StrongerBible

ravav

רָבַב

HebrewH7231“many, multiply, ...”

Appears 21 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 6:1Gen 18:20Exo 23:29Deu 7:71Sa 25:10Job 35:6Psa 3:1(2)Psa 4:7(8)Psa 25:19Psa 38:19(20)Psa 69:4(5)Psa 104:24Psa 144:13Ecc 5:11(10)Isa 6:12Isa 22:9Isa 59:12Isa 66:16Jer 5:6Jer 14:7Jer 46:23
Word studyResearch-graderah-VAHVverb

What ravav means

to be or become many: to grow large in number or quantity, and so to be abundant or great.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

At heart this verb is about amount, not size. It is the word Hebrew reaches for when something is counted and the count runs high, or when a quantity swells. That marks it off from גדל, which is about being great in size, weight, or importance: a thing can grow with גדל while staying single, but a thing this verb describes has become many.

Its uses fan out into three close shades: being many (foes, sins, or a nation's works all standing in large number), becoming many over time (people spreading across the land, a harvest increasing, flocks breeding by the thousand), and being great in sheer extent (the outcry of a wicked city, or a countryside emptied of its people). The line between them is soft, because a large number and a swelling amount are the same idea seen from different angles.

The word lives almost entirely in poetry, and it leans toward a handful of subjects:

  • enemies who have grown too many to face, in the laments of the Psalms
  • sins and rebellions piling up against God, in the prophets
  • the works of God, so many they defy counting, in praise

It is the quieter, mostly poetic partner of the everyday verb רבה, which covers the same ground and adds the active side, to make many or increase, including the famous command to be fruitful and multiply. The two words are so close that they share forms and fill in each other's gaps.

Nuances

1ato be many, to be numerous: to exist in large number.
TranslatabilityDirect
1Sa 25:10Psa 3:1(2)Psa 25:19Psa 38:19(20)Psa 69:4(5)Psa 104:24Isa 22:9Isa 59:12Isa 66:16Jer 5:6Jer 14:7Jer 46:23
1bto become many, to increase, to multiply: to grow in number or amount over time.
TranslatabilityDirect
Gen 6:1Exo 23:29Psa 4:7(8)Psa 144:13Ecc 5:11(10)
1cto be great, to be abundant: large in sheer extent or intensity rather than in a countable tally.
TranslatabilityDirect
Gen 18:20Isa 6:12

What scholars say about ravav

The verb belongs to one of the most secure word-families in the Semitic languages. Comparative work (Militarev and Kogan) reconstructs a common ancestor meaning "big, great," with reflexes across nearly every branch: Akkadian rabu "to be great," Ugaritic rb "chief" and rbb, Aramaic and Syriac rab, Arabic rabb "lord." The critical lexicons (BDB, HALOT, DCH) and the theological dictionaries (TDOT, TWOT, TLOT) agree that the Hebrew verb means "to be or become many, much, great." Two grammatical points are widely noted. First, this doubled-consonant verb shares its paradigm with the more common weak by-form spelled with a final vowel (the verb at H7235); the two are treated as collateral realizations of a single underlying root rather than distinct roots, and they fill in each other's conjugations. Second, the sole passive form, in Psalm 144:13, is a denominative built on the numeral "ten thousand, myriad" (itself derived from this root), which the lexicons unanimously flag as morphologically distinctive. That numeral has an exact Ugaritic parallel (rbt) and is rendered in Greek as murias, the "myriads" of Daniel 7 and Revelation 5. A second, philologically isolated verb of the same spelling, meaning "to shoot," is preserved as a separate lexical entry on the strength of a single contested form in Genesis 49:23 (kept in this corpus under H7232); its independence is debated (see the dispute).

Where scholars disagree about ravav

Whether the consonants r-b-b stand for one root or two. Every occurrence in this entry means "be many, great," but a single form in Genesis 49:23, set among archers and bows, is traditionally read as a separate verb "to shoot." The ancient versions complicate matters: the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint appear to have read a form of the verb "to contend, quarrel" instead. Scholars divide over whether the archery verb is genuine, is a specialized outgrowth of "be many" (arrows cast in a multitude), or is a corruption to be emended away.

  • majorityTwo words: a common verb "be many, great," and a genuine if rare verb "to shoot," attested in Genesis 49:23 and supported by its context of bows and arrows.; BDB, s.v. רבב I, II; HALOT, s.v. רבב; B. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (2001), 613-614; G. Wenham, Genesis 16-50, Word Biblical Commentary (1994), 486
  • minorityOne word: the "shoot" sense is a narrowed use of "be many," arrows being cast in great number.; W. Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon (Tregelles ET, 1846), s.v. רבב; TDOT, vol. 13, "רבה" (Fabry and Ringgren)
  • minorityThe form in Genesis 49:23 is a scribal corruption; with the Samaritan and Greek witnesses it should be corrected to a form of the verb "to contend, quarrel."; H. Gunkel, Genesis, 3rd ed. (1910); J. Skinner, Genesis, International Critical Commentary (1910), 530
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. רבב I, IIlexicon
  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner-Stamm), s.v. רבבlexicon
  • DCH (Clines), vol. VII, s.v. רבבlexicon
  • TWOT (Harris-Archer-Waltke), nos. 2099, 2100dictionary
  • TDOT, vol. 13, "רבה" (H.-J. Fabry and H. Ringgren)dictionary
  • del Olmo Lete and Sanmartín, A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language (DUL), 3rd ed. (2015)lexicon
  • L. Kogan, Genealogical Classification of Semitic (2015), 196-197monograph
  • N. Sarna, Genesis, JPS Torah Commentary (1989), 342-343commentary

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

All attested forms of רָבַב

qal perfect 3cp

רַבּוּ, רָבּוּ

1Sa 25:10, Psa 3:1, Psa 38:19, Psa 69:4, Psa 104:24, Ecc 5:11, Isa 59:12, Jer 5:6

qal consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְרַבּוּ

Job 35:6, Isa 66:16

qal consecutive-perfect 3fs

וְרַבָּה

Exo 23:29, Isa 6:12

qal infinitive-construct construct

רֹב, רֻבְּ

Gen 6:1, Deu 7:7

pual passive-participle f p absolute

מְרֻבָּבוֹת

Psa 144:13

qal perfect 3fs

רָבָּה

Gen 18:20