Hebrew word · H7252
רֶבַע
veriv'i
to lie down
To lie down or stretch out. It is used often of animals lying down (Isa 11:6; Ps 23:2 has a related form for flocks lying in pasture). In the law it is also used of a sexual act with an animal (Lev 18:23; 20:16). The noun form here occurs only in this verse.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) to lie down, lie stretched out
1a) (Qal) lying down (infinitive)
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
To lie down or stretch out. It is used often of animals lying down (Isa 11:6; Ps 23:2 has a related form for flocks lying in pasture). In the law it is also used of a sexual act with an animal (Lev 18:23; 20:16). The noun form here occurs only in this verse.
- Against the English
English versions agree on "my lying down". NLT paraphrases it as "when I rest at home."
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Septuagint has schoinon mou, "my rope" or "measuring line", which the Latin Vulgate follows (funiculum meum, "my little cord"). That looks like a misunderstanding of this rare form, perhaps linked to words for land measured out. The Hebrew sense of "lying down" is secure from the verb's use elsewhere.
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 139:3 וְרִבְעִ֣י and lying down my
You search out my path and my lying down; You are aware of all my ways.
Here: "And my lying down": stretched out to rest or sleep. It is paired with "my going" so that the two together cover every state of life, moving and still, day and night.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.