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# רֵאשִׁית

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H7225

**beginning** — used 51 times in the Hebrew Bible. Below: its meanings with their sources, MACULA's glosses, and 2 verses word for word and in JPS 1917.

## Meaning

### OpenScriptures lexical index

beginning [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1512/7225/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

רֵאשִׁית: n.f. beginning, chief [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1512/7225/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** n.f. beginning, chief (for רְאֵשִׁית NöGGA 1884, 1019, cf. HolzHex 465; Syriac ܪܺܝܫܺܝܬܳܐ );—abs. ר׳ Dt 33:21 +, cstr. ר׳ Gn 10:10 +, רֵשִׁית Dt 11:12; sf. רֵאשִׁיתוֹ Ec 7:8, רֵאשִׁתוֹ Jb 42:12, etc.;— beginning, of kingdom Gn 10:10 (J), year Dt 11:12, reign Je 26:1; 27:1; 28:1; 49:34; = first phase, step, or element in course of events Is 46:10 (opp. אַחֲרִית); of a thing (דָּבָר) Ec 7:8 (opp. id.); of sin Mi 1:13, strife Pr 17:14, wisdom ψ 111:10, knowledge Pr 1:7; thy beginning Jb 8:7 = thine early life, so his beginning 42:12 (both opp. אַחֲרִית); ר׳ before cl., בְּר׳ בָּרָא א׳ Gn 1:1 in the beginning when God created (\> abs. in the beginning God created); ר׳ אֹנִי 49:3 (poem) beginning (first product) of my manly vigour (‖ בְּכֹרִי, כֹּחִי), so Dt 21:17 ψ 78:51 (both ‖ בְּכוֹר), 105:36; cf. ר׳ דַּרְכֵי אֵל Jb 40:19 (of hippopot.), ר׳ דַּרְכּוֹ Pr 8:22 (of wisdom); = first season (of a tree) Ho 9:10; ר׳ גּוֹיִם Nu 24:20 (JE), first, earliest, of nations. first of fruits Ex 23:19 (E), 34:26 (JE), Dt 26:2, 10; Ez 44:30a, of harvest Lv 23:10 (H), grain Dt 18:4; 2 Ch 31:5, dough Nu 15:20, 21 (P), Ez 44:30b; Ne 10:38, wool Dt 18:4; of כָּל־תְּבוּאָחֶ֑ךָ Pr 3:9; Israel is ר׳ תְּבוּאָתֹה Je 2:3 (i.e. of י׳’s increase); ר׳ = first-fruits Lv 2:12 (P), Nu 18:12 (P), Ne 12:44; ר׳ הָאָרֶץ Ez 48:14. first, chief, Am 6:1; ר׳ גְּבוּרָתָם Je 49:35 (of bows); so appar. ר׳ בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן Dn 11:41, i.e. the principal part of them (Buhl Marti conj. שְׁאֵרִית, after 𝔖); ר׳ מַשְׂאוֹתֵיכֶם Ez 20:40, i.e. your chief oblations; ר׳ שְׁמָנִים Am 6:6, i.e. choice oils; = choice part, of land Dt 33:21, offering 1 S 2:29, הַחֵרֶם 15:21; abs. chief thing Pr 4:7 (of wisdom).

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 49 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (2 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 1 with the glosses (2 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: the beginning (10); the first (10); \[the\] beginning (4).

## In the verses

[Proverbs 1:7](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.1.7/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.1.7/#tree)

יִרְאַ֣ת יְ֭הוָה רֵאשִׁ֣ית דָּ֑עַת חָכְמָ֥ה וּ֝מוּסָ֗ר אֱוִילִ֥ים בָּֽזוּ׃פ

*Word for word:* the.fear of.Yahweh \[is.the\].beginning of.knowledge wisdom and discipline fools they.despise

*JPS 1917:* The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and discipline.

[Job 8:7](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.8.7/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/JOB.8.7/#tree)

וְהָיָ֣ה רֵאשִׁיתְךָ֣ מִצְעָ֑ר וְ֝אַחֲרִיתְךָ֗ יִשְׂגֶּ֥ה מְאֹֽד׃

*Word for word:* and it.will.be beginning your a.small.thing and future your it.will.grow exceedingly

*JPS 1917:* And though thy beginning was small, yet thy end should greatly increase.

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/7225.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1512/7225/): every English meaning parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.

Sources. The words, their counts, glosses and the word-for-word renderings: MACULA Hebrew (the Westminster Leningrad Codex; Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0). Meanings: the OpenScriptures lexical index (CC BY 4.0), Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906 and Jastrow 1903 (public domain, via Sefaria); Targum Onkelos from Sefaria (public domain). Translation: JPS 1917 (public domain, from eBible.org).