טֶ֫רֶף
prey
also: food, leaf fuller range ↓
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
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
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
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H2964 appears in the Book of Malachi — 1 distinct verse. 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.
Malachi
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.
“prey” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun טרף (ṭereph). Not a single-sense word: its full sense range also takes in “food” and “leaf”. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 23 verses — uncommon. First canonically at Genesis 49:9, it enters the text early. It shares a root with טרף, טרף and טרפה. See the sense tree, 23-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2964 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 →
- 23
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 23 distinct verses.
- 10 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 10 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,368
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,368 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 23 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 23 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 12 verses · 52%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 9 verses · 39%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 9%
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: Prey 16×, Meat 2×
- American Standard Version: Prey 15×, Food 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Prey 16×, Food 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Prey 13×, Food 4×, Victims 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2964 across 23 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2964 across 23 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 H2964 across 22 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 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 H2964 across 24 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 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
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 3 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. prey of lion Am 3:4 Jb 4:11; 38:39 ψ 104:21; metaph. of Judah’s conquests Gn 49:9, Israel like lion Nu 23:24 (both poems in JE); of Assyrians Is 5:29; of Nineveh and its king Na 2:13, 14; 3:1; Israel’s princes (as young lion) Ez 19:3, 6; sim. of false prophet (like lion) 22:25; of princes of Judah v 27; sim. of י’s descending to battle, like lion Is 31:4; cf. ψ 76:5 coming down from mountains of prey (the lion’s lair), but read perhaps עַד, cf. 𝔊 Bi Che crit. n.; fig. of spoil of wicked Jb 29:17, cf. ψ 124:6. e.g. Amos 3:4
- 2. food, of outcasts, under fig. of wild ass פֶּרֶא Jb 24:5; of human food (late): for those who fear God ψ 111:5; for household Pr 31:15; in י׳’s house Mal 3:10. e.g. Job 24:5
- 3. leaf, (cf. Gn 8:11) טַרְפֵּי צִמְחָהּ Ez 17:9 metaph. of Judah. e.g. Genesis 8:11
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.m. Na 3:1 prey, food; leaf;—טֶרֶף Gn 49:9 +; טָ֑רֶף Jb 4:11 +; sf. טַרְפֵּךְ Na 2:14; טַרְפּוֹ Is 31:4; pl. cstr. טַרְפֵּי Ez 17:9;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from טרף (ṭâraph) (H2963) — to tear.
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.
טָרַף
- [to move with vehemence,]
- 1. to tear, prey. Lev. R. s. 26 טוֹרֵף ואוכל tears in order to satisfy his appetite. Koh. R. to X, 11 הארי ט׳ the lion goes out for prey. Sot. 47ᵇ טוֹרְפֵי טֶרֶף those robbing (the poor). Zeb. 53ᵇ חלקו של טוֹרֵף the territory of the tearer (wolf = Benjamin, Gen. XLIX, 27). B. Kam. 116ᵇ לטוֹרְפָהּ to plunder it; a. fr. e.g. Genesis 49:27
- 2. to cast with force, knock, strike against; to throw away, reject, eject. Ḥull. III, 3 טְרָפָהּ בכותל he cast or knocked the bird against the wall. Pesik. R. s. 11; Num. R. s. 2 מגרשה אני טוֹרְפָהּ אני I will divorce her, I will cast her out (cmp. טָרַד).—Ber. 5ᵇ טוֹרְפִין לו וכ׳ his prayer is thrown in his face (refused). Y. Yeb. XVI, 15ᵈ top טְרָפַנִי, v. טָרַד.
- 3. to seize forcibly. Yoma IV, 1 ט׳ בקלפי he took the ballot out with haste.—Esp. to seize for a debt. B. Mets. 15ᵃ ובא ב"ח וטְרָפָהּ and a creditor of the previous owner came and seized it, v. טִירְפָּא.
- 4. to chop, hash, to beat, mix. Sabb. XIX, 2 ט׳ יין ושמן beat wine and oil; a. e.—Part. pass. טָרוּף, f. טְרוּפָה. Ib. 38ᵃ בשר ט׳ chopped meat. Ab. Zar. II, 6, v. טָרִית. Y. Nidd. IV, 51ᵃ (of a foetus). Sabb. VIII, 5 (80ᵇ) ביצה ט׳ an egg beaten and mixed with oil; a. fr. V. טָרוּף.
- 5. to hackle, comb (flax or wool). Kil. IX, 1. Y. Orl. III, 63ᵃ; Y. Keth. VI, end, 31ᵃ צמר בכור שטְרָפוֹ wool of a first-born that has been hackled (and mixed up with, other wool).
- 6. to scrape, scour, to plane. Makhsh. II, 4 הטוֹרֵף את גגו (Var. המטהר) if one scrubs his roof; Tosef. ib. I, 8.
- 7. to make טְרֵפָה, to inflict an organic defect. Ḥull. 85ᵇ, sq. צא טְרוֹף go and maim the animal (before slaughtering it).
