Hebrew word · H4800

מֶרְחָב

vamerchav

broad

Broad, open space; room. From r-ch-v, 'to be wide, to make room'. Used of the wide earth and, as an image, of safety, freedom of movement and relief.

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 01, 2026

What it means

broad or roomy place, wide, expanses

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: Broad, open space; room. From r-ch-v, 'to be wide, to make room'. Used of the wide earth and, as an image, of safety, freedom of movement and relief.
Against the English: KJV/YLT 'large/broad place' and NIV 'spacious place' keep the image. BSB, ESV and NLT 'set me free' and WEB 'with freedom' turn it into an abstract idea. 'Freedom' is a fair summary, but modern readers may hear political liberty or personal independence instead of the relief of having room.
How it drifted: The drift comes from translators choosing to explain the image instead of rendering it, not from the Hebrew word.
Used elsewhere in the period: 2 Sam 22:20 // Ps 18:19 ('he brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me because he delighted in me'); Ps 31:8 ('you set my feet in a broad place'); Hab 1:6 ('the breadth of the earth'). The same root appears in Ps 4:1 'you made room for me' and Ps 119:45 'I will walk in a wide place'. LXX: platysmos, 'broadening, wide space'.

Range of meaning: A wide, open, unobstructed place, from the root r-ḥ-b 'be wide, broad'. In the Psalms it is the stock picture for relief: the opposite of ṣar / ṣārâ, 'narrow, tight place' (the ordinary Hebrew word for 'distress'). It can also describe open pasture where animals roam freely (Hos 4:16).
Against the English: KJV/WEB 'a large place' is accurate but can sound like size or abundance. BSB 'into the open' keeps the idea of open ground. ESV/NASB 'a broad place' and NIV 'a spacious place' are close. NLT 'a place of safety' gives the result but loses the picture of space.
How it drifted: 'Large place' and 'enlarged' have come to mean expansion, increase or prosperity in popular use ('God is taking you to a large place'). In Hebrew the contrast is with being squeezed and cornered, not with being small or poor.
Used elsewhere in the period: Ps 18:6 sets the scene: 'in my distress' is literally 'in the narrow place to me' (baṣṣar-lî). The same pairing appears in Ps 118:5 ('Out of the tight place I called on Yah; Yah answered me in the broad place'), Ps 31:8 ('you set my feet in a broad place'), Ps 4:1 ('in distress you made room for me'), and Ps 18:36 here ('you widened my steps beneath me'). The Septuagint uses platysmos, 'broad space', and the Vulgate latitudo, 'breadth'.

Range of meaning: A wide or roomy place, open country, a broad expanse. It comes from the root r-ḥ-b, 'to be wide, spacious'. Its natural opposite is the root ṣ-r-r or ṣar, 'narrow, tight', which is also the ordinary Hebrew word for 'distress'.
Against the English: KJV 'a large room' (older English: 'room' = space). WEB 'a large place'. YLT, ESV 'a broad place'. NIV 'a spacious place'. BSB 'in the open'. NLT 'a safe place', which gives the result (safety) instead of the picture (spaciousness).
How it drifted: KJV's 'large room' now makes readers picture a big room inside a building. That is close to the opposite of open country.
Used elsewhere in the period: 2 Sam 22:20 = Ps 18:19: 'He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.' Ps 118:5: 'Out of my distress (min ha-meṣar, out of the narrow place) I called on the LORD; the LORD answered me in the broad place (ba-merḥav).' Hos 4:16: a lamb 'in a broad place'. Hab 1:6: 'the breadth of the earth'. Compare Ps 4:1: 'in distress (ba-ṣar) you made room for me (hirḥavta li).' The LXX has euruchōros, 'roomy', and the Vulgate in loco spatioso.

2 Samuel · 1

2 Samuel 22:20 לַמֶּרְחָ֖ב to <the> roomy place

He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.

Here: Open ground with room to move, the opposite of being hemmed in. It stands before the object in the Hebrew, so the destination is heard before the person taken there.

Psalms · 3

Psalm 18:19 לַמֶּרְחָ֑ב to <the> roomy place

He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.

Here: 'Into the broad place.' Open, unconfined ground, the opposite of the 'narrow place' of distress (v. 6). The picture is of a man hemmed in by enemies, ropes and floodwaters (vv. 4–5, 16–17) suddenly standing on open ground with room to move.
Psalm 31:8 בַמֶּרְחָ֣ב in <the> roomy place

You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.

Here: 'In the wide place.' This is the opposite of being hemmed in. It answers the 'anguish' of verse 7 and the 'distress' of verse 9, both from the Hebrew root for narrowness. The picture is room to move, breathe and get away, not exposure to danger.
Psalm 118:5 בַמֶּרְחָ֣ב in <the> roomy place

In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered and set me free.

Here: 'In the wide-open place': room to breathe and move, the exact opposite of metsar. The preposition can mean 'in' (he answered and set me there) or 'with' (he answered me with spaciousness).

Hosea · 1

Hosea 4:16 בַּמֶּרְחָֽב׃ in <the> roomy place

For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer. Can the LORD now shepherd them like lambs in an open meadow?

Here: Wide, open space. In the Psalms it means relief and freedom ('he brought me out into a broad place'). For a lone lamb, open country can also mean being exposed, with no fold and no shelter.

Habakkuk · 1

Habakkuk 1:6 לְמֶרְחֲבֵי־ to [the] expanses of

For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

Here: 'To the wide spaces of.' Elsewhere a broad place is where God sets the rescued free (Ps 18:19). Here the wide spaces are open ground that this army strides into and takes.

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