רָפָא

rafa · heal

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H7495 · appears 67 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?

Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

rafa (רָפָא) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “heal”.

Cure; restore.

How to say it

ra·fa

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

To heal a sick person, a wound or a people.
The one who attends the sick and treats wounds.
To fix something broken.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To heal, cure: to give health back to a person, and also to repair what is damaged (an altar, waters, a land). The participle names physicians. Of the same root are מַרְפֵּא (healing) and רְפוּאָה (remedy).

“I am YHWH, your healer” Exodus 15:26 Psalms 103:3
Healing a disease or a sore Genesis 20:17 Leviticus 13:37
Healing the people and their land 2 Chronicles 7:14 Hosea 6:1 Isaiah 53:5
Physicians Genesis 50:2 2 Chronicles 16:12
Repairing, making sound: the altar, the waters 1 Kings 18:30 2 Kings 2:21

Historical and cultural background

Asa, diseased in his feet, “did not seek YHWH, but the physicians” (2 Chronicles 16:12). In Egypt Joseph's physicians embalmed Jacob (Genesis 50:2).

How we translate it

“Heal” 25 times, “healed” 17, “be healed” 13, “heals” 3; “physicians” 4 for the participle (Genesis 50:2). This edition renders רפא “heal”, and with Elijah's altar, “repaired” (1 Kings 18:30).

How it is translated

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

heal ×25
healed ×17
be healed ×13
physicians ×4
heals ×3
be mended ×1
he repaired ×1
healer ×1
healing ×1
physician ×1

Related words

Words that come from it

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

Where it appears

Genesis 20:17
Then Abraham prayed to Elohim, and Elohim healed Abimelech, his wife, and his slave women, so that they bore children.
Genesis 50:2
Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.
Exodus 15:26
He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, and do what is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not put on you any of the diseases that I put on the Egyptians; for I am YHWH, your healer.”
Exodus 21:19
if he gets up and walks around outside on his staff, the one who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for his lost time and have him thoroughly healed.
Leviticus 13:18
When the body has an ulcer in its skin and it has healed,
Leviticus 13:37
But if in his eyes the ringworm has stayed as it was and black hair has grown in it, the ringworm has healed; he is clean, and the priest shall declare him clean.
Leviticus 14:3
The priest shall go out to outside the camp, and the priest shall examine him, and if the leprous sore has been healed in the leper,
Leviticus 14:48
But if the priest indeed comes and examines it, and, look, the mark has not spread in the house after the house has been plastered, the priest shall declare clean the house, for the mark has been healed.
Numbers 12:13
And Moses cried out to YHWH, saying, “El, please, heal her, please.”
Deuteronomy 28:27
YHWH will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with scabs and with itch, from which you will not be able to be healed.
Deuteronomy 28:35
YHWH will strike you with severe boils on the knees and on the legs, from which you will not be able to be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
Deuteronomy 32:39
See now that I, I am he, and there is no god with me. I put to death and I make alive; I have crushed and I will heal, and there is no one who delivers from my hand.
1 Samuel 6:3
And they said, “If you send away the ark of the Elohim of Israel, do not send it empty, but be sure to restore to him a guilt offering; then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you.”
1 Kings 18:30
Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of YHWH that was torn down.
2 Kings 2:21
He went out to the spring of the water and threw salt into it and said, “Thus says YHWH, ‘I have healed this water; from there there will no longer be death or miscarriage.’”
2 Kings 2:22
The water was healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha that he spoke.
2 Kings 8:29
King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. And Ahaziah son of Joram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was sick.
2 Kings 9:15
but King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. And Jehu said, “If this is your will, let no survivor get out of the city to go and tell it in Jezreel.”
2 Kings 20:5
“Go back and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, ‘Thus says YHWH, the Elohim of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of YHWH.
2 Kings 20:8
Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that YHWH will heal me and that I will go up on the third day to the house of YHWH?”
2 Chronicles 7:14
and my people, over whom my name is called, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from the heavens and forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 16:12
Asa became diseased in year thirty-nine of his reign in his feet, until his disease was very severe; yet even in his disease he did not seek YHWH, but the physicians.
2 Chronicles 22:6
He returned to be healed in Jezreel from the wounds that they had inflicted on him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. And Azariah son of Joram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was sick.
2 Chronicles 30:20
YHWH heard Hezekiah and healed the people.
Job 5:18
For he causes pain and binds up; he shatters, and his hands heal.
Job 13:4
But you are those who plaster over with lies; physicians of no worth are all of you.
Psalms 6:2
Show me favor, YHWH, for I am languishing; heal me, YHWH, for my bones are dismayed.
Psalms 30:2
YHWH my Elohim, I cried for help to you, and you healed me.
Psalms 41:4
I said, “YHWH, show me favor; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.”
Psalms 60:2
You made the earth quake, you split it open; heal its fractures, for it totters.
Psalms 103:3
who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases,
Psalms 107:20
He sent his word and healed them, and rescued them from their pits.
Psalms 147:3
He heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds.
Ecclesiastes 3:3
a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build;
Isaiah 6:10
Make fat the heart of this people, and make heavy its ears, and blind its eyes, lest it see with its eyes, and hear with its ears, and its heart understand, and it turn back and be healed.”
Isaiah 19:22
And YHWH will strike Egypt, striking and healing; and they will return to YHWH, and he will let himself be entreated by them and will heal them.
Isaiah 30:26
And the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, in the day when YHWH binds up the fracture of his people and heals the wound of his blow.
Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the correction of our peace was upon him, and by his wound we were healed.
Isaiah 57:18
His ways I have seen, and I will heal him; and I will lead him, and restore comforts to him and to those of his who mourn,
Isaiah 57:19
creating the fruit of the lips: ‘Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,’ says YHWH; and I will heal him.”

And 27 more times.