- 1. to become t’refah. Ib. 9ᵃ, a. e. במה נִטְרְפָה from what cause it became t’refah
- 2. to be in disorder, a) (with דעה, or לב) to be confused, bewildered, not fully conscious. Y. Sabb. II, 5ᵇ bot. נִטְרְפָה דעתו של אבא my father’s mind is unclear; Snh. 68ᵃ. Ib. 43ᵃ כדי שתִּטָּרֵף דעתו (not שתטרוף) that his (the culprit’s) consciousness may be benumbed; Num. R. s. 10.—Ib. נ׳ לבו his mind becomes confused (from drinking); a. fr.—b) (with שעה, of political disturbances) to be troubled. Snh. 11ᵃ; Sot. 48ᵇ; Tosef. ib. XIII, 5 נטרפה (ה)שעה the political condition was too much troubled (persecutions prevailing). Y. Dem. V, 24ᵈ bot.; a. e.
- 1. to shake vehemently, constantly. Succ. III, 9 כל העם מטָרְפִין בלולביהן ed. Y. (Mish. ed. Pes. מט׳את לול׳; ed. מנעועין) all the people shook their branches constantly (during the recitation at Hallel, contrad. to נענע).
- 2. to unbalance (the mind, cmp. טִלְטֵל).—Part. pass. מְטוֹרָף. Num. R. s. 10 לבו מ׳ וכ׳ his mind is disturbed and he talks improper things, v. supra.
- 3. to reject one’s petition, to refuse. Part. pass. מְטוֹרָף. Ber. V, 5 שהוא מ׳ that he (the patient for whom prayer is said) is rejected (bound to die), opp. מקובל accepted.
- 4. to disfigure, to make ungainly by spots, incisions &c., v. טָרוּף). Part. pass. as ab. Koh. R. to X, 11 the serpent is asked מפני מה גופך מט׳ why has thy body been disfigured (v. Gen. III, 14)? e.g. Genesis 3:14
- 5. to cast about (a ship on high sea), v. Hithpa.—Part. pass. as ab.; pl. מְטוֹרָפִים, מְטוֹרָפִין. Yeb. 47ᵃ, v. סָחַף.
- 1. to become t’refah, to be afflicted with a fatal organic disease. Num. R. s. 12, end; Cant. R. to VI, 4; Pesik. Vayhi p. 10ᵃ, a. e. לא הִטְרִיפוּ the animals were found to be free from an organic disease.—[
- 2. (in later liter.) to declare t’refah.]
- 3. (denom. of טֶרֶף) a) to cover with foliage. Yalk. Gen. 119, v. רָטַב.—b) to sprout with moisture, be sappy. Gen. R. s. 69 ה׳ מצות וכ׳ (Yalk. Jud. 38 הפריח) sprouted with good deeds &c., v. רָטַב.—[
- 4. to distribute food, v. טָרָף.]
- , Nithpa. נִיטָּרֵף to be tossed about, to be in a storm near the shore. Taan. III, 7 (19ᵃ) על הספינה המִיטָּרֶפֶת וכ׳ for a ship which is seen from the coast to be tossed about; Taan. 14ᵃ המְטוֹרֶפֶת (v. supra; Ar. ed. Koh. נִטְרֶפֶת Nif.). Tosef. Sabb. XIII (XIV), 11 נִיטָּרְפָה ספינה וכ׳ the ship has been thrown back several times (was prevented from landing by the breakers).
טְרַף I
- 1. to take by force, seize. B. Mets. 14ᵃ אתי … וטַרְפָהּ מיניה (not וטרפא) the creditor came and took it from him (by legal seizure); ib. וקא טָרֵיף ליה מיניה (Ms. H. וטַרְפָהּ מיניה).—ט׳ לקוחות to seize property sold by the debtor, v. לְקוּחוֹת. Ib. 19ᵃ; a. fr.
- 2. to throw, strike, knock down. Y. Snh. X, 29ᵃ וטָרֵיף לון לארעא and let them fall down. Lam. R. to I, 5 ויִטְרוֹף גרמיה and let him throw himself down. Ib. to IV, 2 טְרוֹף קולתיך וכ׳ cast down thy pitcher before me; a. fr.
- 3. to knock at, shake, rap. Ber. 28ᵃ ט׳ אבבא knocked at the door. Snh. 97ᵃ.—Ib. 67ᵇ ט׳ ליה בטבלא he struck the tabla before him; a. v. fr.—Trnsf. to carp at, to contest the validity of a decision. Y. Snh. I, beg. 18ᵃ בעי מִיטְרוֹף wanted to protest (against R. Isaac’s decision because he acted as a single judge).—5) to declare t’refah. Ḥull. 10ᵇ. Ib. 48ᵇ סבר … למִיטְרְפָהּ Mar … wanted to declare it t’refah; a. fr.—Part. pass. טָרִיף a) struck down (in the agony of death). Targ. Jud. III, 25; IV, 22 (h. text נֹפֵל). Lam. R. to IV, 5 טְרִיפִין בקיקלא (not טריפון) lying on dunghills.—b) thrown away. Y. Snh. X, 29ᵃ top הא טריפין לך they are thrown down before thee (cmp. טְרוּן).—c) (denom. of טרפא, v. טָרוּף) spotted, full of incisions; planed. Ned. 25ᵃ; Shebu. 29ᵇ, v. טָרוּף.—[Y. Shebi. I, end, 33ᶜ א"ר יודן כד טריפן לעוביה, read with R. S. to Shebi. I, 8: א"ר יודן בר טרפון or טריפון, לעוביה being a corrupt tautography of ליעז׳ ב"י = ליעזר בן יעקב.]
