בָּצַע
to cut off
also: break off, get, finish, be covetous fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Qal 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”).
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms 9 distinct
- Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 6 times (38%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 3 times (19%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (6%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (6%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Plural 1 time (6%)
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (6%)
- Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct 1 time (6%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (6%)
+1 more form (1 occurrence)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 16 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H1214 appears — 16 distinct verses across 11 books. 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.
Job 2 verses
Psalms 1 verse
Proverbs 2 verses
Isaiah 2 verses
- Isaiah 10:12 יְבַצַּ֤ע Piel impf 3ms Therefore it shall happen that, when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
- Isaiah 38:12 יְבַצְּעֵ֔/נִי Piel impf 3ms + sfx pers 1cs My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me as a shepherd's tent: I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life; he will cut me off from the loom: From day even to night will you make an end of me.
Jeremiah 2 verses
- Jeremiah 6:13 בּוֹצֵ֣עַ Qal ptcp.act ms For from the least of them even to the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.
- Jeremiah 8:10 בֹּצֵ֣עַ Qal ptcp.act ms Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall possess them: for everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.
Lamentations 1 verse
Ezekiel 2 verses
- Ezekiel 22:12 וַ/תְּבַצְּעִ֤י conj + Piel wimpf 2fs In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 22:27 בְּצֹ֥עַ Qal inf.cs Her princes in the midst of it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, [and] to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.
Joel 1 verse
Amos 1 verse
Habakkuk 1 verse
Zechariah 1 verse
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.
בצע (bâtsaʻ) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to cut off.” Debuting at Job 6:9, it then recurs through the corpus. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 16 verses — uncommon. Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 2 stems, among them Qal and Piel. Related forms include בצע. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1214 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 →
- 16
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 16 distinct verses.
- 11 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 11 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,752
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,752 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 16 occurrences in the concordance →
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 16 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 10 verses · 63%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 6 verses · 38%
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: Coveteth 1×, Covetous 1×, Cut 1×
- American Standard Version: Break 1×, Break not off their course 1×, Covetous 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: Are greedy 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: And 1×, Are greedy 1×, Break them in pieces 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1214 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H1214 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1214 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1214 across 18 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings.
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 2 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
- Impf. יִבְצָ֑ע Jb 27:8, יִבְצָ֑עוּ Jo 2:8; Imv. sf. בְּצַ֫עַם בְּרֹאשׁ (K3) Am 9:1; Inf. בְּצֹעַ Ez 22:27; Pt. בּוֹצֵעַ Pr 15:27 Je 6:13, בֹּצֵעַ ψ 10:3 + 3 times;—cut off, break off (c. acc. capitals of pillars) Am 9:1 (but LagProv. v, vi בְּצַעַם = בְּזַעַם Hb 3:12 in wrath); so fig. Jb 27:8 when Eloah cutteth off, draweth out, his soul; obj. om. their course, i.e. stop Jo 2:8 (cf. Hi-St); usually gain by violence or in gen. wrongfully Ez 22:27; Pt. abs. ψ 10:3 = greedy getter, robber; & c. acc. cogn. בֶּ֫צַע Pr 1:19; 15:27 Je 6:13; 8:10 Hb 2:9. e.g. Job 27:8
Piel
- Pf. בִּצַּע La 2:17; Impf. יְבַצַּע Is 10:12; sf. יְבַצְּעֵנִי Is 38:12 Jb 6:9; 2 fs. וַתְּבַצְּעִי Ez 22:12; 3 fpl תְּבַצָּ֑עְנָה Zc 4:9;—cut off, (dis)sever (i.e. from life) Jb 6:9 cf. Is 38:12 (מִדַּלָּה); = finish, complete Is 10:12 Zc 4:9; accomplish (= carry out, fulfil) La 2:17 (obj. אמרתו); violently make gain of, obj. pers. Ez 22:12 (instr. בּעשׁק). e.g. Lamentations 2:17
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. cut off, break off, gain by violence (so NH, Arabic بَضَعَ, Ethiopic በጽዐ Aramaic בְּצַע)—
— 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.
בָּצַע
- 1. to cut, break, esp. to break bread and say the blessing. Ḥull. 7ᵇ מימיו לא ב׳ על וכ׳ never said grace over a piece of bread which was not his own (never accepted an invitation). Ber. 46ᵃ בע"הב בּוֹצֵעַ וכ׳ the host breaks the bread and the guest says grace after meal. Ib. 47ᵃ אין הבוצע רשאי לִבְצוֹעַ וכ׳ he who is chosen to break the bread, must not begin to break until the Amen of those that respond (to the blessing) is finished; a. fr.
- 2. to split the difference, to adjust, compromise. Snh. 6ᵇ top נגמר … לבצוע after the legal proceedings are closed, thou must not act as an arbiter in a compromise. Ib. אסור לב׳ the court is forbidden to attempt a settlement (you must let the law take its course). Ib. מצוה לב׳ it is a meritorious act to bring about a settlement. Ib. (before having formed an opinion the judge may say) צאו ובִצְעוּ go out and settle; a. fr.
- to adjust. Y. Snh. I, 18ᵇ top המְבַצֵּעַ חוטא the judge who settles a case is a sinner. Ib. לְבַצֵּעַ (interch. with לבצוע). V. בִּיצּוּעַ.
בְּצַע
- 1. to break. B. Bath. 91ᵇ כד הוה ב׳ ינוקא וכ׳ when a child broke apart a piece of St. John’s bread. Sabb. 140ᵇ, v. בִּיצּוּעָא.—
- *2. to tear away, rescue (cmp. פצי). Targ. Job XXXIII, 18 יבצע Ms. (ed. ימנע).
- to break. Targ. O. Lev. II, 6 (Var. בְּצַע Pe.). [Y. Taan. IV, 69ᵇ; Y. Meg. I, 70ᵃ bot. מבצע (Cant. R. to I, 16 מצנעה) read: מנצב, מנצבה, v. נְצַב.]
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 15 distinct written forms H1214 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1214, 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
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 16 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 16 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
- Job 6:9
- Psalms 10:3
- Proverbs 1:19
- Isaiah 10:12
- Jeremiah 6:13
- Lamentations 2:17
- Ezekiel 22:12
- Joel 2:8
- Amos 9:1
- Habakkuk 2:9
- Zechariah 4:9
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.
