Hebrew word · H8644

תְּרוּפָה

litrufah

healing

Healing, or a remedy or medicine. This is its only occurrence in the Hebrew Bible. It is related in sense to rapha' 'heal, restore'. Lexicons differ on the exact root (BDB lists it under a root rûf; others connect it to rapha'). In later Hebrew it is the ordinary word for a medicine.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

healing

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 Ezekiel 47:12

Range of meaning

Healing, or a remedy or medicine. This is its only occurrence in the Hebrew Bible. It is related in sense to rapha' 'heal, restore'. Lexicons differ on the exact root (BDB lists it under a root rûf; others connect it to rapha'). In later Hebrew it is the ordinary word for a medicine.

Against the English

KJV/YLT 'medicine' and BSB/WEB/NIV/ESV 'healing' are both defensible: the word means the thing that heals, a remedy. 'Medicine' can sound like modern pharmacy, while 'healing' brings out the result.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint renders it eis hygieian, 'for health'. The Vulgate has ad medicinam, which the KJV follows. The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 100a) discusses what the leaves heal and plays on the word's sounds. Revelation 22:2 takes the line up: 'the leaves of the tree were for the healing (therapeian) of the nations'.

Where it appears

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 47:12 לִתְרוּפָֽה׃ ס [will be] for healing

    Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of all kinds will grow. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. Each month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will be used for food and their leaves for healing.”

    Here: 'For healing/remedy'. The word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. It is related in sense to rapha', 'heal', the verb used when the waters 'heal' the Dead Sea in verses 8–9. So the leaves continue the healing that the river itself brings.

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