חׇרְבָּה

Leviticus 26:31 חָרְבָּ֔ה a waste place

I will reduce your cities to rubble and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will refuse to smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices.

Here: "A ruin": a heap of rubble, a site left dry and empty. It comes from the root ḥrb, "be dry, laid waste", which sounds like ḥereb, "sword", the weapon God threatens to bring in vv. 25 and 33.

Leviticus 26:33 חָרְבָּֽה׃ a waste place

But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

Here: A ruin: rubble and dried-up, abandoned ground. It is the last word of the verse and echoes ḥereb, "sword". The sword leaves ruins behind it.

Ezra 9:9 חָרְבֹתָ֔יו ruins its

Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but He has extended to us grace in the sight of the kings of Persia, giving us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and giving us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.

Here: 'Its ruins': the wreckage the Babylonians left in 586 BC. The prophets used the same word for Jerusalem's ruins that would one day be rebuilt (Isa 44:26; 61:4).

Job 3:14 חֳרָב֣וֹת ruins

with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves cities now in ruins,

Psalm 9:6 חֳרָב֗וֹת ruins

The enemy has come to eternal ruin, and You have uprooted their cities; the very memory of them has vanished.

Here: The rubble of a razed settlement, or a place laid waste. It describes how the enemy ends ("finished, as ruins"), and it looks ahead to the destroyed cities in the next clause.

Psalm 102:6 חֳרָבֽוֹת׃ [the] waste places

I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.

Psalm 109:10 מֵחָרְבוֹתֵיהֶֽם׃ away from ruins their

May his children wander as beggars, seeking sustenance far from their ruined homes.

Isaiah 5:17 וְחָרְב֥וֹת and [the] ruins of

Lambs will graze as in their own pastures, and strangers will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.

Here: Places that have been laid waste: ruined buildings and abandoned sites. It looks back to verse 9, where the 'great and fine' houses are left without anyone living in them.

Isaiah 44:26 וְחָרְבוֹתֶ֖יהָ and ruins its

who confirms the message of His servant and fulfills the counsel of His messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt, and I will restore their ruins,’

Here: "And her ruins": places laid waste, rubble heaps. "Her" is singular (Judah or Jerusalem as one land). The word sounds like "Be dry!" (ḥorābî) in the next verse, which comes from the same root.

Isaiah 48:21 בָּחֳרָבוֹת֙ [when] in [the] waste places

They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He made water flow for them from the rock; He split the rock, and water gushed out.

Here: 'In the dried-out, desolate places.' The word comes from a root meaning 'be dry' or 'be laid waste', and elsewhere in Isaiah it usually means ruins, especially Jerusalem's ruins. Here it is the bare, parched land the people crossed.

Isaiah 49:19 חָרְבֹתַ֙יִךְ֙ waste places your

For your ruined and desolate places and your ravaged land will now indeed be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.

Here: 'Your ruins': the burnt-out, collapsed buildings and towns of a conquered city. The ending '-ayikh' is feminine 'your': Zion is spoken to as a woman, and the ruins are hers.

Isaiah 51:3 חָרְבֹתֶ֔יהָ waste places its

For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.

Here: Places destroyed and left empty: the wrecked houses, walls and temple of Jerusalem after the Babylonian conquest. "Her" keeps the personified woman in view.

Isaiah 52:9 חָרְב֖וֹת O waste places of

Break forth in joy, sing together, O ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.

Here: 'Ruins of' (the form links it to the next word). These are the burned and broken remains of Jerusalem after Babylon destroyed it, and they are spoken to as if they could sing. The same ruins were promised comfort in 51:3.

Isaiah 58:12 חָרְב֣וֹת [the] ruins of

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.

Here: Places laid waste: rubble where towns and houses used to be. For this audience the word called up Jerusalem and the towns of Judah destroyed by Babylon.

Isaiah 61:4 חָרְב֣וֹת [the] ruins of

They will rebuild the ancient ruins; they will restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.

Here: Places that once had people in them and now lie broken and empty: rubble where there used to be towns and houses. The plural suggests ruins across the whole land, not one site.

Isaiah 64:11 לְחָרְבָּֽה׃ <into> a ruin

Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

Here: A ruined, laid-waste site. The word is used in the covenant curse of Leviticus 26:31 ("I will make your cities a ruin"). In Isaiah it is also the word God promises to rebuild (51:3; 52:9; 58:12; 61:4).

Jeremiah 7:34 לְחָרְבָּ֖ה <into> a desolation

I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”

Here: 'Into a ruin.' A chorbah is a ruined site: broken walls, rubble, an abandoned settlement. The root also has the idea of being dried up and laid waste.

Jeremiah 22:5 לְחָרְבָּ֥ה <into> a ruin

But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by Myself, declares the LORD, that this house will become a pile of rubble.’”

Here: 'Into a ruin.' The word means a place laid waste: rubble, empty and uninhabited. It comes first in its clause, so the stress falls on what the house will become.

Jeremiah 25:9 וּלְחָרְב֖וֹת and into ruins of

behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.

Here: 'And for ruins of': plural, many sites in ruins, dried up and deserted.

Jeremiah 25:11 לְחָרְבָּ֖ה <into> a desolation

And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

Here: 'Into a ruin'. The picture is towns knocked down, dried out and left empty. The word belongs to the same family as words for drought and the sword.

Jeremiah 25:18 לְחָרְבָּ֧ה into a ruin

to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials;

Here: A ruin or wasteland, a place left dried up and empty of people. It is the physical result: walls down and houses empty.

Jeremiah 27:17 חָרְבָּֽה׃ a ruin

Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live! Why should this city become a ruin?

