empty: holding nothing, and so, of people or words, without worth or substance
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
The basic picture is a container with nothing in it: a dry pit, a jar with no water, thin ears of grain with no kernel. From that plain image the word reaches in two directions, describing not just what a thing holds but what it is worth.
of things, literally empty: a pit "empty, with no water in it," jars carried into battle, a stripped cooking pot
of people, empty of worth: the "empty men" who rally to Abimelech and to Jephthah, reckless good-for-nothings with nothing to their name
of words and effort, empty of substance: God's instruction is "no empty word," and the person who chases empty pursuits ends up with nothing
One word does all three because Hebrew can treat worth the way it treats contents. A promise that delivers nothing, or a person who amounts to nothing, is "empty" in the very same way a jar is. Nearby words press the idea further: הֶבֶל is emptiness as fleeting vapor, and שָׁוְא is emptiness that deceives.
Nuances
1aphysically empty: a container, pit, or thing with nothing in it
Gen 37:24Gen 41:27Jdg 7:162Ki 4:3Neh 5:13*Isa 29:8*Ezk 24:11
1bworthless: of reckless good-for-nothing men (the idiom "empty men")
TranslatabilityPartial
Jdg 9:4Jdg 11:32Sa 6:202Ch 13:7
1cempty of substance: a word, law, or pursuit that carries no weight or comes to nothing
the Hebrew reaches past physical emptiness to call a person worthless and a word without effect, uses English "empty" does not naturally makeJdg 9:4Deu 32:47
Both
both plainly describe a container or space with nothing in itGen 37:242Ki 4:3
Only empty
in modern English "empty" leans neutral and physical, or suggests feeling hollow, missing the moral edge of a worthless scoundrel
“vain”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“worthless”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How req differs from similar Hebrew words
הֶבֶלvapor or breath: emptiness as something fleeting and futile that slips away, where this word is emptiness of contents or worth
שָׁוְאemptiness that deceives: worthlessness bound up with falsehood and lies, where this word is simply void of substance without the note of deceit
תֹּהוּtrackless waste or formless void, the chaos before order, where this word is a bounded container or person that is empty
The ordinary word for a container holding nothing: a cistern with no water in it, the jars Gideon's men carried, the vessels the widow borrowed, the cooking pot lifted off the fire.Gen 37:24Jdg 7:162Ki 4:3Ezk 24:11
Used of people, and then it is an insult: the hired fighters who follow a would-be ruler because they have nothing better to do, and the men Michal sneers at when she calls David one of them.Jdg 9:4Jdg 11:32Ch 13:72Sa 6:20
Used of things that look substantial but pay off with nothing: God's commands are not an "empty" thing but a life, while chasing what is empty leaves a farmer poor.Deu 32:47Pro 12:11Pro 28:19
Can name a hunger left unfilled or a yield that never came: the dreamer who feasts in his sleep and wakes still craving, and the shriveled heads of grain with nothing in them.Isa 29:8Gen 41:27
Both
Both name the absence of what ought to be there: an earth with nothing formed or living on it, and a pit with no water in it.Gen 1:2Gen 37:24
Both can picture emptiness as the result of judgment: a land measured out and left a waste, and a pot emptied of its contents and set back on the coals as a warning to a city.Isa 34:11Ezk 24:11
Never stands on its own. In all three places it comes joined to its partner word for trackless waste, תֹּהוּ, as a fixed phrase, so it is not a word Hebrew uses freely of one thing at a time.Gen 1:2Isa 34:11Jer 4:23
What it describes is always the earth or a land itself, never a container, a person, or a spoken word.Gen 1:2Jer 4:23
The emptiness is world-sized: the state of the earth before God shaped it and filled it, and the state a land is dragged back to when he tears down what was built there.Gen 1:2Isa 34:11
It is the standing insult for people, the "empty men" who hire out to Abimelech, gather around Jephthah, and rally to Jeroboam, and the word Michal throws at David. Nothing like this is ever said with the noun.Jdg 9:4Jdg 11:32Ch 13:72Sa 6:20
