To quiver (with any violent emotion, especially anger or fear)
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
This Hebrew verb can describe shaking or being deeply stirred, with anger, fear, grief or the movement of the earth specified by context. The BSB renders Psalm 4:4 as a command concerning anger and the refusal to sin.
Reader summary
Full entry for רָגַז (H7264) · Open the biblical lexicon
This Hebrew verb can describe shaking or being deeply stirred, with anger, fear, grief or the movement of the earth specified by context. The BSB renders Psalm 4:4 as a command concerning anger and the refusal to sin.
The BSB source-word alignment has 41 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include tremble (5), trembled (3), and be disturbed (2), and your raging (2), quake (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 45:24. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (11), Psalms (5), 2 Samuel (3), Habakkuk (3).
This Hebrew verb can describe shaking or being deeply stirred, with anger, fear, grief or the movement of the earth specified by context. The BSB renders Psalm 4:4 as a command concerning anger and the refusal to sin. Habakkuk 3:16 describes inward trembling and quivering lips while the prophet waits for the approaching day of distress. Second Samuel 18:33 says the king was shaken as David receives news of Absalom's death and weeps for his son. Those responses should not be assigned one emotional meaning simply because the verb recurs.
Psalm 99:1 places the nations' trembling and the earth's quaking beside the Lord's reign and holiness. Its poetic summons differs from a narrative report about one person's grief. Habakkuk's prayer also continues beyond trembling to rejoicing in the God of his salvation despite the loss of ordinary provision. The text permits those realities to be heard together. It does not require a reader to display immediate calm or cheerful feelings before a profession of trust can be taken seriously.
Anger restrained from sin, the prophet's trembling, a father's grief and the nations' response to God's reign show how context identifies the character of agitation.
Be angry, yet do not sin; on your bed, search your heart and be still. Selah
The BSB speaks of anger without sin, searching the heart and being still, followed by trust in the Lord. The verse directs the response to agitation rather than excusing harmful conduct because a feeling is strong.
I heard and trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Decay entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Yet I must wait patiently for the day of distress to come upon the people who invade us.
The prophet describes trembling and quivering as he waits for the day of distress. The prayer's later rejoicing does not erase this preceding bodily response or turn it into a failure of faith.
The king was shaken and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he walked, he cried out, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
David is shaken and weeps when he understands that Absalom has died. The verse portrays a father's anguished response within a complicated narrative; the verb alone does not resolve every judgment about the king's actions.
The Lord reigns; let the nations tremble! He is enthroned above the cherubim; let the earth quake!
The nations tremble and the earth quakes in the psalm's announcement of the Lord's reign. The following praise of His holiness supplies the worship setting of the imagery.
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. to quiver (with any violent emotion, especially anger or fear)
to quiver (with any violent emotion, especially anger or fear) BDB: be agitated Usage: be afraid, stand in awe, disquiet, fall out, fret, move, provoke, quake, rage, shake, tremble, trouble, be wroth.
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.
רָגַז 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.
Habakkuk 3:16 gives bodily language to the prophet's response: inward trembling, quivering lips and weakness accompany his waiting. The following verses imagine the failure of figs, vines, olives, fields and flocks, yet declare rejoicing in the God of salvation. These are not two unrelated voices, one faithless and the other faithful. The prayer's movement lets distress and reliance on God be acknowledged within a single testimony.
That observation should encourage honest teaching rather than another standard of emotional performance. The text does not tell every grieving person how quickly to move from shaking to a song. David's grief has its own narrative setting, Psalm 4 addresses anger and conduct, and Psalm 99 proclaims God's holy reign. Attend to those differences. A pastoral application can invite trust, restraint from harm and truthful prayer while refusing to treat a person's bodily response as a complete measure of their faith.
Hab.3.16
The verb's range involves agitation or shaking, but the affected subject and literary setting identify what kind. Psalm 4's anger, David's grief and Habakkuk's trembling should not be collapsed into one diagnosis. Different English renderings can preserve meaningful differences between contexts.
The BSB gives Psalm 4:4 and Ephesians 4:26 the same command about being angry without sin; Ephesians adds its own immediate warning and community instructions. John 14:27 offers a thematic comparison through Jesus' gift of peace. Neither connection makes instant emotional quiet a universal test of obedience or spiritual health.