darach · tread, march, bend

What it means

darach (דָּרַךְ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “tread, march, bend”.

Tread, walk, march on; also string a bow by stepping on it.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To step on; crush grapes underfoot.
2. To bend a bow by bracing it with the foot, to string it and shoot.
3. To guide someone along the right path.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To tread, set one's foot on something; from there to walk, march, and to make someone walk a way. Treading the winepress is pressing the grapes, and treading the bow is bending it: BDB explains it because the bow was bent by setting the foot on it. It is the root of דֶּרֶךְ (way, H1870).

• Every place the sole of the foot treads Deuteronomy 11:24Joshua 1:3
• Treading the winepress Judges 9:27Isaiah 63:3
• Bending the bow Psalms 11:2Lamentations 2:4
• “Direct me in your truth” Psalms 25:5Psalms 25:9
• Marching forth: “A star shall march forth from Jacob” Numbers 24:17Amos 4:13

How we translate it

According to the object: “tread” 11 times and “treads” 9 with places and grapes (Deuteronomy 11:24; Isaiah 63:3); “bend” 6, “bent” 4 and “He has bent” 3 with the bow (Psalm 11:2); “Direct me” or “He directs” when YHWH makes someone walk his way (Psalm 25:5, 9); “shall march forth” in Numbers 24:17. Each form shows what the foot does in each case.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• tread ×11
• treads ×9
• bend ×6
• bent ×4
• He has bent ×3
• has trodden ×2
• have trodden ×2
• who drew ×2
• Direct me ×1
• He directs ×1
• others ×21

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×4
• Joshua×2
• Judges×3
• 1 Samuel×1
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Nehemiah×1
• Job×4
• Psalms×10
• Proverbs×1
• Isaiah×11
• Jeremiah×9
• Lamentations×3
• Amos×2
• Micah×4
• Habakkuk×2
• Zechariah×1

• Numbers 24:17

  I see him, but not now; I gaze on him, but not near. A star shall march forth from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise from Israel, and shall shatter the temples of Moab and tear down all the sons of Sheth.

• Deuteronomy 1:36

  except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and to him I will give the land on which he has walked, and to his sons, because he has followed YHWH fully.”

• Deuteronomy 11:24

  Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea shall be your territory.

• Deuteronomy 11:25

  No man will stand before you; the dread of you and the terror of you YHWH your Elohim will put on the face of all the land on which you tread, as he has spoken to you.

• Deuteronomy 33:29

  Happy are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by YHWH, the shield of your help and who is the sword of your majesty? Your enemies will cringe before you, and you will tread on their high places.”

• Joshua 1:3

  Every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.

• Joshua 14:9

  And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be yours as an inheritance and your sons’ forever, because you followed fully YHWH my Elohim.’

• Judges 5:21

  The brook Kishon swept them away, the ancient brook, the brook Kishon. Tread on, my soul, with strength!

• Judges 9:27

  They went out into the field and harvested their vineyards and trod the grapes, and they held a festival of praise; and they went into the house of their god and ate and drank and cursed Abimelech.

• Judges 20:43

  They surrounded Benjamin, pursued him, trod him down without rest as far as opposite Gibeah toward the sunrise.

• 1 Samuel 5:5

  That is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

• 1 Chronicles 5:18

  The sons of Reuben, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, of the valiant, men who carried shield and sword, who drew the bow, and trained for war, were forty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty, who went out to the army.

• 1 Chronicles 8:40

  And the sons of Ulam were men, mighty men of valor, who drew the bow, and had many sons and sons’ sons, a hundred and fifty. All these were of the sons of Benjamin.

• 2 Chronicles 14:8

  Asa had a force carrying large shield and spear: from Judah, three hundred thousand; and from Benjamin, carrying shield and drawing the bow, two hundred and eighty thousand. All these were mighty men of valor.

• Nehemiah 13:15

  In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in the heaps and loading them on the donkeys, and also wine, grapes, and figs, and every kind of burden, and bringing them into Jerusalem on the day of the Sabbath; and I testified on the day they sold provisions.

• Job 9:8

  who stretches out the heavens by himself and treads on the high places of the sea;

• Job 22:15

  Will you keep the ancient path that the men of wickedness have trodden,

• Job 24:11

  Between their walls they press out oil; they tread the winepresses, and are thirsty.

• Job 28:8

  the sons of pride have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed over it.

• Psalms 7:12

  If he does not turn back, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent his bow and made it ready.

• Psalms 11:2

  For look, the wicked bend the bow; they have made ready their arrow on the string to shoot in the darkness at the upright in heart.

• Psalms 25:5

  Direct me in your truth and teach me, for you are the Elohim of my salvation; for you I have waited all the day.

• Psalms 25:9

  He directs the humble in justice, and teaches the humble his way.

• Psalms 37:14

  The sword the wicked have drawn, and they have bent their bow to bring down the afflicted and the needy, to butcher the upright in their way.

• Psalms 58:7

  Let them dissolve like water that flows away; when he draws his arrows, let them be as if blunted.

• Psalms 64:3

  who have sharpened like a sword their tongue; they have drawn their arrow, a bitter word,

• Psalms 91:13

  On the fierce lion and the viper you will tread; you will trample the young lion and the serpent.

• Psalms 107:7

  And he led them by a straight way to go to a city to dwell in.

• Psalms 119:35

  Lead me in the pathway of your commandments, for in it I take pleasure.

• Proverbs 4:11

  In the way of wisdom I have instructed you; I have led you in tracks of uprightness.

• Isaiah 5:28

  Whose arrows are sharp, and all its bows bent; the hooves of its horses are counted like flint, and its wheels like the whirlwind.

• Isaiah 11:15

  And YHWH will devote to destruction the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and he will wave his hand over the River with the heat of his wind, and strike it into seven streams, and make people cross in sandals.

• Isaiah 16:10

  And joy and gladness are gathered away from the orchard, and in the vineyards there is no singing, no shouting; the treader does not tread out wine in the presses; the shout I have made cease.

• Isaiah 21:15

  For from before swords they have fled, from before the drawn sword, and from before the bent bow, and from before the weight of battle.

• Isaiah 42:16

  And I will lead the blind by a way that they have not known; in paths that they have not known I will make them tread; I will make the dark places before them into light, and the crooked places into a plain. These things I will do, and I will not abandon them.

• Isaiah 48:17

  Thus says YHWH, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am YHWH your Elohim, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way that you should go.

• Isaiah 59:8

  The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their tracks; their paths they have made crooked for themselves; everyone who walks on them does not know peace.

• Isaiah 63:2

  Why is your apparel red, and your garments like those of one who treads in the winepress?

• Isaiah 63:3

  “The winepress I have trodden alone, and from the peoples there was no man with me; and I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my fury; and their juice spattered on my garments, and all my clothing I have stained.

• Jeremiah 9:3

  And they bend their tongue, their bow, for falsehood; and not for faithfulness have they grown strong in the land; for from evil to evil they go on, and me they do not know, declares YHWH.

And 22 more times.