It describes a person or a household left with nothing inside: the starving man who dreams of a feast and wakes still empty, and the oath breaker God shakes out until he is emptied.Isa 29:8Neh 5:13
Beyond containers it covers any hollow thing at all, from the waterless pit Joseph is thrown into to the shriveled ears of grain in Pharaoh's dream, where the noun's one concrete use goes no further than a vessel.Gen 37:24Gen 41:27
Both
Both label a vessel emptied of its contents: Babylon has set Israel down like an empty jar, and Elisha tells the widow to borrow empty jars from her neighbors.Jer 51:342Ki 4:3Jdg 7:16
Both strip the worth from what people say or chase, calling it hollow: the crowd that loves empty talk, the pursuits a man runs after instead of working his field, and the law Moses insists is "no empty word" for Israel.Psa 4:2Pro 12:11Deu 32:47
It is the standard verdict on effort that comes back with nothing: seed sown, strength used up, labor poured into building. The adjective never weighs the return on work this way.Lev 26:16Lev 26:20Isa 49:4Isa 65:23Hab 2:13Psa 73:13
It names a plan or an alliance that cannot deliver: the nations plotting against the Lord's anointed, and the help Egypt sells to Judah.Psa 2:1Isa 30:7
Describes a physical container or hollow that holds nothing, a literal void in a thing.Gen 37:242Ki 4:3Jdg 7:16
Brands a person as worthless, reckless, and good for nothing, an insult aimed at character.Jdg 9:4Jdg 11:32Ch 13:7
Marks a word or pursuit as having no substance behind it, empty of real worth.Deu 32:47Pro 12:11Pro 28:19
Both
Both grow from the same idea of emptiness, and each can speak of a word as void of effect: one denies that the law is an empty word, the other promises that God's word will not come back empty.Deu 32:47Isa 55:11
labels a class of people: the fixed idiom of empty, reckless, good-for-nothing men who band together with a leader, a social and legal charge the Greek word does not becomeJdg 9:4Jdg 11:32Sa 6:202Ch 13:7
is used freely of literal physical emptiness, a pit, jars, or a cooking pot with nothing insideGen 37:242Ki 4:3Ezk 24:11
Both
both name the plain condition of having nothing: a container or a person who ends up with empty hands2Ki 4:3Mrk 12:3Luk 1:53
both stretch from an empty container to words and claims that are empty of substance: hollow, worthless, and without real contentDeu 32:47Eph 5:6Col 2:8
carries the distinctively New Testament sense of effort or a message that comes to nothing: labor, running, or preaching that produces no result, and so is spent in vain1Co 15:58Gal 2:2Php 2:161Th 3:5
It describes literal physical emptiness, the plain fact that a thing has nothing in it: a pit with no water, jars holding nothing, thin and shriveled ears of grain.Gen 37:24Gen 41:272Ki 4:3
It stretches beyond people to whatever turns out to be hollow or pointless: a word that is no empty thing, or a life spent chasing worthless pursuits.Deu 32:47Pro 12:11
Both
Both can brand a person as worthless or empty-headed. The Hebrew word labels reckless good-for-nothing men, and the Greek insult is the spoken-out-loud version of that same charge, calling a person an empty-head.Jdg 9:4Jdg 11:3Mat 5:22
It is only ever an insult thrown at a person, a fixed term of abuse that calls someone an empty-head or witless fool to their face.Mat 5:22
Jesus treats the slur as a serious offense: spitting it at a fellow believer makes the speaker answerable before the court, so the word carries real condemnation, not just dismissal.Mat 5:22
What scholars say about req
The adjective belongs to the root rwq / rîq "be empty, pour out," and BDB, HALOT, and DCH treat it as one word ranging from a literally empty vessel to figurative worthlessness. The concrete uses cover empty jars, an empty cistern, and blasted ears of grain; the figurative uses cluster in the fixed idiom ʾanashim reqim "empty men," a recurring designation for lawless, socially detached men who attach themselves to a would-be leader (Abimelech, Jephthah, Jeroboam). A third group applies the word to a dabar or pursuit that is without substance or result (Deuteronomy 32:47;Proverbs 12:11; 28:19). TDOT groups it with the noun rîq and the adverb reqam under a single semantic field of emptiness and futility. The Septuagint most often renders it with kenos, the same word Paul later uses for labor that is "not in vain."