Hebrew word · H1455
גָּהָה
yigheh
to cure
To cure or heal away, so that something is removed. This is the only place the verb occurs in the Hebrew Bible. The related noun gehah means "remedy, medicine" (Proverbs 17:22, "a joyful heart is good medicine").
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) (Qal) to depart
1a) to be cured, healed (meton)
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
To cure or heal away, so that something is removed. This is the only place the verb occurs in the Hebrew Bible. The related noun gehah means "remedy, medicine" (Proverbs 17:22, "a joyful heart is good medicine").
- Against the English
KJV "cure you of" and BSB "heal" both fit. YLT's "remove from you a scar" brings out the sense of taking away, though "scar" is too mild. The point is a sore that is still open.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The meaning comes from the noun in Proverbs and from related words in other Semitic languages, as discussed in HALOT. Ancient translations render it as healing or removing.
Where it appears
Hosea · 1
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Hosea 5:13 יִגְהֶ֥ה it will depart
When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.
Here: A rare verb, used only here. It is related to the noun for "medicine" in Proverbs 17:22. It means to cure something away. Either "he will not cure the sore from you" or "the sore will not leave you."
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.