חֶרְפָּה
reproach
‘reproach’ is one of 4 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
38 distinct verses where H2781 appears in the Absolute state, across 13 books. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Genesis 1 verse
1 Samuel 2 verses
- 1 Samuel 11:2 חֶרְפָּ֖ה n c fs Nahash the Ammonite said to them, On this condition will I make it with you, that all your right eyes be put out; and I will lay it for a reproach on all Israel.
- 1 Samuel 17:26 חֶרְפָּ֖ה n c fs David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
Nehemiah 2 verses
- Nehemiah 1:3 וּ/בְ/חֶרְפָּ֑ה conj + prep + n c fs They said to me, The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates of it are burned with fire.
- Nehemiah 2:17 חֶרְפָּֽה n c fs Then said I to them, You see the evil case that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and the gates of it are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
Job 1 verse
Psalms 11 verses
- Psalms 15:3 וְ֝/חֶרְפָּ֗ה conj + n c fs He who doesn't slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his friend, Nor casts slurs against his fellow man;
- Psalms 31:11 חֶרְפָּ֡ה n c fs Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, A fear to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
- Psalms 44:13 חֶ֭רְפָּה n c fs You make us a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and a derision to those who are around us.
- Psalms 69:7 חֶרְפָּ֑ה n c fs Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.
- Psalms 69:10 לַ/חֲרָפ֣וֹת prep + n c fp When I wept and I fasted, That was to my reproach.
- Psalms 69:20 חֶרְפָּ֤ה n c fs Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; For comforters, but I found none.
- Psalms 71:13 חֶ֭רְפָּה n c fs Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.
- Psalms 79:4 חֶ֭רְפָּה n c fs We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
- Psalms 89:41 חֶ֝רְפָּ֗ה n c fs All who pass by the way rob him. He has become a reproach to his neighbors.
- Psalms 109:25 חֶרְפָּ֣ה n c fs I have also become a reproach to them. When they see me, they shake their head.
- Psalms 119:22 חֶרְפָּ֣ה n c fs Take reproach and contempt away from me, For I have kept your statutes.
Proverbs 1 verse
Isaiah 1 verse
Jeremiah 10 verses
- Jeremiah 6:10 לְ/חֶרְפָּ֖ה prep + n c fs To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can't listen: behold, the word of Yahweh is become to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
- Jeremiah 15:15 חֶרְפָּֽה n c fs Yahweh, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; don't take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.
- Jeremiah 20:8 לְ/חֶרְפָּ֥ה prep + n c fs For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, Violence and destruction! because the word of Yahweh is made a reproach to me, and a derision, all the day.
- Jeremiah 24:9 לְ/חֶרְפָּ֤ה prep + n c fs I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.
- Jeremiah 29:18 וּ/לְ/חֶרְפָּ֔ה conj + prep + n c fs I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them;
- Jeremiah 42:18 וּ/לְ/חֶרְפָּ֔ה conj + prep + n c fs For thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath has been poured forth on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth on you, when you shall enter into Egypt; and you shall be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.
- Jeremiah 44:8 וּ/לְ/חֶרְפָּ֔ה conj + prep + n c fs in that you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are gone to sojourn; that you may be cut off, and that you may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
- Jeremiah 44:12 וּ/לְ/חֶרְפָּֽה conj + prep + n c fs I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an object of horror, [and] an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
- Jeremiah 49:13 לְ/חֶרְפָּ֛ה prep + n c fs For I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, that Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities of it shall be perpetual wastes.
- Jeremiah 51:51 חֶרְפָּ֔ה n c fs We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh's house.
Lamentations 1 verse
Ezekiel 3 verses
- Ezekiel 5:14 וּ/לְ/חֶרְפָּ֔ה conj + prep + n c fs Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are round about you, in the sight of all that pass by.
- Ezekiel 5:15 חֶרְפָּ֤ה n c fs So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are round about you, when I shall execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes; (I, Yahweh, have spoken it;)
- Ezekiel 22:4 חֶרְפָּה֙ n c fs You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed, and are defiled in your idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and are come even to your years: therefore have I made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries.
Daniel 2 verses
- Daniel 9:16 לְ/חֶרְפָּ֖ה prep + n c fs Lord, according to all your righteousness, let your anger and please let your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are become a reproach to all who are round about us.
- Daniel 12:2 לַ/חֲרָפ֖וֹת prep + n c fp Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Joel 2 verses
- Joel 2:17 לְ/חֶרְפָּה֙ prep + n c fs Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, And let them say, "Spare your people, Yahweh, And don't give your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"
- Joel 2:19 חֶרְפָּ֖ה n c fs Yahweh answered his people, "Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, And you will be satisfied with them; And I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.
