רָפָא
to heal
‘to heal’ is one of 5 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Niphal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”). Here: ‘lit.’
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘lit.’
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘lit.’
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
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).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
3 verses where H7495 appears in the Piel stem in the Book of Jeremiah. 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.
Jeremiah
- Jeremiah 6:14 וַֽ/יְרַפְּא֞וּ conj + Piel wimpf 3mp They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
- Jeremiah 8:11 וַ/יְרַפּ֞וּ conj + Piel wimpf 3mp They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
- Jeremiah 51:9 רפאנו רִפִּ֣ינוּ נִרְפָּ֔תָה Piel pf 1cp Piel pf 1cp Niphal pf 3fs We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
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.
At its core, רפא (râphâʼ) means “to heal.” Across 4 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Qal, Niphal). With 62 verses in 18 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 20:17. Sharing its root, it stands alongside מרפא, רפא and רפאה. 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 H7495 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 →
- 62
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 62 distinct verses.
- 18 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 18 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #575
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 575 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 62 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 62 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 35 verses · 56%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 15 verses · 24%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 12 verses · 19%
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 3 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†: Be healed 8×, Heal 8×, Healed 4×
- American Standard Version†: Be healed 7×, Heal 5×, Healed 3×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Heal 9×, Be healed 3×, Healed 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Heal 10×, Be healed 4×, Healing 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7495 across 67† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 30 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 H7495 across 67† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 35 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 H7495 across 65† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 29 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H7495 across 64† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 24 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
18 senses and sub-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.
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 18 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.
רפא I II. רָפָא as n.pr.m., always c. art. Hā-Rāphā (perhaps der. from n.pr.gent. II. רְפָאִים, q.v.)
רפא II heal (NH in deriv.
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. consec. וְר׳ Is 6:10, sf. וּרְפָאָם 19:22, 1 s. sf. consec. וּרְפָאתִיו 57:19, etc.; Impf. 3 ms. יִרְפָּא 2 K 20:8 +, sf. יִרְפָּאֵנוּ Ho 6:1, 1 s. אֶרְפָּא Ho 14:5 +, אֶרְפָּה (Ges§ 75 pp) Je 3:22; 3 fpl. תִּרְפֶּינָה (id.ib. qq) Jb 5:18, etc.; Imv. ms. רְפָא Nu 12:13, רְפָה (id.ib. pp) ψ 60:4, רְפָאָ֫ה 41:5, etc.; inf. abs. רָפוֹא Is 19:22; cstr. לִרְפֹּא Ho 5:13, etc.; Pt. רֹפֵא (פֶ K 3) 2 K 20:5 +;—heal: e.g. Isaiah 6:10
- 1. lit.,
- a. of God, c. acc. pers. Gn 20:17 (E), ψ 107:20 (sf.), c. ל pers. Nu 12:13 (JE) 2 K 20:5, 8. e.g. Genesis 20:17
- b. of men, abs. Ec 3:3 (opp. הרג); pt. as subst. healer, physician, Gn 50:2(×2), (J) 2 Ch 16:12. e.g. Ecclesiastes 3:3
- 2. fig., heal hurts of nation, involving י׳’s (restored) favour (and, often, forgiveness):
- a. subj. י׳, c. sf. pers., Ho 6:1; 11:3 (yet cf. We Now), Ex 15:26 (J), Is 19:22b; 57:18, 19 Je 33:6 ψ 30:3, cf. 6:3; c. acc. עַם 2 Ch 30:20, c. acc. אֶרֶץ 2 Ch 7:14; c. ל of nation Ho 7:1, and (indef. subj.) Is 6:10 (lest) one heal them (= pass., they be healed); c. acc. of hurt, מַחַץ מַכָּתוֹ 30:26, שְׁבָרִים (of land) ψ 60:4, so מְשׁוּבָה Ho 14:5; Je 3:22 (incl. the consequences of backsliding); c. ל of hurt ψ 103:3; acc. nation (personif.) + מִן of hurt Je 30:17 I will heal thee of thy wounds (‖ אֶרְפָּאֵךְ); abs. Is 19:22a (opp. נגף), Dt 32:39 (opp. מחץ); pt. as subst. healer, physician Je 8:22. e.g. Hosea 6:1
- b. human subj., c. ל of nation, Ho 5:13, cf. La 2:13. e.g. Hosea 5:13
- 3.
