Hebrew word · H2270

חָבֵר

chaver

companion

Associate, companion, partner, member of a group. It comes from the root ḥ-b-r, 'to join, unite, bind'.

Appears 12 times in 11 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 31, 2026

What it means

adj

1) united

n m

2) associate, fellow, worshippers

3) companion

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: Associate, companion, partner, member of a group. It comes from the root ḥ-b-r, 'to join, unite, bind'. The same root gives words for joining tent-curtains (Exod 26), for alliances, and for 'binding' in a magical sense: the ḥōḇēr ḥāḇer, 'one who binds spells' (Deut 18:11; Ps 58:5), and the ḥăḇārîm, 'spells', of Babylon (Isa 47:9, 12).
Against the English: KJV 'fellows', ESV/NASB/BSB/YLT 'companions', WEB 'fellows'. NIV and NLT drop the word and say who is meant ('people who do that' / 'all who worship idols'), which turns the image into a category. 'Companions' is accurate but can sound cosy. The Hebrew means people joined to someone or something in a shared enterprise.
How it drifted: KJV 'fellows' now sounds like casual 'guys'. In 1611 it meant associates or partners.
Used elsewhere in the period: Ps 119:63 ('a companion of all who fear you'); Isa 1:23 ('companions of thieves'); Hos 4:17 ('Ephraim is joined, ḥăḇûr, to idols'), the closest parallel, where the root describes attachment to idols. Akkadian has a related word, ibru, 'colleague, peer'. In later rabbinic Hebrew a ḥāḇēr was a member of a religious fellowship, but that sense comes centuries after Isaiah.

Range of meaning: Companion, associate, member of a band or alliance, partner. From ḥ-b-r, 'to join, bind together'. It is used for fellow-worshippers (Ps 119:63: 'a companion of all who fear you') and for gangs (Isa 1:23: princes are 'companions of thieves').
Against the English: 'Companion' (KJV, BSB, ESV, NASB) and 'partner' (WEB) both work. NLT's 'no better than' turns the picture of membership into a comparison. That is close in effect but loses the image of belonging to the destroyer's company.
Used elsewhere in the period: Isa 1:23 is the closest parallel: officials who are 'companions of thieves'. The proverbial pattern 'X is brother/companion to Y' places someone in a moral category. Prov 18:9 says the slack worker is 'brother to the master of destruction' (baʿal mašḥît).

Range of meaning: Companion, associate, partner, someone joined to another (from ḥābar, 'to join'). It can refer to fellow members of a group (Judg 20:11), comrades, or allies.
Against the English: KJV/WEB 'fellows' is old-fashioned but accurate. 'Companions' (BSB, ESV, NIV) is clearer. NLT's paraphrase 'more than on anyone else' loses the specific group of peers.
Used elsewhere in the period: The Septuagint renders it metochoi, 'sharers, partners'. Hebrews picks up this word (Heb 1:9; 3:14, 'we have become partakers [metochoi] of Christ').

Judges · 1

Judges 20:11 חֲבֵרִֽים׃ פ united

So all the men of Israel gathered as one man, united against the city.

Psalms · 2

Psalm 45:7 מֵֽחֲבֵרֶֽיךָ׃ more than companions your

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you above your companions with the oil of joy.

Here: 'Beyond your companions.' The prefix min- here means 'more than' or 'above'. The companions are the king's peers, courtiers, or the groom's party. He is honoured above all of them.
Psalm 119:63 חָבֵ֣ר [am] a companion

I am a friend to all who fear You, and to those who keep Your precepts.

Here: From a root meaning 'to join, unite'. A ḥāvēr is someone joined to others, a member of the same company or a partner. It comes first in the Hebrew for emphasis: 'A companion, that is what I am.' It also opens the line with the letter ḥeth, the letter this stanza of the alphabet poem runs on.

Proverbs · 1

Proverbs 28:24 חָבֵ֥ר [is] a companion

He who robs his father or mother, saying, “It is not wrong,” is a companion to the man who destroys.

Here: From a root meaning 'to join'. He belongs to the same company, the same league. The proverb puts him in a class: he is one of them.

Ecclesiastes · 1

Ecclesiastes 4:10 חֲבֵר֑וֹ companion his

For if one falls down, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to help him up!

Song of Songs · 2

Song of Songs 1:7 חֲבֵרֶֽיךָ׃ companions your

Tell me, O one I love, where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest them at midday? Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your companions?

Here: 'Your companions': his fellow shepherds, men joined to him in work. To her they are the watching, possibly leering, public she would have to pass through while searching for him.
Song of Songs 8:13 חֲבֵרִ֛ים companions

You who dwell in the gardens, my companions are listening for your voice. Let me hear it!

Isaiah · 2

Isaiah 1:23 וְחַבְרֵי֙ and companions of

Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.

Here: 'And partners of.' Chaver means someone joined to you, an associate or ally. The officials are not just soft on crime. They are in league with it.
Isaiah 44:11 חֲבֵרָיו֙ companions his

Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are only human. Let them all assemble and take their stand; they will all be brought to terror and shame.

Here: 'His associates': the people tied to the idol-maker of v. 10, or to the idol itself. That means fellow craftsmen and the devotees who join themselves to it. The root means 'to join' or 'bind', so these are people bound up with the idol, not just casual friends.

Ezekiel · 3

Ezekiel 37:16 חֲבֵרָ֑יו חֲבֵרָֽיו׃ associates its

“And you, son of man, take a single stick and write on it: ‘Belonging to Judah and to the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another stick and write on it: ‘Belonging to Joseph—the stick of Ephraim—and to all the house of Israel associated with him.’

Here: 'His associates': tribes allied to and grouped under Judah. The root means 'to join', which fits a sign about joining two things into one.
Ezekiel 37:19 חֲבֵרָ֑יו associates its

you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will put them together with the stick of Judah. I will make them into a single stick, and they will become one in My hand.’

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.