בָּרַח
to flee
‘to flee’ is one of 7 main senses 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
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘go or pass through’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘pass through’
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- 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”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- 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”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- 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.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
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 H1272 appears in the Book of Daniel — 1 distinct verse. 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.
“to flee” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb ברח (bârach). Scripture first uses it in Genesis 16:6. With 64 verses in 20 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. As a verb its force shifts by stem, across 2 stems (Qal, Hiphil, and more). From the same root come בריח, בריח and מברח. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1272 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 →
- 64
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 64 distinct verses.
- 20 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 20 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #597
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 597 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 64 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 64 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 33 verses · 52%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 17 verses · 27%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 14 verses · 22%
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: Fled 19×, He fled 7×, Flee 4×
- American Standard Version: Fled 16×, Flee 4×, He fled 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Fled 10×, Had fled 7×, He fled 6×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Fled 16×, Flee 10×, And 6×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1272 across 65 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 27 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 H1272 across 63 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 32 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 H1272 across 63 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 29 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 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1272 across 80 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 27 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
7 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 7 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. בָּרַח Gn 31:22 + 9 times, בָּֽרְחוּ Jb 9:25, בָּרָ֑חוּ Is 22:3; Impf. יִבְרַח Jb 20:24, יִבְרָ֑ח Jb 27:22 Ne 6:11 וַיִּבְרַח Gn 31:21 + 13 times; 3 fs. וַתִּבְרַח Gn 16:6, אֶבְרָ֑ח ψ 139:7, יִבְרְחוּ Je 52:7, וַיִּבְרְחוּ 2 S 4:3 + 4 times, נִבְרָ֑חָה 2 S 15:14; Imv. בְּרַח Gn 27:43 + 3 times, בִּרְחוּ Is 48:20; Inf. abs. בָּרוֹחַ Jb 27:22; cstr. בְּרֹחַ 1 S 23:6 + 3 times, בְּרוֹחַ Jon 1:3; sf. בָּרְחִי 1 K 2:7, בָּרְחֲךָ Gn 31:5, בָּרְחוֹ Gn 35:7 + 2 times;— e.g. Genesis 31:22
- 1. go or pass through, of bar, וַיַּעַשׂ אֶת־הַבְּרִיחַ … לִבְרֹחַ Ex 36:33 (P). e.g. Exodus 36:33
- 2. flee Gn 31:20, 21, 22 (E) Ex 14:5 (J) Ju 9:21; 1 S 19:12, 18; 22:17; 2 S 13:34, 37, 38 (del. Dr cf. We) 15:14; Is 22:3; Je 4:29; 26:21; 39:4; 52:7; Ne 6:11; fig. of days fleeing away Jb 9:25; of man, like a shadow Jb 14:2; c. מִן flee from a place 1 S 20:1; 2 S 19:10 (+ מֵעַל pers.) Is 48:20, a weapon Jb 20:24; a person, c. מֵאֵת 1 K 11:23, usually c. מִפְּנֵי Gn 16:6, 8; 31:27; 35:1, 7; Ex 2:15 (all JE) Ju 11:3; 2 S 21:11; 1 K 2:7; 12:2 = 2 Ch 10:2 ψ 3:1; 57:1 (titles) 139:7 Jon 1:10; מִיַּד י׳ fig. Jb 27:22; flee to, c. acc. place 1 S 27:4; 1 K 11:40; Ho 12:13; c. place & לְ Ne 13:10; c. place & ָה loc. Jon 1:3; 4:2 2 S 4:3; c. place & אֶל־ Nu 24:11 Am 7:12; c. אֶל־ & pers. 1 S 23:6 Gn 27:43 (J) 1 K 2:39 1 K 11:40; אַחֲרֵי & pers. 1 S 22:20; flee, sq. inf. 1 K 11:17 Dn 10:7. e.g. Genesis 31:20
- 3. flee = hasten, come quickly Ct 8:14. e.g. Song of Solomon 8:14
Hiphil
- Pf. הִבְרִיחוּ 1 Ch 8:13; Impf. יַבְרִיחַ Pr 19:26; sf. יַבְרִיחֶנּוּ Jb 41:20, וָאַבְרִחֵהוּ Ne 13:28, וַיַּבְרִיחוּ 1 Ch 12:15; Pt. מַבְרִחַ Ex 26:28;— e.g. 1 Chronicles 8:13
- 1. pass through, lit. Ex 26:28 (P) cf. Qal. e.g. Exodus 26:28
- 2. cause to flee, put to flight, animal Jb 41:20, men 1 Ch 8:13; 12:16; drive away Pr 19:26 Ne 13:28 (sq. מֵעָלַי). e.g. Job 41:20
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. go through, flee (cf. Germ. durchgehen) (Arabic بَرِحَ go away, withdraw, flee)—
— 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.
בָּרַח
- , v. ברר)
- 1. to break through, pass through (Ex. XXXVI, 33). Denom. בָּרִיחַ. e.g. Exodus 36:33
- 2. to flee. Erub. 13ᵇ הבּוֹרֵחַ מן הגדולה he who flees office. Y. Yeb. XIII, 13ᶜ, a. e. בְּרַח מן ג׳ וכ׳ shun three things. Y. Taan. IV, 69ᵇ top, v. בָּקַע; a. fr.
- 1. to cause to flee, drive out, exclude. Y. Yeb. XV, 15ᵃ top להַבְרִיחוֹ מנכסיו to force him to flee and abandon his property. Y. Gitt. V, 47ᵃ אדם מַבְרִיחַ עצמו מן השבועה one will try to shirk the responsibilities of a guardian on account of the oath (which the court asks of him) but one will not do so on account of payment (to which he may eventually be subjected, v. Tosaf. to B. Kam. 39ᵇ).
- 2. to abstract, steal, defraud. B. Kam. 113ᵃ ה׳ את המכס to smuggle. Y. Keth. VI, beg. 30ᶜ שלא תהא מַבְרֶחֶת משל וכ׳ that she should not take stealthily something which belongs to her husband.
- to be chased, scattered. Lam. R. to I, 21 הוּבְרְחוּ ענני וכ׳ the clouds of glory were withdrawn (R. Hash. 3ᵃ נסתלקו).
בְּרַח
- Af. אַבְרַח as preced. Hif., to withhold. B. Kam. 88ᵇ לאברוחינהו לנכסיה מניה in order to withhold his property from &c., i.e. to disinherit.
- to be driven off, withheld. Targ. Job VI, 13 (h. text נדחה).
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 49 distinct written forms H1272 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 H1272, 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 57 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 64 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 16:6
- Exodus 2:15
- Numbers 24:11
- Judges 9:21
- 1 Samuel 19:12
- 2 Samuel 4:3
- 1 Kings 2:7
- 1 Chronicles 8:13
- 2 Chronicles 10:2
- Job 9:25
- Psalms 3:1
- Proverbs 19:26
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.
