חֹ֫רֶב (cho.rev)
cho.rev
drought; desolation
H:N-MQuick Reference
- Language
- Biblical Hebrew
- Testament
- Old Testament
- Occurrences
- 14 verses
- Root
- —
- Part of speech
- H:N-M
Word Overview
The Hebrew noun chorev describes a landscape stripped of life by dryness, covering everything from simple parched earth to total desolation. It appears fourteen times in the Old Testament, with significant usage in Judges and Jeremiah. The word captures the physical reality of drought and the intense heat that follows, but it also carries a heavier theological weight as a symbol of judgment.
In Judges 5:40, Deborah sings of Barak leading his captives "like chorev," evoking an image of enemies fleeing into barren wastelands. This usage highlights the word’s range from a natural weather condition to a state of ruin. Jeremiah frequently employs it to describe the consequences of covenant unfaithfulness, where fertile land becomes a desolate waste due to divine discipline.
The term’s root suggests something broken or split, which aligns with its application to cracked, dry ground. Translators often render it as "drought" or "desolation" depending on the context. When applied to cities or nations, it signifies a complete reversal of blessing, turning abundance into emptiness.
Based on public-domain lexicons (Strong's, Thayer, Gesenius, Brown-Driver-Briggs and others).
What This Word Means for Your Faith
The word chorev paints a stark picture of land stripped bare by dryness. It describes more than just hot weather; it captures a landscape where life has been pulled away, leaving cracked earth and silence behind. In the Old Testament, this term often signals a time when the usual sources of comfort are gone, forcing us to look beyond our immediate surroundings.
When the ground fails, we feel that absence deeply. Haggai records God calling for this drought not as punishment alone, but as a way to show how much people rely on their own labor. The dryness reveals what truly sustains us when the harvest stops coming. It is a moment of clarity, however painful.
Yet even in these barren seasons, there is hope. Isaiah reminds us that God remains a shade from the heat and a refuge from the storm. When everything else dries up, He offers shelter. This word invites us to trust that our strength does not come from fertile soil or full granaries, but from the One who provides even in the wasteland.
How it's translated
How this word is rendered word-by-word in the 14 verses where it appears, by frequency.
- heat3×
- dryness3×
- a drought2×
- to the/ heat1×
- like/ heat1×
- from/ heat1×
- from/ [the] heat1×
- devastation1×
- desolation1×
- <into>/ a desolation1×
Forms in the text
The inflected forms of this word as they appear in Scripture, by frequency.
- חֹ֤רֶב2×
- חֹ֔רֶב2×
- מֵ/חֹ֔רֶב1×
- מֵ/חֹ֑רֶב1×
- לַ/חֹ֥רֶב1×
- לְ/חֹ֥רֶב1×
- כְּ/חֹ֣רֶב1×
- חֹֽרֶב\׃1×
- חֹ֥רֶב1×
- חֹ֣רֶב1×
- חֹ֜רֶב1×
- חֹ֚רֶב1×
Key Verses
-
Haggai 1:11
I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground produces, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands.”
This verse shows the word used to describe a divine restriction on agricultural productivity, highlighting human dependence on God rather than just natural cycles.
-
Isaiah 25:4
For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall.
Here the concept of heat and dryness serves as a backdrop for God’s role as a refuge, contrasting the harsh environment with His protective presence.
-
Jeremiah 50:38
A drought is on her waters, and they will be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.
The term appears here to describe the drying up of waters in Babylon, linking physical desolation directly to the consequences of idolatry.