Great
רַבStrong’s H7229rav
Appears in 15 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Rav is the Aramaic word usually translated “great”, “chief of” and “chief”. It appears in 15 verses of the Old Testament.
“The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.”
Meaning
- Greatgreat (fig of power)
- Captain, chief
How it's translated
- great 11
- chief of 2
- chief 1
- and chief of 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Daniel 12
- Ezra 3
2 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Daniel 2:14In contextThen Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king’s guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon:
- Daniel 2:31In contextThou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
- Daniel 2:35In contextThen was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
- Daniel 2:45In contextForasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
- Daniel 2:48In contextThen the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.
- Daniel 4:9In contextO Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof.
Aramaic dictionary
רַב rav · great
adj 1) great 1a) great 1b) great (fig of power) n 2) captain, chief
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “great” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
GREAT, adjective
[Latin crassus.]
- Large in bulk or dimensions; a term of comparison, denoting more magnitude or extension than something else, or beyond what is usual; as a great body; a great house; a great farm.
- Being of extended length or breadth; as a great distance; a great lake.
- Large in number; as a great many; a great multitude.
- Expressing a large, extensive or unusual degree of any thing; as great fear; great love; great strength; great wealth; great power; great influence; great folly.
All definitions and other forms of “great”
- Long continued; as a great while.
- Important; weighty; as a great argument; a great truth; a great event; a thing of no great consequence; it is no great matter.
- Chief; principal; as the great seal of England.
- Chief; of vast power and excellence; supreme; illustrious; as the great God; the great Creator.
- Vast; extensive; wonderful; admirable.
- Possessing large or strong powers of mind; as a great genius.
- Having made extensive or unusual acquisitions of science or knowledge; as a great philosopher or botanist; a great scholar.
- Distinguished by rank, office or power; elevated; eminent; as a great lord; the great men of the nation; the great Mogul; Alexander the great
- Dignified in aspect, mien or manner.
- Magnanimous; generous; of elevated sentiments; high-minded.
- Rich; sumptuous; magnificent.
- Vast; sublime; as a great conception or idea.
- Dignified; noble.
- Swelling; proud; as, he was not disheartened by great looks.
- Chief; principal; much traveled; as a great road.
- Pregnant; teeming; as great with young.
- Hard; difficult.
- Familiar; intimate. [Vulgar.]
- Distinguished by extraordinary events, or unusual importance. Jude 1:6
- Denoting a degree of consanguinity, in the ascending or descending line, as great grandfather, the father of a grandfather; great great grandfather, the father of a great grandfather, and so on indefinitely; and great grandson, great great grandson. etc.
- Superior; preeminent; as great chamberlain; great marshal.
GREAT, noun
The whole; the gross; the lump or mass; as, a carpenter contracts to build a ship by the great
- People of rank or distinction.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Aramaic, not from any one translation.