A ruin, waste place, or desolation — the result of divine judgment or abandonment. Used for cities laid waste, temples destroyed, and lands left desolate. Yet Scripture repeatedly promises that God will rebuild the chorbah, turning ruins into restored places of habitation.
The chorbah is never the final word in God's story. While ruins testify to judgment, they simultaneously become sites of promised restoration. Isaiah proclaims that God's servants will 'rebuild the ancient chorbah' (Isaiah 58:12, 61:4). This pattern — ruin then restoration — is the gospel in miniature. What sin destroys, God rebuilds. The ruins become more glorious than the original (Haggai 2:9).