Hebrew word · H2579

חֲמַת רַבָּה

rabah

Hamath the great

'Hamath the Great': the city and kingdom of Hamath on the Orontes (modern Hama, Syria). The title 'the Great' marks its size and status.

Appears 2 times in 1 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Hamath-Rabbah = "enclosure of wrath-populous"

a town ; maybe same as 'Hammath'

Another name of cha.mat (חֲמָת "Hamath" H2574G)

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

From the study of Amos 6:2

Range of meaning

'Hamath the Great': the city and kingdom of Hamath on the Orontes (modern Hama, Syria). The title 'the Great' marks its size and status.

Against the English

Versions vary between 'Hamath the great' (KJV, WEB) and 'the great Hamath' (BSB). NIV and NLT read 'the great city of Hamath' or similar. These differences are only matters of style.

Used elsewhere in the period

Hamath was a major north-Syrian power. It joined the anti-Assyrian coalition at Qarqar (853 BC) and was later taken over by Tiglath-pileser III (738 BC) and finally destroyed by Sargon II (720 BC). Israelite tradition used 'Lebo-Hamath' (the entrance of Hamath) as the ideal northern limit of the land (Numbers 34:8). 2 Kings 14:28 says Jeroboam II recovered Damascus and Hamath for Israel.

Where it appears

Amos · 2

  1. Amos 6:2 חֲמַ֣ת רַבָּ֑ה Hamath-, Rabbah

    Cross over to Calneh and see; go from there to the great Hamath; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours?

    Here: Hamath (modern Hama) on the Orontes River in Syria, a major Aramean-Luwian kingdom. It was the traditional northern horizon of Israel's ideal border ('Lebo-Hamath').

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