StrongerBible

laqaḥ

לָקַח

HebrewH3947“take, marry, ...”

Appears 966 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 2:15Gen 2:21Gen 2:22Gen 4:11Gen 4:19Gen 5:24Gen 6:2Gen 6:21Gen 8:9Gen 8:20Gen 9:23Gen 11:29Gen 11:31Gen 12:5Gen 12:19Gen 14:11Gen 14:12Gen 14:21Gen 15:9Gen 15:10Gen 17:23Gen 18:7Gen 18:8Gen 19:15Gen 22:2Gen 23:13Gen 24:7Gen 24:48Gen 24:51Gen 27:9Gen 27:13Gen 27:36 (2×)Gen 28:2Gen 28:6Gen 30:15Gen 31:1Gen 31:32Gen 31:46Gen 32:23(24)Gen 33:11 (2×)Gen 34:25Gen 34:26Gen 36:2Gen 37:24Gen 37:31Gen 38:2Gen 38:20Gen 43:15Gen 43:18Gen 46:6
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradelah-KAKHverb

What laqaḥ means

to take: to lay hold of someone or something and bring it into your hand, your possession, or your keeping

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is one of the most common verbs in the Hebrew Bible, and it does the plain work of "take" in almost every direction English uses that word. At its core it pictures a hand reaching out, closing on something, and drawing it in. The standard lexicons treat it as a single verb with a wide reach, not as several unrelated words that happen to be spelled alike, and every use can be traced back to that one picture.

What changes across the range is not the verb but what is taken and who is doing the taking:

  • when the thing taken is a wife, this is simply the ordinary Hebrew way of saying marry
  • when the taker is a king or an army, it shades into seizing, capturing, and carrying off plunder
  • when something is held out and accepted, it becomes receiving, including the bribe a judge must refuse
  • when the taking happens at a price, it slides into buying, near the dedicated word for purchase (קָנָה)
  • when God is the taker, it can mean claiming a people as his own, or removing a person from this life

The verb also works as a running start for another action. Hebrew narrative constantly says that someone "took" something and then did something with it, and in many of these the taking is barely a separate act at all: "take and eat", "take now your son". English often drops it, which is why a verse can carry the word without any English word answering to it.

Two edges of the range carry weight beyond the ordinary. Powerful men "take" women in a way the storyteller clearly means as an abuse of power. And God "takes" Enoch, Elijah, and the worshiper who hopes in the Psalms, in a way that has been argued over for centuries.

Nuances

1ato take hold of something and pick it up
Gen 2:15Gen 2:21Gen 2:22Gen 2:23Gen 3:6Gen 3:19Gen 3:22Gen 3:23Gen 8:9Gen 8:20Gen 9:23Gen 15:10
1bto seize or carry off by force; to capture, plunder, or appropriate
Gen 12:15Gen 14:11Gen 14:12Gen 20:2Gen 27:35Gen 34:2Gen 34:28Gen 39:20Gen 42:24Num 31:11Jos 7:11Jos 11:19
1cto take a wife; to marry
Gen 4:19Gen 6:2Gen 11:29Gen 16:3Gen 19:14Gen 20:3Gen 21:21Gen 24:3Gen 24:4Gen 24:7Gen 24:37Gen 24:38
1dto receive or accept what is offered or given
Gen 23:13Gen 33:11 (2×)Exo 23:8Exo 25:2Exo 25:3Exo 32:4Lev 25:36Num 3:49Num 7:6Num 18:26Num 18:28Deu 16:19
1eto take something or someone and bring, fetch, or lead them to a place
Gen 11:31Gen 12:5Gen 17:23Gen 18:5Gen 18:7Gen 18:8Gen 20:14Gen 21:14Gen 21:27Gen 22:3Gen 24:10Gen 24:61
1fto take away or remove; used of God taking a person from this life
TranslatabilityPartial
Gen 5:24Gen 42:361Sa 21:61Ki 11:341Ki 11:352Ki 2:32Ki 2:52Ki 2:92Ki 2:10Job 1:21Psa 49:15(16)Psa 73:24
Psa 49:15

Whether "he will take me" in Psalm 49:15 claims that God will receive the worshiper beyond death, on the pattern of Enoch, or expresses rescue and vindication within this life.

