חָרֵב
desolate
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 4 times (50%)
- Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Plural, Absolute 2 times (25%)
- Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 times (25%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 8 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H2720 appears — 8 distinct verses across 5 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Leviticus 1 verse
Proverbs 1 verse
Jeremiah 2 verses
- Jeremiah 33:10 חָרֵ֣ב adj Adjective ms Thus says Yahweh: Yet again there shall be heard in this place, about which you say, It is waste, without man and without animal, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal,
- Jeremiah 33:12 הֶ/חָרֵ֛ב ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Yet again shall there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without animal, and in all the cities of it, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
Ezekiel 2 verses
- Ezekiel 36:35 הֶ/חֳרֵב֛וֹת ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective fp They shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.
- Ezekiel 36:38 הֶ/חֳרֵב֔וֹת ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective fp As the flock for sacrifice, as the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
Haggai 2 verses
- Haggai 1:4 חָרֵֽב adj Adjective ms "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste?
- Haggai 1:9 חָרֵ֔ב adj Adjective ms "You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" says Yahweh of Hosts, "Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
חרב — transliterated chârêb — is a Hebrew adjective carrying the sense “desolate.” It first appears in Leviticus 7:10. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 8 verses — uncommon. More than a quarter of its appearances fall in Jeremiah. Related forms include חרב, חרב and חרב. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2720 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 8
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 8 distinct verses.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,625
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,625 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 8 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 8 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 6 verses · 75%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 13%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 1 verse · 13%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 4 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Lieth waste 2×
- American Standard Version†: Lieth waste 3×, Is waste 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Lies in ruins 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Desolate 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2720 across 10† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2720 across 10† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H2720 across 10† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 7 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2720 across 6† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses Pual (the passive of Piel).
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 5 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
חרב I be dry, dried up (cf. יָבֵשׁ) (Aramaic חֲרוֹב be dry, חוּרְבָּא drought)
Qal
- Pf. 3 pl. חָֽרְבוּ Gn 8:13(×2), Is 19:6; Impf. 3 ms. יֶחֱרַב Ho 13:15 + 2 times, וַיֶּחֱרָ֑ב ψ 106:9; Imv. fs. חֳרָ֑בִי Is 44:27;—be dry, dried up: e.g. Genesis 8:13
- 1. of ground, be freed from waters of flood ח׳ פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה Gn 8:13b (J). e.g. Genesis 8:13
- 2. of waters, be dried up, taken away; of waters of flood Gn 8:13a (P); of Nile וְנָהָר יֶחֱרַב וְיָבֵשׁ Is 19:5 (‖ וְנִשְּׁתוּ־מַיִם מֵהַיָּם), v. same combination Jb 14:11 (‖ אָֽזְלוּ מַיִם מִנִּי־יָם); Is 19:6 (‖ דָּֽלֲלוּ) 44:27 (‖ הוֹבִישׁ); of Red Sea ψ 106:9; fig. of Ephraim’s freshness and vigour Ho 13:15. e.g. Genesis 8:13
Pual
- Pf. 3 pl. לֹא חֹרָ֑בוּ Ju 16:7, 8, of fresh bow-strings (of gut, v. Bla). e.g. Judges 16:7
Hiphil
- Pf. הֶחֱרִיב Na 1:4, of י׳’s drying up rivers (‖ וַיַּבְּשֵׁהוּ), perhaps also Is 11:15 (for MT החרים) v. 𝔊 𝔖 𝔙 𝔗; וְהַחֲרַבְתִּ֫י the Euphrates Je 51:36 (‖ הוֹבַשְׁתִּי); Impf. אַחֲרִיב יָם Is 50:2, subj. י׳, I dry up a sea (‖ אָשִׂים נְהָרוֹת מִדְבָּר); אַחְרִב Is 37:25 = אַחֲרִב 2 K 19:24, of king of Assyria drying up rivers of Egypt; Pt. fs. הַמַּחֲרֶבֶת Is 51:10 of י׳’s arm drying up (Red) Sea. e.g. Nahum 1:4
חרב II dry, only fs. חֲרֵבָה Lv 7
חרב III be waste, desolate (NH חָרֵב id.
