H2026 — הָרַג (hârag)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H2026
Original: הָרַג
Transliteration: hârag
Pronunciation: haw-rag'
Part of Speech: Verb (primitive root)
Occurrences: 158 unique verses (181 tokens) across 27 books
First Occurrence: Gen 4:8 — "Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew (harag) him"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

A primitive root; to smite with deadly intent. KJV translations: destroy, out of hand, kill, murder(-er), put to (death), make (slaughter), slay(-er), surely. The core notion is intentional, lethal violence against a person (occasionally a beast) — a broader "put to death by violence" rather than the sacral slaughter of H7819 (shachat) or the neutral striking of H5221 (nakah).

Verb Stem Distribution¶

Stem	Count	Sense
Qal	162	active killing — "he slew"
Niphal	3	passive — "be killed / be slain" (Eze 26:6, 26:15; Lam 2:20)
Pual	2	intensive passive — "be utterly slain" (Ps 44:22; Isa 27:7)

The verb is overwhelmingly Qal active; roughly 3% of occurrences are passive, always describing victims in prophetic lament or judgment contexts. Related noun forms הֶרֶג (hereg, "slaughter") and הֲרֵגָה (haregah, "slaughter") appear alongside in Isa 27:7, 30:25, Jer 7:32, 12:3, 19:6, Zech 11:4, 7, Prov 24:11, Ezek 26:15, Esth 9:5 — often in contexts of divinely-sanctioned or judgment-day slaying.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation Family	Approx. Verses	%
slew / slain / slay / slayeth / slaying	~110	70%
kill / killeth / killed	~35	22%
murder / murderer	3	2%
destroy / destroyed	2	1%
out of hand	1	<1%
other connective fragments	~7	4%

(Aggregated from 117 distinct translation strings — "slew/slay/slain" dominates; "kill" is a close secondary gloss. KJV rarely uses "murder" for harag.)

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Esther	9	5.4
Amos	4	2.7
Lamentations	4	2.6
Judges	14	2.3
Habakkuk	1	1.8
2 Chronicles	12	1.5
1 Kings	11	1.3
2 Samuel	8	1.2
Genesis	16	1.0
Hosea	2	1.0
Exodus	10	0.8
Ezekiel	10	0.8
2 Kings	5	0.7
Nehemiah	3	0.7
Joshua	4	0.6
Numbers	8	0.6
1 Samuel	5	0.6
Isaiah	8	0.6
Ecclesiastes	1	0.5
Zechariah	1	0.5
Psalms	9	0.4
1 Chronicles	3	0.3
Jeremiah	3	0.2
Leviticus	2	0.2
Job	2	0.2
Proverbs	2	0.2
Deuteronomy	1	0.1

Heaviest concentration: Esther (pogrom/counter-pogrom), Judges (tribal-era violence), and 2 Chronicles (royal assassinations). Harag is the narrative historian's word for killing; it is comparatively rare in legal material (only 1 in Deut, 2 in Lev) and in priestly/sacrificial contexts, where H7819 (shachat) and H5221 (nakah) dominate. Absent from Song of Solomon, Ruth, and most minor prophets outside Amos, Hosea, Habakkuk, Zechariah.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Fratricide / Murder Among Kin¶

The paradigm use — beginning with Cain and recurring in royal successions. - Gen 4:8 — "Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him" - Judg 9:5 — Abimelech "slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal... threescore and ten persons, upon one stone" - 2 Chr 21:4 — Jehoram "slew all his brethren with the sword" - 2 Chr 24:22 — Joash "slew [Zechariah] the son of Jehoiada"

2. Personal Threat / Fear of Being Killed¶

A recurring narrative anxiety — fugitives and weaker parties fearing death. - Gen 12:12 — "they will kill me, but they will save thee alive" - Gen 27:42 — Esau "doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee" - Exod 2:15 — "Pharaoh... sought to slay Moses" - 1 Sam 16:2 — "if Saul hear it, he will kill me"

3. War / Mass Killing in Battle¶

Large-scale slaughter of combatants or conquered populations. - Num 31:7-8 — "they slew all the males... and the kings of Midian" - Josh 8:24 — "Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai" - 2 Sam 10:18 — "David slew of the Syrians seven thousand... men" - 2 Chr 28:6 — "Pekah... slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day"

4. Judicial / Sanctioned Execution¶

Death penalty imposed by law, king, or covenant authority. - Exod 32:27 — "slay every man his brother... his companion... his neighbour" (after golden calf) - Lev 20:15-16 — beast and bestialist "shall slay" - Num 25:5 — "Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor" - Deut 13:9 — "thou shalt surely kill him" (for enticement to idolatry)

5. Divine Slaying / Judgment of God¶

YHWH as subject, or the sword/wrath of YHWH as instrument. - Exod 13:15 — "the LORD slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt" - Ps 78:31 — "the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them" - Ps 135:10 — "smote great nations, and slew mighty kings" - Hos 6:5 — "I have slain them by the words of my mouth" - Lam 2:21, 3:43 — "thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied" - Amos 9:1, 9:4 — "I will slay... the sword shall slay them"

6. Killing of Prophets / Righteous¶

A standing indictment against Israel and its queens/kings. - 1 Sam 22:21 — "Saul had slain the LORD'S priests" - 1 Kgs 18:13 — "Jezebel slew the prophets of the LORD" - 1 Kgs 19:10, 14 — "slain thy prophets with the sword" - Neh 9:26 — "slew thy prophets which testified against them" - 2 Sam 4:11 — "wicked men have slain a righteous person"

