height: the vertical measure or lofty elevation of a structure, person, tree, or the sky
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
At its plainest this word is a measurement: how tall something stands from bottom to top. It gives the height of the temple porch, of the wheels in Ezekiel's vision, of the bronze tables, and of Goliath, whose six-cubit stature is stated as bare fact.
The same word also names sheer loftiness, the towering quality of things that rise far above their surroundings: the reach of the heavens where God dwells, a cedar or a vine lifted high above the other trees, the Amorite as tall as a cedar. Here "height" shades toward grandeur, and in Ezekiel's cedar oracle a tree's very height becomes the reason it is cut down, the hinge on which the word turns from altitude to arrogance.
Nuances
1aa measured height: the stated vertical dimension of a structure or a person's stature
1Sa 17:42Ch 3:4Ezk 1:18Ezk 40:42Ezk 41:8
1blofty elevation: the impressive height of the heavens or of a towering tree or figure
loftiness of spirit: a person or nation lifted high in bearing, whether in arrogant pride or in exalted dignity
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
Applied to the inner life, the picture of standing tall becomes the picture of a heart lifted up. Most often this is a fault: the pride of Hezekiah's heart, the haughty spirit that goes before a fall, the arrogance of Moab, the wicked whose upraised face has no room for God. In each of them a person has made himself high, and the fall that follows is a bringing low.
Once, strikingly, the same loftiness is a virtue God invites. Challenging Job, God tells him to clothe himself in majesty and eminence, using this very word beside its close partner for majesty (גָּאוֹן). The difference is not in the word but in who does the lifting: a person who exalts himself is proud, while dignity received from God is majesty.
Nuances
2apride, haughtiness: a heart or bearing lifted up in arrogance
2Ch 32:26Psa 10:4Pro 16:18Jer 48:29
2bexalted dignity: loftiness as God-given majesty rather than self-made pride
Job 40:10*
Related words
The English words used to translate govah
“height”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
pictures pride as physical loftiness, a heart or face literally lifted up and towering above othersPro 16:182Ch 32:26
Both
both name a person who sets himself up high, above other people and above GodPsa 10:4
Only pride
the English word "pride" is an abstract feeling with no picture of height, and can even be positive, as in taking pride in honest work
“haughtiness”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“loftiness”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“majesty”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How govah differs from similar Hebrew words
גָּבֹהַּthe matching adjective "high, tall, lofty," and also "haughty" of eyes or heart; this word is the abstract noun, the height itself rather than the thing that is high.
As an abstract noun it names height itself as a measurable dimension, the quantity you state in cubits, where the adjective only ever describes a thing as tall.1Sa 17:42Ch 3:4Ezk 40:42
Both
Both stretch the idea of elevation into human arrogance, pride pictured as loftiness. The noun names that pride as an inner disposition, a "haughtiness" of heart or spirit, while the adjective brands the arrogant person as "high" or "lofty."Pro 16:18Jer 48:29Psa 101:5Pro 16:5
As an adjective it labels a concrete thing as tall or elevated, whether a mountain, a tower, or a person's stature, the plain physical use that the noun of quality never carries.Gen 7:19Isa 2:151Sa 9:2
קוֹמָהstature or height as a plain measurement of a person, plant, or building; it stays neutral and never takes on the sense of arrogant pride that this word can carry.
Slides easily from physical height into pride and arrogance: loftiness of heart or spirit that sets a person up for a fall.Pro 16:182Ch 32:26Jer 48:29Psa 10:4
Names sheer towering height as something awe-inspiring or imposing, whether the unreachable height of the heavens or the great stature of a feared enemy.Job 22:12Amo 2:91Sa 17:4
Both
Both describe a tree towering over the forest, where literal lofty height becomes the image of a proud ruler raised up only to be brought down.Ezk 31:10Ezk 31:14Ezk 19:11
The plain vertical measurement of a built object, given alongside its length and width in construction specifications.Gen 6:15Exo 25:101Ki 6:2
A person's bodily stature, how tall someone stands, with no moral coloring attached to the height itself.1Sa 16:71Sa 28:20Sng 7:7
גָּאוֹןmajesty or swelling pride rooted in the idea of rising and swelling up; paired with this word in Job 40:10 for God-given eminence, though more often it is the arrogant self-exaltation God opposes.
Measures literal, physical height: how tall a man is, how high a building or its parts reach, the towering size of a tree or a people. It is a yardstick word before it is ever a moral one.1Sa 17:42Ch 3:4Ezk 41:8Amo 2:9
When it turns to arrogance it locates the fault in a raised body part, the lifted-up heart or the high look of the eyes, treating pride as something physically elevated that must be brought low.Psa 10:42Ch 32:26Ezk 31:10
Both
Both name the self-exalting pride that sets a person or nation above its station and invites a fall, and the two stand side by side to drive that warning home.Pro 16:18Job 40:10Jer 48:29
Names a quality of greatness or splendor that can be admirable, not only a fault. It is the majesty God puts on a person or land, the glory of a people, the thing that gives a place its honor.Isa 4:2Isa 60:15Ezk 24:21Nam 2:2
Pictures the swelling surge of water, the rising flood of the Jordan or the proud lift of the sea, used as an image of unstoppable force rather than of physical altitude.Job 38:11Jer 12:5Jer 49:19
רוּםheight or loftiness from the idea of being lifted up, covering both physical elevation and haughtiness much as this word does, but stressing the act of rising or being exalted.
