Tool Beta
The Gods of the Bible
Every named divine being in Scripture, what the text calls it, and what the ancient world thought it was.
Rahab
A chaos monster God cuts to pieces, and also a nickname for Egypt.
Job 9:13, in every translation this tool compares.
A chaos monster God cuts to pieces, and also a nickname for Egypt. The two go together rather than being an accident of spelling: Isaiah uses the monster's defeat to mean the Exodus. Job mentions the helpers of Rahab bowing down, which implies a whole company of them.
A chaos figure God cuts to pieces, and also a code name for Egypt. The two senses are connected, and Isaiah 51:9 uses the sea monster's defeat to mean the Exodus. Job 9:13 has "the helpers of Rahab" bowing beneath God, an army of lesser monsters that DDD sets beside Tiamat's monster army in Enuma Elish and the "Big Ones" who back Yam against Baal at Ugarit (KTU 1.3 iii:38ff). The plural rehabim appears once more, in Psalm 40:5, for the false and demonic powers a faithful Israelite doesn't turn to.
Rahab of Jericho is a different word with different consonants and no relation: she is rachav (רָחָב), the chaos monster is rahav (רַהַב), a chet against a he. Every use of the monster leans toward the Exodus defeat of Egypt more than toward creation's ordering of chaos, and Isaiah 51:9's monster-slaying runs straight into 51:10's crossing of the sea. The name carries "inflation" and "pride" (Egyptian "boisterousness"), and Isaiah recasts Egypt as "Rahab who sits still," a blustering power that can't deliver. DDD notes the name has no real Semitic cognate apart from a possible Akkadian variant of the chaos monster Labbu, and it prefers a derivation from Hebrew rahav, "assail, press," paired with Akkadian ra'abu, "tremble," whose derivative rubu covers both rage and floodwater. Rahab keeps turning up wet.
- Job 9:13
- Job 26:12
- Psalm 87:4
- Psalm 89:10
- Isaiah 30:7
- Isaiah 51:9
- Psalm 40:5
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/psalm-89-10\/","n":"Psalm 89:10","s":"Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces. A different word entirely from Rahab the woman of Jericho.","r":"Psalm 89:10"}
- Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, "Rahab," 1362
- M. J. Evans, "Rahab," New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, 715
- K. Spronk, "Rahab," DDD, 684-685
- Matthews/Chavalas/Walton, *IVP Bible Background Commentary: OT*, on Psalm 87:4 and 89:10 (confirms the name is still unattested outside the Bible)
