kara · happen, meet

What it means

kara (קָרָא) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “happen, meet”.

Happen, befall someone; meet with something.

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 go out toward someone who is coming, to meet him on the way.
2. For an event, good or bad, to befall someone without his seeking it.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• meet ×19
• happened to be ×2
• will befall ×2
• against ×1
• breaks out ×1
• came upon me ×1
• chance ×1
• happened to me ×1
• has befallen ×1
• has met ×1
• others ×7

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×3
• Exodus×2
• Leviticus×1
• Deuteronomy×2
• 1 Samuel×20
• 2 Samuel×4
• Job×1
• Isaiah×1
• Jeremiah×3

• Genesis 42:4

  But Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, Jacob did not send with his brothers, for he said, “Harm might come to him.”

• Genesis 42:38

  But he said, “My son will not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If harm should befall him on the journey you are making, you would bring down my gray hair in sorrow to Sheol.”

• Genesis 49:1

  Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what will befall you in the days to come.

• Exodus 1:10

  Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will multiply, and if war breaks out, they too will join those who hate us and fight against us and go up from the land.”

• 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.”

• Leviticus 10:19

  Aaron spoke to Moses, “Look, today they have presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before YHWH, and things like these have happened to me; if I had eaten a sin offering today, would it have been good in the eyes of YHWH?”

• Deuteronomy 22:6

  If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest before you on the road, in any tree or on the ground, with young or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.

• Deuteronomy 31:29

  For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the days to come, because you will do what is evil in the eyes of YHWH, provoking him to anger with the work of your hands.”

• 1 Samuel 4:1

  And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. And Israel went out to meet the Philistines for war; they camped beside Eben-ezer, and the Philistines camped at Aphek.

• 1 Samuel 4:2

  And the Philistines drew up their lines to meet Israel, and the war spread out, and Israel was struck down before the Philistines, who struck in the battle line in the field about four thousand men.

• 1 Samuel 9:14

  So they went up to the city. As they were coming into the middle of the city, there was Samuel coming out to meet them, to go up to the high place.

• 1 Samuel 10:10

  When they came there, to Gibeah, look, a band of prophets came to meet him; and the spirit of Elohim came mightily on him, and he prophesied among them.

• 1 Samuel 13:10

  And it came about, as he finished offering up the burnt offering, look, Samuel was coming; and Saul went out to meet him, to bless him.

• 1 Samuel 15:12

  Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and it was told to Samuel, saying, “Saul came to Carmel, and look, he is setting up for himself a monument; and he turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.”

• 1 Samuel 16:4

  Samuel did what YHWH had spoken and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city trembled to meet him, and one said, “Is your coming in peace?”

• 1 Samuel 17:2

  Saul and the men of Israel gathered and camped in the valley of Elah, and drew up for war to meet the Philistines.

• 1 Samuel 17:21

  Israel and the Philistines drew up, battle line against battle line.

• 1 Samuel 17:48

  And it came about, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran to the battle line to meet the Philistine.

• 1 Samuel 17:55

  When Saul saw David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Whose son is this young man, Abner?” And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.”

• 1 Samuel 18:6

  And it came about, as they came, when David returned from striking the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel to sing, with dances, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with three-stringed instruments.

• 1 Samuel 21:1

  David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”

• 1 Samuel 23:28

  So Saul turned back from pursuing after David and went to meet the Philistines. Therefore they called that place Sela-hammahlekoth.

• 1 Samuel 25:20

  As she was riding on the donkey and coming down under cover of the mountain, look, David and his men were coming down toward her, and she met them.

• 1 Samuel 25:32

  David said to Abigail, “Blessed be YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me!

• 1 Samuel 25:34

  For indeed, as YHWH lives, the Elohim of Israel, who has kept me back from harming you, if you had not hurried and come to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal, by the light of morning, so much as one who urinates against a wall.”

• 1 Samuel 30:21

  David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to go after David, and whom they had made stay at the brook Besor; and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. When David came near to the people, he asked them about their welfare.

• 2 Samuel 1:6

  The young man who was reporting it to him said, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and look, Saul was leaning on his spear; and look, the chariots and the horsemen were following him closely.

• 2 Samuel 16:1

  David had gone on a little from the summit, and there was Ziba, the young man of Mephibosheth, to meet him, with a pair of donkeys saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred clusters of raisins, a hundred summer fruits, and a skin of wine.

• 2 Samuel 18:9

  Absalom happened to be before the servants of David. Absalom was riding on the mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of the great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between the heavens and the earth, while the mule that was under him went on.

• 2 Samuel 20:1

  There happened to be a wicked man whose name was Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjaminite; he blew the horn and said, “We have no portion in David, and no inheritance for us in the son of Jesse! Each man to his tents, Israel!”

• Job 4:14

  dread came upon me, and trembling, and it filled with dread all my bones.

• Isaiah 51:19

  These two things have befallen you —who will grieve for you?— the devastation and the breaking, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you?

• Jeremiah 13:22

  And if you say in your heart: “Why have these things happened to me?” For the multitude of your iniquity your skirts have been uncovered, your heels have suffered violence.

• Jeremiah 32:23

  And they came in and possessed it, but they did not listen to your voice, nor walk in your instruction; all that you commanded them to do they did not do; and you have made all this evil come upon them.

• Jeremiah 44:23

  Because you burned incense and because you sinned against YHWH and did not listen to the voice of YHWH, and in his instruction and in his statutes and in his testimonies you did not walk, therefore this evil has befallen you, as it is this day.”

And 2 more times.