חרב IV waste, desolate
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
I. vb. be dry, dried up (cf. יָבֵשׁ) (Aramaic חֲרוֹב be dry, חוּרְבָּא drought);—
II. adj. dry, only fs. חֲרֵבָה Lv 7:10 of meal-offering not moistened (with oil; P); פַּת־חֲרֵבָה Pr 17:1 a dry morsel.
III. be waste, desolate (NH חָרֵב id.; Aramaic חֲרוֹב, ܚܪܰܒ be laid waste; Zinj. חרב adj.; Arabic خَرِبَ be in ruins, waste, depopulated; Assyrian ḫarâbu, be waste, DlPr 175, ḫuribtu, desert, LotzTP);—Qal Impf. 3 fs. תֶּחֱרַ֔ב Je 26:9, תֶּחֱרָ֔ב Is 34:10; 3 mpl. יֶחֶרְבוּ Ez 6:6, יֶחֱרָ֑בוּ Am 7:9 Is 60:12; 3 fpl. תֶּחֱרַבְנָה Ez 6:2; 12:20; Imv. חֳרָבִי Is 44:27, חָרְבוּ (so, not חָֽרְבוּ—Theile—v. Köi. 244) Je 2:12; Inf. abs. חָרֹב Is 60:12;—be waste, desolate; of sanctuaries of Isr. Am 7:9 (‖ נָשַׁמּוּ), of altars Ez 6:6; of cities Je 26:9; Ez 6:6; 12:20 (‖ שׁמם); of nations Is 34:10, חָרֹב יֶחֱרָ֑בוּ 60:12 (‖ יֹאבֵדוּ); fig., in address to the heavens חָרְבוּ מְאֹד Je 2:12—(‖ שֹׁמּוּ, וְשַׂעֲרוּ), be very desolate (at sins of Isr.); others, be amazed, astounded (on relation of meanings v. שׁמם). Niph. Pt. f. נֶחֱרֶבֶת Ez 26:19 as adj., desolate city, i.e. uninhabited, v. context; נַחֲרָבוֹת 30:7 of desolate countries (‖ נָשַׁמּוּ). Hiph. Pf. הֶחֱרִיב Ez 19:7; 1 s. הֶחֱרַבְתִּי Zp 3:6; 3 pl. הֶחֱרִיבוּ Is 37:18 2 K 19:17; Impf. 1 s. אַחֲרִיב Is 42:15; Pt. מַחֲרִיב Ju 16:24; pl. c. sf. מַחֲרִיבַיִךְ Is 49:17;—lay waste, make desolate, human subj.; nations and lands Is 37:18 = 2 K 19:17, Is 42:15, cf. pt. Is 49:17 (‖ מְהָֽרְסַיִךְ); add prob. with We Am 4:9 (הֶחֱרַבְתִּי for the untranslateable הַרְבּוֹת) I have devastated your gardens and vineyards; pt. Ju 16:24 desolater of our country (‖ הִרְבָּה אֶת־חֲלָלֵ֑נוּ); obj. cities Ez 19:7; streets Zp 3:6 (‖ נָשַׁמּוּ). Hoph. Pf. 3 fs. הָחֳרָ֑בָה Ez 26:2 she is laid waste, of a city; Pt. מָחֳרָבוֹת Ez 29:12 laid waste, of cities (‖ שׁמם).
IV. adj. waste, desolate;—ms. abs. ח׳ Je 33:10 + 5 times; fs. חֲרֵבָה Ne 2:3 + 2 times; fpl. הֶחֳרֵבוֹת Ez 36:35, 38 (v. Köi. 241);—of a city, defined מֵאֵין אָדָם וּמֵאֵין בְּהֵמָה Je 33:10, cf. v 12; also Ne 2:3, 17; הֶעָרִים הֶחֳרֵבוֹת Ez 36:35 (+ הַנְשַׁמּוֹת, הַנֶּהֱרָסוֹת; opp. בְּצוּרוֹת יָשָׁ֑בוּ), Hg 1:4, 9 (בַּיִת).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from חרב (chârab) (H2717) — to lay waste.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
חָרִב I
- (b. h.) to be burned, dried up, ruined, waste. Snh. 22ᵃ כאלו ח׳ בה"מ וכ׳ as if the Temple had been destroyed in his days. Tosef. Men. XIII, 22 מפני מה חָרְבָה וכ׳ why was Shiloh destroyed?; Yoma 9ᵃ. Kil. IV, 1 (expl. קרחת הכרם) כרם שח׳ באמצעו a vineyard the central part of which is laid waste. Ib. V, 1; a. fr. [Num. R. s. 7, end בבל ח׳ מקדש, read: החריב. Taan. 29ᵃ כשח׳ טורנוס, read: כשחרש, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l.]
- to be destroyed. Erub. 18ᵇ. Yoma 39ᵇ שסופך עתיד לֵיחָרֵב that it is thy final destiny to be destroyed; a. fr.
- same. Pesik. R. s. 31 שיִתְחָרֵב. [Pirké d’R. El. ch. XXXIII, v. חָרַךְ.]
