raav · famine, hunger

What it means

raav (רָעָב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “famine, hunger”.

Hunger; famine, a shortage of food in a region.

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. Lack of food in a land, or someone's hunger.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Hunger: the shortage of food in a land, and also the hunger a person feels. BDB: hunger, both lack of food and appetite. It is of the same root as רָעֵב, “to be hungry”.

• Famine in the land that forces people to emigrate Genesis 12:10Ruth 1:1
• The seven years of famine in Joseph's time Genesis 41:30
• Famine in sieges 2 Kings 6:25
• “By the sword and by famine and by pestilence” Jeremiah 14:122 Samuel 24:13
• “Not a famine for bread … but for hearing the words of YHWH” Amos 8:11

Historical and cultural background

In Genesis famine drives Abram to Egypt (Genesis 12:10) and takes Joseph's brothers there to buy grain; in Ruth, a family from Bethlehem goes to Moab because of the famine (Ruth 1:1). 2 Kings 6:25 gives the prices in besieged Samaria: “a donkey’s head sold for eighty {shekels} of silver”.

How we translate it

“Famine” 92 times, “hunger” 9. “Famine” for the shortage in a land, “hunger” for what a person feels. קָרָא לָרָעָב is “called for a famine” (2 Kings 8:1).

How it is translated

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

• famine ×92
• hunger ×9

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×24
• Exodus×1
• Deuteronomy×2
• Ruth×1
• 2 Samuel×2
• 1 Kings×2
• 2 Kings×5
• 1 Chronicles×1
• 2 Chronicles×3
• Nehemiah×2
• Job×1
• Psalms×2
• Isaiah×3
• Jeremiah×33
• Lamentations×3
• Ezekiel×14
• Amos×2

• Genesis 12:10

  There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to reside as an alien there, for the famine was severe in the land.

• Genesis 26:1

  There was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that there was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

• Genesis 41:27

  And the seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears, scorched by the east wind, will be seven years of famine.

• Genesis 41:30

  But after them seven years of famine will arise, and all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will consume the land.

• Genesis 41:31

  The abundance will not be known in the land because of that famine afterward, for it will be very severe.

• 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.”

• Genesis 41:50

  To Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.

• Genesis 41:54

  and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.

• Genesis 41:56

  The famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses that were in them and sold grain to the Egyptians; and the famine grew strong in the land of Egypt.

• Genesis 41:57

  All the earth came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was strong in all the earth.

• Genesis 42:5

  The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

• Genesis 43:1

  The famine was severe in the land.

• Genesis 45:6

  For these two years the famine has been in the midst of the land, and there are still five years in which there will be no plowing or harvest.

• Genesis 45:11

  I will provide for you there, for there are still five years of famine, so that you do not come to poverty, you and your household and all that you have.’

• Genesis 47:4

  They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to reside as aliens in the land, for there is no pasture for the flocks that your servants have, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen.”

• Genesis 47:13

  There was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very severe, and the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.

• Genesis 47:20

  So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians sold each man his field, because the famine was strong upon them; and the land became Pharaoh’s.

• Exodus 16:3

  The sons of Israel said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of YHWH in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full! But you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

• Deuteronomy 28:48

  you will serve your enemies, whom YHWH will send against you, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in lack of everything; and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

• Deuteronomy 32:24

  Wasted by hunger, and devoured by burning fever and bitter plague; and the teeth of beasts I will send against them, with the venom of crawling things of the dust.

• Ruth 1:1

  And it happened in the days when the judges judged that there was a famine in the land; and a man from Bethlehem of Judah went to reside as an alien in the fields of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

• 2 Samuel 21:1

  There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of YHWH. YHWH said, “It is because of Saul and because of his house of blood, because he put to death the Gibeonites.”

• 2 Samuel 24:13

  So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall there come to you seven years of famine in your land? Or three months that you flee before your adversaries while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to the one who sent me.”

• 1 Kings 8:37

  If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, blight, mildew, locust, or grasshopper, if there are these; if his enemy besieges him in the land of his gates; any sore, any sickness;

• 1 Kings 18:2

  So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. And the famine was severe in Samaria.

• 2 Kings 4:38

  Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was the famine in the land. The sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his young man, “Put on the large pot and cook stew for the sons of the prophets.”

• 2 Kings 6:25

  There was a great famine in Samaria, and there they were, besieging it, until a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.

• 2 Kings 7:4

  If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we will die there; and if we sit here, we will die. So now, come, let us go over to the camp of Aram. If they let us live, we will live; and if they put us to death, we will die.”

• 2 Kings 8:1

  Elisha had spoken to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Get up and go, you and your household, and reside as an alien wherever you can reside as an alien, for YHWH has called for a famine, and it will also come on the land seven years.”

• 2 Kings 25:3

  On the ninth of the month the famine grew severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

• 1 Chronicles 21:12

  either three years of famine, or three months of being swept away before your adversaries, with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or three days of the sword of YHWH, that is, pestilence in the land, with the angel of YHWH destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now consider what word I should bring back to the one who sent me.”

• 2 Chronicles 6:28

  When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, when there are blight and mildew, locust and hopper; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their gates; any sore and any sickness;

• 2 Chronicles 20:9

  ‘If evil comes upon us —sword, judgment, or pestilence or famine— we will stand before this house and before you, for your name is in this house, and we will cry out to you from our distress, and you will hear and save.’

• 2 Chronicles 32:11

  Is not Hezekiah inciting you to give you over to die by hunger and by thirst, saying, ‘YHWH our Elohim will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria’?

• Nehemiah 5:3

  And there were those who were saying, “Our fields, our vineyards, and our houses we are pledging, so that we may get grain in the famine.”

• Nehemiah 9:15

  And bread from the heavens you gave them for their hunger, and water from the crag you brought out for them for their thirst; and you told them to go in to possess the land for which you had lifted up your hand to give it to them.

• Job 5:20

  In famine he will ransom you from death, and in war from the hands of the sword.

• Psalms 33:19

  to deliver from death their soul and to keep them alive in famine.

• Psalms 105:16

  And he called a famine upon the land; every staff of bread he broke.

• Isaiah 5:13

  Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; and its glory are men of hunger, and its multitude parched with thirst.

And 61 more times.