Table of Contents

hereb

הרב

'hereb' has traditionally been translated in two very different ways. Essentially, in broad strokes, it is understood to mean firstly a state of ruin or devastation, and secondly a weapon that causes such a state.

'hereb' is a very clear example of some of the problems with the traditional approach. Possibly due to an overly contextual approach of traditional interpretation which then drove translation, the general concept of “ruin” has become highly de-standardized, taking on a range of nuances that is unsupported etymologically, and may not necessarily even be supported contextually.

Below are some examples of the types of translations we typically find, with associated “Strong Number” entries taken from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, an index created in 1890 which attempted to manually collate over three hundred thousand words of a dead language without the advantage of computer assisted technologies such as databases and search tools.

Even with only a very quick glance, it is immediately apparent that there are really only three or four “different” interpretations at play here. There is no rational reason for this single word, with a single spelling, to be split into nine separate dictionary entries. This division is merely an artifact of outdated and outmoded analytical methods.

Several more sensible divisions could be proposed. For example:

Looking at the four items above, we can now see that if the last bullet point is interpreted as an adjective, the second through fourth items are essentially the same. In every case we are describing a place as being barren, dry, and desolate. In many of the instances, there is an implication in the context that the place was once thriving but has since become desolate. In other words, we can fairly consistently interpret the place as “a ruin”.

This leaves us with only one other interpretation needed - that of the object that caused the ruin - “a weapon”.

ke pi hereb

There is a commonly recurring phrase ke pi hereb, which seems to mean “struck teeth weapon” and is commonly interpreted as “by the edge of the sword”. FIXME This bears further investigation.

For further investigation