Names a concrete, measured height: how many cubits a building or object rises. It is the plain vertical dimension of a structure.2Ch 3:4Ezk 40:42Ezk 41:8Ezk 1:18
Describes the sheer bodily tallness of a living creature: how high it stands.1Sa 17:4Amo 2:9
Both
Both reach from literal height to human haughtiness, pride pictured as lifting oneself high; Jeremiah lists them side by side for the arrogance of Moab.Jer 48:29Pro 16:18Isa 2:17
Both can name the towering altitude of the heavens as the measure of what stands far above.Job 22:12Pro 25:3
Carries the fixed picture of arrogance as lifted, lofty eyes and looks: the outward, visible face of pride, in keeping with its root sense of being raised up.Pro 21:4Isa 2:11Isa 10:12
Means literal, measurable height: physical tallness stated in cubits, or the vertical dimension of a person, a building, or a tree.1Sa 17:42Ch 3:4Amo 2:9Ezk 41:8
Describes the sheer loftiness of created things reaching upward, awe-inspiring or dreadful in how high they stand.Job 22:12Ezk 1:18
Both
Both name the haughtiness of a heart lifted up in pride; Jeremiah heaps the two words together in a single verse to denounce Moab's arrogance.Jer 48:29
Both figure the pride that goes before a downfall, the self-exaltation that Proverbs warns will bring a person low.Pro 29:23Pro 16:18
Names height as a measurable quality of a thing: how tall or how high something stands. Goliath's stature, the temple porch, the towering rims of the wheels.1Sa 17:42Ch 3:4Ezk 1:18
Turns inward to mean a lofty, swollen heart: arrogance and pride. The same word for tallness becomes the word for being puffed up before God.2Ch 32:26Psa 10:4Pro 16:18Jer 48:29
Both
Both can carry the idea of haughty exaltation that invites judgment: one as the lofty heart, the other as the lofty stronghold that God humbles.Pro 16:18Isa 26:5
Names a high place rather than the quality of being high: the heights, the lofty ground itself, where Wisdom takes her stand or an army holds the open hills.Jdg 5:18Pro 8:2Pro 9:3
Becomes a name for heaven, the high dwelling of God, the place from which he looks down and reaches down. This theological use has no parallel in the other word.Psa 18:16Isa 33:5Isa 57:15Jer 25:30
Marks the proud, fortified heights of an enemy that God promises to bring down: cities set on high, the eagle's nest in the cliffs.Isa 26:5Jer 51:53Oba 1:3
govah in the other biblical languages
ὕψοςGreek“height”the Greek word for height or a high place, and by extension spiritual exaltation; it matches the physical-height side of this word.
Turns morally negative in a way the Greek word never does, naming haughtiness: the "loftiness" of a proud heart lifted up against God.Psa 10:4Pro 16:18Jer 48:29
Both
Both name literal, measurable height, the vertical extent of a body or a built structure.1Sa 17:4Rev 21:16
Both point to the lofty height of the heavens as God's realm above.Job 22:12Eph 4:8
Reaches into a positive rise in a person's standing: the lowly lifted up to honor. The humble believer is told to glory in his ὕψος, his new exalted position, a favorable sense the Hebrew word does not carry.Jas 1:9
ὑπερηφανίαGreek“pride”the Greek word for arrogant pride, literally showing oneself above others; it matches the haughtiness side of this word.
Its core sense is literal, measurable height: how tall or high something rises, whether a man, a building, or the stars.1Sa 17:42Ch 3:4Job 22:12Ezk 1:18
Can carry elevation as grandeur or majesty, a loftiness that is admirable rather than sinful.Job 40:10Ezk 19:11
Both
Both extend to haughtiness: a lifting up of the heart or spirit into arrogant self-importance.Pro 16:18Psa 10:4Mrk 7:22
Names arrogance directly as a moral evil of the heart, catalogued among sins like theft, murder, and deceit, with no trace of physical height in the word itself.Mrk 7:22
What scholars say about govah
The noun derives from the root gbh "to be high, exalted." BDB, HALOT, and DCH agree on a concrete sense "height, elevation" applied to structures, persons, trees, and the heavens, alongside a transferred sense "haughtiness, arrogance" (loftiness of heart or spirit). Job 40:10 is the notable outlier, where govah stands in a series with ga'on, hod, and hadar for exalted, God-given dignity rather than culpable pride. The metaphorical extension from vertical height to arrogance is well attested across the derivatives of this root and coheres with the wider Hebrew idiom of a "lifted-up" heart or eyes.