Being alarmed or hurrying must be read through the person, cause and action named in the passage. Joseph's brothers cannot answer when he reveals himself because they are terrified, while Psalm 6 voices bodily frailty and deep distress in a plea for mercy.
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Reader summary
Full entry for בָּהַל (H926) · Open the biblical lexicon
Being alarmed or hurrying must be read through the person, cause and action named in the passage. Joseph's brothers cannot answer when he reveals himself because they are terrified, while Psalm 6 voices bodily frailty and deep distress in a plea for mercy.
The BSB source-word alignment has 37 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and terrified (2), and terrify them (2), terror (2), a sudden (1), and dismayed (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 45:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (10), Job (5), 2 Chronicles (3), Ecclesiastes (3).
Being alarmed or hurrying must be read through the person, cause and action named in the passage. Joseph's brothers cannot answer when he reveals himself because they are terrified, while Psalm 6 voices bodily frailty and deep distress in a plea for mercy. Ecclesiastes warns against hurried speech before God, and Esther describes couriers pressed into haste by the king's command.
Chronicles names an enemy's deliberate attempt to terrify Jerusalem's people, while Job speaks of fear within his continuing questions. These differing settings do not make every alarm sinful or every quick action foolish. Read whether someone is distressed, intimidated, instructed to slow speech or sent urgently on a task. The verb is not a clinical diagnosis or permission for a leader to use fear as control.
Preserve actual danger and the speaker's prayer without assigning every sufferer's hidden fault.
Reunion alarm, distressed prayer, restrained speech, urgent couriers, deliberate intimidation and Job's attributed fear show different actions. Agent, circumstance and voice determine the evaluation instead of a universal anxiety verdict.
Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But they were unable to answer him, because they were terrified in his presence.
The brothers are unable to answer Joseph when he reveals himself, and the following words name their past sale of him without making every frightened person equally guilty.
Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am frail; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are in agony.
Frailty and troubled bones lead to requests for mercy and healing, with the following soul distress and how-long question preserving the prayer's real need.
Do not be quick to speak, and do not be hasty in your heart to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. So let your words be few.
The warning concerns hurried speech and a hasty heart before God, with listening and vows nearby, rather than a ban on every urgent action or honest question.
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. Inward trembling that erupts into panic-driven haste; sudden alarm commanding urgent, anxious action.
Inward trembling that erupts into panic-driven haste; sudden alarm commanding urgent, anxious action.
to tremble inwardly (or palpitate), i.e. (figuratively) be (causative, make) (suddenly) alarmed or agitated; by implication to hasten anxiously BDB: be disturbed Usage: be (make) affrighted (afraid, amazed, dismayed, rash), (be, get, make) haste(-n, -y, -ily), (give) speedy(-ily), thrust out, trouble, vex.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 39 lexical occurrence verses.
בָּהַל is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Disturbance and urgency receive their evaluation from context. Joseph's brothers face a particular revelation and a history the account names; their fear is not a template for accusing every frightened person. Psalm 6 asks for mercy amid weakness and distress, allowing a how-long question rather than pretending pain is already absent. Ecclesiastes cautions speech before God within listening and vow instruction, while Esther's couriers hurry on a named royal task.
Chronicles explicitly describes intimidation intended to capture a city, and Job's fear remains his lamenting speech. Keep those agents and purposes separate. Teach careful speech where required and recognize deliberately inflicted fear where the narrator names it. Do not diagnose a present person's symptoms, silence honest distress or use the broad range to grant a human leader permission to frighten people into compliance.
Ps.6.2
The licensed Hebrew range includes disturbance, alarm and hastening. Some sentences name a distressed person; others describe causing fear or speeding an action. The agent and object distinguish these uses, and bodily source wording should not become a modern clinical diagnosis or one rule about every urgent task.
Matthew 14:30-31 narrates Peter's fear, cry and Jesus' immediate grasp as he begins sinking. This separate Greek scene can be read beside the Hebrew prayers for help without treating alarm as a reason to delay rescue. Jesus' actual corrective question remains visible alongside help, while neither set reveals the medical cause of every present person's distress or authorizes fear-based control.