Hebrew verb · H7363
רָחַף
rachaphraw-khaf'
be weak; to hover
3 uses in the Hebrew text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key
Concordance spelling: râchaph
Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's H7363is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.
- 3 of 39Old Testament books
- 3spellings
- 2meanings
The definition in full
Strong's key (1890) · H7363
to brood; by implication, to be relaxed
The King James renders it: flutter, move, shake.
James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.
Summary
rachaph is rendered "be weak; to hover". It stands 3 times in the Hebrew text, across three books.
- One of the uses stand in Genesis, more than in any other book.
- The lexicon lists two meanings for it, beginning with "be weak".
- Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Genesis 1:2Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
- The Greek text spells it three different ways.
The first use
Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Genesis 1:2מְרַחֶ֖פֶת
The first use, in the order of the Old Testament's books.
Where the word stands
One of the word's three uses is in Genesis.
What the word means
The lexicons give this word two senses, and a verse uses one of them at a time: be weak, and to hover.
Each meaning, and the words it is translated by
| Meaning | Tagged as | Where |
|---|---|---|
| be weakStrong's entry A | Tagged aslisted under the table | WhereGenesis 1:2Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep… |
| to hoverStrong's entry B | Tagged aslisted under the table | Wherein the ledger below |
How the Greek text is glossed, word by word
- hovering1
- it hovers1
- they have become weak1
The words built on the same word-part
Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.
All 3, in canonical order
Every use, in order
Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.
3 spellings and their grammar
STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.
How it is spelled
- יְרַחֵ֑ף1
- מְרַחֶ֖פֶת1
- רָֽחֲפוּ֙1
The grammar of each form
- verb · intensive (piel), yiqtol (imperfect) · 3rd person masculine singular1HVpi3ms
- verb · intensive (piel), participle · feminine singular1HVprfsa
- verb · simple (qal), qatal (perfect) · 3rd person common plural1HVqp3cp
Genesis
one use
Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
- מְרַחֶ֖פֶתmerachefetverb · intensive (piel), participle · feminine singulartagged: hovering
Deuteronomy
one use
As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.
- יְרַחֵ֑ףyerachefverb · intensive (piel), yiqtol (imperfect) · 3rd person masculine singulartagged: it hovers
Jeremiah
one use
As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, and all my bones tremble. I have become like a drunkard, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD, because of His holy words.
- רָֽחֲפוּ֙rachafuverb · simple (qal), qatal (perfect) · 3rd person common pluraltagged: they have become weak
The letters
Gematria 288· 1,008 mispar gadol
Where it leads
How the numbers are counted
Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.
Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.
The family is read from the lexicon by the stem the two words share, with the accents off, and a person or a place named on the stem is left out.