- a. fig., heal individ. distresses, c. sf. pers. Je 17:14, c. acc. נַפְשִׁי = me ψ 41:5, c. ל pers., לִשְׁבוּרֵי לֵב ψ 147:3 (i.e. longing exiles, cf. Is 61:3); abs. Jb 5:18 (opp. מחץ); e.g. Jeremiah 17:14
- b. pt. as subst Jb 13:4. e.g. Job 13:4
Niphal
- Pf. 3 ms. נִרְפָּא Lv 13:37 +, 3 fs. נִרְפָּ֑תָה (Ges§ 75 qq) Je 51:9; 3 pl. וְנִרְפּאוּ consec. Ez 47:8; Impf. 2 ms. תֵּרָפֵא Je 51:8; 3 mpl. יֵרָֽפְאוּ Ez 47:9, 11, וַיֵּרָפוּ (Gesl.c.) 2 K 2:22, etc.; inf. cstr. הֵרָפֵא Je 15:18 +, הֵרָפֵה (id.ib.) Je 19:11;—be healed: e.g. Leviticus 13:37
- 1. lit., of pers. 1 S 6:3; + acc. of disease Dt 28:27, 35; subj. disease Lv 13:18, 37; 14:3, 48; of (bad) water 2 K 2:22, salt waters (prediction), i.e. be made fresh, Ez 47:8, 9, 11; of (broken) pottery, i.e. be made whole, Je 19:11 (in sim.). e.g. 1 Samuel 6:3
- 2. fig., be healed:
- a. of national hurts, subj. city Je 51:8, 9; involving forgiveness and י׳’s blessing, impers. c. ל of people, נִרְפָּא־לָנוּ Is 53:5 i.e. healing has come to us. e.g. Jeremiah 51:8
- b. of personal distress, subj. pers. Je 17:14, subj. the distress 15:18. e.g. Jeremiah 17:14
Piel
- Pf. 1 s. רִפִּאתִי 2 K 2:21; 2 mpl. רִפֵּאתֶם Ez 34:4; 1 pl. רִפִּאנוּ Je 51:9; Impf. 3 ms. יְרַפֵּא Ex 21:19; Zc 11:16, וַיְרַפֵּא 1 K 18:30; 3 mpl. וַיְרַפְּאוּ Je 6:14, וַיְרַפּוּ (Ges§ 75 qq) 8:11; inf. abs. רַפֹּא Ex 21:19;—have healed, heal, usually human subj.: e.g. 2 Kings 2:21
- 1. lit., רַפֹּא יְרַפֵּא Ex 21:19 he shall have (him) well healed; c. acc. of altar, = repair, 1 K 18:30; c. ל of water (subj. י׳) 2 K 2:21. e.g. Exodus 21:19
- 2. fig. of healing national defects and hurts, acc. pers., Ez 34:14; Zc 11:16; work at healing, treat (acc. of hurt) Je 6:14; 8:11 (both עַל־נְקַלָּה, v. [קָלַל] Niph. 2), 51:9. e.g. Ezekiel 34:14
Hiphil
- inf. cstr. of purpose, לְהִתְרַפֵּא, lit., in order to get healed, + מִן of wounds 2 K 8:29 = 9:15, so ‖ 2 Ch 22:6 (read with 𝔊 מִן for כִּי, cf. Be Kau Benz).—v. רָפָה relax. e.g. 2 Kings 8:29
רפא III m. in Benj., 1 Ch 8
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
III. II. רָפָא as n.pr.m., always c. art. Hā-Rāphā (perhaps der. from n.pr.gent. II. רְפָאִים, q.v.);—הָֽרָפָה 2 S 21:16, 18, c. prep. לְהָ׳ v 20:22 = לְהָרָפָא 1 Ch 20:6, 8;—only as parent, בִּילִידֵי הָר׳ 2 S 21:16, 18 (= מִילִידֵי הָֽרְפָאִים 1 Ch 20:4); יֻלַּד לְהָר׳ v 20, 22 ‖ I Ch 20:6, 8.—1. רָפָה v. sub רָפָא.
I. vb. heal (NH in deriv.; Ph. רפא, Syriac ܪܦܳܐ heal; on Aramaic n.pr. cpd. with רפא v. NöZMG xl (1886), 723 Lzb 369; Sab. n.pr. אלרפא Langer 1, 1 DHMZMG xxxvii (1883), 326; Arabic رَفَأَ (and رَفَا) darn, mend, repair, pacify; Ethiopic ረፍአ stitch together, mend; cf. Küchenmeister ZWiss. Th. xxx (1887), 257 ff.);—
II. n.pr.m. in Benj., 1 Ch 8:2, Ραφη[α].—II. רָפָא v. רפה.—Vid. also בֵּית ר׳ p. 112.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
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.
רָפָא
- , v. רפי
רפי
- (b. h.) [to be or make loose, soft,] to be healed, relieved; to heal. Ber. 60ᵃ ותִרְפָּאֵנִי and do thou heal me, v. רְפוּאָה. Tanḥ. B’shall. 23 וכשרְפָאָהוּ בסערה רְפָאוֹ and when he came to heal him (Job), he healed him in a windstorm; Yalk. Ex. 235. Ber. 55ᵇ ואם צריכים רפואה רְפָאֵם וכ׳ and if they (my dreams) need remedy, remedy them as thou didst the waters of Marah &c.; a. fr.—Part. pass. רָפוּי. Sifra M’tsorʿa, Neg. ch. IV, Par. 7; a. e.
