Bible word study

Raqa (Strong’s H7554): Meaning in the Bible

Raqa (רָקַע) is the Hebrew word numbered H7554 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as to pound the earth (as a sign of passion); by analogy to expand (by hammering); by implication, to overlay (with thin sheets of metal). In the King James Bible it is translated beat, make broad, spread abroad (forth, over, out.

• Original wordרָקַע
• Transliterationrâqaʻ
• Pronunciationraw-kah'
• Part of speechverb (v)
• Strong’s numberH7554
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. a primitive root;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Raqa appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Raqa (H7554) stands behind 11 English renderings in 11 verses across 8 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Isaiah (3), Ezekiel (2), Exodus (1).

How the King James Bible renders Raqa, by count

• abroad2 of 11 (18 percent)
• out2 of 11 (18 percent)
• beat1 of 11 (9 percent)
• broad1 of 11 (9 percent)
• forth1 of 11 (9 percent)
• plates1 of 11 (9 percent)

Three places to read Raqa

• Exodus 39:3 And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work.
• Job 37:18 Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
• Isaiah 44:24 Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Raqa in the original Hebrew lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

Related words