רָחַב

Genesis 26:22 הִרְחִ֧יב he has made space

He moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Rehoboth and said, “At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

Exodus 34:24 וְהִרְחַבְתִּ֖י and I will enlarge

For I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD your God.

Here: 'I will make wide.' A verb of spaciousness: room to live, as opposed to being hemmed in. In Hebrew, being 'in a wide place' is a picture of safety and well-being.

Deuteronomy 12:20 יַרְחִיב֩ he will enlarge

When the LORD your God expands your territory as He has promised, and you crave meat and say, “I want to eat meat,” you may eat it whenever you want.

Here: "He makes wide." The causative form makes God the one who widens Israel's land. The picture is of space opening up, so that people live further and further from the one sanctuary.

Deuteronomy 19:8 יַרְחִ֞יב he will enlarge

And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised them,

Deuteronomy 33:20 מַרְחִ֣יב [one who] enlarges

Concerning Gad he said: “Blessed is he who enlarges the domain of Gad! He lies down like a lion and tears off an arm or a head.

1 Samuel 2:1 רָ֤חַב it has opened wide

At that time Hannah prayed: “My heart rejoices in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, for I rejoice in Your salvation.

Here: "Is wide", that is, her mouth gapes open. This is the gesture of laughing at or answering back to an opponent: she who had been silenced can now speak out.

2 Samuel 22:37 תַּרְחִ֥יב you enlarge

You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not give way.

Psalm 4:1 הִרְחַ֣בְתָּ you have made wide

For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved my distress; show me grace and hear my prayer.

Here: 'You made wide', 'you gave room'. It is the exact opposite of the 'tight place' just before it, so the line pictures someone squeezed in a narrow pass being let out into open ground. The form usually describes something already done, though some read it as a confident request.

Psalm 18:36 תַּרְחִ֣יב you have enlarged

You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not give way.

Here: God is the one who makes something wide. The verb belongs to a family of Hebrew words for open, roomy space, which in the Psalms is the picture of rescue, the opposite of being hemmed in. The form describes repeated or characteristic action, and in this past-tense setting it can be read as 'you kept giving room'.

Psalm 25:17 הִרְחִ֑יבוּ they have made wide

The troubles of my heart increase; free me from my distress.

Psalm 35:21 וַיַּרְחִ֥יבוּ and they have opened wide

They gape at me and say, “Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen!”

Psalm 81:10 הַרְחֶב־ make large

I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.

Here: A command: 'make wide, open wide'. Elsewhere the same verb is used for widening borders and for making room for someone in distress. With 'mouth' it gives the picture of a hungry mouth gaping for food.

Psalm 119:32 תַרְחִ֣יב you enlarge

I run in the path of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.

Here: 'You make wide.' This is the verb used when God 'makes room' for people to live and spread out (Genesis 26:22; Exodus 34:24). Here God does it to the heart: the opposite of the cramped, crushed state described earlier in the stanza.

Proverbs 18:16 יַרְחִ֣יב it makes space

A man’s gift opens doors for him, and brings him before great men.

Here: The causative form, 'makes wide'. The gift opens up space: the crowd parts, the guarded door opens, the narrow way gets wider. The verb form describes what usually happens, a general truth.

Isaiah 5:14 הִרְחִ֤יבָה it will enlarge

Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s nobles and masses, her revelers and carousers!

Here: The causative form, 'has made wide.' The past-tense form speaks of the future as if it were already done, which is how prophets announce a certain verdict. Sheol stretches its own gullet to take in more.

Isaiah 30:23 נִרְחָֽב׃ roomy

Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures.

Here: "Widened, roomy." In Hebrew, spaciousness suggests freedom and safety. It stands against the "distress" of v. 20 (tsar, literally "narrowness").

Isaiah 30:33 הִרְחִ֑ב someone has made [it] large

For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.

Here: "He has made [it] wide." Together with "made deep" it describes a fire-pit dug big enough for a royal victim, or for an army. The Hebrew accents put the main pause of the verse here.

Isaiah 54:2 הַרְחִ֣יבִי׀ enlarge

“Enlarge the site of your tent, stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not hold back. Lengthen your ropes and drive your stakes in deep.

Here: A command to a woman (feminine singular): "make wide, give more room." It opens the verse with the idea of open space for a household that is about to grow, picking up the children promised in verse 1.

Isaiah 57:4 תַּרְחִ֥יבוּ do you make wide

Whom are you mocking? At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of deceit,

Here: 'You open wide.' The phrase pictures gaping the mouth in a jeer, a known gesture of contempt (Ps 35:21).

Isaiah 57:8 הִרְחַ֤בְתְּ you have made wide

Behind the door and doorpost you have set up your memorial. Forsaking Me, you uncovered your bed; you climbed up and opened it wide. And you have made a pact with those whose bed you have loved; you have gazed upon their nakedness.

Isaiah 60:5 וְרָחַ֖ב and it will be enlarged

Then you will look and be radiant, and your heart will tremble and swell with joy, because the riches of the sea will be brought to you, and the wealth of the nations will come to you.

Here: "And it will grow wide." A widened heart is a heart released from tightness and distress, opened up and expanded by joy. It also shares a root with Zion's command to "widen" her tent in 54:2.

Ezekiel 41:7 וְֽרָחֲבָ֡ה and it was broad

The side rooms surrounding the temple widened at each successive level, because the structure surrounding the temple ascended by stages corresponding to the narrowing of the temple wall as it rose upward. And so a stairway went up from the lowest story to the highest, through the middle one.

Amos 1:13 הַרְחִ֥יב to enlarge

This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their territory.

Here: "To widen": to push the frontier outward and make more room for themselves.

Micah 1:16 הַרְחִ֤בִי make large

Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.

Habakkuk 2:5 הִרְחִ֨יב he has made large

and wealth indeed betrays him. He is an arrogant man never at rest. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and like Death, he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself and collects all the peoples as his own.

Here: "He has made wide." The picture is a throat or mouth stretched open to swallow. It is almost word for word Isaiah 5:14, where Sheol "has widened its throat."