רֶ֫גַע
moment
‘moment’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 18 times (82%)
- Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 4 times (18%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 22 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H7281 appears — 22 distinct verses across 9 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Exodus 1 verse
Numbers 2 verses
Ezra 1 verse
Job 4 verses
- Job 7:18 לִ֝/רְגָעִ֗ים prep + n c mp That you should visit him every morning, And test him every moment?
- Job 20:5 רָֽגַע n c ms That the triumphing of the wicked is short, The joy of the godless but for a moment?
- Job 21:13 וּ֝/בְ/רֶ֗גַע conj + prep + n c ms They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.
- Job 34:20 רֶ֤גַע n c ms In a moment they die, even at midnight; The people are shaken and pass away, The mighty are taken away without hand.
Psalms 3 verses
- Psalms 6:10 רָֽגַע n c ms May all my enemies be ashamed and dismayed. They shall turn back, they shall be disgraced suddenly.
- Psalms 30:5 רֶ֨גַע n c ms For his anger is but for a moment; His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, But joy comes in the morning.
- Psalms 73:19 כְ/רָ֑גַע prep + n c ms How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors.
Isaiah 5 verses
- Isaiah 26:20 רֶ֖גַע n c ms Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation be past.
- Isaiah 27:3 לִ/רְגָעִ֖ים prep + n c mp I Yahweh am its keeper; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
- Isaiah 47:9 רֶ֛גַע n c ms but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.
- Isaiah 54:7 בְּ/רֶ֥גַע prep + n c ms For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.
- Isaiah 54:8 רֶ֨גַע֙ n c ms In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting loving kindness will I have mercy on you, says Yahweh your Redeemer.
Jeremiah 3 verses
- Jeremiah 4:20 רֶ֖גַע n c ms Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my curtains in a moment.
- Jeremiah 18:7 רֶ֣גַע n c ms At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;
- Jeremiah 18:9 וְ/רֶ֣גַע conj + n c ms At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
Lamentations 1 verse
Ezekiel 2 verses
- Ezekiel 26:16 לִ/רְגָעִ֔ים prep + n c mp Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit on the ground, and shall tremble every moment, and be astonished at you.
- Ezekiel 32:10 לִ/רְגָעִים֙ prep + n c mp Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for you, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, רגע (regaʻ) means “moment.” Scripture first uses it in Exodus 33:5. Spanning 22 verses in 9 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Hebrew Bible. Carrying more than one sense, it rewards its full sense range. From the same root come רגע, מרגוע and מרגעה. Dig into 22-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7281 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 22
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 22 distinct verses.
- 9 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 9 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,412
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,412 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 22 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 22 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 10 verses · 45%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 9 verses · 41%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 3 verses · 14%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Moment 11×, Every moment 4×, Instant 2×
- American Standard Version: Moment 12×, Every moment 4×, Instant 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Moment 7×, Instant 4×, Every moment 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Moment 13×, A 2×, According to a moment 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7281 across 22 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H7281 across 22 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H7281 across 21 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H7281 across 25 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 2 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- a. ψ 30:6 ר׳ בְּאַפּוֹ a moment (passes) in his anger (opp. היים ברצונו); Is 54:7 בְּר׳ קָטֹן during a little moment. e.g. Psalms 30:6
