Hebrew word · H3720

כָּפָן

uvekhafan

famine

Hunger, famine. A rare poetic word, used only here and in Job 30:3 ('gaunt with want and kāpān'). It may be Aramaic-flavoured, like much of Job's vocabulary.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

hunger, famine, painful hunger

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 Job 5:22

Range of meaning

Hunger, famine. A rare poetic word, used only here and in Job 30:3 ('gaunt with want and kāpān'). It may be Aramaic-flavoured, like much of Job's vocabulary.

Against the English

All major versions have 'famine' or 'hunger.' The word is accurate. What English cannot show is that the poet deliberately varies his vocabulary instead of repeating the common word rāʿāb from verse 20.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 30:3. Words from the same root appear in Aramaic and Syriac with the meaning 'hunger.'

Where it appears

Job · 2

  1. Job 5:22 וּלְכָפָ֣ן and to famine

    You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the beasts of the earth.

    Here: 'And at famine.' This is a rare word for hunger, found in the Bible only here and in Job 30:3. It varies the common word for famine (rāʿāb) used in verse 20, so famine comes up twice in the list.

  2. Job 30:3 וּבְכָפָ֗ן and in hunger

    Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.

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