Here: A dried-out, empty heap of ruins. It's one of Jeremiah's key words for what the covenant curses would do to Judah, and here it's the last word of the verse.

Jeremiah 44:2 חָרְבָּה֙ [are] a ruin

“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the disaster that I brought against Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, they lie today in ruins and desolation

Here: 'A ruin': a dried-out wreck where a town used to be. It is a common term in the covenant curses and in prophetic threats.

Jeremiah 44:6 לְחָרְבָּ֥ה <into> a ruin

Therefore My wrath and anger poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so that they have become the desolate ruin they are today.

Here: 'Into a ruin.' It is related to a root meaning 'dry up' or 'lie waste.' It describes rubble and abandoned sites: a physical state of the land.

Jeremiah 44:22 לְחָרְבָּ֨ה <into> a desolation

So the LORD could no longer endure the evil deeds and detestable acts you committed, and your land became a desolation, a horror, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as it is this day.

Here: 'Into a ruin.' The root has to do with drying up and laying waste: burned cities, empty sites. It picks up 44:2 and 44:6, where Judah's cities are already 'a ruin, as at this day.'

Jeremiah 49:13 לְחָרְב֥וֹת <into> ruins of

For by Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that Bozrah will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and a curse, and all her cities will be in ruins forever.”

Here: Heaps of ruins. It comes from the same root as "waste" (chorev) earlier in the verse and gives the image a lasting form.

Ezekiel 5:14 לְחָרְבָּ֣ה into a ruin

I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

Ezekiel 13:4 בָּחֳרָב֑וֹת among ruins

Your prophets, O Israel, are like foxes among the ruins.

Ezekiel 25:13 חָרְבָּה֙ a desolation

therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off from it both man and beast. I will make it a wasteland, and from Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword.

Here: A ruined, deserted place where people once lived: abandoned towns and dead fields. It sounds like ḥereb, 'sword', at the end of the verse.

Ezekiel 26:20 כָּחֳרָב֤וֹת like waste places

then I will bring you down with those who descend to the Pit, to the people of antiquity. I will make you dwell in the earth below like the ancient ruins, with those who descend to the Pit, so that you will no longer be inhabited or set in splendor in the land of the living.

Here: 'Like ruins', the heaps of dead cities. Tyre will lie below like the abandoned ruin-mounds of ancient cities that everyone in the region could see.

Ezekiel 29:9 וְחָרְבָּ֔ה and a ruin

The land of Egypt will become a desolate wasteland. Then they will know that I am the LORD. Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine; I made it,’

Ezekiel 29:10 לְחָרְבוֹת֙ <into> ruins of

therefore I am against you and against your rivers. I will turn the land of Egypt into a ruin, a desolate wasteland from Migdol to Syene, and as far as the border of Cush.

Here: 'Into ruins of…' The plural points to many ruined sites: abandoned towns and broken buildings.

Ezekiel 33:24 הֶחֳרָב֨וֹת the waste places

“Son of man, those living in the ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as a possession.’

Here: Wrecked, depopulated sites, places dried up and laid waste. It is an ironic detail: the people claiming the whole promised land are living among its rubble.

Ezekiel 33:27 בֶּֽחֳרָבוֹת֙ [are] in the waste places

Tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘As surely as I live, those in the ruins will fall by the sword, those in the open field I will give to be devoured by wild animals, and those in the strongholds and caves will die by plague.

Ezekiel 35:4 חָרְבָּ֣ה a ruin

I will turn your cities into ruins, and you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 36:4 וְלֶחֳרָב֤וֹת and to the waste places

therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have become a spoil and a mockery to the rest of the nations around you.

Here: Places laid waste: the ruins of houses and settlements. This begins the third pair, which moves from natural landscape to wrecked human habitation.

Ezekiel 36:10 וְהֶחֳרָב֖וֹת and the waste places

I will multiply the people upon you—the house of Israel in its entirety. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.

Here: Places that have been laid waste and dried up: rubble, abandoned sites. The same word as the covenant curse 'your cities shall be a waste' (Lev 26:31, 33) and the 'desolate wastes' of 36:4.

Ezekiel 36:33 הֶחֳרָבֽוֹת׃ the waste places

This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be resettled and the ruins to be rebuilt.

Here: 'The ruins': dry, emptied sites of destruction. This is the curse word of Leviticus 26:31, 33 ('I will make your cities a ruin'), and here it is reversed. It is the same word Ezekiel used in 33:24 for the 'ruins' where survivors were squatting.

Ezekiel 38:8 לְחָרְבָּ֖ה <into> a desolation

After a long time you will be summoned. In the latter years you will enter a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and all now dwell securely.

Here: 'For a ruin': a wasted, depopulated place. Ezekiel uses this word for the land after Babylon's conquest (e.g. 33:24, 27; 36:4, 10). It sounds like 'sword' (cherev) just before it, a sound-play of cause and effect.

Ezekiel 38:12 חֳרָב֣וֹת waste places

in order to seize the spoil and carry off the plunder, to turn a hand against the desolate places now inhabited and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and possessions and who live at the center of the land.’

Daniel 9:2 לְחָרְב֥וֹת to [the] ruins of

in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.

Here: Plural, 'the ruins': Jerusalem's broken walls, burned houses and destroyed temple. This is the word Jeremiah used when he threatened the land with becoming 'ruins' (Jer 25:9, 11, 18).

Malachi 1:4 חֳרָב֔וֹת [the] ruins

Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people with whom the LORD is indignant forever.

Here: Ruined, dried-out, deserted sites. It is the same word used of Jerusalem's ruins in the exile prophecies (Isa 44:26; 58:12), so Edom hopes for the kind of restoration Judah received.