To scratch , i.e. (by implication) to engrave , plough ; hence (from the use of tools) to fabricate (of any material); figuratively, to devise (in a bad sense); hence (from the idea of secrecy) to be silent , to let alone ; hence (by implication) to be deaf (as an accompaniment of dumbness)
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The Hebrew verb charash gathers several senses that English normally separates: cutting or engraving with a tool, plowing ground, devising a plan, and becoming or remaining silent. Elijah finds Elisha plowing when the prophetic call interrupts ordinary agricultural work.
Reader summary
Full entry for חָרַשׁ (H2790) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb charash gathers several senses that English normally separates: cutting or engraving with a tool, plowing ground, devising a plan, and becoming or remaining silent. Elijah finds Elisha plowing when the prophetic call interrupts ordinary agricultural work.
The BSB source-word alignment has 72 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Be silent (5), . . . (3), Be quiet (3), plow (3), but says nothing (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 24:21. Its strongest book concentrations include Job (11), Psalms (10), Proverbs (9), Numbers (6).
The Hebrew verb charash gathers several senses that English normally separates: cutting or engraving with a tool, plowing ground, devising a plan, and becoming or remaining silent. Elijah finds Elisha plowing when the prophetic call interrupts ordinary agricultural work. In other narratives, people remain silent in restraint, fear, refusal, or obedience. Wisdom texts can use the verb for devising harmful schemes, while prophetic poetry asks whether anyone plows on rock.
These are related historical uses of one verb, not a single spiritual code. Silence may express trust in God's action, but elsewhere it can hide contempt, fear, or unconfessed pain. Plowing may picture preparation, yet the agricultural act itself does not promise spiritual fruit. Devising is judged by its object and intent, not by thoughtful planning as such.
Responsible teaching follows the direct object, setting, and result. It refuses to shame quiet people, command silence in the face of abuse, treat farming success as a faith measure, or label all planning manipulative.
Charash can describe working a surface or field, forming a plan, and keeping silent. Narrative, wisdom, poetry, and prophecy supply the object and moral force for each occurrence.
So Elijah departed and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve teams of oxen, and he was with the twelfth team. Elijah passed by him and threw his cloak around him.
Elijah finds Elisha plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before placing the prophetic mantle upon him.
But some worthless men said, “How can this man save us?” So they despised him and brought him no gifts; but Saul remained silent about it.
Saul remains silent when worthless men despise him and refuse the customary gift of loyalty.
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Moses tells the frightened people that the Lord will fight for them while they remain still.
When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
The psalmist describes bodily wasting and groaning during a period of silence before acknowledged sin.
With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.
The corrupt person continually devises evil and spreads discord from a deceitful heart.
“Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
Amos asks whether horses run on rocks or oxen plow there while exposing distorted justice.
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. Core sense of making marks (engraving, ploughing) extends to crafting, scheming, and strategic silence or deafness.
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 2 selected witnesses from 72 lexical occurrence verses.
חָרַשׁ is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Silence here represents disciplined wisdom rather than ignorance.Isaiah 36:11-22
Demonstrates restrained trust amid provocation.Proverbs 11:12
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Charash demonstrates why lexical range must be interpreted passage by passage. Elisha's plowing belongs to productive work and becomes the setting of a prophetic call, but the call does not demean farming or make occupational change a universal sign of obedience. Saul's silence toward contempt may be restraint within that scene, while Psalm 32 portrays silence about sin as costly concealment.
Exodus 14 directs a trapped and frightened people to cease striving while the Lord acts; it is not a general order to suppress testimony, questions, grief, or reports of abuse. Proverbs condemns devising because evil and discord are its objects, not because careful forethought is wrong. Amos uses an impossible agricultural image to expose the corruption of justice.
Faithful teaching therefore names the sense and moral setting before application. It can honor diligent work, prudent restraint, truthful confession, wise planning, and public justice without forcing them into one theme. It must never use a word for silence to protect an offender, silence a vulnerable person, discourage lawful reporting, or imply that speaking about suffering shows deficient faith.
Ps.32.3
Charash is a Hebrew verb whose attested range includes cutting or engraving, plowing, devising, and keeping silent. Objects, complements, verbal forms, and discourse setting distinguish physical work from planning and speech-related senses.
The New Testament addresses work, planning, confession, quietness, testimony, and justice through its own Greek vocabulary. Canonical comparison can clarify those themes, but it should not claim that charash directly governs every command to be quiet or every farming image.