/uproar of the chariot'. This suggests ancient translators also struggled with the rare word.
Where it appears
Micah · 1
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Micah 1:13 רְתֹ֧ם harness
Harness your chariot horses, O dweller of Lachish. You were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
Here: A sharp order: tie the chariot to its horses. The verb appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. Its meaning, 'tie or fasten', comes from related words in later Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic. The order is ironic. The horses are being hitched to flee, or for a battle that is already lost.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.