רָבַד
ra.vad
to spread
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# רָבַד (Ravad): "To Spread" The Hebrew word רָבַד (ravad) carries the basic meaning of "to spread," though its presence in biblical Hebrew is remarkably limited. With only a single occurrence in the entire Bible, this verb appears to be either an archaic term that fell out of common usage or a specialized word with a narrow semantic range. The meaning itself is straightforward and concrete—suggesting the action of extending or dispersing something across a surface or area. Given that ravad occurs only once in the biblical corpus, its precise applications and connotations remain difficult to establish with certainty. A single usage provides minimal context for understanding nuances or variations in meaning. However, the core sense of "spreading" aligns with other Hebrew verbs describing spatial extension and distribution. The rarity of this term may indicate that biblical authors preferred other, more common verbs to express similar concepts, or that ravad belonged to a specialized vocabulary that became less frequent as biblical Hebrew evolved. Without additional lexical parallels or multiple textual examples, the full scope of how this verb functioned in ancient Hebrew communication cannot be definitively determined from the evidence available.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
1 total occurrence across the text