רוּץ
to run
‘to run’ is one of 2 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
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘run’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘cause to run’
- Polel
- A stem of hollow/geminate roots functioning like the Piel — intensive active.
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H7323 appears in the Book of Joel — 3 distinct verses. 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.
Joel
- Joel 2:4 יְרוּצֽוּ/ן Qal impf 3mp + sfx n The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, And as horsemen, so do they run.
- Joel 2:7 יְרֻצ֔וּ/ן Qal impf 3mp + sfx n They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don't swerve off course.
- Joel 2:9 יְרֻצ֔וּ/ן Qal impf 3mp + sfx n They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves.
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, רוץ (rûwts) means “to run.” The King James Version usually renders it “ran,” while modern versions prefer “runners” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) — see the renderings breakdown. With 92 verses in 23 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 18:2. Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 2 stems, among them Qal and Hiphil. Dig into 92-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7323 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 →
- 92
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 92 distinct verses.
- 23 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 23 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #410
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 410 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 92 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 92 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 55 verses · 60%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 25 verses · 27%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 12 verses · 13%
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: Ran 20×, Guard 14×, Run 11×
- American Standard Version: Ran 20×, Guard 13×, Run 8×
- Berean Standard Bible: Ran 16×, Run 12×, Guards 11×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Runners 21×, Ran 14×, Run 12×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7323 across 104 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 30 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H7323 across 104 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 33 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 H7323 across 103 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 43 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H7323 across 113 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 18 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
8 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each.
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 8 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.
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. רָץ Gn 18:7; 2 ms. רַצְתָּה Je 12:5, etc.; Impf. יָרוּץ Hb 2:2 +, יָרֻץ Jb 16:14, וַיָּ֫רָץ Gn 18:2 +, וַיָּרֹ֑ץ 2 S 18:21; 1 s. sf. ארוצם Je 50:44 Kt (but רצץ]; Imv. ms. רוּץ 2 S 18:23 2 K 4:26, רֻץ 1 S 20:36 Zc 2:8; Inf. cstr. לָרוּץ 1 S 20:6 +; Pt. רָץ 2 S 18:22 +, pl. רָצִים 1 S 22:17 +, רָצִין 2 K 11:13 (Ges§ 87 e);— e.g. Genesis 18:7
- 1. run, c. אֶל loc. Gn 18:7; 24:20 (both J), Nu 17:12 (P), אֶל pers. Gn 24:29 (J; + ה loc.), 1 S 3:5; Is 55:5 (fig.), with hostility, against, Jb 15:26 (fig.), so goat against ram Dn 8:6, עַלִ pers., against Jb 16:14; ה loc. also Jos 7:22, לְבֵיתוֹ Hg 1:9, לָרַע Is 59:7; Pr 1:16; acc. loc. 1 S 20:6; 17:22, 48 (+ לִקְרַאת); ב loc. on (ב II. 2), of horses Am 6:12, locusts Jo 2:9; into Pr 18:10 (fig.); מִן loc. 1 S 4:12, so MT 2 K 23:12 (= he went quickly thence, but text perhaps corrupt, v. Kit Benz, and cf.> Hiph. infr.); אַחֲרֵי pers. 2 S 18:22; 1 K 19:20; 2 K 5:20, 21; Ct 1:4, עַד pers. 2 K 4:22; לִפְנֵי pers. 2 S 15:1; 1 K 1:5 (both of royal escort, 2), 18:46 (+ עַד loc.), לִפְנֵי rei 1 S 8:11; אֵת pers. accomp. Je 12:5; c. acc. of way, אֹרַח ψ 19:6, דֶּרֶךְ 2 S 18:23; ψ 119:132 (fig.); as prelim., + inf. לִקְרַאת run to meet Gn 18:2; 24:17; 29:13; 33:4 (all J), 2 K 4:26; Je 51:31 + vb. fin. Gn 24:28; 29:12 (both J), Nu 11:27; Jos 8:19 (both JE), Ju 7:21; 13:10; 1 S 10:23; 17:51; 2 S 18:19; ψ 59:5; as imv. + imv. 1 S 20:36; Zc 2:8; abs. 1 S 20:36; Is 40:31; 2 Ch 23:12 (v. 2 a), Pr 4:12; 6:18 (of feet), of locusts Jo 2:4, 7; specif., run as messenger 2 S 18:21, 22, 23(×2), 24, 26(×2), fig. of prophet’s activity Je 23:21, of י׳’s word ψ 147:15; fig. of reading smoothly, יָרוּץ קוֹרֵא בוֹ Hb 2:2.—ψ 18:30 = 2 S 22:30 read אָרֹץ (for אָרֻץ, אָרוּץ), √ רצץ Ew Ol Che Bae al. e.g. Genesis 18:7
