The head (as most easily shaken), whether literal or figurative (in many applications, of place, time, rank, itc.)
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רֹאשׁ (rosh) most basically names the head of a person or animal, and it extends to the top of an object or place, the beginning of a period, the first position, a chief or leader, and an individual counted in a group. Mountain tops emerge after the flood, a river divides from its head or source, oil is poured on Aaron's head, and a census can count persons by head.
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Full entry for רֹאשׁ (H7218) · Open the biblical lexicon
רֹאשׁ (rosh) most basically names the head of a person or animal, and it extends to the top of an object or place, the beginning of a period, the first position, a chief or leader, and an individual counted in a group. Mountain tops emerge after the flood, a river divides from its head or source, oil is poured on Aaron's head, and a census can count persons.
The BSB source-word alignment has 599 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the head (37), his head (34), the heads (31), head (25), their heads (19).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 2:10. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Chronicles (73), Numbers (41), Ezekiel (40), Leviticus (40).
רֹאשׁ (rosh) most basically names the head of a person or animal, and it extends to the top of an object or place, the beginning of a period, the first position, a chief or leader, and an individual counted in a group. Mountain tops emerge after the flood, a river divides from its head or source, oil is poured on Aaron's head, and a census can count persons by head. These uses share ideas of physical location, sequence, prominence, or representation, but context decides which idea is active.
Leadership uses are real but limited by their passages. Moses appoints capable people as heads over groups in Exodus 18 and Deuteronomy 1, while Isaiah can call an elder the head in an image of corrupt social order. The noun does not by itself authorize a modern church office, male supremacy, unchecked control, or immunity from accountability. A leader named as a head remains responsible to God's justice and to the duties stated in that setting.
Psalm 118:22 says the stone rejected by builders became the head of the corner. Its later canonical use is important, yet that use should not make every occurrence of rosh a prediction about Christ. Likewise, the promise that Israel will be head and not tail in Deuteronomy 28 belongs to a covenant blessing and curse address; it is not an individual guarantee of wealth, promotion, or dominance.
Rosh ranges from bodily anatomy to spatial height, temporal beginning, rank, leadership, and individual enumeration. Concrete and metaphorical uses must be distinguished from the grammar, construction, and literary setting.
The tops of the mountains become visible as floodwaters recede, illustrating the spatial-top sense.
The designated month becomes the beginning or first of months for Israel's calendar.
Moses appoints capable people as heads over organized groups to share judicial responsibility.
The offerer lays a hand on the head of the offering within the passage's sacrificial procedure.
Israel's census counts people by head, using the body term for individual enumeration.
Head and tail form a covenantal contrast of prominence and subordination inside the blessing and curse address.
The prophet identifies elder and honored person as the head within an indictment of misleading leadership.
The Lord is praised as the one who lifts the psalmist's head, reversing humiliation and danger.
The rejected stone becomes the head of the corner in a reversal attributed to the Lord.
Precious oil runs from Aaron's head onto his beard in the psalm's image of communal unity.
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 apex extends metaphorically to leadership, primacy, and authority across spatial, temporal, and social domains.
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 1 selected witness from 600 lexical occurrence verses.
Points toward centralized Davidic authority. Hosea 1:10-2:1
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Rosh gives Scripture a flexible way to speak about bodies, beginnings, tops, counted persons, and leaders. Faithful teaching names the active sense before applying it. Exodus 18 joins leadership to capable service and shared responsibility. Isaiah 9 shows that honored leaders may mislead and face judgment. Psalm 3 depicts God lifting a threatened person's head, while Psalm 118 celebrates God's reversal of human rejection.
These texts support accountable service and hope, not domination. Bodily uses should be handled without shaming hair loss, injury, disability, cultural dress, or other physical differences. Violent references to heads should be named soberly and never converted into entertainment or spiritual threats.
Ps.118.22
H7218 is a high-frequency noun whose concrete body sense extends to spatial top, temporal beginning, rank, chief status, and individual counting. English head can obscure these distinct constructions, so syntax and genre should control the gloss.
New Testament cornerstone texts apply Psalm 118:22 to Jesus. New Testament uses of head and leadership vocabulary require their own Greek contexts and should not be treated as automatic equivalents of every Hebrew rosh occurrence.
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