- to destroy, lay waste. Tosef. M. Kat. I, 5 מַחֲרִיבִין חורי וכ׳ you may destroy ant-stores (during the festive week). Num. R. s. 7, end שהֶחֱרִיבוּ בה"מ for they (the Romans) destroyed the Temple; a. fr.
- to be destroyed. Pes. 42ᵇ (ref. to Ez. XXVI, 2) אי מלאה זו הָחְרְבָה זו Ms. M. (ed. חרבה, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 9) when the one (Jerusalem) is populated, the other (Caesarea) is laid waste; Yalk. Gen. 110 חֲרֵיבָה. e.g. Ezekiel 26:2
חֲרֵב
- Targ. Ez. XXVI, 2. Targ. Hos. XIII, 15. Targ. Is. XIX, 5; a. fr.—Naz. 32ᵇ דח׳ בה"מ that the Temple has been destroyed. Ib. דיִחְרוֹב that it will be destroyed. Gitt. 56ᵃ דלא לִיחֲרוֹב וכ׳ that Jerusalem may not be destroyed. Y. Ber. II, 5ᵃ top דברגליה חריב with whose arrival it was destroyed; a. fr.
- to destroy, lay waste. Targ. Is. XLII, 15. Targ. Jud. XVI, 24; a. fr.—Yoma 69ᵇ דאַחְרְבֵיה וכ׳ who destroyed the Temple. Taan. 29ᵃ top לאַחְרוּבֵי Ms. M. a. Rashi (ed. לַחְרוּבֵי); Gitt. 56ᵃ לַחְרוּבֵי; a. fr.
- to be destroyed. Y. Ber. l. c.
חָרֵב II
- preced. wds.)
- 1. ruined. Y. Ber. IV, 8ᵃ. Yalk. Gen. 110, p. חָרֵב I; a. fr.—Pl. חֲרֵבִים, חֲרֵי׳; f. חֲרֵבוֹת, חֲרֵי׳. Ex. R. s. 31 (ref. to Num. XXIV, 5) ומַשְׁכנותיך כשהם ח׳ thy pledges, when they are in ruins, v. מַשְׁכּוֹן; a. fr. e.g. Numbers 24:5
- 2. dry. Y. Sot. III, beg. 18ᶜ ח׳ של חטין the dry (oil-less) offering of wheat, opp. בלול. Kidd. 62ᵃ top; a. e.
חָרֵב
- ch., v. חָרוֹב
חֶרֶב
- 1. sword. Ḥull. 3ᵃ, v. חָלָל I. B. Bath. 8ᵇ ח׳ קשה וכ׳ death in war is a greater affliction than natural death. Snh. 116ᵃ מהם הרגו בח׳ some of them they put to death by the sword. Tanḥ. Balak 8; Num. R. s. 20 אא"כ שלף חַרְבּוֹ without drawing his sword. Ib. בח׳ חייהם live on their sword. Taan. III, 5 על הח׳ on the sword, i.e. when armies are passing the country. Ib. 22ᵃ ח׳ של שלום a friendly army passing; a. fr.
- 2. the sword-shaped handle of a plough. Kel. XXI, 2. Tosef. Kel. B. Bath. I, 7.—Pl. חֲרָבוֹת. Pesik. R. s. 21 ח׳ מכאן וכ׳ (soldiers with) swords here &c.; a. e.
חָרֶב
- same. Targ. Gen. XXXIV, 26. Ib. III, 24; a. fr.—Sabb. 123ᵇ, v. אוּשְׁכָּפָא; (Ar. scraping knife).
חָרֶב ²
- (חרב) dry eruption. Targ. Y. Deut. XXVIII, 27 Ar. ed. Koh. חרב (oth. ed. חרבא, חרבונא; Targ. ed. גרבא; h. text גרב).
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 8 distinct written forms H2720 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| הֶ/חֳרֵב֔וֹת | Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Plural, Absolute | Ezekiel 36:38 | 1 |
| הֶ/חֳרֵב֛וֹת | Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Plural, Absolute | Ezekiel 36:35 | 1 |
| הֶ/חָרֵ֛ב | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Jeremiah 33:12 | 1 |
| וַ/חֲרֵבָ֑ה | Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Singular, Absolute | Leviticus 7:10 | 1 |
| חֲ֭רֵבָה | Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 17:1 | 1 |
| חָרֵ֔ב | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Haggai 1:9 | 1 |
| חָרֵ֣ב | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Jeremiah 33:10 | 1 |
| חָרֵֽב | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Haggai 1:4 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2720, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Derived from this word
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 7 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 8 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 8 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