  • minorityThe verb announces the worshiper's being taken to life with God, deliberately echoing the taking of Enoch.; Mitchell Dahood, Psalms I: 1-50, Anchor Bible
  • majorityThe line voices confidence that God will not abandon the worshiper to the grave, without setting out a doctrine of life after death.; Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 1-59: A Commentary; Jon D. Levenson, Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel
Psa 73:24

Whether "you will take me" in Psalm 73:24 claims that God will receive the worshiper beyond death, on the pattern of Enoch, or expresses unbroken communion and vindication within this life.

  • minorityThe verb announces the worshiper's being taken to eternal life with God, deliberately echoing the taking of Enoch.; Mitchell Dahood, Psalms II: 51-100, Anchor Bible
  • majorityThe line voices confidence that fellowship with God is not broken by death, while stopping short of a doctrine of life after death.; Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger, Psalms 2, Hermeneia; John Goldingay, Psalms, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms; Jon D. Levenson, Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel
1gto take a person or a people as your own: to claim, choose, and set apart
Exo 6:7Num 3:12Num 3:41Num 3:45Num 8:16Num 8:18Num 18:6Deu 4:20Jos 24:32Sa 7:81Ki 11:371Ch 17:7
1hto get something by paying for it; to buy
1Ki 10:282Ch 1:16Neh 10:31Pro 31:16
1iof fire, to catch and keep taking hold; to flash continually
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
Exo 9:24Ezk 1:4

What scholars say about laqaḥ

The standard lexica treat לקח as a single very common verb (BDB heads the entry with a count of 965 occurrences) whose many English glosses are contextual specializations of one core sense, "to take with the hand, lay hold of," rather than a set of unrelated homonyms. BDB arranges the material by object and construction (take with the hand; take and carry along; take away or remove; take to or for a person, hence procure, select, receive, accept; take in marriage; take captive; fetch; take vengeance); HALOT and DCH follow the same one-verb strategy, and Gesenius glossed it as the equivalent of Greek λαμβάνω, which is in fact the Septuagint's normal rendering, with αἴρω for "take away" and δέχομαι for "receive." Horst Seebass's article in TDOT 8:16-21 works from everyday usage up to the theologically weighted domains: the marriage idiom לקח אשה, the covenant formula of Exodus 6:7 ("I will take you to me for a people"), the Levites taken in place of the firstborn (Numbers 3), and the divine taking of Enoch and Elijah. Morphologically the verb is the standard partner of נתן among the assimilating verbs: the first radical assimilates in the imperfect (יִקַּח) and drops in the imperative (קַח), which grammarians treat as genuine regressive assimilation rather than analogy to the I-nun pattern. The verb never appears in Piel or Hiphil, and the forms traditionally pointed as Pual and Hophal (לֻקַּח, יֻקַּח) are widely analyzed as survivals of the old internal Qal passive. The cognate evidence is secure for Akkadian leqû, Ugaritic and Phoenician lqḥ, and Moabite (Mesha Stele); Aramaic is the notable exception, having innovated נסב for ordinary "take" and retaining lqḥ only in narrower senses of receiving and buying, which is why the Targums render the Hebrew verb with נסב. The lexicon-glossing seeds that separate "buy" and "take fire" are not separate words: buying is the take-into-possession sense in a commercial setting, distinct from the dedicated purchase verb קנה, and the fire forms are the rare reflexive of the same root, used only of fire in Exodus 9:24 and Ezekiel 1:4.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. לקחlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. לקחlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. לקחlexicon
  • Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, s.v. לקחlexicon
  • Horst Seebass, "לקח lāqaḥ," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (ed. Botterweck, Ringgren, Fabry), 8:16-21dictionary
  • Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament (ed. Jenni and Westermann), s.v. לקחdictionary
  • Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (ed. Kautzsch, trans. Cowley), §66 on the assimilating first radicalgrammar
  • Paul Joüon and T. Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrewgrammar
  • John Huehnergard, "Akkadian ḫ and West Semitic *ḥ," in Studia Semitica (ed. Leonid Kogan), 102-119article
  • Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, Word Biblical Commentarycommentary
  • Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary, 115commentary
  • Rolf Rendtorff, The Covenant Formula: An Exegetical and Theological Investigationmonograph
  • Raymond Westbrook, Property and the Family in Biblical Law (JSOTSup 113)monograph
  • Carol Meyers, Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Contextmonograph
  • Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutionsmonograph
  • Mitchell Dahood, Psalms II: 51-100, Anchor Biblecommentary
  • Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger, Psalms 2, Hermeneiacommentary
  • Jon D. Levenson, Resurrection and the Restoration of Israelmonograph
  • Michael V. Fox, Proverbs 1-9, Anchor Yale Biblecommentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of לָקַח

qal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיִּקַּח, וַיִּקָּחֵ, וַיִּקָּחֶ, וַיִּקָּח

