בָּקַשׁ
to seek
also: require, desire, exact, request fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘seek to find’
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
Form
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
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).
Every verse where H1245 appears in the Book of Psalms — 26 distinct verses. 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.
Psalms
- Psalms 4:2 תְּבַקְשׁ֖וּ Piel impf 2mp You sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonor? Will you love vanity, and seek after falsehood? Selah.
- Psalms 24:6 מְבַקְשֵׁ֨י Piel ptcp.act mp cs This is the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek your face--even Jacob. Selah.
- Psalms 27:4 אֲבַ֫קֵּ֥שׁ Piel impf 1cs One thing I have asked of Yahweh, that I will seek after, That I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, To see Yahweh's beauty, And to inquire in his temple.
- Psalms 27:8 בַּקְּשׁ֣וּ אֲבַקֵּֽשׁ Piel impv 2mp Piel impf 1cs When you said, "Seek my face," My heart said to you, "I will seek your face, Yahweh."
- Psalms 34:14 בַּקֵּ֖שׁ Piel impv 2ms Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.
- Psalms 35:4 מְבַקְשֵׁ֪י Piel ptcp.act mp cs Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonor. Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded.
- Psalms 37:25 מְבַקֶּשׁ Piel ptcp.act ms I have been young, and now am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his children begging for bread.
- Psalms 37:32 וּ֝/מְבַקֵּ֗שׁ conj + Piel ptcp.act ms The wicked watches the righteous, And seeks to kill him.
- Psalms 37:36 וָֽ֝/אֲבַקְשֵׁ֗/הוּ conj + Piel wimpf 1cs + sfx pers 3ms But he passed away, and, behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found.
- Psalms 38:12 מְבַקְשֵׁ֬י Piel ptcp.act mp cs They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, And meditate deceits all day long.
- Psalms 40:14 מְבַקְשֵׁ֥י Piel ptcp.act mp cs Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.
- Psalms 40:16 מְבַ֫קְשֶׁ֥י/ךָ Piel ptcp.act mp cs + sfx pers 2ms Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually, "Let Yahweh be exalted!"
- Psalms 54:3 בִּקְשׁ֣וּ Piel pf 3cp For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven't set God before them. Selah.
- Psalms 63:9 יְבַקְשׁ֣וּ Piel impf 3mp But those who seek my soul, to destroy it, Shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
- Psalms 69:6 מְבַקְשֶׁ֑י/ךָ Piel ptcp.act mp cs + sfx pers 2ms Don't let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Hosts. Don't let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.
- Psalms 70:2 מְבַקְשֵׁ֪י Piel ptcp.act mp cs Let them be disappointed and confounded who seek my soul. Let those who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.
- Psalms 70:4 מְבַ֫קְשֶׁ֥י/ךָ Piel ptcp.act mp cs + sfx pers 2ms Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation continually say, "Let God be exalted!"
- Psalms 71:13 מְ֝בַקְשֵׁ֗י Piel ptcp.act mp cs Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.
- Psalms 71:24 מְבַקְשֵׁ֥י Piel ptcp.act mp cs My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long, For they are disappointed, and they are confounded, who want to harm me.
- Psalms 83:16 וִֽ/יבַקְשׁ֖וּ conj + Piel juss 3mp Fill their faces with confusion, That they may seek your name, Yahweh.
- Psalms 86:14 בִּקְשׁ֣וּ Piel pf 3cp God, the proud have risen up against me. A company of violent men have sought after my soul, And they don't hold regard for you before them.
- Psalms 104:21 וּ/לְ/בַקֵּ֖שׁ conj + prep + Piel inf.cs The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their food from God.
- Psalms 105:3 מְבַקְשֵׁ֬י Piel ptcp.act mp cs Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh rejoice.
- Psalms 105:4 בַּקְּשׁ֖וּ Piel impv 2mp Seek Yahweh and his strength. Seek his face forever more.
- Psalms 119:176 בַּקֵּ֣שׁ Piel impv 2ms I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I don't forget your commandments.
- Psalms 122:9 אֲבַקְשָׁ֖ה Piel coh 1cs For the sake of the house of Yahweh our God, I will seek your good.
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.
“to seek” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb בקש (bâqash). First canonically at Genesis 31:39, it enters the text early. It appears 215 verses across 33 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its common vocabulary. Across 2 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Piel, Pual). Related forms include בקשה. See the sense tree, 215-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1245 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 →
- 215
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 215 distinct verses.
- 33 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 33 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #210
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 210 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 215 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 215 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 110 verses · 51%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 90 verses · 42%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 15 verses · 7%
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: Seek 67×, Sought 28×, Seeketh 13×
- American Standard Version: Seek 59×, Sought 24×, Seeketh 11×
- Berean Standard Bible: Seek 44×, Seeks 8×, Sought 8×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Seek 51×, Sought 16×, Seeks 12×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1245 across 225 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 68 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 H1245 across 224 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 80 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 H1245 across 222 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 96 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 3 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1245 across 243 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.
