Hebrew word · H7147

קְרִי

keri

hostility

The word occurs only in Leviticus 26, seven times (vv. 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 40, 41), always with the verb 'walk' and always as 'walking with' someone in qeri. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'opposition, contrariness, hostile encounter'.

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

opposition, contrariness, encounter, contrary or hostile encounter

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 Leviticus 26:21

Range of meaning

The word occurs only in Leviticus 26, seven times (vv. 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 40, 41), always with the verb 'walk' and always as 'walking with' someone in qeri. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'opposition, contrariness, hostile encounter'. It is usually linked to the root qarah, 'to meet, encounter, happen'. That root can mean meeting head-on (confrontation) or meeting by accident (compare miqreh, 'chance', in Ruth 2:3 and 1 Sam 6:9).

Against the English

KJV and WEB: 'contrary'. BSB: 'in hostility'. YLT: 'in opposition'. Others: 'remain hostile'. All of these choose the confrontation sense. None can show that the word is rare and that its exact shade is uncertain. 'Hostility' makes it sound like open aggression. The Hebrew may mean something closer to walking crosswise to God, or out of step with him.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek translation (LXX) renders it plagios, 'sideways, crooked, at a slant', as in 'walk crookedly with me'. The Latin Vulgate has ex adverso, 'from the opposite side'. The Aramaic Targum Onkelos has 'with hardness/stubbornness'. Rashi records a rabbinic reading, 'casually, haphazardly', meaning obeying God only now and then. Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Fasts 1:3) reads it as 'chance': if Israel calls its disasters mere coincidence instead of crying out to God, God will leave them to 'chance' in his anger. So the ancient readers already disagreed on the shade of meaning.

From the study of Leviticus 26:27

Range of meaning

A noun found only in Leviticus 26, seven times (vv. 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 40, 41), always in the phrase 'walk with … in qeri'. It is generally tied to the root q-r-h, 'to meet, encounter, happen'. That root gives two possible senses:

  1. Hostile encounter, opposition: meeting someone as an opponent. The related word liqrat ('to meet') is used for armies going out against each other.
  2. Chance, happenstance: what merely 'happens' to you. The related noun miqreh means 'chance' (Ruth 2:3; 1 Sam 6:9).

The standard lexicons BDB and HALOT give 'opposition, contrariness, hostility'.

Against the English

'Hostility' (BSB, NIV, NASB, NLT) catches the adversarial sense well. 'Contrary' (KJV, WEB, ESV) is close to the 'opposition' sense, but in modern English it can sound like petty awkwardness. YLT's 'in opposition' is the most neutral. No English word carries the second, Jewish-traditional sense of treating God's acts as random.

How it drifted

There is little true drift. The main loss is that the KJV's 'contrary' has softened over time into 'stubborn, difficult', which sounds milder than a covenant partner who has become an opponent.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint renders it plagios, 'sideways, crooked, at an angle' ('if you walk towards me crookedly', and in v. 28 'in crooked anger'). The Latin Vulgate has contra me, 'against me'. The Aramaic Targum Onqelos, as usually cited, uses a word for 'hardness, stubbornness'. Rashi (11th c.) explains qeri as 'casually, occasionally', keeping God's commands only now and then. Maimonides (Hilkhot Ta'aniyot 1:3) reads it as treating disaster as mere chance: when trouble comes and the people say 'this is just how the world goes, a chance event', they are walking with God 'in qeri'. Compare the Philistines' test in 1 Sam 6:9: was it God's hand, 'or was it a chance (miqreh)?'

From the study of Leviticus 26:28

Range of meaning

Occurs only in Leviticus 26 (vv. 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 40, 41), always in the phrase 'walk with … in/with qeri'. It is generally tied to the root q-r-h / q-r-ʾ, 'to meet, encounter, happen'. Two senses are proposed from that root: (1) 'meeting head-on', so opposition, hostility, contrariness, walking crosswise to someone; (2) 'happening', so chance or haphazardness, treating God as something you deal with only when it suits you, as if events were mere accident (compare miqreh, 'chance', 1 Sam 6:9).

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'contrary', YLT 'opposition', BSB/NASB/NIV 'hostility' (BSB folds it into 'in fury against you'). All take sense (1). None of them shows the possible 'chance/indifference' sense, and 'against you' hides the fact that the phrase is built on 'with'.

Used elsewhere in the period

The LXX translates it as 'plagios', 'sideways, crooked, oblique' (v. 28: 'in crooked/sidelong wrath'). Targum Onqelos reads it as 'hardness, obstinacy'. Medieval Jewish interpreters such as Rashi and Maimonides (Guide 3.36) took it as 'chance': Israel treats calamities as accidents rather than as God's discipline, so God will 'walk with them in chance', letting disaster fall unshielded.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 7

  1. Leviticus 26:21 קֶ֔רִי contrariness

    If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins.

    Here: A rare word found only in this chapter. It describes how they walk: against God, crosswise to him, or (on an old Jewish reading) carelessly, as if the relationship were a matter of chance. See the word studies.

  2. Leviticus 26:23 קֶֽרִי׃ contrariness

    And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

  3. Leviticus 26:24 בְּקֶ֑רִי in contrariness

    then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

  4. Leviticus 26:27 בְּקֶֽרִי׃ in contrariness

    But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

    Here: The key word, found only in this chapter. It names the manner of their walking: in opposition, as an adversary. Jewish tradition also hears in it 'carelessly, as if by chance'. God answers in v. 28 by walking with them 'in a fury of qeri', the same word turned back on them.

  5. Leviticus 26:28 קֶ֑רִי contrariness

    then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.

    Here: A word found only in this chapter. It describes a crosswise, opposing (or perhaps careless, 'as it happens') way of walking. Israel walked with God in qeri; God now answers in kind.

  6. Leviticus 26:40 בְּקֶֽרִי׃ in contrariness

    But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—

    Here: A rare word found only in Leviticus 26. It means walking against God, in opposition, or (in an old Jewish reading) walking with him only casually, as if by chance. It repeats the charge of vv.21, 23, 27 and sets up God's answering 'hostility' in v.41.

  7. Leviticus 26:41 בְּקֶ֔רִי in contrariness

    and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity,

    Here: 'In qeri': in a crosswise, opposing way. The word appears only in Leviticus 26. It echoes Israel's own qeri-walking (v.40) word for word, so the punishment mirrors the offence.

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