to heal
ra.pah describes healing from sickness, wounds, or injury, and also restoration of waters, land, and communal brokenness.
The verb most often concerns recovery from bodily disease, wounds, and other affliction, whether the healing is requested, promised, accomplished, or said to be impossible. It also describes restoration beyond an individual body: damaged waters and an altar, land, and the wounded condition of a people or city; active participles can designate people as physicians.
Senses in use
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Recovery from bodily illness or wounds · dominant
The term commonly concerns a person’s recovery from sickness, injury, or a bodily condition. In Numbers 12:13 the form is an imperative in Moses’ plea, “O God, please heal her,” while in 2 Kings 20:5 the APB renders the clause addressed to Hezekiah, “Behold, I am healing you”; Leviticus 13:18 and Leviticus 14:3 describe a skin condition or plague as healed.
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Restoration of damaged waters, places, or land · common
The verb also applies to what has been damaged outside the human body. In 2 Kings 2:21 the Piel perfect occurs in the declaration concerning waters, “I have healed these waters,” and 2 Kings 2:22 then says the waters “were healed”; 1 Kings 18:30 applies it to an overthrown altar, while 2 Chronicles 7:14 places it in the promise to “heal their land.”
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Healing a people’s wound or broken condition · common
Several clauses use sickness, wounds, or brokenness in relation to a people, city, or communal condition. In Jeremiah 6:14 the APB renders, “they have healed the breaking of my people lightly,” and Jeremiah 51:9 contrasts an attempted healing of Babylon with the statement that “she was not healed”; Isaiah 57:18 joins the promise “I will heal him” with leading and restoring comforts.
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A person identified as a physician · occasional
Qal active participles identify persons as physicians or healers. Genesis 50:2 calls Joseph’s servants “the physicians,” whereas Job 13:4 calls its addressees “worthless physicians”; 2 Chronicles 16:12 likewise says Asa sought help “from physicians.”
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB frequently uses “heal,” “healed,” and “healing,” including for people, wounds, waters, an altar, and land; it also uses “physicians” for active participial forms. These renderings confirm the clauses’ overall presentation rather than supplying a separate definition for each form.