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.