רוּץ
ruts
to run: run
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Explored# The Hebrew Word for Running: רוּץ (ruts) The Hebrew word *ruts* (Strong's H7323) carries the straightforward meaning "to run," appearing 87 times throughout the Hebrew Bible. This frequency indicates it was a common term for describing human movement at speed, making it a foundational vocabulary item for depicting physical action in biblical narratives. The sheer number of occurrences suggests that *ruts* functioned as the standard verb for expressing rapid movement across various contexts—whether describing people fleeing danger, pursuing others, or moving urgently from place to place. The consistency of its definition ("to run") across these 87 instances indicates the word maintained a stable, literal meaning without significant semantic variation or metaphorical extension in biblical usage. This straightforwardness makes it a reliable indicator of physical action in the text. The word's prevalence in biblical narrative reflects the importance of movement and urgency as recurring themes in ancient Hebrew literature, from escape scenes to pursuit narratives to scenes of haste and activity. Its ubiquity demonstrates that describing running—as a basic human action—was essential to the storytelling conventions of biblical writers.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
87 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into Yahweh’s house.
2 Chronicles 30:6So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn again to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.
2 Chronicles 30:10So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, but people ridiculed them and mocked them.
2 Chronicles 35:13They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance. They boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people.
Esther 3:13Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions.
Esther 3:15The couriers went out in haste by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Susa was perplexed.
Esther 8:10He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by courier on horseback, riding on royal horses that were bred from swift steeds.
Esther 8:14So the couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment. The decree was given out in the citadel of Susa.
Job 9:25“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.
Job 15:26he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers,
Job 16:14He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs at me like a giant.
Psalms 18:29For by you, I advance through a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall.
Psalms 19:5which is as a bridegroom coming out of his room, like a strong man rejoicing to run his course.
Psalms 59:4I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!
Psalms 68:31Princes shall come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God.
Psalms 119:32I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free.
Psalms 147:15He sends out his commandment to the earth. His word runs very swiftly.
Proverbs 1:16for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood.
Proverbs 4:12When you go, your steps will not be hampered. When you run, you will not stumble.
Proverbs 6:18a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,
Proverbs 18:10Yahweh’s name is a strong tower: the righteous run to him, and are safe.
Song of Solomon 1:4Take me away with you. Let’s hurry. The king has brought me into his rooms. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine! They are right to love you.
Isaiah 40:31but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 55:5Behold, you shall call a nation that you don’t know; and a nation that didn’t know you shall run to you, because of Yahweh your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.”
Isaiah 59:7Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.
Jeremiah 12:5“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? Though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?
Jeremiah 23:21I didn’t send these prophets, yet they ran. I didn’t speak to them, yet they prophesied.
Jeremiah 51:31One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.
Jeremiah 51:31One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.
Jeremiah 51:31One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.
Jeremiah 49:19“Behold, he will come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, I will appoint him over it. For who is like me? Who will appoint me a time? Who is the shepherd who will stand before me?”
Jeremiah 50:44Behold, the enemy will come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation; for I will suddenly make them run away from it. Whoever is chosen, I will appoint him over it; for who is like me? Who will appoint me a time? Who is the shepherd who can stand before me?”
Joel 2:9They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves.
Daniel 8:6He came to the ram that had the two horns, which I saw standing before the river, and ran on him in the fury of his power.
Joel 2:4Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and they run as horsemen.
Joel 2:7They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course.
Amos 6:12Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;
Nahum 2:4The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in the wide ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings.
Habakkuk 2:2Yahweh answered me, “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who runs may read it.
Haggai 1:9“You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says Yahweh of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house.
Zechariah 2:4and said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it.
Genesis 18:2He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood near him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,
Genesis 18:7Abraham ran to the herd, and fetched a tender and good calf, and gave it to the servant. He hurried to dress it.
Genesis 24:17The servant ran to meet her, and said, “Please give me a drink, a little water from your pitcher.”
Genesis 24:20She hurried, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw, and drew for all his camels.
Genesis 24:28The young lady ran, and told her mother’s house about these words.
Genesis 24:29Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban. Laban ran out to the man, to the spring.
Genesis 29:12Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s relative, and that he was Rebekah’s son. She ran and told her father.
Genesis 29:13When Laban heard the news of Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things.
Genesis 33:4Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept.