H7458 — רָעָב (raab)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H7458
Original: רָעָב
Transliteration: raab
Pronunciation: raw-awb
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: רָעֵב (raeb, H7456) — primitive root: to hunger
Occurrences: 88 unique verses (110 tokens) across 17 books
First Occurrence: Gen 12:10 — "And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land."
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From H7456; hunger (more or less extensive): dearth, famine, famished, hunger.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
famine (various constructions)	72	82%
dearth / a dearth	4	5%
hunger / with hunger / for hunger	7	8%
famished	1	1%
Other (untranslated as part of phrase)	4	5%

Note: "famine" in all its prepositional forms (the famine, by the famine, of famine, a famine, etc.) is overwhelmingly dominant, used in 82% of occurrences.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Jeremiah	30	2.2
Lamentations	3	1.9
Genesis	17	1.1
Ezekiel	12	0.9
2 Kings	5	0.7
Amos	1	0.7
Nehemiah	2	0.5
2 Chronicles	3	0.4
2 Samuel	2	0.3
1 Kings	2	0.2
Deuteronomy	2	0.2
Isaiah	3	0.2
Psalms	2	0.1
1 Chronicles	1	0.1
Exodus	1	0.1
Job	1	0.1
Ruth	1	—

Jeremiah dominates with 30 of 88 verses (34%), followed by Genesis (19%) and Ezekiel (14%). The word clusters heavily in prophetic judgment literature — Jeremiah and Ezekiel alone account for nearly half of all occurrences. The Pentateuch uses it primarily in narrative contexts (patriarchal stories, covenant curses). Notably absent from the Minor Prophets except Amos 8:11.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Historical Famine as Narrative Driver¶

Gen 12:10 — "And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there"
Gen 26:1 — "And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham"
Gen 41:30 — "And there shall arise after them seven years of famine"
Ruth 1:1 — "there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of Moab"

2. Covenant Curse / Divine Judgment¶

Deut 28:48 — "Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst"
Deut 32:24 — "They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat"
Eze 5:16 — "When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction"
Eze 14:21 — "How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence"

3. The Sword-Famine-Pestilence Triad (Prophetic Formula)¶

Jer 14:12 — "I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence"
Jer 21:9 — "He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence"
Eze 5:12 — "A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword"
Eze 6:12 — "He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine"

4. Severity and Total Devastation¶

Gen 41:31 — "the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous"
Gen 43:1 — "And the famine was sore in the land"
2 Ki 6:25 — "And there was a great famine in Samaria"
Jer 52:6 — "the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land"
Lam 5:10 — "Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine"

5. Divine Providence Against Famine¶

Gen 41:36 — "And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine"
Psa 33:19 — "To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine"
Job 5:20 — "In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword"
Eze 34:29 — "they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land"
Eze 36:30 — "ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen"

6. Famine as Metaphor¶

Amo 8:11 — "I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD"
Isa 5:13 — "Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
חֶרֶב (chereb)	H2719	40x (45%)	"sword and famine" — paired as two modes of divine judgment
אֶרֶץ (erets)	H776	38x (43%)	"famine in the land" — famine operates on a national/territorial scale
דֶּבֶר (deber)	H1698	27x (31%)	"sword, famine, pestilence" — the threefold judgment triad
מוּת (muwth)	H4191	18x (20%)	"shall die by the famine" — famine as cause of death
מִצְרַיִם (Mitsrayim)	H4714	14x (16%)	Egypt as famine refuge (Genesis) or judgment locale (Jeremiah)
לֶחֶם (lechem)	H3899	11x (12%)	"no bread" — famine defined by absence of bread
שָׁנֶה (shaneh)	H8141	11x (12%)	"years of famine" — famine measured in years
רַע (ra)	H7451	10x (11%)	"evil arrows of famine" — famine as moral evil sent by God

Word Family / Cognates¶

H7456 רָעֵב (raeb) — root verb: to hunger, to famish (13 verses)
H7457 רָעֵב (raeb) — adjective: hungry, hunger-bitten (20 verses)
H7459 רְעָבוֹן (reabown) — noun: famine (3 verses — rare synonym)

Synonyms¶

No direct synonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for H7458.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for H7458.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
רְעָבוֹן (reabown)	H7459	"famine"	Rare synonym (3x only); same root, same meaning, much less common
λιμός (limos)	G3042	"famine, dearth, hunger"	Greek NT equivalent; covers both famine and personal hunger

UBS Semantic Domains¶

Code	Domain Label	Notes
002004001001002	Hunger	The relationship tool keeps raab squarely in the hunger/famine field, matching its highly stable KJV translation profile.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occurrences	PMI Score	Notes
λιμός (limos) G3042	83x	35.26	Primary equivalent — near-exclusive mapping
θάνατος (thanatos) G2288	25x	15.73	Contextual — appears in same judgment passages
μάχαιρα (machaira) G3162	20x	15.43	Contextual — co-occurring "sword" in triad passages
ῥομφαία (rhomphaia) G4501	18x	13.90	Contextual — alternate "sword" in triad passages

The LXX maps raab almost exclusively to limos (G3042), with 83 of 88 OT verses using this Greek word. The high PMI score (35.26) confirms a near-univocal translation relationship.