StrongerBible

ra'ev

רָעֵב

HebrewH7457hungry, famished

Appears 20 times · tap a cell to see the verses

1Sa 2:52Sa 17:292Ki 7:12Job 5:5Job 18:12Job 22:7Job 24:10Psa 107:5Psa 107:9Psa 107:36Psa 146:7Pro 25:21Pro 27:7Isa 8:21Isa 29:8Isa 32:6Isa 58:7Isa 58:10Ezk 18:7Ezk 18:16
Root family
Word studyraw-AYVadjective

What ra'ev means

hungry: feeling the physical need for food, often as a word for the poor who lack it

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

This word describes a person in the plain, bodily state of hunger: someone who has not eaten and needs food. It works both as a describing word ("a hungry man") and, very often, as a noun for a whole group, "the hungry", meaning those who go without.

Most of its appearances gather around two settings. The first is compassion and justice: giving bread to the hungry is held up as basic righteousness, and taking it from them as cruelty (Isaiah 58:7, Ezekiel 18:7, Job 22:7, Proverbs 25:21). The second is God's care, where the Lord fills the hungry, satisfies their appetite, and reverses their lot, while the well-fed are brought low (1 Samuel 2:5, Psalm 107:9, Psalm 146:7). A related turn of phrase pairs the word with "soul" to mean the hungry appetite itself, the craving that makes even bitter food taste sweet (Proverbs 27:7, Psalm 107:9).

One occurrence stretches the word beyond people. In Job 18:12 hunger is applied to a man's strength or vigor, picturing his power as itself starved and failing. The line is difficult to read, but the sense of the word remains "hungry, famished."

Throughout, the closest relatives are the verb for growing hungry (רָעֵב) and the noun for famine and the pang of hunger (רָעָב); this word is the one that describes the person who feels it.

1Sa 2:52Sa 17:292Ki 7:12Job 5:5Job 18:12Job 22:7Job 24:10Pro 25:21Pro 27:7Isa 8:21Isa 29:8Isa 32:6

What scholars say about ra'ev

The standard lexica (HALOT, BDB, DCH) uniformly gloss the adjective רָעֵב as "hungry," the stative adjective corresponding to the verb רָעֵב (H7456) and the noun רָעָב (H7458). It is frequently used substantivally for the hungry as a social class, especially in contexts of almsgiving, justice, and divine reversal (Isaiah 58; Ezekiel 18; 1 Samuel 2:5; Psalm 107; 146). Paired with נֶפֶשׁ it denotes the craving appetite (Proverbs 27:7; Psalm 107:9). Job 18:12 is a recognized textual and syntactic crux: reading רָעֵב as predicated of אֹנוֹ ("his vigor/strength") yields the image of a starved, failing strength, though commentators debate the parsing and some propose emendation; the lexical value of the word is not in doubt.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. רָעֵבlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. רָעֵבlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. רָעֵבlexicon

All attested forms of רָעֵב

m s absolute

רָעֵב

2Sa 17:29, Job 5:5, Job 18:12, Job 22:7, Pro 25:21, Isa 8:21, Isa 29:8, Isa 32:6

m p absolute

רְעֵבִים

1Sa 2:5, 2Ki 7:12, Job 24:10, Psa 107:5, Psa 107:36, Psa 146:7

f s absolute

רְעֵבָה

Psa 107:9, Pro 27:7