To impinge , by accident or violence, or (figuratively) by importunity
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The Hebrew verb paga describes coming upon, meeting, reaching, or pressing an appeal, with the precise sense determined by the verbal form and setting. Travelers reach a place, people encounter one another, pursuers may catch someone, and an appeal can be urged on another person's behalf.
Reader summary
Full entry for פָּגַע (H6293) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb paga describes coming upon, meeting, reaching, or pressing an appeal, with the precise sense determined by the verbal form and setting. Travelers reach a place, people encounter one another, pursuers may catch someone, and an appeal can be urged on another person's behalf.
The BSB source-word alignment has 46 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include reached (2), strike him down (2), . . . (1), [the border] touched (1), and adjoining (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 23:8. Its strongest book concentrations include Joshua (10), 1 Kings (6), Isaiah (5), 1 Samuel (4).
The Hebrew verb paga describes coming upon, meeting, reaching, or pressing an appeal, with the precise sense determined by the verbal form and setting. Travelers reach a place, people encounter one another, pursuers may catch someone, and an appeal can be urged on another person's behalf. In Isaiah 53, the Lord causes the iniquity of all to fall upon the Servant.
In Isaiah 59, the absence of an intercessor belongs to a prophetic indictment of injustice. These uses share the idea of contact or intervention, but they do not make every unexpected meeting a divine appointment or every forceful request faithful intercession. An encounter may bring welcome, danger, obstruction, or accountability. Intercession can be compassionate prayer, yet Scripture also records commands not to intercede in a particular judgment setting.
Responsible teaching therefore identifies who meets whom, what reaches its object, who is asking, and whether the action is physical, relational, judicial, or prayerful. It honors consent and safety and does not pressure vulnerable people to accept access, contact, or mediation that places them at risk.
Paga moves from physical contact and reaching a destination to forceful appeal and intercession. Narrative direction, verbal stem, and prophetic context determine whether the contact is ordinary, dangerous, representative, or redemptive.
“If you are willing for me to bury my dead,” he said to them, “listen to me, and approach Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf
Abraham asks the people of the land to intercede with Ephron so he may purchase a burial place for Sarah.
On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
Jacob reaches a certain place at sunset and stays there for the night before the dream at Bethel.
If you encounter your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.
The covenant instruction addresses encountering an enemy's wandering ox or donkey and returning it.
“Go to the hill country,” she said, “so that your pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there for three days until they have returned; then go on your way.”
Rahab directs the spies toward the hills so the pursuers will not encounter them on the road.
We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
The Lord causes the iniquity of all to meet upon the Servant within the chapter's sin-bearing confession.
He saw that there was no man; He was amazed that there was no one to intercede. So His own arm brought salvation, and His own righteousness sustained Him.
The Lord sees injustice and is appalled that there is no one to intervene or intercede.
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. Physical collision shifts to intercessory urgency: meeting someone transforms into pleading on behalf of another.
Physical collision shifts to intercessory urgency: meeting someone transforms into pleading on behalf of another.
to impinge, by accident or violence, or (figuratively) by importunity BDB: meet Usage: come (betwixt), cause to entreat, fall (upon), make intercession, intercessor, intreat, lay, light (upon), meet (together), pray, reach, run.
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 46 lexical occurrence verses.
פָּגַע is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Paga gathers several kinds of contact without erasing their differences. Jacob's arrival at a place is ordinary travel language that becomes important because of what God reveals there, not because every stopping place carries a hidden message. Exodus 23 turns an encounter with an enemy's animal into concrete covenant responsibility. Joshua 2 uses the verb for the danger of pursuers meeting the spies.
Abraham's request in Genesis 23 shows mediated appeal within a public land negotiation. Isaiah then uses the verb in weightier theological settings. Isaiah 53:6 places the iniquity of all upon the Servant within the chapter's sustained confession of substitutionary suffering. That action is the Lord's saving purpose and cannot authorize religious leaders to claim another person's guilt, demand punishment, or present themselves as substitute saviors.
Isaiah 59:16 laments the absence of intervention amid injustice, while Jeremiah 7:16 shows that even intercession language must remain under God's stated word and historical judgment context. Faithful application values prayer, advocacy, restitution, and courageous intervention, but it also asks whether contact is wanted, safe, lawful, and truthful. A surprising meeting may become meaningful, yet the lexeme alone does not certify providential guidance, romantic destiny, pastoral access, or prophetic authority.
Isa.53.6
Paga is a Hebrew verb whose Qal uses can describe meeting, reaching, encountering, or pressing upon. Hiphil uses can express causing something to meet upon another or making intercession. Complements, prepositions, stem, and scene identify the relationship.
The New Testament speaks of meeting, advocacy, mediation, and intercession through other Greek terms. Those themes can illuminate prayer and Christ's saving work, but they should not be treated as though every later occurrence directly reproduces paga's lexical range.