Zephaniah 1 verse
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.
“reproach” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun חרפה (cherpâh). Its meaning spans more than one sense — see its full sense range. It appears 72 verses across 17 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its moderately common vocabulary. More than a quarter of its appearances fall in Psalms. First canonically at Genesis 30:23, it enters the text early. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2781 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 →
- 72
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 72 distinct verses.
- 17 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 17 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #542
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 542 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 72 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 72 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 36 verses · 50%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 34 verses · 47%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 3%
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).
- King James Version: Reproach 44×, Rebuke 2×
- American Standard Version: Reproach 41×, Him 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Reproach 30×, Disgrace 15×, Scorn 6×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Reproach 32×, Disgrace 8×, Reproach of 7×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2781 across 73 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 27 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 H2781 across 74 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 31 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 H2781 across 72 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 H2781 across 73 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
8 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
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 8 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.
- 1. taunt of enemy 1 S 17:26; so also 1 S 25:39; reproach cast upon another, scorn, contumely Ne 3:36; 5:9 ψ 69:20, 21; 71:13; 89:51; 119:22 Pr 18:3 Is 51:7 Ez 21:33; שׁמע ח׳ Je 51:51 Zp 2:8 La 3:61; נתן ח׳ על Je 23:40; נשׂא ח׳ על ψ 15:3 (slander); נשׂא ח׳ Je 31:19 Ez 36:15 Mi 6:16 (reproach); נשׂא ח׳ על bear reproach for ψ 69:8 Je 15:15 Zp 3:18; השׁיב ח׳ Ho 12:15 Ne 3:36; חרף ח׳ ψ 69:10; 79:12; 89:51; הסיר ח׳ מעל 1 S 17:26 Is 25:8; העביר ח׳ ψ 119:39; reproaches against God ψ 69:10 (חֶרְפּוֹת חוֹרְפֶיךָ), 74:22; 79:12. e.g. 1 Samuel 17:26
- 2. reproach which rests upon one, condition of shame, disgrace:
- a. sexual 2 S 13:13 Is 47:3 Ez 16:57 Pr 6:33. e.g. 2 Samuel 13:13
- b. barrenness of womb Gn 30:23 (E) Is 4:1; widowhood Is 54:4. e.g. Genesis 30:23
- c. hunger Ez 36:30; disease Jb 19:5. e.g. Ezekiel 36:30
- d. ritual, uncircumcision Gn 34:14 (P) Jos 5:9 (JE). e.g. Genesis 34:14
- e. injuries from enemies La 3:30; 5:1 Ne 1:3; 2:17 Jb 16:10 Dn 11:18(×2). e.g. Lamentations 3:30
- 3. a reproach, the object of reproach, the person or thing reproached חֶרְפַּת אָדָם a reproach of man ψ 22:7; ח׳ נבל 39:9; היה ח׳ ל׳ become an object of reproach to 31:12; 79:4; 89:42; 109:25 Ez 5:15; (היה) לח (ל׳) Is 30:5 Je 6:10; 20:8; 42:18; 44:8, 12; 49:13 ψ 69:11 Dn 9:16; 12:2; נתן ח׳ (ל׳) Ez 22:4 Jo 2:19 ψ 78:66; נתן לח׳ Je 24:9; 29:18 Ez 5:14 Jo 2:17; שׂים ח׳ ל׳ ψ 44:14; שׂים ח׳ על 1 S 11:2. e.g. Psalms 22:7
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
n.f. reproach—ח׳ Gn 34:14 + 35 times; cstr. חֶרְפַּת Jos 5:9 + 15 times; sf. חֶרְפָּֽתְךָ ψ 74:22 etc. + 17 times sfs.; pl. חֲרָפוֹת ψ 69:11 Dn 12:2; cstr. חֶרְפּוֹת ψ 69:10.—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from חרף (châraph) (H2778) — to reproach.
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.
חֶרְפָּה
- [paleness,] shame; revilement. Gen. R. s. 80. Sabb. 88ᵇ, a. e. שומעין חֶרְפָּתָן וכ׳ hear themselves reviled and answer not.
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 48 distinct written forms H2781 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2781, 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
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 5 — not the complete family. 2 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 54 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 72 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
- Genesis 30:23
- Joshua 5:9
- 1 Samuel 11:2
- 2 Samuel 13:13
- Job 16:10
- Psalms 15:3
- Proverbs 6:33
- Isaiah 4:1
- Jeremiah 6:10
- Lamentations 3:30
- Ezekiel 5:14
- Daniel 9:16
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.