- b. usually in adv. phrases:—(a) as adv. acc., (α) Ex 33:5 ר׳ אֶהָד for one moment, so ר׳ alone Is 54:8; repeated Je 18:7, 9 רֶגַע … רֶגַע at one moment … at another moment; (β) in a moment, suddenly, ψ 6:11 יָשׁוּבוּ יֵבשׁוּ רָ֑גַע, Je 4:20; Is 47:9; Jb 34:20. (b) בְּרֶגַע in a moment Jb 21:13 ובר׳ שְׁאוֹל יֵחַ֫תּוּ (of a quick and painless death; but see 34:20 ψ 73:19: Hoffm Buhl Beer Bu Du [cf. 𝔊 ἐν ἀναπαύσει, 𝔗 בְּמַרְגּוֹעָא] take רֶגַע (or read רְגֹעַ) as subst. [√ II. רָגַע] in tranquillity, of a peaceful death). So (c) בִּר׳ Nu 16:21 = 17:10 יַאֲכַלֶּה אֹתָם בְּרָ֑גַע, ψ 73:19. (d) בְּמוֹ ר׳ La 4:6. (e) עֲדֵי רָ֑גַע while a moment lasts Jb 20:5. (f) כִּמְעַט ר׳ like the littleness of a moment = for a little moment Is 26:20; Ezr 9:8. (g) pl. לִרְגָעִים by moments, at every moment, Is 27:3; Ez 26:16 וְהָֽרְדוּ ל׳ (so 32:10), Jb 7:18 (‖ לִבְקָרִים). e.g. Exodus 33:5
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
n.m. a moment (NH id.; 𝔗 רינעא Ec 9:12: prob. properly a movement, i.e. twinkling, of the eye; cf. momentum, i.e. movimentum);—abs. ר׳, רָ֑גַע Nu 16:21 +, pl. רְגָעִים;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from רגע (râgaʻ) (H7280) — to stir up.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
רָגַע
- (b. h.) to move, swing; to balance.
- to move from place to place; (of an infant) to crawl. Y. Kidd. IV, 65ᵈ bot.; Y. B. Bath. III, beg. 13ᵈ תינוק המַרְגִּיעַ a (foundling) infant which can leave the place where it was put down. Yalk. Ps. 846 וראו אותו מְרַגֵּעַ על וכ׳ they saw him crawl on hands and feet with a reed in his mouth &c. (playing with his child); Midr. Till. to Ps. XCII, 15 ed. Bub. מַרְגִּיעַ (missing in eds.).
רֶגַע
- preced.; cmp. Lat. momentum) moment. Ber. 7ᵃ ר׳ אחד וכ׳ how much is a regʿa? 1/58888 כמה of an hour; ib. וכמה ר׳ כמימריה how long is a regʿa? As long a time as is required for saying regʿa; Lam. R. to II, 18 כדי לאמרו; Y. Ber. I, 2ᵈ top. Tosef. Ber. I, 1, v. עוֹנָה I; a. e.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 20 distinct written forms H7281 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| רֶ֖גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 26:20 | 2 |
| רָֽגַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Job 20:5 | 2 |
| בְּ/רֶ֥גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 54:7 | 1 |
| וְ/רֶ֣גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Jeremiah 18:9 | 1 |
| וּ֝/בְ/רֶ֗גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Job 21:13 | 1 |
| כְ/רָ֑גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 73:19 | 1 |
| כְּ/רָ֑גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Numbers 16:45 | 1 |
| כְּ/רָֽגַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Numbers 16:21 | 1 |
| לִ/רְגָעִ֔ים | Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Ezekiel 26:16 | 1 |
| לִ/רְגָעִ֖ים | Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Isaiah 27:3 | 1 |
| לִ/רְגָעִים֙ | Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Ezekiel 32:10 | 1 |
| לִ֝/רְגָעִ֗ים | Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Job 7:18 | 1 |
| רֶ֛גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 47:9 | 1 |
| רֶ֣גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Jeremiah 18:7 | 1 |
| רֶ֤גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Job 34:20 | 1 |
| רֶ֧גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Exodus 33:5 | 1 |
| רֶ֨גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 30:5 | 1 |
| רֶ֨גַע֙ | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 54:8 | 1 |
| רֶגַע֩ | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ezra 9:8 | 1 |
| רָ֔גַע | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Lamentations 4:6 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7281, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 21 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 22 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Exodus 33:5
- Numbers 16:21
- Ezra 9:8
- Job 7:18
- Psalms 6:10
- Isaiah 26:20
- Jeremiah 4:20
- Lamentations 4:6
- Ezekiel 26:16
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
