H7495 — רָפָא (rapha)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H7495
Original: רָפָא
Transliteration: rapha (râphâʼ)
Pronunciation: raw-faw
Part of Speech: Verb (primitive root)
Root: Primitive root; properly "to mend (by stitching)"
Occurrences: 62 unique verses (74 tokens) across 18 books
First Occurrence: Gen 20:17 — "So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

Or רָפָה (râphâh); a primitive root; properly, to mend (by stitching), i.e. (figuratively) to cure: — cure, (cause to) heal, physician, repair, thoroughly, make whole.

Verb Stem Distribution¶

Stem	Count	Typical Meaning
Qal	38	heal, cure; participle = physician
Niphal	16	be healed, be cured (passive)
Piel	8	repair, heal thoroughly (intensive)
Hithpael	3	get oneself healed, seek healing (reflexive)

Qal dominates (58%) and covers the full semantic range: God as active healer (Gen 20:17, 2Ki 20:5), participle ropheʼ as "physician" (Gen 50:2, Jer 8:22), and general healing action. Niphal (25%) is the passive "be healed" — used for physical skin conditions (Lev 13–14), incurable wounds (Deut 28:27, 35), and the prophetic declaration of Isa 53:5. Piel (12%) carries intensive force: Elijah repairing the altar (1Ki 18:30), Elisha healing the waters (2Ki 2:21), and false prophets superficially healing the people's hurt (Jer 6:14, 8:11). Hithpael (5%) appears only for kings going to be healed of battle wounds (2Ki 8:29, 9:15; 2Ch 22:6).

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
heal / healed / healeth / healed them	47	76%
physician(s)	4	6%
be healed / to be healed	4	6%
make whole	2	3%
cure / cured	2	3%
repaired	1	2%
thoroughly	1	2%
Other	1	2%

The KJV translation is remarkably uniform: ~76% render some form of "heal." The participial use as "physician" accounts for another 6%.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Hosea	5	2.5
Jeremiah	11	0.8
2 Kings	6	0.8
Lamentations	1	0.6
Leviticus	4	0.5
Zechariah	1	0.5
2 Chronicles	4	0.5
Ecclesiastes	1	0.5
Isaiah	6	0.5
Deuteronomy	3	0.3
Ezekiel	4	0.3
Psalms	7	0.3
Exodus	2	0.2
Job	2	0.2
Genesis	2	0.1
Numbers	1	0.1
1 Samuel	1	0.1
1 Kings	1	0.1

Heaviest concentration in the prophets: Jeremiah (11x), Psalms (7x), Isaiah (6x), 2 Kings (6x), and Hosea (5x). Hosea has the highest density (2.5 per 100 verses). Absent from Pentateuch wisdom literature (Proverbs) and post-exilic books except Chronicles. The prophetic dominance reflects the metaphorical extension of healing to national/spiritual restoration.

Semantic Categories¶

1. God as Healer of Physical Disease¶

Gen 20:17 — "Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife"
Num 12:13 — "And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee" (Miriam's leprosy)
2Ki 20:5 — "I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD"
Psa 103:3 — "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases"

2. Physical Healing of Skin/Bodily Conditions (Passive)¶

Lev 13:18 — "The flesh also, in which... was a boil, and is healed"
Lev 13:37 — "the scall is healed... he is clean"
Lev 14:3 — "if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper"
Deut 28:27 — "The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt... whereof thou canst not be healed"

3. National/Spiritual Healing — God Restoring His People¶

2Ch 7:14 — "If my people... shall humble themselves, and pray... then will I hear from heaven, and will... heal their land"
Hos 6:1 — "Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us"
Hos 14:4 — "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely"
Jer 3:22 — "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings"
Jer 33:6 — "I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth"

4. Healing through Suffering / Vicarious Healing¶

Isa 53:5 — "the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Niphal)
Isa 30:26 — "the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound"
Psa 107:20 — "He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions"

