בָּנָה
to build
also: rebuild, establish, cause to continue fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Niphal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘sq.’
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”). Here: ‘be built’
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
1 verse where H1129 appears in the Qal stem in the Book of Daniel. Filtered view — show all forms. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Daniel
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, בנה (bânâh) means “to build.” Scripture first uses it in Genesis 2:22. It appears 345 verses across 33 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its common vocabulary. As a verb its force shifts by stem, across 2 stems (Qal, Niphal, and more). It clusters with אבן, בית and בן under a shared root. Dig into 345-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1129 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 345
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 345 distinct verses.
- 33 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 33 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #133
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 133 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 345 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Chronicles 54 verses 16%
- 1 Kings 53 verses 15%
- 1 Chronicles 27 verses 8%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 345 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 164 verses · 48%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 140 verses · 41%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 41 verses · 12%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Build 58×, He built 41×, Built 39×
- American Standard Version: Build 51×, He built 45×, Built 35×
- Berean Standard Bible: Build 54×, Built 46×, He built 23×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Build 69×, He built 62×, Built 48×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1129 across 376 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 91 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H1129 across 376 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 99 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1129 across 366 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 77 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 9 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1129 across 414 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 57 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
19 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each.
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 19 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
Qal
- Pf. ב׳ Dt 20:5 +, בָּֽנְתָה Pr 9:1; 14:1, בָּנִיתָ Dt 6:10, בָּנִתָה 1 K 9:3; וּבָנִ֫יתָ consec. Dt 20:20 +; בָּנִיתְ Ez 16:25; בָּנִיתִי 1 K 8:13 +; pl. בָּנוּ Gn 11:5 +, etc.; Impf. יִבְנֶה Dt 25:9 +; juss. וְיִבֶן Ezr 1:3 וַיִּבְנֶה Jos 19:50 + 2 times וַיִּ֫בֶן Gn 2:22 +; sf. יִבְנֵ֫הוּ Jb 20:19; 3 fs. וַתִּ֫בֶן 1 Ch 7:24 Zc 9:3; אֶבְנֶה 2 S 7:27 +; pl. יִבְנוּ Is 65:22 +, etc.; Imv. בְּנֵה Nu 23:1 +; pl. בְּנוּ Nu 32:24 +; Inf. abs. בָּנֹה 1 K 8:13; cstr. בְּנוֹת 1 Ch 6:17 +, etc.; Pt. act. בֹּנֶה (בּוֹנֶה) Gn 4:17 +; cstr. בֹּנֵה ψ 147:2; pl. בּוֹנִים (בֹּנִים) Ezr 4:1 +; cstr. בֹּנֵי 1 K 5:32(×2), etc.; pass. בָּנוּי Ct 4:4 Ju 6:28; f. בְּנוּיָה ψ 122:3; pl. בְּנוּיִם Ne 7:4;—build, e.g. Deuteronomy 20:5
