A7260 — רַבְרַב (rabrab) — Aramaic¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H7260 (Aramaic)
Original: רַבְרַב
Transliteration: rabrab
Pronunciation: rab-rab'
Part of Speech: Adjective / noun
Root: Reduplicated form of H7229 רַב (rab) — "great, chief, captain"
Occurrences: 8 unique verses, 8 tokens (Daniel only)
First Occurrence: Dan 2:48 — "Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

(Aramaic) from H7229; huge (in size); domineering (in character): — (very) great (things).

BDB Note: Masculine plural reduplicated form רַבְרְבִין (K §59, 4). Feminine plural בָן- (Dan 2:48+), emphatic ָ֯תָא (Dan 7:11, 7:17). This is a portion of the full BDB entry H7229.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
great	6	75.0%
great things	1	12.5%
very great things	1	12.5%

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Daniel	8	2.2

Confined entirely to the Aramaic sections of Daniel (chapters 2, 4, and 7). The reduplication pattern (rab + rab) is an Aramaic intensification device indicating exceptional or superlative greatness.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Exceptional Size or Impressiveness — Applied to Beasts and Physical Objects¶

The word describes prophetic beasts of extraordinary magnitude and fearsome physical attributes (teeth, appearance). The reduplication conveys that these are not merely large but surpassingly, overwhelmingly great.

Dan 7:3 — "And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another."
Dan 7:7 — "a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth"
Dan 7:17 — "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth."

2. Superlative Speech — Arrogant or Domineering Words¶

The horn's speech is described as rabrab — not merely "great" words but overwhelmingly presumptuous, domineering utterances. This category carries the "domineering (in character)" sense from the lexicon.

Dan 7:8 — "in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things"
Dan 7:11 — "I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake"
Dan 7:20 — "that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows"

3. Exceptional Quality — Applied to Gifts and Signs¶

Describes gifts or divine signs that are extraordinary in magnitude or impressiveness.

Dan 2:48 — "the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts"
Dan 4:3 — "How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders!"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-vv	Typical Pattern
חֵיוָא (chêyvâʼ)	H2423	4x (50%)	"great beasts" — prophetic beast imagery (Dan 7)
קֶרֶן (qeren)	H7162	4x (50%)	horn context — the little horn's "great words" (Dan 7)
דִּי (dîy)	H1768	4x (50%)	relative particle "which/that" linking rabrab to nouns
מְלַל (mᵉlal)	H4449	3x (38%)	"speaking great things" — arrogant speech (Dan 7:8, 11, 20)
סְלִק (çᵉliq)	H5559	3x (38%)	"came up" — beasts rising from sea / horn rising (Dan 7)
הָוָא (hâvâʼ)	H1934	3x (38%)	auxiliary "was/had" in descriptive clauses
פֻּם (pum)	H6433	2x (25%)	"mouth" speaking great things (Dan 7:8, 20)
עַיִן (ʻayin)	H5870	2x (25%)	"eyes" of the horn — paired with speech (Dan 7:8, 20)
מֶלֶךְ (melek)	H4430	2x (25%)	royal context — king's gifts (Dan 2:48), kings represented by beasts (Dan 7:17)

Word Family / Cognates¶

H7229 רַב (rab) — Aramaic base form: "great, chief, captain" (from which rabrab is reduplicated); 15 verses in Daniel/Ezra
H7227 רַב (rab) — Hebrew cognate: "abundant, many, great"; 102 unique verses across the OT
H7230 רֹב (rob) — Hebrew noun: "multitude, abundance, greatness"
H7231 רָבַב (rabab) — Hebrew verb: "to be or become many/great"

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared KJV Translation	Key Difference
גָּדוֹל (gâdôwl)	H1419	"great" (330v)	Standard Hebrew adjective for "great" across the OT; rabrab is Aramaic-only, reduplicated, and carries a superlative/intensive force
רַב (rab)	H7227	"great" (102v)	Hebrew base form covering quantity and rank; rabrab is its Aramaic reduplicated intensification — "exceedingly great"
רַב (rab)	H7229	"great" (15v)	Aramaic base form; rabrab adds emphatic reduplication conveying exceptional or domineering quality
μέγας (mégas)	G3173	"great" (80v)	Standard Greek adjective for "great" in NT; LXX renders all 8 rabrab occurrences as mégas

Semantic Domains¶

No semantic-domain data returned by search_relationships.py for this Aramaic lemma.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
μέγας (mégas)	G3173	8	5.35	Universal rendering — all 8 occurrences mapped to mégas
κέρας (kéras)	G2768	4	7.30	Co-occurs in Dan 7 horn context; not a rendering of rabrab itself
θηρίον (thēríon)	G2342	4	6.78	Co-occurs in Dan 7 beast context; not a rendering of rabrab itself

The LXX uniformly renders rabrab as μέγας (mégas). The other co-occurrences reflect the shared Daniel 7 context (horns, beasts) rather than direct translation equivalence.