הָרָה
ha.rah
pregnant
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word הָרָה (ha-rah): "Pregnant" The Hebrew term הָרָה appears fifteen times in the biblical text with the consistent meaning of "pregnant." As an adjective describing physical condition, it identifies women in the state of carrying an unborn child. The word functions as a straightforward descriptor of this biological reality without apparent figurative extensions in its biblical usage. The term's repeated occurrence across the scriptural corpus—appearing in fifteen distinct passages—suggests that pregnancy was a significant enough concept to merit regular mention in biblical narratives and legal contexts. Rather than being relegated to specialized or rare circumstances, הָרָה appears with sufficient frequency to indicate it was a normal part of biblical vocabulary for describing human reproduction. This baseline prevalence indicates that discussions of pregnancy held legitimate importance in biblical writing, whether in accounts of particular women or in broader narrative contexts. Given the limited lexical data provided, הָרָה represents a functional, descriptive term for a specific physiological state rather than a term carrying multiple meanings or theological elaboration. Its definition remains consistent and literal across its biblical appearances, functioning as a simple identifier of pregnancy without the kind of semantic complexity or metaphorical development that characterizes many other Hebrew terms in scripture.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
15 total occurrences across the text
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isaiah 26:17Just as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs, so we have been before you, Yahweh.
Jeremiah 20:17because he didn’t kill me from the womb. So my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.
Jeremiah 31:8Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together. They will return as a great company.
Amos 1:13Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border.
Genesis 16:11Yahweh’s angel said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and will bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because Yahweh has heard your affliction.
Genesis 38:24About three months later, Judah was told, “Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has played the prostitute. Moreover, behold, she is with child by prostitution.” Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.”
Genesis 38:25When she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, “I am with child by the man who owns these.” She also said, “Please discern whose these are—the signet, and the cords, and the staff.”
Exodus 21:22“If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman’s husband demands and the judges allow.
Judges 13:5for, behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son. No razor shall come on his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb. He shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”
Judges 13:7but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink. Don’t eat any unclean thing, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’ ”
1 Samuel 4:19His daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to giving birth. When she heard the news that God’s ark was taken and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and gave birth; for her pains came on her.
2 Samuel 11:5The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”
2 Kings 8:12Hazael said, “Why do you weep, my lord?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash their little ones in pieces, and rip up their pregnant women.”
2 Kings 15:16Then Menahem attacked Tiphsah, and all who were in it, and its border areas, from Tirzah. He attacked it because they didn’t open their gates to him, and he ripped up all their women who were with child.