- a. c. acc. (α) of city (Hex only JE) Gn 4:17; 10:11; 11:4, 5 (+ tower) v 8 (all J & his sources); Ex 1:11 Nu 32:24 Jos 24:13 (all E) Ju 1:26; 18:28 + 22 times K Ch + Je 32:31 ψ 122:3 (pt. pass.) cf. Hb 2:12; of village (חָצֵר) Ne 12:29; v. also sub rebuild, i. infr.; (β) house Gn 33:17 (J), elsewhere in Hex only Dt 6:10; 8:12; 20:20; 28:30; also 2 S 5:11 1 K 22:39 1 Ch 14:1 2 Ch 2:2 Pr 24:27 Am 5:11 Zp 1:13 Is 65:21 Je 35:7, 9 cf. Zc 5:11; as sign of security Ez 28:26 cf. 11:3; of luxury Ec 2:4 cf. Je 22:14; of permanent residence 1 K 2:36 Je 29:5, 28; especially of temple 1 K 3:1; 5:32; 6:2 + often S K Chr; fig. of wisdom’s house Pr 9:1; especially build temple ליהוה etc. 2 S 7:5, 7 1 K 6:1 (= began to build) + 13 times Chr + Is 66:1; לְשֵׁם י׳ etc. 2 S 7:13 1 K 5:17 + 8 times K, 13 times Ch; לְךָ לְשִׁמְךָ 2 Ch 20:8; לִהְיוֹת שְׁמִי שָׁם 1 K 8:16 2 Ch 6:5; לָשׂוּם שְׁמִי שָׁם 1 K 9:3; obj. chambers, or stories 1 K 6:5, 10, court 6:36 Ho 8:14 perhaps of idolt-temples; cf. 1 K 16:32; ψ 78:69 of Yahweh’s building his sanctuary, 147:2 Jerusalem, ψ 127:1 a house; also Am 9:6 his chambers in the heavens; of Sol.’s palace 1 K 7:1, 2; 9:1, 10 +; (γ) of a fortress 2 Ch 17:12 27:4 cf. of Tyre Zc 9:3 (מָצוֹר); (δ) of wall 1 K 3:1 Is 60:10 Ez 13:10 2 Ch 33:14 (cf. 27:3) Ne 4:4; 6:1 +; (ε) gate 2 K 15:35 = 2 Ch 27:3; (ζ) tower Is 5:2 2 Ch 26:9, 10; 27:4 cf. fig. Ct 8:9 & pt. pass. Ct 4:4 (in sim.); † (η) siege-works against (עַל־) a city Dt 20:20 (מָצוֹר), Ec 9:14 (מְצוֹרִים), 2 K 25:1 = Je 52:4 Ez 4:2 (all דָּיֵק), & so (without עַל־) Ez 17:17; 21:27; cf. בנה עָלַי, abs. La 3:5 (in fig.); (θ) altar Gn 22:9; 35:7 Ex 17:15; 20:25; 24:4 Nu 23:1, 14, 29 (all E), Gn 26:25 Ex 32:5 (both J), Jos 22:11 + 6 times Jos 22 (all P) Ju 6:28 (pt. pass.) 21:4 + 6 times K Ch; often sq. ליהוה etc. Gn 8:20; 12:7, 8; 13:18 (all J), Dt 27:5, 6 Jos 8:30 (E) Ju 6:24, 26 + 8 times S K Ch; †(ι) high places (בָּמָה) 1 K 11:7; 14:23 2 K 17:9; 21:3; 23:13 2 Ch 33:3, 19 Je 7:31; 19:5; 32:35; cf. גַּב Ez 16:24, 31 (both ‖ רָמָה) & רָמָה v 25; †(κ) צִיּוּן Ez 39:15; also †(λ) גִּדְרֹת צֹאן Nu 32:16 (E); †(μ) מיּ֯סַךְ הַשַּׁבָּת 2 K 16:18. e.g. Genesis 4:17
- b. c. acc. of material Ex 20:25 (E) 1 K 6:36; 18:32; 15:22 = 2 Ch 16:6 Ez 27:5; c. בְּ of material 1 K 6:15, 16; 15:17 2 Ch 16:6; cf. e.g. Exodus 20:22
- c. וַיִּבֶן אֶת־הַצֵּלָע לְאִשָּׁה Gn 2:22 and he (Yahweh) fashioned the rib into a woman. e.g. Genesis 2:22
- d. abs. 2 S 5:9 1 K 6:16 Is 9:9 Je 1:10; 18:9; 22:13; 31:28 Is 65:22 + 12 times Chr + Mal 1:4 Ec 3:3 (opp. פרץ); also e.g. 2 Samuel 5:9
- e. Pt. act. = builder 1 K 5:32(×2) + 6 times Chr + Ez 27:4 ψ 118:22; 127:1. e.g. 1 Kings 5:32
- f. cf. indef. obj. 1 K 9:19 = 2 Ch 8:6. e.g. 1 Kings 9:19
- g. וַיִּבֶן אֶת־הָהָר = and he built on the hill 1 K 16:24. e.g. 1 Kings 16:24
- h. sq. בְּ build at Zc 6:15 Ne 4:11 (cf. בְּ i 2 b, p. 88). e.g. Zechariah 6:15
- i. = rebuild Jos 6:26 1 K 16:34 Am 9:14 Is 45:13 ψ 69:36 Ne 2:5 Dn 9:25 all of city; cf. phrase בנה חָרְבוֹת עוֹלָם Is 58:12; 61:4 & Ez 36:36 Mal 1:4 Jb 3:14; of walls Mi 7:11 2 Ch 32:5 Ne 2:17; 3:33, 35, 38; 6:6 ψ 51:20 (act. of י׳); of gate Ne 3:1, 13, 14, 15; temple Zc 6:12, 13 Ezr 1:3; alter 2 Ch 33:16 (Qr וַיִּבֶן so Bö ויכן, from כון, so Öt), Ezr 3:2; high places 2 K 21:3 = 2 Ch 33:3; in some of these apparently an idea of merely repairing; so, sometimes with added notion of enlarging etc., city Nu 32:34, 37, 38 (E) Jos 19:50 (P) Ju 21:23 2 K 14:22 = 2 Ch 26:2, 1 Ch 11:8 2 Ch 8:2; 11:6 cf. Mi 3:10; Millo 1 K 9:24; 11:27; cf. house Jb 20:19. e.g. Joshua 6:26
- 2. fig.