Gen 2:15, Gen 2:21, Gen 4:19, Gen 8:20, Gen 9:23, Gen 11:29, Gen 11:31, Gen 12:5

qal imperative 2ms

קַח, קָחֶ, לְקַח, קָח, קְחָ

Gen 6:21, Gen 12:19, Gen 14:21, Gen 19:15, Gen 22:2, Gen 23:13, Gen 24:51, Gen 27:9

qal perfect 3ms

לָקַח, לָקָח, לְקָחָ, לְקָחַ

Gen 2:22, Gen 5:24, Gen 27:36, Gen 31:1, Gen 36:2, Gen 47:2, Exo 6:25, Exo 14:6

qal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיִּקְחוּ, וַיִּקָּחֻ, וַיִּקָּחוּ

Gen 6:2, Gen 14:11, Gen 14:12, Gen 31:46, Gen 34:25, Gen 34:26, Gen 37:31, Gen 43:15

qal imperfect 3ms

יִקַּח, יִקָּח, יִקָּחֵ, יִקָּחֶ, יִּקָּחֲ

Exo 21:10, Exo 33:7, Lev 14:6, Lev 14:10, Lev 14:42, Lev 15:14, Lev 16:5, Lev 20:14

qal infinitive-construct construct

קַחַת, קַחְתָּ, קַחְתֵּ, קַחְתּ, קַּחַת, קָחָ, קְחַת, קַחְתִּ

Gen 4:11, Gen 24:48, Gen 28:6, Gen 30:15, Gen 38:20, Gen 43:18, Deu 4:34, Deu 9:9

qal consecutive-perfect 2ms

וְלָקַחְתָּ

Gen 24:4, Gen 24:7, Gen 24:38, Gen 24:40, Gen 33:10, Exo 4:9, Exo 28:9, Exo 29:5

qal consecutive-imperfect 3fs

וַתִּקַּח, וַתִּקָּחֵ, וַתִּקָּחֶ

Gen 3:6, Gen 16:3, Gen 21:21, Gen 24:65, Gen 27:15, Gen 30:9, Gen 38:28, Exo 2:3

qal imperative 2mp

קְחוּ, קָחֻ, קָחוּ

Gen 42:33, Gen 43:11, Gen 43:12, Gen 45:18, Gen 45:19, Exo 5:11, Exo 9:8, Exo 12:21

qal consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְלָקַח, וּלְקָחָ

Gen 3:22, Exo 12:4, Exo 22:11, Lev 4:5, Lev 4:25, Lev 4:30, Lev 4:34, Lev 14:4

qal imperfect 2ms

תִּקַּח, תִּקָּח, תִּקָּחֶ, תִּקָּחֵ

Gen 7:2, Gen 21:30, Gen 24:3, Gen 24:37, Gen 28:1, Gen 28:6, Gen 31:50, Exo 4:9

qal perfect 3cp

לָקְחוּ, לָקָחוּ

Gen 43:15, Num 34:14, Num 34:14, Num 34:15, Jos 4:20, Jos 7:11, Jos 11:19, Jos 13:8

qal perfect 1cs

לָקַחְתִּי, לְקַחְתִּי, לָקָחְתִּי

Gen 48:22, Lev 7:34, Num 3:12, Num 8:16, Num 18:6, Deu 9:21, Deu 22:14, 1Sa 2:16

qal consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְלָקְחוּ, וּלְקָחוּ, וְלָקָחוּ