- same. Yalk. Ex. l. c. הוא רי׳ וכ׳ he healed Job in a windstorm. Ber. l. c. לפי שאין דרכן … לרַפְּאוֹת וכ׳ because it is not for man to cure, but it is the custom (to employ physicians). Ib. שניתנה … לרפאות, v. רוֹפֵא. Ned. IV, 4 (38ᵇ) ומְרַפְּאֵהוּ רפואת וכ׳ (Bab. ed. ומְרַפְּאוֹ) and he may attend to him as a physician to his body &c., v. רִיפּוּי. Pesik. R. s. 29-30-30 כל מה דאמר ירמיה ופרע אתא ישעיהו ור׳ whatever Jeremiah spoke and tore (prophesied evil), Isaiah came and healed (restored) it; a. fr.
- to be cured, be treated; to get well. Sabb. XXII, 6. Pes. 25ᵃ בכל מִתְרַפְּאִין חוץ מעצי וכ׳ you may apply anything (otherwise forbidden) as a remedy, except wood of an ăsherah. Ib. בכל מתרפאין חוץ מעבודת וכ׳ you may employ any remedy except idolatrous objects, lawless gratification, and bloodshed. Keth. 105ᵃ ספק מִתְרַפֵּא וכ׳ it is doubtful whether or not he will get well. Ab. Zar. II, 2, v. רִיפּוּי; a. fr.
- (v. next w.) to loosen (the bowels). Sabb. 147ᵇ מַרְפֵּאת (not מרפא), v. עָמֵל.
רְפֵי
- , to be lax, weak, unsteady. Yeb. 64ᵇ דרָפי דמא, v. קְמַט. Kidd. 65ᵃ אין ולא ורַפְיָא בידיה (he said) yes and no, and it was undecided in his hand; Sabb. 113ᵃ; 116ᵃ; B. Mets. 14ᵇ. Gitt. 32ᵃ שופתא … רפיא the pin of the hoe gets loose (from the heat); סיכתא בדפנא ר׳ the pin in the wall gets loose; קניא … ר׳ the reed in the basket becomes soft again (as if sprouting). Pes. 42ᵇ דרְפָא מקמיט ליה (Ms. M. דרָפֵי; Rashi דרפו, corr. acc.), v. קְמַט; Sabb. 110ᵃ. Y. Ber. II, 5ᶜ bot., v. עוּנְקְתָא; a. e.
- to loosen, break the soil (cmp. רְפַק). Ned. 41ᵇ דקא מְרַפֵּי וכ׳ he loosens the soil for him (by ploughing near him whom he has vowed not to benefit). B. Mets. 95ᵇ מרפי ואזיל קמה (Ms. F. קמא קמא, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 8; Ar. מְרַפֵּישׂ, מְרַפֵּשׂ) he breaks the ground as he goes before him (that ploughs with his cow).
- 1. to let loose, let go, let alone. Targ. Y. II, Ex. IV, 26 (h. text וירף). Targ. Prov. IV, 13 (ed. Wil. תִרְפֵּא, read: תַ׳).—Y. Ber. VII, 11ᶜ אַרְפּוּנֵיה let him alone. Y. Kil. IX, 32ᵇ אַרְפּוּנוּן ורחמיו וכ׳ let them (the mice in their nest) undisturbed, it is written, ‘and his mercies are over all his creatures’ (Ps. CXLV, 9); Y. Keth. XII, 35ᵃ. Lev. R. s. 5 אַרְפּוּן להון leave them (the dogs) alone; a. e. e.g. Psalms 145:9
- 2. to act as a laxative. Pes. l. c. מַרְפֵּא ליה (not להו; Ms. M. מַרְפֵּי; Rashi מרפו, corr. acc.); Sabb. l. c. מרפי, v. קְמַט.
- ; Ithpe. אִתְרְפֵי
- 1. to be lax, slack. Targ. Prov. XVIII, 9 (ed. Wil. מִתְרַפֵּה). Ib. XXIV, 10.
- 2. to relax, to let one’s hands drop (in astonishment). Targ. Hab. I, 5. Targ. Is. XXIX, 9. e.g. Habakkuk 1:5
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 66 distinct written forms H7495 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 6 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7495, 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.
Derived from this word
- מרפא marpêʼ H4832 healing
- רפא râphâʼ H7496 ghosts
- רפאה rᵉphuʼâh H7499 remedy
- רפאות riphʼûwth H7500 healing
- תרפים tᵉrâphîym H8655 teraphim
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- ירפאל Yirpᵉʼêl H3416 Irpeel
- רפא râphâʼ H7497 giants
- רפאל Rᵉphâʼêl H7501 Rephael
- רפוא Râphûwʼ H7505 Raphu
- רפיה Rᵉphâyâh H7509 Rephaiah
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 11 — not the complete family. 5 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 60 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 62 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 20:17
- Exodus 15:26
- Leviticus 13:18
- Numbers 12:13
- Deuteronomy 28:27
- 1 Samuel 6:3
- 1 Kings 18:30
- 2 Kings 2:21
- 2 Chronicles 7:14
- Job 5:18
- Psalms 6:2
- Ecclesiastes 3:3
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.
