cherev · sword

What it means

cherev (חֶרֶב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “sword”.

Also any tool with an edge, like a knife or a chisel.

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. A sword; or war.
2. A knife or other edged tool.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Sword; in general, any cutting tool: knife, stonemason's tool.

• The warrior's sword Genesis 27:40Genesis 3:24
• “By the sword and by famine and by pestilence”: war as punishment Jeremiah 14:12
• A tool for dressing stone Exodus 20:25
• Flint knives Joshua 5:2
• “They will beat their swords into mattocks” Isaiah 2:4

Historical and cultural background

The law of Exodus 20:25 commands that an altar of stones not be dressed: “if you lift your tool on it, you profane it”.

How we translate it

“Sword” 393 times, “swords” 16, “knives” 2, “tool” 1. It is translated “sword” consistently (also Ehud's weapon, Judges 3:16). In Joshua 5:2 it says “flint knives”, because the object is a stone knife, and in Exodus 20:25, “tool”.

How it is translated

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

• sword ×393
• swords ×16
• knives ×2
• ruins ×1
• tool ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×6
• Exodus×8
• Leviticus×7
• Numbers×9
• Deuteronomy×8
• Joshua×20
• Judges×23
• 1 Samuel×24
• 2 Samuel×15
• 1 Kings×11
• 2 Kings×8
• 1 Chronicles×11
• 2 Chronicles×9
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×2
• Esther×1
• Job×11
• Psalms×18
• Proverbs×4
• Song of Songs×2
• Isaiah×22
• Jeremiah×71
• Lamentations×4
• Ezekiel×91
• Daniel×1
• Hosea×5
• Joel×1
• Amos×8
• Micah×4
• Nahum×3
• Zephaniah×1
• Haggai×1
• Zechariah×3

• Genesis 3:24

  And he drove out the man, and he stationed east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the flame of the sword that turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

• Genesis 27:40

  By your sword you will live, and your brother you will serve; but it will be when you break loose that you will tear his yoke from your neck.”

• Genesis 31:26

  Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and carried off my daughters like captives of the sword.

• 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 48:22

  And I have given you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”

• Exodus 5:3

  They said, “The Elohim of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a journey of three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to YHWH our Elohim, or he will fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”

• 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 15:9

  The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the plunder; my soul will have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

• Exodus 17:13

  And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

• Exodus 18:4

  and the name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, “The Elohim of my father was my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.”

• Exodus 20:25

  And if you make me an altar of stones, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you lift your tool on it, you profane it.

• 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 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 26:6

  And I will give peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid; and I will remove harmful animals from the land, and the sword will not pass through your land.

• Leviticus 26:7

  And you will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.

• Leviticus 26:8

  And five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

• Leviticus 26:25

  And I will bring on you a sword that avenges the vengeance of the covenant; and when you gather into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you will be given into the hand of the enemy.

• Leviticus 26:33

  And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you; and your land will be a desolation, and your cities will be a ruin.

• Leviticus 26:36

  And as for those who are left of you, I will bring faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one flees from the sword, and fall when no one is pursuing.

• Leviticus 26:37

  And they will stumble, one over another, as before the sword, when no one is pursuing; and you will have no power to stand before your enemies.

• Numbers 14:3

  And why is YHWH bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”

• Numbers 14:43

  For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword; because you have turned back from following YHWH, YHWH will not be with you.”

• Numbers 19:16

  And everyone who touches, in the open field, one slain by the sword or a dead body or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

• Numbers 20:18

  But Edom said to him, “You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you.”

• Numbers 21:24

  And Israel struck him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon; for the border of the sons of Ammon was strong.

• Numbers 22:23

  And the donkey saw the angel of YHWH standing in the road, with his sword drawn in his hand; and the donkey turned aside from the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back to the road.

• 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 22:31

  Then YHWH uncovered the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of YHWH standing in the road, with his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed and prostrated himself on his face.

• 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.

• Deuteronomy 13:15

  you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, devoting it to destruction, and all that is in it, and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.

• Deuteronomy 20:13

  And YHWH your Elohim will give it into your hand, and you shall strike all its males with the edge of the sword.

• Deuteronomy 28:22

  YHWH will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew; and they will pursue you until you perish.

• Deuteronomy 32:25

  Outside the sword will bereave, and in the inner rooms terror, both young man and virgin, the nursing child with the man of gray hair.

• Deuteronomy 32:41

  if I sharpen the lightning of my sword and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will return vengeance to my adversaries and repay those who hate me.

• Deuteronomy 32:42

  I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy.’

• Deuteronomy 33:29

  Happy are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by YHWH, the shield of your help and who is the sword of your majesty? Your enemies will cringe before you, and you will tread on their high places.”

• Joshua 5:2

  At that time YHWH said to Joshua, “Make for yourself flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel again, a second time.”

• Joshua 5:3

  So Joshua made for himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at the Hill of the Foreskins.

• Joshua 5:13

  And it came about, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and look, a man was standing in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?”

And 373 more times.