גָּרַס

# Gāras (גָּרַס): A Rare Hebrew Verb for Breaking The Hebrew verb *gāras* carries the fundamental meaning "to break," though its precise application remains somewhat limited in the biblical record. With only two documented occurrences in the Hebrew Bible, this word represents a relatively uncommon term in the lexical landscape, suggesting it may have had either a specialized or archaic usage pattern in biblical Hebrew. The rarity of *gāras* in the biblical text makes it difficult to establish a detailed semantic range or to distinguish subtle variations in how the concept of "breaking" might have been applied differently from more common synonyms. The lemma's restricted usage indicates that biblical writers had other, apparently more frequent options available for expressing the idea of breaking or fracturing. This scarcity raises questions about whether *gāras* carried particular connotations—perhaps referring to breaking in a specific context or manner—that distinguished it from competing vocabulary, though the provided data cannot definitively answer such questions. For readers encountering this term, it serves as a reminder that understanding biblical Hebrew requires attention to vocabulary frequency. The appearance of uncommon terms often signals either specialized meaning or formulaic language use, and the context of each individual occurrence becomes correspondingly more significant for interpretation.