7. Figurative / Personified Agent Kills¶

Abstractions — folly, envy, wrath, a harlot — as slayers. - Job 5:2 — "wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one" - Prov 1:32 — "the turning away of the simple shall slay them" - Prov 7:26 — "many strong men have been slain by her" (the strange woman) - Ps 10:8 — "in the secret places doth he murder the innocent"

8. Universal Edict / Genocide¶

Sweeping commands to exterminate a people — Esther's hinge. - Esth 3:13 — "to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews" - Esth 7:4 — "we are sold... to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish" - Esth 8:11 — Jews "to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people" - Esth 9:6, 9:11, 9:12, 9:15, 9:16 — reversal: Jews slay their enemies

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
עַל (ʻal)	H5921	48x (30%)	"slew... upon / against" — location or cause of killing
אָמַר (ʼamar)	H559	45x (28%)	speech act preceding a kill: "he said... and slew"
בֵּן (ben)	H1121	37x (23%)	"sons of" — victims are often named as sons (fratricide/filicide motif)
חֶרֶב (chereb) — sword	H2719	34x (22%)	"slew with the sword" — the primary instrument collocation
לֹא (lo)	H3808	32x (20%)	negated: "kill me not" / "slay not the innocent"
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	31x (20%)	YHWH as agent or the killing is "before the LORD"
אִישׁ (ʼiysh) — man	H376	28x (18%)	"every man slew..." / "the man slew"
יָד (yad) — hand	H3027	23x (15%)	"by the hand of" / "thine hand shall be first upon him"
מֶלֶךְ (melek) — king	H4428	19x (12%)	kings as killers or the killed
מוּת (muth) — to die	H4191	17x (11%)	paired: "to slay / to be put to death"
אָח (ʼach) — brother	H251	16x (10%)	fratricide emphasis (Abel, Abimelech, Jehoram)
בַּיִת (bayith) — house	H1004	15x (9%)	"slew... in his own house" / "the house of Baal"
פָּנִים (panim) — face	H6440	15x (9%)	"before the face of" — killing in presence

The sword (chereb) is the dominant instrument collocation; "brother" and "sons" signal that harag frequently marks kin-violence; paired use with muth (to die) sharpens active-agent vs. resultant-state semantics.

Word Family / Cognates¶

הֶרֶג (hereg) H2027 — noun: slaughter, killing (Isa 27:7; 30:25; Prov 24:11; Ezek 26:15; Esth 9:5)
הֲרֵגָה (haregah) H2028 — noun: slaughter (Jer 7:32, 12:3, 19:6; Zech 11:4, 7)

Synonyms¶

No synonym entries were returned by search_relationships.py for H2026.

Antonyms¶

No antonym entries were returned by search_relationships.py for H2026.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared KJV Translation	Key Difference
נָכָה (nakah)	H5221	"slew," "slain," "smote"	nakah = to strike/smite — outcome may or may not be lethal; covers wounding, defeating, plague-striking. Harag always denotes fatal intent.
מוּת (muth)	H4191	"slay," "die," "put to death"	muth describes the state of dying/being dead (often Hophal/Hiphil = cause to die); harag is the active violent verb — agent-focused.
שָׁחַט (shachat)	H7819	"slay," "slew"	shachat = ritual slaughter (of sacrificial animals, Passover lamb) or ceremonial killing; harag is non-cultic, often unjust or war-related.
חָלַל (chalal)	H2490	"slain" (the noun חָלָל)	chalal = to pierce/profane; its passive participle ("pierced ones") is the standard prophetic term for battlefield corpses. Harag is the live action; chalal is the resulting dead body.
חָרַב (charab)	H2717	"slay," "destroyed"	charab primarily = to dry up / lay waste; rarely used of persons. Harag is person-specific.
טָבַח (tabach)	H2873	"slay"	tabach = to slaughter (animals for meat/banquet, or figuratively of massacre). Domain overlaps with shachat; harag is domain of murder and warfare.
רָצַח (ratsach)	H7523	"murder," "kill" (not shown above but the Decalogue verb)	ratsach is the forensic/legal term for unlawful killing ("thou shalt not kill" — Exod 20:13). Harag is broader and morally neutral at the verb level — context decides legitimacy.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occurrences	PMI	Notes
ἀποκτείνω (apokteinō) — to kill outright	G615	106	6.62	Primary LXX equivalent (~67% of renderings); the dominant NT verb for killing also.
ἀναιρέω (anaireō) — to take away / do away with	G337	20	5.73	Used especially for judicial or violent removal (Acts-style "slain").
ῥομφαία (rhomphaia) — sword	G4501	18	3.86	Instrument co-occurrence (not a verb equivalent — marks "slay with the sword").
μάχαιρα (machaira) — sword	G3162	15	3.79	Instrument co-occurrence.
θανατόω (thanatoō) — put to death	G2289	13	3.84	Secondary verb equivalent.
φονεύω (phoneuō) — murder	G5407	7	4.71	Narrow "murder" rendering; rarer because harag is broader than NT φονεύω.
ἐκκεντέω (ekkenteō) — pierce	G1574	3	6.19	Rare — used when the mode is piercing.

The primary LXX bridge is ἀποκτείνω (G615), with 106 co-occurrences and a strong PMI — the canonical Hebrew→Greek transfer for this lethal-action verb. ἀναιρέω (G337) is the secondary bridge, particularly where removal/execution nuance is present.

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[002001001019] Dead — search_relationships.py places hârag in the death field; neighboring entries returned by the tool include A7 אבד, H6 אבד, H8 אֹבֵד, H12 אַבְדָן, H13 אָבְדָן, and A69 אֶבֶן.