StrongerBible

moreh

מוֹרֶה

HebrewH4175“teacher, early rain, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Job 36:22Psa 84:6(7)Pro 5:13Isa 30:20 (2×)Jol 2:23 (2×)
Root family
Word studymo-REHnoun

What moreh means

1

a teacher: the one who instructs another and points out the way he should go

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

Behind the word is a verb that means to point something out, to aim it at a mark (יָרָה), and this noun names the person who does that. A teacher here is not someone with a subject to cover but someone who shows you where to go, and the same root gives Hebrew its great word for instruction (תּוֹרָה).

That shows in the three verses where the word means a teacher. Proverbs puts it in the mouth of a man looking back on a wasted life: he would not listen to the voice of his teachers, and the line sets the word beside a second word for the men who taught him (לָמַד). Elihu, arguing with Job about how little anyone understands God, asks who could be a teacher like him. Isaiah promises a people living on the bread of hardship that their teacher will no longer stay hidden and that their own eyes will see him.

Isaiah's line is also where the word turns difficult, because the Hebrew reads "your teachers" in the plural while the verb beside it is singular. Translations divide: some render "your Teacher" and take it of God himself, no longer hidden, and others render "your teachers" and take it of the prophets and instructors given back to the people. Either way the promise is the same, that the instruction they had lost is restored to them.

Nuances

1aa human teacher whose instruction a learner is meant to obey, not merely hear
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
Pro 5:13
1bGod as teacher: the one who instructs his people and has no equal at it
Job 36:22Isa 30:20 (2×)
2

the early rain: the first rains of autumn, which soften the baked ground so that plowing and sowing can begin

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

Farming in the land of Israel ran on two rainy seasons with a long dry summer between them. The first rains arrive in autumn, and they matter because the ground bakes too hard to break open until they fall: no early rain, no plowing and no sowing. The last rains come in spring and swell the grain before harvest. Hebrew keeps a word for each. Ours names the autumn rain, though it is more often spelled with a different first letter (יוֹרֶה), and מַלְקוֹשׁ names the spring rain at the other end of the year.

Joel 2:23 stacks the whole vocabulary into one line: God has given the autumn rain, and pours down for his people rain, the autumn rain and the spring rain, as he used to. A locust plague had stripped the land, so both rains arriving on time meant a harvest and a year of life, and the promise reads as favor restored rather than as a forecast. In Psalm 84 the picture is smaller and stranger: pilgrims cross a dry valley and it turns to springs of water, with the autumn rain covering it.

Both of these verses are argued about, because the same four Hebrew letters also spell the word for a teacher, and ancient translators sometimes read them that way. Nowhere else does Hebrew use this spelling for rain, which is why the rain sense rests on so little.

Psa 84:6(7)Jol 2:23 (2×)
Jol 2:23

Whether הַמּוֹרֶה לִצְדָקָה in Joel 2:23 is meteorological ("the early rain in right measure," or "for your vindication") or personal ("a teacher of righteousness").

  • majorityThe early rain. The second colon of the same verse, גֶּשֶׁם מוֹרֶה וּמַלְקוֹשׁ, sets the word inside the stereotyped early-rain and late-rain pair, and the whole oracle answers the drought and locust devastation of chapters 1 and 2.; Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), s.v. מוֹרֶה; BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. מוֹרֶה (early rain), on Joel 2:23; Hans Walter Wolff, Joel and Amos (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1977), on Joel 2:23; James L. Crenshaw, Joel (Anchor Bible 24C; Doubleday, 1995), on Joel 2:23
  • minorityA teacher of righteousness. Jerome's Latin renders doctorem iustitiae, and the corresponding Hebrew phrase became a standing title in the Dead Sea Scrolls, so ancient readers heard a teacher in this vocabulary.; Vulgate, Joel 2:23 (doctorem iustitiae); Damascus Document (CD) 6:11, and cf. CD 1:11, on the one who teaches righteousness
Psa 84:6

Whether מוֹרֶה in Psalm 84:7 Hebrew (84:6 English) is the early rain or a teacher and lawgiver, and relatedly whether בְּרָכוֹת is "blessings" or, vocalized as בְּרֵכוֹת, "pools."

  • contestedThe early rain: "the early rain also covers it with pools," or "with blessings." The rainfall imagery matches the valley turned to springs in the first colon.; BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. מוֹרֶה (early rain), listing Psalm 84:7 Hebrew with a note of doubt; New Revised Standard Version, Psalm 84:6
  • contestedA lawgiver or teacher: "the lawgiver will give blessings." The Septuagint renders the subject with a participle of νομοθετέω and the Latin Psalter with legislator, and the same consonants are read as a teacher or lawgiver at Psalm 9:20 as well.; Septuagint, Psalm 83:7 Greek numbering (84:6 English), rendering the word with a participle of νομοθετέω; Latin Psalter (Vulgate), Psalm 83:8 (benedictionem dabit legislator)

What scholars say about moreh

מוֹרֶה is a participle-shaped noun (hiphil pattern) from the root ירה, and the standard lexica split it into two lexemes. מוֹרֶה I "teacher" belongs with ירה in the sense of instructing (hiphil הוֹרָה "to instruct, direct"), the root that also yields תּוֹרָה; the sense is secure at Job 36:22, Proverbs 5:13, and Isaiah 30:20 (twice). מוֹרֶה II "early rain" is treated as a byform of יוֹרֶה (Deuteronomy 11:14; Jeremiah 5:24), the noun deriving from ירה in the sense of pouring or watering; BDB and HALOT assign Joel 2:23 to it and list Psalm 84:7 Hebrew (84:6 English) there as well, BDB marking that verse doubtful, and DCH follows the same two-entry arrangement. Whether the two nouns rest on one root (casting or throwing, whence both the pouring of rain and the aiming of instruction) or on homonymous roots is not settled; the derivational discussion is carried in TDOT's treatment of תּוֹרָה.

