Hebrew word · H2964

טֶ֫רֶף

taref

prey

Prey torn by a predator (Gen 49:9; Nah 2:12), and by extension food or provisions (Prov 31:15; Ps 111:5; Job 24:5).

Appears 22 times in 22 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) prey, food, leaf

1a) prey

1b) food

1c) leaf

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 Malachi 3:10

Range of meaning

Prey torn by a predator (Gen 49:9; Nah 2:12), and by extension food or provisions (Prov 31:15; Ps 111:5; Job 24:5).

Against the English

KJV 'meat' meant food in general in 1611, not animal flesh. Modern readers may picture butchered meat.

How it drifted

English 'meat' narrowed after the 17th century to mean flesh.

Used elsewhere in the period

Prov 31:15 (the capable wife 'gives ṭerep̄ to her household'); Ps 111:5 ('he gives ṭerep̄ to those who fear him'). The LXX here renders it diarpagē, 'plunder,' keeping the root sense.

From the study of Isaiah 31:4

Range of meaning

Prey, torn flesh, a kill. It can also mean food in general (Prov 31:15; Ps 111:5), but the core picture is something torn by a predator (Gen 49:9; Nah 2:12–13).

Against the English

English versions all render it 'prey'. That is accurate, but it raises the question English readers often skip: who is the prey in the comparison?

Used elsewhere in the period

Nahum 2:11–13 uses the same lion-and-prey vocabulary for Assyria's own predatory empire. Assyrian kings called themselves lions, and palace reliefs from Nineveh show royal lion hunts. Amos 3:12 shows a shepherd recovering only scraps 'from the mouth of the lion'.

From the study of Psalm 104:21

Range of meaning

Prey, meaning an animal torn by a predator (Genesis 49:9; Numbers 23:24; Nahum 2:12–13). By extension it can mean food or provisions in general (Proverbs 31:15, 'she gives tereph to her household'; Malachi 3:10, 'that there may be tereph in my house'; Psalm 111:5, 'he gives tereph to those who fear him'). It comes from taraph, 'to tear'.

Against the English

'Prey' captures the predatory sense well. English cannot also carry the wider sense of 'provision' that the word has in some passages, and Psalm 111:5 uses it for food God himself provides.

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis 49:9 ('from the prey, my son, you have gone up'); Job 38:39 ('Can you hunt prey for the lion?'); Psalm 111:5.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 49:9 מִטֶּ֖רֶף from prey

    Judah is a young lion—my son, you return from the prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?

    Here: Tereph is prey that has been torn apart, the kill itself. With the prefix 'from' it pictures the lion leaving its kill after eating. For readers of Genesis it also recalls 'Joseph has surely been torn' (taroph toraph, 37:33).

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 23:24 טֶ֔רֶף prey

    Behold, the people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion, not resting until they devour their prey and drink the blood of the slain.”

    Here: Prey that has been torn apart. It comes from the verb 'to tear' and is the standard word for a lion's kill. It recalls Genesis 49:9, where Judah the lion's cub 'has come up from the prey'.

Job · 4

  1. Job 4:11 טָ֑רֶף prey

    The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

  2. Job 24:5 לַטָּ֑רֶף for <the> food

    Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.

  3. Job 29:17 טָֽרֶף׃ [the] prey

    I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.

  4. Job 38:39 טָ֑רֶף prey

    Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions

    Here: The prey itself: meat that has been torn, from the verb taraf, 'to tear'. It is the plain, bloody word for what a predator eats. Eliphaz used the same word in 4:11 when he said the lion dies for lack of prey.

Psalms · 4

  1. Psalm 76:4 טָֽרֶף׃ prey

    You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains filled with game.

  2. Psalm 104:21 לַטָּ֑רֶף for the prey

    The young lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.

    Here: The roar is aimed at prey. The noun comes from a verb meaning 'to tear', so it pictures an animal caught and torn apart, the lion's meal won by force.

  3. Psalm 111:5 טֶ֭רֶף food

    He provides food for those who fear Him; He remembers His covenant forever.

    Here: The word first meant an animal's torn-off prey, and it came to be used for food or rations in general. It stands first in the line for emphasis, and also because the poem is alphabetic and this half-line needs a word starting with the letter ṭet. It probably also looks back to the meat and manna God gave Israel in the wilderness.

  4. Psalm 124:6 טֶ֝֗רֶף prey

    Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.

    Here: The flesh a predator, usually a lion, tears from its kill. It comes from the verb taraf, 'to tear to pieces'. The picture is violent and physical: Israel as a carcass about to be ripped apart.

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 31:15 טֶ֣רֶף food

    She rises while it is still night to provide food for her household and portions for her maidservants.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 5:29 טֶ֔רֶף prey

    Their roaring is like that of a lion; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize their prey; they carry it away, and no one can rescue it.

    Here: An animal caught and torn by a predator. In this picture the prey is Judah and Israel, YHWH's own people.

  2. Isaiah 31:4 טַרְפּ֗וֹ prey its

    For this is what the LORD has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamor—so the LORD of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.

    Here: Torn prey, a kill already taken. The animal has it and will not let it go.

Ezekiel · 4

  1. Ezekiel 19:3 טֶ֖רֶף prey

    She brought up one of her cubs, and he became a young lion. After learning to tear his prey, he devoured men.

  2. Ezekiel 19:6 טֶ֖רֶף prey

    He prowled among the lions, and became a young lion. After learning to tear his prey, he devoured men.

  3. Ezekiel 22:25 טָ֑רֶף prey

    The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her.

    Here: 'Prey' or torn food, from the same root as the verb before it. The sound play toref taref ('tearing a tearing') makes the violence vivid.

  4. Ezekiel 22:27 טָ֑רֶף <of> prey

    Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.

    Here: 'Prey,' from the same root as the verb. 'Tearing torn-prey' is an emphatic sound-echo, and the verse ends with the same kind of echo.

Amos · 1

  1. Amos 3:4 וְטֶ֖רֶף and prey

    Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion growl in his den if he has caught nothing?

Nahum · 3

  1. Nahum 2:12 טֶ֣רֶף prey

    The lion mauled enough for its cubs and strangled prey for the lioness. It filled its dens with the kill, and its lairs with mauled prey.

    Here: 'Prey', what the lion has torn. This is the second word from the ṭ-r-p root. Elsewhere the word can simply mean 'food' or 'provisions'. Here it is food got by violence.

  2. Nahum 2:13 טַרְפֵּ֔ךְ prey your

    “Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will reduce your chariots to cinders, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”

    Here: “Your prey,” meaning meat a predator has torn. It is the key word of verses 11–12. Here it means the plunder and tribute Assyria tore from the nations.

  3. Nahum 3:1 טָֽרֶף׃ prey

    Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without prey.

    Here: The flesh a predator tears. It picks up the lion imagery of 2:11–13, where Assyria's king is a lion filling his den with prey and God vows to 'cut off your prey from the earth'. The victims are the peoples Assyria devoured.

Malachi · 1

  1. Malachi 3:10 טֶ֙רֶף֙ food

    Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure.

    Here: Usually the prey an animal tears; in poetry also 'food, provisions' for a household (Prov 31:15; Ps 111:5). Here: food to feed the people who serve at the temple.

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