5. Healing of Soul / Inner Life¶

Psa 41:4 — "I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee"
Psa 6:2 — "O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed"
Psa 147:3 — "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds"

6. Failed or Superficial Healing¶

Jer 6:14 — "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace"
Jer 8:22 — "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?"
Jer 51:9 — "We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed"
Hos 5:13 — "When Ephraim saw his sickness... then went Ephraim to the Assyrian... yet could he not cure you, nor heal you of your wound"

7. Physical Repair (Non-bodily)¶

1Ki 18:30 — "And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down" (Piel)
2Ki 2:21–22 — "I have healed these waters... So the waters were healed"
Eze 47:8–9 — "these waters... go down into the desert, and go into the sea... the waters shall be healed"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
יְהוָֹה (YHWH)	H3068	21x (34%)	God as subject/source of healing — "the LORD... healed"
שׁוּב (shuwb)	H7725	12x (19%)	"return... and I will heal" — repentance-healing pair
אָמַר (ʼamar)	H559	14x (23%)	prophetic/divine speech introducing healing promise
עַם (ʻam)	H5971	10x (16%)	"heal the people / land" — national healing objects
רָאָה (raʼah)	H7200	9x (15%)	"see the sickness" then seek healing
נָכָה (nakah)	H5221	7x (11%)	wound-heal antithesis: "smite... and heal"
מַכָּה (makkah)	H4347	6x (10%)	"wound/plague" as the object requiring healing
חָבַשׁ (chabash)	H2280	5x (8%)	"bind up" as companion act to healing
שָׁבַר (shabar)	H7665	5x (8%)	"break/breach" as condition needing healing
מַיִם (mayim)	H4325	5x (8%)	water-healing contexts (2Ki 2:21–22, Eze 47)

The YHWH collocation at 34% confirms that rapha is overwhelmingly a divine prerogative. The shuwb pairing (19%) creates the prophetic formula: repentance precedes healing. The nakah-rapha antithesis ("smite and heal") appears in the divine sovereignty formula of Deut 32:39 and Isa 19:22.

Synonyms¶

H2280 חָבַשׁ (chabash) — bind up, bandage; physical treatment accompanying healing
H2421 חָיָה (chayah) — live, revive; restore life that was ebbing (broader than rapha's specific cure)

Antonyms¶

H3510 כָּאַב (kaʼab) — be in pain, be sorrowful
H4272 מָחַץ (machats) — smite through, wound severely
H5062 נָגַף (nagaph) — smite, strike, plague

Word Family / Cognates¶

H7499 רְפֻאָה (rephuʼah) — healing, remedy, medicine (feminine noun; passive participle form)
H4832 מַרְפֵּא (marpeʼ) — healing, cure, health, remedy (masculine noun from same root; 16v across Proverbs, Jeremiah, Chronicles, Malachi)

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
θεραπεύω (therapeuo)	G2323	"heal" in NT	therapeuo = attend/serve/cure (includes medical treatment process); rapha → LXX iaomai (instantaneous divine cure)
ἰάομαι (iaomai)	G2390	"heal/be healed"	iaomai is the primary LXX translation of rapha; closer semantic match than therapeuo
חָיָה (chayah)	H2421	"make whole"	chayah = restore/preserve life broadly; rapha = cure specific disease or wound
H7503 רָפָה (raphah)	H7503	visually similar root	raphah = be slack, let go, forsake — completely different meaning despite similar consonants

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occurrences	PMI Score	Notes
ἰάομαι (iaomai) G2390	45	8.30	Primary equivalent — overwhelming dominance
πληγή (plege) G4127	7	5.28	"wound/plague" — from contexts where rapha appears alongside wounds
σύντριμμα (syntrimma) G4938	5	6.00	"fracture/ruin" — contextual co-occurrence
ἰατρός (iatros) G2395	3	7.54	"physician" — translates Qal participle

The G2390 iaomai mapping at 45 co-occurrences is one of the strongest Hebrew-Greek alignments in the LXX. This is a near one-to-one equivalence: rapha → iaomai.