Hebrew word · H3545
כֵּהָה
kehah
easing
From the root k-h-h, 'to grow dim, faint, weak'. The verb is used of eyes dimming with age (Gen 27:1; Deut 34:7), of a spirit growing faint (Isa 61:3) and of someone who 'will not grow faint' (Isa 42:4). The related adjective describes a 'dimly burning' wick (Isa 42:3).
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
a quenching, dulling, lessening, healing, alleviation
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
- Range of meaning
From the root k-h-h, 'to grow dim, faint, weak'. The verb is used of eyes dimming with age (Gen 27:1; Deut 34:7), of a spirit growing faint (Isa 61:3) and of someone who 'will not grow faint' (Isa 42:4). The related adjective describes a 'dimly burning' wick (Isa 42:3). In the skin-disease rules of Leviticus 13 (vv. 6, 21, 26, 28, 39, 56), a mark that is kehah, 'faded', is the sign the condition is going away. As a noun, BDB and HALOT give 'alleviation, relief'.
- Against the English
BSB, KJV, WEB and NIV give 'healing'. ESV and NASB give 'easing/relief'. YLT gives 'weakening'. 'Healing' gets the overall sense but loses the picture: the injury does not even fade, and no remission sets in.
- How it drifted
Not a modern drift. Translators smooth an unusual word into a common one, possibly influenced by the Septuagint's 'healing' or by the proposed emendation to gēhāh.
- Used elsewhere in the period
This exact noun use appears only here. The adjective in Leviticus 13 belongs to priestly medical inspection: a faded lesion means the person can be declared clean. The Septuagint renders it iasis, 'healing'. Jerome's Vulgate took the root's sense of 'dim' and read 'your bruise is not obscure' (non est obscura contritio tua).
Where it appears
Nahum · 1
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Nahum 3:19 כֵּהָ֣ה [is] relief
There is no healing for your injury; your wound is severe. All who hear the news of you applaud your downfall, for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?
Here: From a root meaning 'to grow dim, fade'. In Leviticus 13 the same form describes a skin lesion that has 'faded', which was the sign of recovery. Here there is no fading, so the injury shows no sign of getting better.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.