Hebrew word · H2779

חֹ֫רֶף

vachoref

autumn

The cool, wet half of the agricultural year in the Levant, from roughly October to March. It includes autumn rains and the winter that follows. Often paired with qayiṣ, 'summer/dry season': 'summer and winter' (Gen 8:22; Ps 74:17; Zech 14:8). It also names a 'winter house' (Amos 3:15; Jer 36:22).

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) harvest time, autumn

2) (CLBL) winter

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 Proverbs 20:4

Range of meaning

The cool, wet half of the agricultural year in the Levant, from roughly October to March. It includes autumn rains and the winter that follows. Often paired with qayiṣ, 'summer/dry season': 'summer and winter' (Gen 8:22; Ps 74:17; Zech 14:8). It also names a 'winter house' (Amos 3:15; Jer 36:22). By extension it can mean a person's 'prime' or 'ripe years' (Job 29:4).

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'cold'/'winter' and YLT 'winter' are accurate translations. But English readers picture northern winter: frozen ground and fields resting. BSB 'in season', ESV 'in the autumn' and NASB 'after the autumn' pick out the agricultural timing instead.

How it drifted

In northern Europe and North America, winter is when you cannot plow. In Israel, the start of ḥoref is when you must plow. The summer-baked soil is only workable once the early rains (yoreh) soften it. An English reader can take 'by reason of the cold' as a fair excuse. A Hebrew farmer heard it as a feeble one.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Gezer Calendar, a 10th-century BCE Hebrew inscription, lists the farming year: months of ingathering, then sowing, then late sowing, then later harvests. This confirms that plowing and sowing followed the autumn rains. Biblical uses of ḥoref always mean the cold, rainy season (Gen 8:22; Jer 36:22). The Septuagint translators seem to have read the same consonants as ḥ-r-p 'reproach'.

From the study of Genesis 8:22

Range of meaning

The cool, rainy season, autumn into winter (roughly October to March). BDB gives 'harvest-time, autumn'; HALOT gives 'winter' in the sense of the rainy season. It was the time of ploughing and sowing (Prov 20:4: the sluggard does not plough 'because of ḥōrep'). Also used of a person's 'prime' or 'autumn days' (Job 29:4).

Against the English

'Winter' (KJV, BSB, WEB and most modern versions). The word is fine, but English readers tend to picture a snowy northern winter. The Hebrew season is mainly about rain and ploughing, with cold nights, and it begins in autumn. (The supplied lexicon gloss 'autumn' reflects this.)

How it drifted

English 'winter' was shaped by north-European climates, where it means the dead, frozen season. In the eastern Mediterranean the rainy season was when the land came alive again and crops were sown.

Used elsewhere in the period

Amos 3:15 ('winter house' and 'summer house'); Jer 36:22 (the king in his winter house with a fire burning); Zech 14:8 ('in summer and in winter'); Ps 74:17 ('you made summer and winter'), which also credits the seasons to God.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 8:22 וָחֹ֛רֶף and winter

    As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.”

    Here: The cool, wet half of the year, from autumn through winter, when the rains came and the ground was ploughed (Prov 20:4). Not a snowy northern winter.

Job · 1

  1. Job 29:4 חָרְפִּ֑י prime my

    when I was in my prime, when the friendship of God rested on my tent,

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 74:17 וָ֝חֹ֗רֶף and winter

    You set all the boundaries of the earth; You made the summer and winter.

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 20:4 מֵ֭חֹרֶף from winter

    The slacker does not plow in season; at harvest time he looks, but nothing is there.

    Here: Ḥoref is the cool, rainy half of the year that starts with the autumn rains. This is plowing and sowing season in Israel. The prefix mē- can mean 'because of' (he won't plow because of the cold, wet weather) or mark the time ('in/from autumn'). Either way, the season named is exactly when plowing has to happen.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 36:22 הַחֹ֔רֶף the winter

    Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning before him.

Amos · 1

  1. Amos 3:15 הַחֹ֖רֶף the winter

    I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses of ivory will also perish, and the great houses will come to an end,” declares the LORD.

    Here: The cold, rainy half of the year, roughly autumn to early spring. Together with 'house of' it names a residence used during that season.

Zechariah · 1

  1. Zechariah 14:8 וּבָחֹ֖רֶף and in the winter

    And on that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the Eastern Sea and the other half toward the Western Sea, in summer and winter alike.

    Here: The cold, rainy half of the year (the gloss 'autumn' reflects the fact that the rains start in autumn). Naming 'summer and winter' together means all year round, as in Genesis 8:22.

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