23 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. This entry also uses Pual (the passive of Piel).
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 23 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.
Piel
- Pf. בִּקֵּשׁ Dt 13:11 + 15 times; בִּקְשָׁה Ex 7:28 Est 2:15; sf. בִּקְשָׁתַם Ho 2:9; בִּקַּשְׁתִּיו Ct 3:1, 2 cf. 5:6; בִּקְשׁוּ Ezr 2:62 + 12 times; sf. בִּקְשֻׁנִי Is 65:1 + 2 times; Impf. יְבַקֵּשׁ Jos 22:23 + 37 times; יְבַקֶּשׁ־ Pr 15:14 + 2 times; אֲבַקְשָׁה ψ 122:9 + 3 times, sf. יְבַקְשֵׁהוּ 1 S 23:14 + 7 times; יְבַקְשׁוּ 1 S 16:16 + 23 times; Imv. בַּקֵּשׁ 1 S 9:3 + 3 times בַּקְּשׁוּ; 1 S 28:7 + 8 times; Inf. לְבַקֵּשׁ 1 S 10:2 + 29 times; Pt. מְבַקֵּשׁ Gn 37:16 + 23 times; pl. מְבַקְשִׁים Ex 10:11 + 38 times;— e.g. Deuteronomy 13:11
- 1. seek to find:
- a. abs. Ju 6:29 2 K 2:17 Je 5:1 Ez 34:6 Ec 3:6; 8:17 (yet v. Ew). e.g. Judges 6:29
- b. acc. Gn 37:15, 16 Jos 2:22 (J) Ju 4:22; 14:4 1 S 9:3; 10:2, 14, 21; 16:16 1 S 23:14, 25; 24:3; 26:2; 27:1, 4 + 26:20 obj. a flea, but read נַפְשִׁי 𝔊 Th We Kirkp Klo Dr; 2 S 17:3, 20 1 K 1:3; 2:40; 18:10 2 K 2:16; 6:19 1 Ch 4:39 2 Ch 22:9 Ezr 2:62 (= Ne 7:64) Ne 12:27 ψ 37:25, 36; 119:176 Pr 2:4; 21:6; 23:35; Ec 7:28; Ct 3:1, 2; 5:6; 6:1 Is 41:12, 17 Je 2:24, 33 La 1:11 Ez 7:25; 22:30; 34:4, 16 Ho 2:9 Na 3:11 Zc 11:16 Mal 2:15 Ec 3:15. e.g. Genesis 37:15
- c. with לְ Jb 10:6. e.g. Job 10:6
- d. acc. rei לְ pers. Ju 18:1 1 S 13:14; 28:7 1 K 1:2 Ru 3:1 Est 2:2 ψ 122:9 Is 40:20 La 1:19 Na 3:7. e.g. Judges 18:1
- 2. seek to secure:
- a. acc. the priesthood Nu 16:10 (P); David for king 2 S 3:17; in battle 2 S 5:17 (= 1 Ch 14:8); ψ 27:4 Je 45:5 (cf. v 5); בקשׁ נפשׁ seek to take one’s life Ex 4:19 (J) 1 S 20:1; 22:23(×2); 23:15; 25:29 2 S 4:8; 16:11 1 K 19:10, 14 ψ 35:4; 38:13; 40:15; 54:5; 63:10; 70:3; 86:14 Pr 29:10 Je 4:30; 11:21; 19:7, 9; 21:7; 22:25; 34:20, 21; 38:16; 44:30(×2); 46:26; 49:37. e.g. Numbers 16:10
- b. aim at, practise: בקשׁ רעה seek hurt of Nu 35:23 (P) 1 S 24:10; 25:26 (אֶל) 1 K 20:7 ψ 71:13, 24 Est 9:2; ב׳ כזב ψ 4:3 cf. Pr 17:11, שׁבר Pr 17:19, רצון Pr 11:27, טובה Ne 2:10, אמונה Je 5:1, צדק, ענוה Zp 2:3(×2) שׁלום ψ 34:15, חכמה Pr 14:6 Ec 7:25, בינה Dn 8:15, דעת Pr 15:14; 18:15, תורה Mal 2:7, אהבה Pr 17:9, תאוה 18:1 (ל of dir. obj.), חשׁבנות Ec 7:29. e.g. Numbers 35:23
- c. Inf. Ex 4:24 (J) Je 26:21. e.g. Exodus 4:24
- d. לְ & Inf. Gn 43:30 Ex 2:15 (JE) Dt 13:11 1 S 14:4; 19:2, 10; 23:10 2 S 20:19; 21:2 1 K 11:22, 40 Est 2:21; 3:6; 6:2 ψ 37:32 Ec 12:10 Zc 6:7; 12:9. e.g. Genesis 43:30
- 3. seek the face
- a. of rulers 1 K 10:24 (= 2 Ch 9:23) Pr 29:26. e.g. 1 Kings 10:24
- b. of God (from resorting to sacred places) Ho 5:15 1 Ch 16:11 (= ψ 105:4) 2 Ch 7:14 2 S 21:1 ψ 24:6; 27:8(×2); without פְּנֵי e.g. Hosea 5:15
- c. יהוה Dt 4:29 Zp 1:6; 2:3 Ho 3:5; 5:6 Ex 33:7 (J) 1 Ch 16:10 (= ψ 105:3) 2 Ch 11:16; 20:4 Is 51:1 Pr 28:5 Zc 8:21, 22 Je 50:4; אלהים 2 S 12:16, cf. Ezr 8:22 Is 45:19; 65:1 2 Ch 15:4, 15 Ho 7:10 Je 29:13 Mal 3:1 ψ 40:17; 70:5; 69:7 Dn 9:3; דבר י׳ Am 8:12; שׁמד ψ 83:17. e.g. Deuteronomy 4:29
- d. sq. Inf. c. לְ, of resort to wizards, but no obj. Lv 19:31 (H). e.g. Leviticus 19:31
- 4. desire, demand:
- a. acc. Ex 10:11 1 Ch 21:3. e.g. Exodus 10:11
- b. acc. rei מִן pers. Ez 7:26 Dn 1:20. e.g. Ezekiel 7:26
- 5.
