Trepho (τρέφω) means to nourish, to feed, or to bring up (raise a child). It covers both physical feeding and the broader act of nurturing growth — of children, animals, and even ideas. The word appears in Jesus' teaching on God's provision (Matthew 6), in the context of nursing mothers, and in the great vision of the Woman and the Dragon in Revelation 12.
Trepho grounds the abstract doctrine of divine providence in the concrete act of feeding. God trepho-s the birds of the air (Matthew 6:26) — not abstractly 'provides for' but literally feeds them. This same God nourishes His people. In Revelation 12:6 and 14, the woman is nourished (trepho) by God in the wilderness for 1,260 days — the Church sustained through tribulation by divine provision.
The Revelation 12 use of trepho is striking: the persecuted Church is nourished by God in the wilderness — just as Israel was nourished by manna. This is not passive endurance but active divine feeding. The same word that describes God caring for sparrows describes His care for the Church under persecution. If He trepho-s the birds of the air, how much more His own beloved.