קָבַב

# Qāḇaḇ: The Hebrew Word for Cursing The Hebrew verb qāḇaḇ carries the primary meaning "to curse" and appears 14 times in the biblical text. This relatively limited occurrence suggests it represents a specific semantic category within Hebrew's broader vocabulary for expressing malediction or hostile speech. The word itself belongs to the domain of speech acts that invoke harm or divine disfavor upon a person or entity. The frequency of qāḇaḇ's usage—14 instances across the entire biblical corpus—indicates it held a particular place in Hebrew religious and social discourse. Rather than being an everyday term for casual insult, its selective deployment suggests the word carried weight when used in formal or significant contexts. The distinction between qāḇaḇ and other curse-related terms in Hebrew (which this lexicon data alone cannot specify) would require examining the exact passages where it appears, but the word's existence as a separate lemma indicates ancient Hebrew speakers recognized it as a distinct expression of cursing. Understanding qāḇaḇ is important for interpreting biblical passages dealing with blessing, cursing, and the consequences of hostile speech or divine displeasure. Its presence in the biblical vocabulary reflects the ancient Near Eastern understanding that spoken curses were serious utterances with potentially significant social and spiritual implications.

AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.