- a. require, exact, acc. rei מִיַּד pers. Is 1:12; מִן pers. Ne 5:12, acc. rei v 18. e.g. Isaiah 1:12
- b. exact equivalent or penalty for, acc. rei, מִיַּד pers. Gn 31:39; 43:9 (JE) 1 S 20:16 2 S 4:11 Ez 3:18, 20; 33:8, cf. דרשׁ; no obj. expr. Jos 22:23 (P). e.g. Genesis 31:39
- 6. (late) ask, request, acc. rei Est 2:15; עַל rei Ne 2:4; עַל rei מִן pers. Est 7:7 Ezr 8:23; עַל rei מִלִּפְנֵי pers. Est 4:8; acc. rei מִן pers. Dn 1:8 (obj. cl. c. אשׁר), ψ 104:21; מִן pers. 2 Ch 20:4. e.g. Esther 2:15
Pual
- Impf. יְבֻקַּשׁ Je 50:20, וַיְב׳ Est 2:23; תֲּבֻקְשִׁי Ez 26:21 be sought. e.g. Jeremiah 50:20
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. seek (Ph. בקש)—
— 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.
בָּקַשׁ
- , v. בקא; corresp. to ch. בעי); Pi. בִּיקֵּשׁ, בִּקֵּשׁ to seek, desire, beg, ask. Kidd. 65ᵃ מְבַקְּשִׁין וכ׳ the court begs him to give her a letter of divorce, opp. to כופין. Ber. 12ᵇ בִּקְּשׁוּ לקבוע וכ׳ they (the Rabbis) intended to insert the chapter about Balak &c. Gen. R. s. 84 ב׳ לישב וכ׳ he intended to live in peace; a. fr.—ב׳ רחמים to pray (for mercy), v. בעי. Ber. l. c. B. Bath. 91ᵇ; a. fr.
- , Nithpa. נִתְבַּקֵּשׁ to be sought, to be hunted for (by detectives); to be summoned. Taan. 29ᵃ (a disguised warning given to R. Gamliel) בעל החוטם מִתְבַּקֵּשׁ the well-known man is wanted; v. חוֹטֶם. B. Mets. 86ᵃ, v. יְשִׁיבָה.
קַשׁ
- old, v. קְשַׁשׁ.
קַשׁ ²
- קשש to be hard, stiff; cmp. קָשֶׁה) straw, stubble. Sabb. III, 1 בקש ובגבבא with straw or rakings. Ib. 66ᵃ כוורת של קש; Kel. XV, 1 כוורת הקש, v. כְּוֶורֶת. Ib. XVII, 17, v. שְׁפוֹפֶרֶת. Y. Peah IV, beg. 18ᵃ הנח … בקַשָּׁהּ leave for them (the poor) the grain with its straw (stalks); a. fr.—[Tosef. Sabb. IX (X), 2 הקש שבחזיר some ed. the stiff bristle &c., v. קָשֶׁה.]—Pl. קַשִּׁים, קַשִּׁין. Y. Peah V, end, 19ᵃ בזוכר את הק׳ when he recalls the straw (with which he covered the sheaves). Taan. 6ᵃ בקַשֶּׁיהָ, v. מַלְקוֹשׁ.
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 146 distinct written forms H1245 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; 86 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1245, 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 194 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 215 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 31:39
- Exodus 2:15
- Leviticus 19:31
- Numbers 16:10
- Deuteronomy 4:29
- Joshua 2:22
- Judges 4:22
- Ruth 3:1
- 1 Samuel 9:3
- 2 Samuel 3:17
- 1 Kings 1:2
- 2 Kings 2:16
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.