- 2. Pt. as subst.:
- a. pl. הָרָצִים the runners (proposes 3, as royal escort, cf. vb. 2 S 15:1; 1 K 1:5; then) of royal body-guard 1 S 22:17; 1 K 14:27, 28(×2) = 2 Ch 12:10, 11(×2); 2 K 10:25(×2); 11:4, 6, 11, 19(×2).—(הָעָם) הָרָצִין v13 is gloss (Kit Benz; whence [easier] הָעָם הָרָצִים 2 Ch 23:12 v. 1).—Pr 29:6 for יָרֻן Pinsk Toy favour יָרוּץ. e.g. 2 Samuel 15:1
- b. runner = (royal messenger, post, late), רָץ Je 51:31(×2) (‖ מַגִּיד), cf. Jb 9:25 (as swift); הָרָצִים 2 Ch 30:6, 10; Est 3:13, 15, riders הָר׳ בַּסּוּסִים 8:10, הָר׳ רֹכְבֵי הָרֶכֶשׁ v14. Pōʿlēl Impf. 3 mpl. יְרוֹצֵ֑צוּ Na 2:5 they run swiftly, dart (like lightning; of chariots). e.g. Jeremiah 51:31
Hiphil
- cause to run:
- 1. bring, or move, quickly, Impf. 3 mpl. sf. וַיְרִיצֻהוּ, מִן loc. Gn 41:14 (E), read perhaps also 3 ms. וַיָּרֶץ 2 K 23:12 (acc. om.; for MT וַיָּרָץ v. Qal); ל pers., acc. rei om. וַיָּרִיצוּ 2 Ch 35:13; Imv. ms. הָרֵץ 1 S 17:17 (+ acc. loc., ל pers.); Impf. 3 fs. תָּרִיץ יָדָיו ψ 68:32 quickly stretch out hands, לֵאלֹהִים (viz. with offerings). e.g. Genesis 41:14
- 2. c. מֵעַל = drive away from, 1 s., sf. 3 ms., אֲרִיצֶנּוּ Je 49:19, so read prob. also in ‖ 50:44 (Qr אֲרִיצֵם, > Kt ארוצם). e.g. Jeremiah 49:19
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
vb. run (NH id. (rare); Ethiopic ሮጸ Zinj. Pf. 1 s. רצת; = Aramaic רְהַט; ܪܗܰܛ (WSG 47); cf. Assyrian râṣu, be helpful (i.e. run to help?));—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
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.
רוּץ
- (b. h.) to run. Sabb. 153ᵇ רָץ תחתיה וכ׳ he must run under it (with the burden on his shoulders) until he reaches his home, opp. קלי קלי. Ber. 6ᵇ לעולם יָרוּץ אדם וכ׳ man should always run to hear the word of the hălakhah, even on the Sabbath. Pes. 112ᵃ; Ab. V, 20 רץ כצבי quick like a deer. Snh. 96ᵃ יכול אני לָרוּץ וכ׳ I can run for three parasangs in front of horses. Ib. ומה בשכר … שרץ thou wonderest at the reward for four steps which that wicked man (Baladan) ran for my honor’s sake; שרָצוּ לפני וכ׳ who ran before me like horses; a. fr.
- to make run, hasten. Mekh. B’shall., Shir., s. 2 למה רַצְתָּ … מצרי הֱרִיצַנִי וכ׳ why didst thou run after my children?, and he (the horse) says, the Egyptian made me run against my will; הסוס הריצני וכ׳ the horse carried me swiftly against my will. Ib. B’shall., s. 2 שהיו מְרִיצִים המרכבה who drove the chariot. Y. Shek. VIII, 51ᵃ bot. מְרִיצִין, v. מְרִיצָה. Koh. R. to XII, 6 (play on ותרץ, ib.) ומְרִיצָה וכ׳, v. גָּלָה; Lev. R. s. 18 ומריקה (corr. acc.). Gen. R. s. 13 אר̇ץ̇ כנגד … שהיא מר̇יצ̇ה וכ׳ the earth is called erets, corresponding to the spring season, when she hastens her fruits to come forth. Lev. R. s. 28 דברים שהן מריצין לבני מעים things which make the bowels run (loosen the bowels); Yalk. Ez. 344; Pesik. R. s. 18 מצירים (corr. acc.); (Pesik. Haʿomer, p. 71 משלשלום); a. fr.—[Num. R. s. 20; Tanḥ. Balak 4 הכל מריצים, v. רָצַץ.]
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 77 distinct written forms H7323 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 17 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7323, 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.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 83 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 92 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
- Genesis 18:2
- Numbers 11:27
- Joshua 7:22
- Judges 7:21
- 1 Samuel 3:5
- 2 Samuel 15:1
- 1 Kings 1:5
- 2 Kings 4:22
- 2 Chronicles 12:10
- Esther 3:13
- Job 9:25
- Psalms 19:5
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.