- 1. to knock, strike, dash. Targ. II Kings VIII, 12 (h. text רטש). Targ. Nah. II, 8 (h. text תפף).
- 2. to prey, wait for prey. Targ. Prov. XXIII, 28 מְטָרֵף.
- 3. to drive about. Part. pass. מְטַרַף. Targ. Y. I Ex. XIV, 3 (ed. Amst. מִטַּ׳ Ithpa.). Targ. Y. II, Num. XII, 12 מְטַרָפָא.—Trnsf. to agitate, trouble, v. infra.
- 1. to be knocked about, dashed; to be tossed about; to be in spasms. Targ. Is. XIII, 16. Ib. LI, 20; a. e.—Lev. R. s. 12 beg. כהד׳ אילפא דמִיטָּרְפָא וכ׳ like the ship that is tossed about in the breakers &c. Snh. 95ᵃ אתו יונה אי׳ קמיה a dove came down and rolled before him in spasms.—Trnsf. to be agitated, troubled. Targ. Gen. XLI, 8 (some ed. מְטַר׳ Part. pass. Pa., v. supra). Targ. Ps. LXXVII, 5; a. fr.—Y. Taan. I, 64ᵇ bot. למה אִיטָּרְפוּן … להכא why did the rabbis (you) take the trouble of coming hither.
- 2. to be spotted, full, of incisions &c., v. supra a. טָרוּף.
- 3. to become, or be t’refah. Ḥull. 57ᵇ במידי דמִיטָּרְפָה בה in the same limb through the mutilation of which the animal became t’refah. Ib. 48ᵃ דלאו מיניה מיטָּרְפָא where the cause of its being t’refah lies not in the mutilated limb itself.
טְרַף II
- m., v. טַרְפָא
טֶרֶף
- preced.)
- 1. prey. Sot. 47ᵇ, v. טָרַף.—Gen. R. s. 99 (ref. to מטרף, Gen. XLIX, 9) מטַרְפּוֹ של יוסף from making Joseph a prey, i.e. saving Joseph; מטַרְפָּהּ של תמר saving Tamar. Yalk. Ps. 637; Midr. Till. to Ps. VII, ed. Bub. יושב על טַרְפּוֹ (oth. ed. טְרֵפָתוֹ) sits over his prey. e.g. Genesis 49:9
- 2. food. Snh. 108ᵇ, v. next w.
- 3. (v. next w.) foliage, green. Sifra Metsora, beg. ובראשה ט׳ with green foliage on its top, v. next w.; Y. Sot. II, 18ᵃ top וראשה ט׳ (corr. acc., or read as Tosef. Neg. VIII, 2 טרוף).
טָרָף
- preced.) plucked, fresh; (homilet., v. preced.) nourishment. Snh. 108ᵇ (ref. to Gen. VIII, 11) מאי משמע דהאי ט׳ לישנא דמזוני הוא what evidence is there that taraf has the meaning of food? Answ. ref. to הטריפני (Prov. XXX, 8); Erub. 18ᵇ (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note). e.g. Genesis 8:11
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 14 distinct written forms H2964 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| טָ֑רֶף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ezekiel 22:25 | 4 |
| טָֽרֶף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Job 29:17 | 3 |
| טֶ֔רֶף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 5:29 | 2 |
| טֶ֖רֶף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ezekiel 19:3 | 2 |
| טֶ֣רֶף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Nahum 2:12 | 2 |
| לַ/טָּ֑רֶף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Job 24:5 | 2 |
| וְ/טֶ֖רֶף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Amos 3:4 | 1 |
| טֶ֝֗רֶף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 124:6 | 1 |
| טֶ֨רֶף֙ | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Malachi 3:10 | 1 |
| טֶ֭רֶף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 111:5 | 1 |
| טַרְפּ֗/וֹ | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct | Isaiah 31:4 | 1 |
| טַרְפֵּ֔/ךְ | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct | Nahum 2:13 | 1 |
| טַרְפֵּ֤י | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Ezekiel 17:9 | 1 |
| מִ/טֶּ֖רֶף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Genesis 49:9 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2964, 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
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 22 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 23 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 49:9
- Numbers 23:24
- Job 4:11
- Psalms 76:4
- Proverbs 31:15
- Isaiah 5:29
- Ezekiel 17:9
- Amos 3:4
- Nahum 2:12
- Malachi 3:10
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.