- a. build a house (בית) = perpetuate and establish a family; subj. Leah & Rachel Ru 4:11; subj. a brother Dt 25:9; subj. י׳ (promise to David) 1 S 2:35 2 S 7:27 1 K 11:38 1 Ch 17:10 and 17:25; (to Solomon) 1 K 11:38; cf. further סֻכַּת דָּוִד Am 9:11 (rebuild, restore); = cause a household to flourish Pr 14:1 cf. opp. 27:18; also of establishing David’s throne ψ 89:5. e.g. Ruth 4:11
- b. build up Israel (after exile) subj. י׳ Je 24:6; 31:4; 33:7; 42:10 cf. 45:4 & ψ 28:5; obj. Zion ψ 102:17. e.g. Jeremiah 24:6
Niphal
- Pf. נִבְנָה 1 K 3:2; 6:7, נִבְנְתָה Nu 13:22 Ne 7:1, וְנִבְנְתָה consec. Je 30:18 + 2 times; 2 fs. וְנִבְנֵית consec. Je 31:4; 3 pl. נִבְנוּ Mal 3:15; וְנִבְנוּ consec. Je 12:16 Ez 36:33; Impf. יִבָּנֶה Jb 12:14 + 4 times; 3 fs. תִּבָּנֶה Nu 21:27 + 3 times; 2 ms. תִּבָּנֶה Jb 22:23, אִבָּנֶה Gn 16:2, וְאִבָּנֶה Gn 30:3; 3 fpl. תִּבָּנֶינָה Ez 36:10; 2 fpl. תִּבָּנֶינָה Is 44:26; Inf. לְהִבָּנוֹת Hg 1:2 Zc 8:9, בְּהִבָּנֹתוֹ 1 K 6:7(×2); Pt. נִבְנֶה 1 Ch 22:19;— e.g. 1 Kings 3:2
- 1.
- a. be built, (lit.) of city Nu 13:22; of temple 1 K 3:2 (לְשֵׁם י׳) 1 K 6:7(×3) (c. acc. mater.); Pt. = to be built (gerundive) 1 Ch 22:19. e.g. Numbers 13:22
- b. be rebuilt: of city of Sihon Nu 21:27 cf. Is 25:2; 44:26, of wall of Jerusalem Ne 7:1, of Jerusalem Je 30:18; 31:4, 38 Is 44:28 cf. Dn 9:25 תָּשׁוּב וְנִבְנְתָה, & Ez 26:14 (c. עוֹד), of ruinous places (הֶחֳרָבוֹת) Ez 36:10, 33, of a devoted city Dt 13:17 (c. עוֹד), of temple Hg 1:2 Zc 1:16; 8:9, indef. subj. Jb 12:14. e.g. Numbers 21:27
- 2.
