“Qarah Moments”?

According to most teachers of “Qarah Moments”, qarah is supposedly a special Hebrew word which means “right happenings”. Some have even explained it as “being at the right place at the right time”!

However, the truth is that the Hebrew verb qārāh (קָרָה) simply means “to happen”. It is neutral in the sense that it can refer to both good happenings and bad happenings. There is nothing special in the Hebrew word qārāh itself that suggests that it only denotes good happenings.

Qārāh for Bad Happenings

Consider the following occurrences of qārāh in the Bible where it specifically denotes bad things happening:

Genesis 44:29 ESV If you take this one also from me, and harm happens [qārāh] to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.

Deuteronomy 25:18 NASB how he met [qārāh] you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God.

1 Samuel 28:10 ESV But Saul swore to her by the LORD, “As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon [qārāh] you for this thing.”

Esther 6:13 ESV And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened [qārāh] to him. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will surely fall before him.”

Daniel 10:14 ESV “... and [I] came to make you understand what is to happen [qārāh] to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.”

Ecclesiastes 2:14–15 ESV The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens [qārāh] to all of them. Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen [qārāh] to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity.

“Time and chance happen to them all”

Ecclesiastes 9:11 ESV Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favour to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen [qārāh] to them all.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 is often used to demonstrate that the word qārāh, rendered here as “happen”, actually means “right happenings”. However, notice that according to the text itself, the reason why people do not always succeed—“the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favour to those with knowledge”—is precisely because “time and chance happen [qārāh] to them all”! Their potential fate, as expressed in the very next verse, is not something to be desired:

Ecclesiastes 9:12 ESV For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

Therefore, even in this case, qārāh denotes a bad thing happening!

“Grant me success”?

Probably the only occurrences of qārāh which might fit the “Qarah Moments” teaching are in two verses in the Book of Genesis:

Genesis 24:12 ESV And he said, “O LORD, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success [hiqrāh] today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham.”

Genesis 27:20 ESV But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the LORD your God granted me success [hiqrāh].”

Notice, first of all, that the Hebrew verb translated “to grant success” in these two passages is hiqrāh, which is the hiphʿiyl form of qārāh. Hebrew verbs take on different meanings in different forms. In the hiphʿiyl form, hiqrāh takes on a causative sense and hence means “to cause to happen.” Thus, the servant in Genesis 24:12 was only praying that God would “make it happen” for him, and Isaac’s son in Genesis 27:20 was only saying that God “made it happen” for him. However, there is nothing special about the Hebrew verb hiqrāh which suggests that it only denotes good happenings.