כַּר
kar (H3733C)
ram
AI Word Study
# כַּר (kar): The Hebrew Term for Ram The Hebrew word *kar* denotes a male sheep, specifically a ram. With twelve occurrences throughout the biblical text, this term represents a domesticated animal that held practical and religious importance in ancient Israelite culture. The word's presence across multiple biblical contexts suggests it was a recognized and regularly referenced animal in the religious and daily life of ancient communities. The modest frequency of *kar* in biblical literature indicates it occupied a specific semantic niche—distinct enough to warrant its own designation rather than being subsumed under more general terms for sheep or livestock. Its twelve appearances suggest the word was used when the gender and maturity of the animal required specification, whether in narrative accounts, legal prescriptions, or ritual instructions. This pattern is typical of ancient Near Eastern texts, where precision about animal types often carried practical implications for agricultural, economic, or religious matters. While the provided data confirms only the basic definition and frequency count, the existence of this specialized term reflects the detailed categorization of livestock that characterized ancient Hebrew vocabulary. The specificity required to name the ram separately underscores how thoroughly biblical language reflected the material realities and concerns of agrarian and pastoral societies.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
butter from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. From the blood of the grape, you drank wine.
But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, of the cattle, and of the fat calves, and the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to utterly destroy them; but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he supplied the king of Israel with the wool of one hundred thousand lambs, and of one hundred thousand rams.
Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
Lay siege against it, build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around.
In his right hand was the lot for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, and to build forts.
“ ‘ “Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar were the merchants of your hand; in lambs, rams, and goats. In these, they were your merchants.
You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall;