A foot (as used in walking); by implication, a step ; by euphemistically the pudenda
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The Hebrew noun רֶגֶל (reḡel) ordinarily names a foot, the paired feet, or the lower part of a leg. Because feet bear a person, carry a traveler, and mark where someone stands, the word can also participate in expressions about walking, steps, position, movement, attendance, defeat, and what lies under another's authority.
Reader summary
Full entry for רֶגֶל (H7272) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew noun רֶגֶל (reḡel) ordinarily names a foot, the paired feet, or the lower part of a leg. Because feet bear a person, carry a traveler, and mark where someone stands, the word can also participate in expressions about walking, steps, position, movement, attendance, defeat, and what lies under another's authority.
The BSB source-word alignment has 245 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (27), my feet (18), his feet (15), foot (14), their feet (12).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 8:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (31), Ezekiel (22), Isaiah (19), Deuteronomy (17).
The Hebrew noun רֶגֶל (reḡel) ordinarily names a foot, the paired feet, or the lower part of a leg. Because feet bear a person, carry a traveler, and mark where someone stands, the word can also participate in expressions about walking, steps, position, movement, attendance, defeat, and what lies under another's authority. Those extensions arise from the sentence and scene; they are not hidden meanings packed into every occurrence.
Genesis 18:4 uses feet in an ordinary act of hospitality, where water and rest are offered to travelers. First Samuel 24:3 uses an idiom that the BSB renders as Saul going into a cave to relieve himself, showing that a bodily euphemism must be recognized without being imported into unrelated passages. Second Samuel 9:13 speaks of Mephibosheth as lame in both feet while the larger chapter emphasizes David's covenant kindness, restored provision, and a lasting place at the king's table.
Psalm 110:1 places enemies beneath the ruler's feet as an image of divine victory and subjection, not a warrant for people to humiliate or coerce others. Isaiah 52:7 calls the messenger's feet beautiful because of the good news carried across the mountains, not because the body part is assigned magical power. Teachers should therefore begin with the concrete body part and let each local context establish any idiom, metaphor, or social action.
The word can appear in vulnerable bodily scenes, disability narratives, hospitality customs, worship settings, travel accounts, and royal imagery. Faithful teaching preserves those differences, treats bodies with dignity, and refuses to turn one person's mobility, posture, or exposure into a measure of spiritual worth.
Scripture uses H7272 across ordinary movement, care for travelers, exposed bodily need, disability, worship, proclamation, and royal rule. In Genesis 18, washed feet belong to a scene of generous hospitality and refreshment. In First Samuel 24, a discreet idiom places Saul in a vulnerable moment while David refuses to seize the opportunity for violence. Second Samuel 9 names Mephibosheth's impaired feet without making impairment a moral defect; the chapter's governing movement is David's covenant kindness and Mephibosheth's welcome at the royal table.
Psalm 110 and Isaiah 52 then show two different figurative horizons: enemies placed under the feet of God's appointed ruler, and the welcome arrival of one who announces peace and salvation. The repeated noun connects these scenes at the level of bodily language, but their theological claims remain governed by their own contexts.
Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.
Abraham offers water for his visitors' feet and a place to rest, presenting foot washing here as concrete hospitality and refreshment for travelers.
Soon Saul came to the sheepfolds along the road, where there was a cave, and he went in to relieve himself. And David and his men were hiding in the recesses of the cave.
The Hebrew foot expression occurs within a discreet bodily idiom that the BSB renders as Saul entering the cave to relieve himself.
So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table, and he was lame in both feet.
Mephibosheth's impairment in both feet is stated alongside his continuing place at the king's table, within David's larger act of covenant kindness.
The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
The Lord promises that the ruler's enemies will become a footstool, using feet within an image of divinely granted victory and subjection.
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
The messenger's feet are called beautiful because they carry good news of peace, salvation, and the reign of God to Zion.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Foot moves from literal walking to metaphorical standing/position, with euphemistic sexual sense in certain contexts.
Foot moves from literal walking to metaphorical standing/position, with euphemistic sexual sense in certain contexts.
a foot (as used in walking); by implication, a step; by euphemistically the pudenda BDB: foot Usage: × be able to endure, × according as, × after, × coming, × follow, (broken-)foot(-ed, -stool), × great toe, × haunt, × journey, leg, piss, possession, time.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 251 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Second Samuel 9:13 gives a strong pastoral center for H7272 because it names bodily impairment while refusing to make that impairment the person's whole identity or a sign of divine rejection. Mephibosheth lives in Jerusalem, eats continually at the king's table, and is lame in both feet. Earlier in the chapter David seeks someone from Saul's house to whom he may show kindness for Jonathan's sake, restores Saul's land, arranges provision, and welcomes Mephibosheth like one of the king's sons.
The final reference to his feet does not cancel that welcome. It keeps bodily reality in view while the chapter directs attention to covenant faithfulness, provision, and belonging. This prevents two opposite errors. A teacher should not erase disability in the name of an uplifting message, and should not use Mephibosheth merely as an illustration of helplessness, shame, or inner defect.
His feet are part of his embodied life, not proof of his spiritual condition. Across Scripture, H7272 may name washed feet, traveling feet, vulnerable bodily exposure, impaired feet, or feet within royal imagery. The common noun does not make those situations morally equivalent. Its pastoral value lies in helping readers attend to how people stand, move, receive care, carry news, or are placed within a particular scene.
Christian teaching can therefore speak about God's kindness and Christ's lordship while resisting ableism, coercive postures, invasive speculation, and the reduction of a person to a body part.
2Sam.9.13
H7272 is a common Hebrew noun whose inflected forms can mark singular, dual, plural, construct, and pronominally suffixed uses. Its concrete reference is the foot or feet, with contextual extensions to a step, walking, standing, position, or what is placed beneath the feet. Some passages employ bodily euphemism, but that restricted use must be identified from syntax, idiom, and narrative setting rather than treated as the word's default sense.
Isaiah 52:7 is taken up in Romans 10:15 as Paul speaks of those who bring good news, while Psalm 110:1 becomes a major New Testament witness to the exalted reign of Christ. John 13's foot washing and other New Testament foot texts use Greek vocabulary rather than H7272 itself. These are canonical connections through shared imagery and themes, not claims that the Hebrew noun carries every later theological association in each occurrence.