Fretting Fret
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [1]
(חרה , ḥārāh , מאר , mā'ar ): To "fret" is from for (prefix) and etan , "to eat," "to consume." The word is both transitive and intransitive in King James Version: (1) transitive as translation of ḥārāh , "to burn," Hithpael, "to fret one's self," "to be angry" ( Psalm 37:1 , "Fret not thyself because of evil-doers"; Psalm 37:7 , Psalm 37:8; Proverbs 24:19 ); of ḳācaph , "to be angry," etc. ( Isaiah 8:21 , "They shall fret themselves, and curse," etc.); of rāghaz , to be moved" (with anger, etc.) ( Ezekiel 16:43 , "Thou hast fretted me in all these things," the American Standard Revised Version "raged against me"). For Leviticus 13:55 , see under Fretting below. (2) Intransitive, it is the translation of rā‛am , "to rage," Hiphil, "to provoke to anger" ( 1 Samuel 1:6 , "Her rival provoked her sore, to make her fret"); of zā‛aph , "to be sad," "to fret" ( Proverbs 19:3 , "His heart fretteth against Yahweh").
Fretting in the sense of eating away, consuming, is used of the leprosy, mā'ar , "to be sharp, bitter, painful" ( Leviticus 13:51 , Leviticus 13:52; Leviticus 14:44 , "a fretting leprosy"; in Leviticus 13:55 we have "it (is) fret inward" ("fret" past participle), as the translation of pehetheth from pāḥath , "to dig" (a pit), the word meaning "a depression," "a hollow or sunken spot in a garment affected by a kind of leprosy," the Revised Version (British and American) "it is a fret."
Revised Version has "fretful" for "angry" ( Proverbs 21:19 ), margin "vexation."
