Lexicon
חָרַשׁ
cha.rash
H2790A
H:V Hebrew

to plow/plot

25
Occurrences
12
Books
Hebrew
Language

cha.rash describes plowing land and, in other clauses, devising harm or being engraved.

The predominant use concerns working ground with animals or a plow, whether in ordinary farming, prohibitions, or images of a city made like a field. Other clauses use it for devising harmful or beneficial plans, while one passive form occurs where Judah’s sin is described as written and engraved.

Senses in use

  1. Working or turning cultivated ground · dominant

    In 1 Samuel 8:12 the Qal infinitive construct occurs in the king’s assignment of people to work his ground and reap his harvest. The APB renders fieldwork in 1 Kings 19:19 and Job 1:14 as "plowing," while Deuteronomy 22:10 prohibits doing it with an ox and donkey together. In Jeremiah 26:18, the Niphal imperfect describes Zion becoming like a field under judgment.

  2. Devising a course of action · common

    In 1 Samuel 23:9, the Hiphil active participle appears in the clause where Saul is acting against David; the APB renders the action as "plotting the harm." Qal participles and finite forms in Proverbs 3:29, Proverbs 6:14, Proverbs 12:20, and Proverbs 14:22 occur with harm, evil, peace, good, and the heart’s intentions.

  3. Marked by engraving · rare

    In Jeremiah 17:1, the Qal passive participle describes Judah’s sin in a clause where it is written with an iron stylus and engraved on the heart’s tablet and altar horns. The clause supports a marked or engraved result rather than field cultivation.

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly presents the agricultural clauses with "plow," "plowing," or "plowed," and presents the planning clauses with "plot" or "plotting." In Jeremiah 17:1 it renders the surrounding passive clause as "engraved"; these are translation renderings of whole verses rather than word-level alignments.

Passages featuring this word

Across Scripture