Hebrew word · H7304

רָוַח

veravach

be wide

To be wide or spacious, and so to have room, to breathe freely, to find relief. Rare: here, Job 32:20 (Elihu must speak "so that it may be wide/relieved for me"), and as "spacious" upper rooms in Jer 22:14. Related noun rewaḥ, "space, relief" (Gen 32:16[17]; Esth 4:14, "relief and deliverance").

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to be wide, be spacious, breathe

1a) (Qal) to breathe easily, be relieved

1b) (Pual) spacious (participle)

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 1 Samuel 16:23

Range of meaning

To be wide or spacious, and so to have room, to breathe freely, to find relief. Rare: here, Job 32:20 (Elihu must speak "so that it may be wide/relieved for me"), and as "spacious" upper rooms in Jer 22:14. Related noun rewaḥ, "space, relief" (Gen 32:16[17]; Esth 4:14, "relief and deliverance").

Against the English

"Refreshed" (KJV, WEB) and "found relief" (BSB) catch the result but lose two things: the image of space opening up for someone who felt crushed, and the sound-echo with rûaḥ.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Hebrew thought distress was pictured as narrowness or tightness (ṣar, "tight place" = trouble) and rescue as being brought into a wide place (Ps 18:19; 118:5). The Septuagint here uses ἀνέψυχεν, "he breathed again, revived", which keeps the idea of breath.

Where it appears

1 Samuel · 1

  1. 1 Samuel 16:23 וְרָוַ֤ח and it was relief

    And whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would pick up his harp and play. Then Saul would find relief and feel better, and the spirit of distress would depart from him.

    Here: "And there would be room/breath for Saul." The verb is spelled with the same three letters as rûaḥ, "spirit", a deliberate echo: when David plays, Saul gets breathing room from the spirit.

Job · 1

  1. Job 32:20 וְיִֽרְוַֽח־ and it may be relieved

    I must speak and find relief; I must open my lips and respond.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 22:14 מְרֻוָּחִ֑ים spacious

    who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace, with spacious upper rooms.’ So he cuts windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermilion.

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