harag · kill

What it means

harag (הָרַג) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “kill”.

Slay.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To take someone's life violently.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To kill. BDB: to kill, slay, often with ruthless violence. From the same root comes הֶרֶג, “slaughter”.

• Cain kills Abel Genesis 4:8Genesis 4:25
• “Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Exodus 2:14
• Killings in war or in revenge Genesis 34:252 Samuel 3:30

How we translate it

Forms of “kill”: “killed” 82, “kill” 61, “slain” 7, “killing” 6, “kills” 4… This edition distinguishes הרג, “kill”, from נכה, “strike” (“struck … with the edge of the sword”), from הֵמִית, “put to death”, and from רצח, “murder” in the commandment.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• killed ×82
• kill ×61
• slain ×7
• killing ×6
• kills ×4
• killer ×2
• before murderers ×1
• carried out ×1
• murderer ×1
• slay ×1
• others ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×16
• Exodus×11
• Leviticus×2
• Numbers×11
• Deuteronomy×2
• Joshua×4
• Judges×16
• 1 Samuel×5
• 2 Samuel×8
• 1 Kings×11
• 2 Kings×5
• 1 Chronicles×3
• 2 Chronicles×12
• Nehemiah×4
• Esther×9
• Job×2
• Psalms×9
• Proverbs×2
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×9
• Jeremiah×3
• Lamentations×4
• Ezekiel×10
• Hosea×2
• Amos×4
• Habakkuk×1
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 4:8

  And Cain said to Abel his brother … And it happened, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

• Genesis 4:14

  Look, you have driven me out today from the face of the ground, and from your presence I will be hidden; and I will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth, and it will happen that whoever finds me will kill me.”

• Genesis 4:15

  And YHWH said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And YHWH put a sign on Cain, so that no one who found him would strike him.

• Genesis 4:23

  And Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my saying: for a man I have killed for wounding me, and a young man for striking me.

• Genesis 4:25

  And Adam knew his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and called his name Seth, “for Elohim has granted me another offspring in place of Abel, because Cain killed him.”

• Genesis 12:12

  When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ And they will kill me, but you they will keep alive.

• Genesis 20:4

  Now Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, “Adonai, will you kill a nation, even one that is righteous?

• Genesis 20:11

  Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely there is no fear of Elohim in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’

• Genesis 26:7

  The men of the place asked about his wife, and he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful in appearance.”

• Genesis 27:41

  Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill Jacob my brother.”

• Genesis 27:42

  The words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah, and she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Look, Esau your brother is consoling himself about you by planning to kill you.

• Genesis 34:25

  It happened on the third day, while they were in pain, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, brothers of Dinah, took each his sword and came upon the city, which was unsuspecting, and killed every male.

• Genesis 34:26

  Hamor and Shechem his son they killed with the edge of the sword, and they took Dinah from the house of Shechem and went out.

• Genesis 37:20

  Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns, and we will say, ‘A fierce animal devoured him.’ Then we will see what will become of his dreams.”

• Genesis 37:26

  Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

• Genesis 49:6

  Into their council let my soul not enter; to their assembly let my honor not be joined; for in their anger they killed men, and at their whim they hamstrung oxen.

• Exodus 2:14

  He said, “Who made you a man, a ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the thing is known.”

• Exodus 2:15

  When Pharaoh heard of this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian; and he sat down by the well.

• Exodus 4:23

  and I said to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” But you refused to let him go; look, I am going to kill your son, your firstborn.’”

• Exodus 5:21

  And they said to them, “May YHWH look upon you and judge, because you have made us odious in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants, putting a sword in their hand to kill us.”

• Exodus 13:15

  When Pharaoh hardened himself against letting us go, YHWH killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of people and the firstborn of animals. That is why I sacrifice to YHWH every first offspring of the womb that is male, but every firstborn of my sons I ransom.’

• Exodus 21:14

  But if a man acts presumptuously against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, you shall take him from my altar to die.

• Exodus 22:24

  and my anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will become widows and your sons orphans.

• Exodus 23:7

  Keep far from a false matter, and do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I will not declare righteous the wicked.

• Exodus 32:12

  Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the ground’? Turn from the heat of your anger and relent concerning the evil planned against your people.

• Exodus 32:27

  And he said to them, “Thus says YHWH, Elohim of Israel: ‘Each man, put his sword on his side; pass through and return from gate to gate in the camp, and kill, each man, his brother, and each man his companion, and each man his relative.’”

• Leviticus 20:15

  And a man who lies with a beast shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the beast.

• Leviticus 20:16

  And a woman who approaches any beast to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the beast; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is on them.

• Numbers 11:15

  And if you deal thus with me, kill me, please, kill me outright, if I have found favor in your eyes, and let me not see my misery.”

• Numbers 22:29

  And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me! If only there were a sword in my hand, for now I would have killed you!”

• Numbers 22:33

  And the donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely by now I would have killed even you and let her live.”

• Numbers 25:5

  Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal-peor.”

• Numbers 31:7

  They waged war against Midian, as YHWH had commanded Moses, and they killed every male.

• Numbers 31:8

  And the kings of Midian they killed along with their slain: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian; and Balaam son of Beor they killed with the sword.

• Numbers 31:17

  Now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by lying with a male.

• Numbers 31:19

  And you, camp outside the camp seven days; everyone who has killed a person and everyone who has touched the slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.

• Deuteronomy 13:9

  But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be against him first to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward.

• Joshua 8:24

  And it came about, when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they had pursued them, and all of them had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were finished, that all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.

• Joshua 9:26

  He did thus to them: he delivered them from the hand of the sons of Israel, and they did not kill them.

• Joshua 10:11

  And it came about, as they fled before Israel, while they were on the descent of Beth-horon, that YHWH threw down on them great stones from the heavens as far as Azekah, and they died. More were those who died by the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

And 127 more times.