רָבַב
ra.vav
to multiply
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analytical Synthesis of H7231 (רָבַב - ravav) The Hebrew word *ravav* carries the basic meaning "to multiply," indicating an increase in quantity or number. With 21 occurrences across the biblical text, this verb represents a standard way to express growth and proliferation in ancient Hebrew. The verb functions as a straightforward descriptive term for processes of numerical expansion without inherent moral connotation—it simply denotes becoming more numerous or greater in amount. The relatively modest frequency of *ravav* (21 occurrences) suggests it represents one option among several Hebrew terms for expressing multiplication or increase, likely chosen in specific contexts where its particular nuance or sound was preferred by the biblical authors. While we cannot determine from this data alone precisely which contexts favor *ravav* over related terms, its presence across the biblical corpus indicates it was a functional part of Hebrew vocabulary for describing growth phenomena—whether of populations, possessions, or other countable quantities that the biblical writers needed to reference.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
21 total occurrences across the text
If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
Psalms 3:1Yahweh, how my adversaries have increased! Many are those who rise up against me.
Psalms 4:7You have put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and their new wine are increased.
Psalms 25:19Consider my enemies, for they are many. They hate me with cruel hatred.
Psalms 38:19But my enemies are vigorous and many. Those who hate me without reason are numerous.
Psalms 69:4Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.
Psalms 104:24Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
Psalms 144:13Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision. Our sheep produce thousands and ten thousands in our fields.
Ecclesiastes 5:11When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes?
Isaiah 6:12and Yahweh has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many within the land.
Isaiah 22:9You saw the breaches of David’s city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
Isaiah 59:12For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:
Isaiah 66:16For Yahweh will execute judgment by fire and by his sword on all flesh; and those slain by Yahweh will be many.
Jeremiah 5:6Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.
Jeremiah 14:7Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, Yahweh; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you.
Jeremiah 46:23They will cut down her forest,” says Yahweh, “though it can’t be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable.
Genesis 6:1When men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
Genesis 18:20Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,
Exodus 23:29I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you.
Deuteronomy 7:7Yahweh didn’t set his love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples;
1 Samuel 25:10Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants who break away from their masters these days.