Strong’s H4828 · Hebrew

מֵרֵעַ
mêrêaʻ
may-ray'-ah

Definition

a friend

Etymology

from H7462 (רָעָה) in the sense of companionship;

Where the KJV renders it

  • companion
  • friend

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.