How large a _rôle_ dancing in its various forms must have played among the Israelites is shown by the fact that, either in the restricted or in the more extended sense, no less than eleven Hebrew roots are used to describe its different characteristics. This in what is a relatively poor language is not without significance. Before saying something about the meaning of these roots it will be well to give a list of them: _Sāḥaq_ and _tzāḥaq_, used in the intensive _piel_ form. _Ḥūl_. _Kārar_, used in the _pilpel_ form, also intensive. _Pāzaz_, used in the _piel_ form. _Rāqad_, used in the _piel_ form. _Sābab_, used in the _hiphil_, causative, form. _Qāphatz_, used in the _piel_ form. _Dālag._ _Tzālaʿ_, occurs only once. _Ḥāgag_. _Pāsaḥ_, used in the _piel_ form. The first thing to notice here is that most of these roots, when used in reference to dancing, occur only in intensive forms; this is significant as pointing to the nature and character of the sacred dance. Of the exceptions, _ḥūl_ “to whirl” is intensive in its root-meaning; it has no _piel_, and its other forms occur only rarely, and almost entirely in the later poetical books. The roots _dālag_ and _tzālaʿ_, refer to a particular kind of ritual step; and as to _ḥāgag_ more will be said in a moment. Now as to the meaning of these different words for dancing: The root _sāḥaq_, in its intensive form _siḥēq_, means in the first instance “to laugh,” and it is also used in the sense of “playing” (Job xl. 29) and “merry-making” (Jer. xv. 17, xxx. 19, xxxi. 4, Zech. viii. 5; cp. also Judg. xvi. 25). In the specific sense of “dancing” it occurs in 1 Sam. xviii. 7: “... and the dancing women answered one another and said ...” (see also 1 Chron. xv. 29). Equivalent to this root is _tzāḥaq_, also used in the intensive form _tziḥēq_, which occurs, _e.g._, in Exod. xxxii. 6: “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to dance.” It is also used of “playing” or “sporting,” _e.g._ Gen. xxi. 9, Judg. xvi. 25, but in the second of these passages its obvious meaning is “to dance,” for as we shall see later this was the custom at feasts. This root, therefore, presents dancing in the aspect of a pleasant and enjoyable pastime. Further, in various passages this root is used as a parallel to other words for dancing. For example, in 1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7 just cited, it occurs as a parallel to the root which is the one most frequently used in the Old Testament for dancing, viz. _ḥūl_. This root expresses the “whirl” of the dance (_e.g._ Judg. xxi. 21, 23, Ps. lxxxvii. 7). It is the word used of the “writhing” or “twisting” of a woman in travail, _e.g._ Isa. xxvi. 17, xlv. 10, or of one in great pain, Isa. xiii. 8, xxiii. 5, Jer. li. 29; so that when used in the sense of dancing, contortions of the body are thought of, which suggests something of a rather wild character.