Dripping with Kindness: The Meaning of rebîbîm

Abstract The common noun רְבִיבִים occurs six times in the Hebrew Bible (Deut 32:2; Jer 3:3; 14:22; Mic 5:6; Pss 65:10[10]; 72:6). Its contexts clearly suggest that it belongs to the semantic domain of rain and dew, and that it denotes something desirable. But further precision has eluded interpreters, and the much-discussed Ugaritic words rbb and rb are of little help in this regard. The apparent Akkadian cognate rabbu A, unmentioned in the standard Biblical Hebrew lexica, is considered here, and it is argued on that basis that the word means “gentle rain” or “drizzle.”