Hebrew word · H3530

כִּבְרָה

kivrat-

distance

A unit or stretch of distance on the ground. It appears only three times, always in the phrase kivrat-ha'arets, 'a kivrah of land' (Gen 35:16; 48:7; 2 Kgs 5:19). Its exact length was apparently already lost by the time of the ancient translators.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

distance (undetermined length)

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 Genesis 35:16

Range of meaning

A unit or stretch of distance on the ground. It appears only three times, always in the phrase kivrat-ha'arets, 'a kivrah of land' (Gen 35:16; 48:7; 2 Kgs 5:19). Its exact length was apparently already lost by the time of the ancient translators. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'a certain distance, a stretch', usually taken as a modest but real distance. Some scholars have suggested a link with an Akkadian (ancient Mesopotamian) measure of road or time, but this is unproven.

Against the English

KJV 'but a little way' makes it explicitly short. BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV and NASB 'still some distance' leave it vague, which is closer to how much is actually known. YLT keeps the word untranslated ('a kibrath of land'), which is the most honest choice but opaque.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint gives up and transliterates it ('chabratha'), treating it as a place. In Gen 48:7 it even adds 'by the hippodrome (racecourse) of Chabratha', an anachronism from the translators' own Hellenistic world. Jerome's Vulgate guesses a time instead of a distance: 'in springtime' (verno tempore). This follows a Jewish tradition, preserved in Genesis Rabbah and Rashi, that connects kivrah with kevarah, 'sieve': the season when the ground is loose and full of holes, after the rains and before the dry heat. Rashi also records the view that it is simply a measure of land. In 2 Kgs 5:19 Naaman goes 'a kivrah of land' from Elisha before Gehazi catches him, which suggests a distance someone could run to catch up.

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 35:16 כִּבְרַת־ [the] distance of

    Later, they set out from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.

    Here: An old word for a distance whose exact length is now unknown (it also appears in Gen 48:7 and 2 Kgs 5:19). It means a certain stretch of road, neither clearly 'a little way' nor clearly 'far'.

  2. Genesis 48:7 כִּבְרַת־ a distance of

    Now as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way in the land of Canaan, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 5:19 כִּבְרַת־ a distance of

    “Go in peace,” said Elisha. But after Naaman had traveled a short distance,

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