- a. (fig.) of restored exiles, = established Je 12:16, of prosperous wicked Mal 3:15, of repentant offender Jb 22:23. e.g. Jeremiah 12:16
- b. established, made permanent, subj. חֶסֶד ψ 89:3 (c. עוֹלָם), subj. בַּיִת Pr 24:3 (by wisdom). e.g. Psalms 89:3
- c. of childless wife, by means of concubine אִבָּנֶה מִמֶּנָּה Gn 16:2; 30:3 I shall be built up, i.e. become the mother of a family, from or through her; cf. >Qal 2 a. e.g. Genesis 16:2
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
vb. build (MI, Nab. Eut No. 1 בנה, Ph. בן, Arabic بَنَا Assyrian banû COTGloss. cf. BaZMG 1887, 640, Sab. בני CIS iv. 1, No. 56, Aramaic בְּנָא, ܒܢܳܐ Palm. בנא VogNo. 31)—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
בני
- [to combine,] to build. Sabb. XII, 1 הַבּוֹנֶה he who builds (on the Sabbath). Ib.] 102ᵇ משום בונה (isguilty) because it is one of the labors classified under ‘building’; a. fr.—Metaph. to educate, train. Ber. 64ᵃ (ref. to Is. LIV, 93) א"ת בָּנַיִךְ אלא בוֹנַיִּךְ read not banayikh (thy children), but bonayikh (thy builders, trainers); v. בַּנָּאִים.—Ex. R. s. 23 (play on b’noth, Cant. I, 5) בּוֹנוֹת וכ׳ the authorities directing the building of Jerusalem; v. Pi.—Ḥull. 78ᵇ זה בנה אב, v. אָב, a. בִּנְיָן. [Tosef. Par. VII (VI), 4 בְּנָאוֹ ed. Zuck., v. כָּנַן.] e.g. Isaiah 54:93
- 1. to be built up. Y. B. Bath. III, 14ᵇ, a. fr. לְהִיבָּנוֹת, לִיבָּנוֹת.
- 2. (denom. of בֵּן) to get children. Gen. R. s. 71.
- (denom. of בֵּן) to be adopted, naturalized. Pesik. R. s. 43 נִתְבַּנּוּ בישראל they became full Israelitish citizens.
- to lay out, plan a city, determine its limits. Ex. R. l. c. the Great Sanedrin held sessions ומְבַנָּים אותה (not אותם) and determined the limits of Jerusalem; v. Snh. I, 5.—Part. Pu. מְבוּנֶּה cultivated; built (of human stature), well-proportioned. Keth. 112ᵃ; Sot. 34ᵇ היתה מְבוּנָּה על וכ׳ it (Hebron, in spite of the rocky nature of its soil) was seven times better cultivated than Zoan (one measure of its land yielding as much as did seven measures of the soil of Zoan). Ib. 42ᵇ (play on benayim, I Sam. XVII, 4) מב׳ מכל מום his build was without blemish. e.g. 1 Samuel 17:4
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 204 distinct written forms H1129 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 144 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1129, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
- אבן ʼeben H68 stone
- בית bayith H1004 house
- בן bên H1121 son
- בנא bᵉnâʼ H1124 to build
- בניה binyâh H1140 building
- בנין binyân H1146 building
- בת bath H1323 daughter
- מבנה mibneh H4011 building
- תבן teben H8401 stubble
- תבנית tabnîyth H8403 pattern
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- בנוי Binnûwy H1131 Binnui
- בני Bânîy H1137 Bani
- בני Bunnîy H1138 Bunni
- בניה Bᵉnâyâh H1141 Benaiah
- יבנאל Yabnᵉʼêl H2995 Jabneel
- יבנה Yabneh H2996 Jabneh
- יבניה Yibnᵉyâh H2997 Ibneiah
- יבניה Yibnîyâh H2998 Ibnijah
- מבני Mᵉbunnay H4012 Mebunnai
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 20 — not the complete family. 9 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 306 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 345 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 2:22
- Exodus 1:11
- Numbers 13:22
- Deuteronomy 6:10
- Joshua 6:26
- Judges 1:26
- Ruth 4:11
- 1 Samuel 2:35
- 2 Samuel 5:9
- 1 Kings 2:36
- 2 Kings 12:11
- 1 Chronicles 6:10
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