Exo 12:7, Lev 14:42, Num 4:9, Num 4:12, Num 8:8, Num 19:17, Deu 19:12, Deu 21:3

qal imperfect 3mp

יִקָּחוּ, יִקְחוּ

Lev 21:7, Lev 21:7, 2Sa 23:6, 2Ki 20:18, Job 27:13, Isa 39:7, Jer 49:29, Ezk 22:25

qal consecutive-perfect 1cs

וְלָקַחְתִּי, וּלְקַחְתִּי

Exo 6:7, 1Sa 25:11, 2Sa 12:11, 1Ki 11:35, 2Ki 5:20, 2Ki 18:32, Isa 36:17, Jer 3:14

qal imperfect 2mp

תִּקְחוּ, תִּקָּחוּ

Gen 34:9, Exo 25:2, Exo 25:3, Num 18:26, Num 18:28, Num 34:18, Num 35:31, Num 35:32

qal consecutive-imperfect 1cs

וָאֶקַּח, וָאֶקְחָ, וָאֶקָּחֵ

Gen 12:19, Gen 40:11, Num 8:18, Deu 1:15, Deu 1:23, Jos 24:3, 2Sa 1:10, Jer 13:7

qal imperfect 1cs

אֶקַּח, אֶקָּח, אֶקָּחֲ

Gen 14:23, 1Ki 11:34, 1Ki 11:37, Psa 50:9, Psa 75:2, Isa 66:21, 2Ki 5:16, Isa 47:3

qal participle m s absolute

לֹקֵחַ

Gen 27:46, Deu 27:25, 2Ki 2:3, 2Ki 2:5, Pro 9:7, Pro 11:30, Ezk 24:16, Ezk 37:19

qal conjunctive-imperfect 3mp

וְיִקְחוּ

Exo 12:3, Exo 25:2, Exo 27:20, Lev 24:2, Num 19:2, 2Ki 7:13

qal consecutive-perfect 2mp

וּלְקַחְתֶּם

Gen 44:29, Exo 12:22, Lev 23:40, Num 13:20, Jos 6:18, 1Sa 6:8

hophal imperfect 3ms

יֻקַּח, יֻקָּח

Gen 18:4, Isa 49:24, Ezk 15:3, Job 28:2, Isa 49:25

qal cohortative 1cp

נִקְחָה

1Sa 4:3, 2Ki 6:2, Neh 5:2, Neh 5:3, Jer 20:10

qal imperative 2fs

קְחִי, לִקְחִי

1Ki 17:10, Isa 23:16, Isa 47:2, Jer 46:11, 1Ki 17:11

qal imperfect 1cp

נִקַּח

Gen 34:16, Gen 34:21, Exo 10:26, Neh 10:30, Neh 10:31

qal perfect 2ms

לָקַחְתָּ, לְקַחְתָּ

Gen 20:3, 1Sa 12:4, 2Sa 12:9, Psa 68:18, Exo 14:11

pual perfect 3ms

לֻקַּח, לֻקָּח

Gen 3:23, Jdg 17:2, Isa 52:5, Isa 53:8

qal conjunctive-imperfect 3ms

וְיִקָּחֶ, וְיִקַּח

Deu 30:12, Deu 30:13, 1Sa 26:22, Gen 42:16

qal consecutive-imperfect 2fs

וַתִּקְחִי

Ezk 16:16, Ezk 16:17, Ezk 16:18, Ezk 16:20

qal imperfect 3fs

תִּקַּח, תִקָּחֵ

Gen 38:23, Lev 15:29, Ezk 16:32, Amo 9:2

qal infinitive-absolute absolute

לָקוֹחַ, לָקֹחַ

Jer 32:14, Ezk 24:5, Zec 6:10, Deu 31:26

niphal infinitive-construct construct

הִלָּקַח, הִלָּקְח

1Sa 4:19, 1Sa 4:21, 1Sa 21:6

niphal perfect 3ms

נִלְקָח, נִלְקַח

1Sa 4:11, Ezk 33:6, 1Sa 4:22

qal jussive 2ms

תִּקַּח, תִּקָּחֵ

Lev 25:36, Psa 51:11, Jer 15:15

qal participle m p construct

לֹקְחֵי

Gen 19:14, 2Sa 4:6, Amo 5:12

qal perfect 1cp

לָקַחְנוּ

Deu 3:4, Jdg 21:22, Amo 6:13

qal perfect 3fs

לָקְחָה

Gen 31:34, Isa 40:2, Zep 3:2

niphal consecutive-imperfect 3fs

וַתִּלָּקַח

Est 2:8, Est 2:16

qal cohortative 1cs

אֶקְחָה

Gen 18:5, Isa 56:12

24 further parsings are listed under Syntax.