A noun meaning drought, dryness, or waste. It describes the parched desolation of land without water — cracked earth, withered vegetation, dead rivers. It differs from the more common cherev (sword) by a single vowel point, though both share imagery of devastation. Drought is used as a covenant curse for unfaithfulness, but also as a condition that magnifies the miraculous provision of God.
Drought in the ancient Near East was not merely inconvenient — it was existential. The theology of drought connects directly to covenant. God warned that spiritual unfaithfulness would produce physical drought (Deuteronomy 28). The ministries of Elijah and Elisha are set against drought as divine judgment. But against the backdrop of drought, God's provision becomes miraculous: streams in the desert, water from rock, rivers in the wasteland. The Spirit himself is described as water poured on thirsty ground, and the eschatological promise is that the desert will rejoice and blossom.