karat · cut, cut off

What it means

karat (כָּרַת) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “cut, cut off”.

Cut, cut down. Said of a living being, cut off, destroy. "Cut a covenant" is the Hebrew expression for making a covenant, because it was sealed by cutting animals in two (Genesis 15).

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 cut a tree or branch with an axe to get timber.
2. To wipe out, or be shut out from the people.
3. Literally "cut": to seal a solemn agreement, splitting animals.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Cut; from there destroy, eliminate. BDB notes that it especially means to make a covenant; Jeremiah 34:18 recalls the covenant made by cutting a calf in two and passing between the pieces.

• To cut down trees, wood, a sacred pole Deuteronomy 19:5Judges 6:25
• To “cut” a covenant: to make a covenant Genesis 15:18Genesis 21:27
• To “be cut off” from one's people: to be excluded Genesis 17:14Exodus 12:15
• To wipe out Genesis 9:11
• To cut an animal in two when making a covenant Jeremiah 34:18

Historical and cultural background

In Genesis 15:9-17 Abram cuts animals in two and a torch of fire passes between the pieces; that day “YHWH made a covenant with Abram”. Jeremiah 34:18 recalls the same rite: “the calf that they cut in two and passed between its halves”.

How we translate it

“Cut off” 143 times, “made” 51, “make” 30, “cut” 23, “cut down” 21. כָּרַת בְּרִית is translated “make a covenant”, which is the English idiom; the image of cutting can be seen where the text names it (Jeremiah 34:18). In the laws, “shall be cut off from his people” is kept.

How it is translated

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

• cut off ×143
• made ×51
• make ×30
• cut ×23
• cut down ×21
• making ×5
• cuts off ×3
• will never lack ×3
• I covenanted ×2
• cutting off ×2
• others ×6

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×8
• Exodus×14
• Leviticus×20
• Numbers×10
• Deuteronomy×17
• Joshua×15
• Judges×8
• Ruth×1
• 1 Samuel×17
• 2 Samuel×8
• 1 Kings×17
• 2 Kings×10
• 1 Chronicles×4
• 2 Chronicles×15
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×2
• Job×3
• Psalms×14
• Proverbs×4
• Isaiah×18
• Jeremiah×27
• Ezekiel×19
• Daniel×1
• Hosea×4
• Joel×3
• Amos×3
• Obadiah×3
• Micah×5
• Nahum×4
• Zephaniah×5
• Haggai×1
• Zechariah×7
• Malachi×1

• Genesis 9:11

  And I will establish my covenant with you: and never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

• Genesis 15:18

  On that day YHWH made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

• Genesis 17:14

  But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

• Genesis 21:27

  Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.

• Genesis 21:32

  So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines.

• Genesis 26:28

  They said, “We have clearly seen that YHWH has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an imprecation between us, between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,

• Genesis 31:44

  So now, come, let us make a covenant, I and you, and let it be a witness between me and you.”

• Genesis 41:36

  The food will be a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine that will be in the land of Egypt, so that the land will not be cut off by the famine.”

• Exodus 4:25

  Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to his feet and said, “Surely a bridegroom of blood you are to me!”

• Exodus 8:9

  Moses said to Pharaoh, “Have the honor over me: for when shall I pray for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and from your houses and remain only in the Nile?”

• Exodus 12:15

  Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Indeed, on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats anything leavened, that person shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day until the seventh day.

• Exodus 12:19

  For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened, that person shall be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a resident alien or a native of the land.

• Exodus 23:32

  You shall not make a covenant with them or with their gods.

• Exodus 24:8

  Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people and said, “Look, the blood of the covenant that YHWH has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

• Exodus 30:33

  Whoever blends any like it, or whoever puts some of it on a stranger, shall be cut off from his people.’”

• Exodus 30:38

  Whoever makes any like it to smell it shall be cut off from his people.”

• Exodus 31:14

  You shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.

• Exodus 34:10

  And he said, “Look, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do wonders that have not been created in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of YHWH, for it is fearsome, what I am doing with you.

• Exodus 34:12

  Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst.

• Exodus 34:13

  But their altars you shall tear down, and their standing stones you shall break, and their Asherahs you shall cut down.

• Exodus 34:15

  Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they prostitute themselves after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, and you eat of his sacrifice,

• Exodus 34:27

  And YHWH said to Moses, “Write for yourself these words, for according to these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

• Leviticus 7:20

  But the person who eats flesh from the sacrifice of peace that belongs to YHWH while his uncleanness is on him, that person shall be cut off from his people.

• Leviticus 7:21

  And when a person touches anything unclean, whether human uncleanness or an unclean beast or any unclean detestable thing, and eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace that belongs to YHWH, that person shall be cut off from his people.”

• Leviticus 7:25

  For whoever eats the fat of the beast from which one presents a fire offering to YHWH, the person who eats it shall be cut off from his people.

• Leviticus 7:27

  Any person who eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.”

• Leviticus 17:4

  and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to present an offering to YHWH before the dwelling of YHWH, blood shall be counted to that man: he has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people.

• Leviticus 17:9

  and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it to YHWH, that man shall be cut off from his people.

• Leviticus 17:10

  And any man of the house of Israel or of the resident aliens who reside among them, who eats any blood, I will set my face against the person who eats the blood, and I will cut that person off from among their people.

• Leviticus 17:14

  For the life of all flesh, its blood is in its life; so I have said to the sons of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.

• Leviticus 18:29

  For whoever does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people.

• Leviticus 19:8

  And whoever eats it shall bear his iniquity, for he has profaned what is holy to YHWH; and that person shall be cut off from their people.

• Leviticus 20:3

  And I will set my face against that man and cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his offspring to Molech, so as to make unclean my sanctuary and to profane my holy name.

• Leviticus 20:5

  then I will set my face against that man and against his clan, and I will cut off him and all who prostitute themselves after him, prostituting themselves after Molech, from among their people.

• Leviticus 20:6

  And the person who turns to those who call up the dead and to spiritists, prostituting themselves after them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from among his people.

• Leviticus 20:17

  And a man who takes his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off before the eyes of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.

• Leviticus 20:18

  And a man who lies with a woman in her sickness and uncovers her nakedness has laid bare her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood; both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

• Leviticus 22:3

  Say to them: Throughout your generations, any man from among all your offspring who approaches the holy things that the sons of Israel consecrate to YHWH while his uncleanness is on him, that person shall be cut off from before me. I am YHWH.

• Leviticus 22:24

  And an animal with testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut you shall not present to YHWH; in your land you shall not do this.

• Leviticus 23:29

  For any person who is not afflicted on this very day shall be cut off from their people.

And 249 more times.