StrongerBible

qarev

קָרֵב

HebrewH7131“approaching, coming near, ...”

Appears 12 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Num 1:51Num 3:10Num 3:38Num 17:13(28) (2×)Num 18:7Deu 20:31Sa 17:412Sa 18:251Ki 4:27(5:7)Ezk 40:46Ezk 45:4
Root family
Word studykah-RAYVadjective

What qarev means

coming near: said of someone in the act of approaching, rather than someone who is already close by

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This word picks out a person in motion. Hebrew already has a word for being near (קָרֹב) and a verb for the act of drawing near (קָרַב); this one names the one doing the approaching, caught mid-approach. In a battle report it is simply the enemy getting closer, or a runner coming into view. In the laws about the tabernacle it becomes far heavier.

Four times in Numbers the same short line appears: the outsider who comes near shall be put to death. The approach itself is the offense. Nothing has to be touched, taken, or damaged; crossing into the space reserved for the priests is the crime. In Numbers 17:13 the word is repeated, so that the terrified people cry out that anyone at all who comes near the LORD's dwelling will die.

Ezekiel turns the same word the other way. There the priests descended from Zadok are the ones "who come near" to the LORD to serve him, and coming near is their privilege and their job description. One word covers both the trespasser and the minister, because it names the movement and not the right to make it. Who is doing the approaching is what decides life or death.

One passage stretches it further still. In 1 Kings 4:27 the people who come near King Solomon's table are those who eat there as a matter of course, the circle with access to the king. Approach shades into standing, which is easy to lose when an English translation says only that they came to the table.

Nuances

1aclosing the distance in ordinary movement: walking or advancing nearer to a person, a place, or a coming event
TranslatabilityDirect
Deu 20:31Sa 17:412Sa 18:25
1bthe outsider who steps into holy space: a person with no right to the sanctuary, whose approach alone carries a death sentence
Num 1:51Num 3:10Num 3:38Num 17:13(28) (2×)Num 18:7
1cthe priest who is allowed to draw near: one who may come close to God in order to serve him
Ezk 40:46Ezk 45:4
1dhaving a place at someone's table: belonging to the circle granted regular access to a king
TranslatabilityPartial
1Ki 4:27(5:7)

What scholars say about qarev

BDB, HALOT, and DCH all list קָרֵב as a verbal adjective of the root קרב, noting that in most contexts it is barely distinguishable from the active participle of the verb, which is why individual occurrences are parsed either way. The concentration of the form in the Priestly tabernacle legislation has drawn sustained attention. Jacob Milgrom, in Studies in Levitical Terminology I, argued that הַזָּר הַקָּרֵב in Numbers 1:51; 3:10, 38; 18:7 is a fixed juridical formula in which קָרֵב designates the encroacher, the non-priest (and, in the Levitical stratum, the non-Levite) whose unauthorized approach to the sanctuary is itself the capital offense apart from any further act; he develops the same reading in his Numbers commentary, where the doubled הַקָּרֵב הַקָּרֵב of Numbers 17:13 is taken as intensification of the same principle. The TDOT article on קרב follows this line and connects the Numbers formula with Ezekiel's inversion, where הַקְּרֵבִים marks the Zadokite priests as those whose approach to YHWH is legitimate and constitutive of their office (Ezekiel 40:46; 45:4). The non-cultic occurrences (Deuteronomy 20:3; 1 Samuel 17:41; 2 Samuel 18:25; 1 Kings 4:27) show that the term carries no inherent cultic charge, and the last of these is commonly read as an idiom of court access.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. קָרֵבlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. קָרֵבlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. קָרֵבlexicon
  • Jacob Milgrom, Studies in Levitical Terminology, I: The Encroacher and the Levite; The Term 'Aboda (University of California Press, 1970)monograph
  • Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, JPS Torah Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1990)commentary
  • H.-J. Fabry and H. Ringgren, "קרב," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testamenttheological-dictionary

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

All attested forms of קָרֵב

m s absolute

קָּרֵב, קָרֵב

Num 1:51, Num 3:10, Num 3:38, Num 17:13, Num 17:13, Num 18:7, 1Ki 4:27, 1Sa 17:41

m p absolute

קְּרֵבִים, קְרֵבִים

Ezk 40:46, Ezk 45:4, Deu 20:3