The crux at Joel 2:23 turns on הַמּוֹרֶה לִצְדָקָה. The consonants admit "the early rain in right measure" or "for your vindication," and equally "a teacher of righteousness"; Jerome renders doctorem iustitiae, and the corresponding Hebrew phrase becomes a standing title in the Damascus Document (CD 6:11; cf. CD 1:11), which is why the verse figures in the history of the Qumran Teacher of Righteousness. The decisive internal argument for the meteorological reading is the second colon of the same verse, גֶּשֶׁם מוֹרֶה וּמַלְקוֹשׁ, where the word sits inside the fixed early-rain and late-rain pair; Wolff and Crenshaw both take the rain sense while registering the ancient teacher tradition. The same ambiguity recurs in the verbal form at Hosea 10:12 (וְיֹרֶה צֶדֶק), discussed by Macintosh, which is not an occurrence of this noun but shapes the argument around it.

Psalm 84:7 Hebrew (84:6 English) is the harder verse: גַּם־בְּרָכוֹת יַעְטֶה מוֹרֶה admits "the early rain also covers it with blessings" and, vocalizing בְּרֵכוֹת, "with pools," while the Septuagint (Psalm 83:7 in Greek numbering) and the Latin Psalter read the subject as a lawgiver (a participle of νομοθετέω; benedictionem dabit legislator). Kraus and Hossfeld with Zenger treat the line as both textually and semantically vexed. A neighboring vocalization crux stands at Psalm 9:21 Hebrew (9:20 English), where the consonants may be pointed מוֹרָא "terror" or מוֹרֶה "teacher, lawgiver." At Isaiah 30:20 the plural מוֹרֶיךָ governs a singular verb (יִכָּנֵף), and commentators divide between a reference to God, taken up in the standard English versions with a capitalized "Teacher," and a reference to the prophetic teachers restored to the people; Blenkinsopp lays out the alternatives. For the agricultural frame of the rain sense (the autumn yoreh from roughly late October, the spring malqosh in March and April, and their covenant weighting in Deuteronomy 11:14 and Jeremiah 5:24) see Borowski.

Where scholars disagree about moreh

Whether Biblical Hebrew has a noun מוֹרֶה meaning "early rain" at all, or whether all seven occurrences are the noun "teacher." The rain noun rests on Joel 2:23 and the doubtful Psalm 84:7 Hebrew (84:6 English), and in both verses the ancient versions read a teacher or lawgiver.

  • majorityTwo homonymous nouns. Alongside "teacher" there is a rarer noun for the early rain, a byform of יוֹרֶה, standing in Joel 2:23 and probably in Psalm 84:7 Hebrew. The fixed pairing with מַלְקוֹשׁ, the spring rain, in the second colon of Joel 2:23 is the strongest evidence.; Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), s.v. מוֹרֶה; BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. מוֹרֶה (early rain), marking Psalm 84:7 Hebrew doubtful; David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, s.v. מוֹרֶה; Hans Walter Wolff, Joel and Amos (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1977), on Joel 2:23
  • minorityOne noun, "teacher," throughout. The ancient versions read a teacher or lawgiver in both of the verses now taken as rain, so the rain noun is a modern lexical construct rather than an attested Hebrew word.; Vulgate, Joel 2:23 (doctorem iustitiae); Septuagint, Psalm 83:7 Greek numbering (84:6 English), rendering the word with a participle of νομοθετέω; Damascus Document (CD) 6:11, on the one who teaches righteousness

Sources

  • BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. מוֹרֶה I and IIlexicon
  • Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), s.v. מוֹרֶהlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, s.v. מוֹרֶהlexicon
  • F. García López, תּוֹרָה tôrâ, in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT)theological-dictionary
  • Hans Walter Wolff, Joel and Amos (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1977), on Joel 2:23commentary
  • James L. Crenshaw, Joel (Anchor Bible 24C; Doubleday, 1995), on Joel 2:23commentary
  • Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 60-150 (Continental Commentary; Augsburg, 1989), on Psalm 84commentary
  • Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger, Psalms 2: A Commentary on Psalms 51-100 (Hermeneia; Fortress, 2005), on Psalm 84commentary
  • Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39 (Anchor Bible 19; Doubleday, 2000), on Isaiah 30:19-21commentary
  • A. A. Macintosh, Hosea (International Critical Commentary; T&T Clark, 1997), on Hosea 10:12commentary
  • Oded Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel (Eisenbrauns, 1987)monograph
  • Vulgate, Joel 2:23 (doctorem iustitiae)ancient-version
  • Septuagint, Psalm 83:7 Greek numbering (84:6 English)ancient-version
  • Damascus Document (CD) 6:11 and 1:11ancient-source

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of מוֹרֶה

m s absolute

מוֹרֶה, הַמּוֹרֶה

Job 36:22, Psa 84:6, Jol 2:23, Jol 2:23

m p construct

מוֹרֶיךָ

Isa 30:20, Isa 30:20

m p construct

מוֹרָי

Pro 5:13