בְּרָכָה
blessing
‘blessing’ is one of 6 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
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).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 39 times (57%)
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 18 times (26%)
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct 7 times (10%)
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute 5 times (7%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 69 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H1293 appears — 64 distinct verses across 18 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.
Genesis 12 verses
- Genesis 12:2 בְּרָכָֽה n c fs I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great. You will be a blessing.
- Genesis 27:12 בְרָכָֽה n c fs What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing."
- Genesis 27:35 בִּרְכָתֶֽ/ךָ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms He said, "Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing."
- Genesis 27:36 בִּרְכָתִ֑/י בְּרָכָֽה n c fs cs + sfx pers 1cs n c fs He said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing." He said, "Haven't you reserved a blessing for me?"
- Genesis 27:38 הַֽ/בְרָכָ֨ה ptcl inter + n c fs Esau said to his father, "Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father." Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
- Genesis 27:41 הַ֨/בְּרָכָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob."
- Genesis 28:4 בִּרְכַּ֣ת n c fs cs and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to your seed with you, that you may inherit the land where you travel, which God gave to Abraham."
- Genesis 33:11 בִּרְכָתִ/י֙ n c fs cs + sfx pers 1cs Please take the gift that I brought to you; because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." He urged him, and he took it.
- Genesis 39:5 בִּרְכַּ֤ת n c fs cs It happened from the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that Yahweh blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of Yahweh was on all that he had, in the house and in the field.
- Genesis 49:25 בִּרְכֹ֤ת בִּרְכֹ֥ת בִּרְכֹ֥ת n c fp cs n c fp cs n c fp cs Even by the God of your father, who will help you, By the Almighty, who will bless you, With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that lies below, Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
- Genesis 49:26 בִּרְכֹ֣ת בִּרְכֹ֣ת n c fp cs n c fp cs The blessings of your father Have prevailed above the blessings of the ancient mountains, Above the bounty of the age-old hills. They will be on the head of Joseph, On the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers.
- Genesis 49:28 כְּ/בִרְכָת֖/וֹ prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his blessing.
Exodus 1 verse
Leviticus 1 verse
Deuteronomy 12 verses
- Deuteronomy 11:26 בְּרָכָ֖ה n c fs Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse:
- Deuteronomy 11:27 הַ/בְּרָכָ֑ה ptcl def.art + n c fs the blessing, if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day;
- Deuteronomy 11:29 הַ/בְּרָכָה֙ ptcl def.art + n c fs It shall happen, when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.
- Deuteronomy 12:15 כְּ/בִרְכַּ֨ת prep + n c fs cs Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat flesh within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart.
- Deuteronomy 16:17 כְּ/בִרְכַּ֛ת prep + n c fs cs every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which he has given you.
- Deuteronomy 23:5 לִ/בְרָכָ֑ה prep + n c fs Nevertheless Yahweh your God wouldn't listen to Balaam; but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you.
- Deuteronomy 28:2 הַ/בְּרָכ֥וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp and all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.
- Deuteronomy 28:8 הַ/בְּרָכָ֔ה ptcl def.art + n c fs Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to; and he will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
- Deuteronomy 30:1 הַ/בְּרָכָה֙ ptcl def.art + n c fs It shall happen, when all these things are come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Yahweh your God has driven you,
- Deuteronomy 30:19 הַ/בְּרָכָ֖ה ptcl def.art + n c fs I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed;
- Deuteronomy 33:1 הַ/בְּרָכָ֗ה ptcl def.art + n c fs This is the blessing, with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.
- Deuteronomy 33:23 בִּרְכַּ֣ת n c fs cs Of Naphtali he said, Naphtali, satisfied with favor, Full with the blessing of Yahweh, Possess you the west and the south.
Joshua 2 verses
- Joshua 8:34 הַ/בְּרָכָ֖ה ptcl def.art + n c fs Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law.
- Joshua 15:19 בְרָכָ֗ה n c fs She said, Give me a blessing; for that you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water. He gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
Judges 1 verse
1 Samuel 2 verses
- 1 Samuel 25:27 הַ/בְּרָכָ֣ה ptcl def.art + n c fs Now this present which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.
- 1 Samuel 30:26 בְּרָכָ֔ה n c fs When David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil to the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, Behold, a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of Yahweh:
2 Samuel 1 verse
2 Kings 2 verses
- 2 Kings 5:15 בְרָכָ֖ה n c fs He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, please take a present from your servant.
- 2 Kings 18:31 בְרָכָה֙ n c fs Don't listen to Hezekiah: for thus says the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and eat you everyone of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and everyone drink the waters of his own cistern;
Nehemiah 2 verses
- Nehemiah 9:5 בְּרָכָ֖ה n c fs Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting; and blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
- Nehemiah 13:2 לִ/בְרָכָֽה prep + n c fs because they didn't meet the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them: however our God turned the curse into a blessing.
Job 1 verse
Psalms 9 verses
- Psalms 3:8 בִרְכָתֶ֣/ךָ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms Salvation belongs to Yahweh. Your blessing be on your people. Selah.
- Psalms 21:3 בִּרְכ֣וֹת n c fp cs For you meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of fine gold on his head.
- Psalms 21:6 בְרָכ֣וֹת n c fp For you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with joy in your presence.
- Psalms 24:5 בְ֭רָכָה n c fs He shall receive a blessing from Yahweh, Righteousness from the God of his salvation.
- Psalms 37:26 לִ/בְרָכָֽה prep + n c fs All day long he deals graciously, and lends. His seed is blessed.
- Psalms 84:6 בְּ֝רָכ֗וֹת n c fp Passing through the valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs. Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings.
- Psalms 109:17 בִּ֝/בְרָכָ֗ה prep + n c fs Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him. He didn't delight in blessing, and it was far from him.
- Psalms 129:8 בִּרְכַּֽת n c fs cs Neither do those who go by say, "The blessing of Yahweh be on you. We bless you in the name of Yahweh."
- Psalms 133:3 הַ/בְּרָכָ֑ה ptcl def.art + n c fs Like the dew of Hermon, That comes down on the hills of Zion: For there Yahweh gives the blessing, Even life forevermore.
Proverbs 8 verses
- Proverbs 10:6 בְּ֭רָכוֹת n c fp Blessings are on the head of the righteous, But violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
- Proverbs 10:7 לִ/בְרָכָ֑ה prep + n c fs The memory of the righteous is blessed, But the name of the wicked will rot.
- Proverbs 10:22 בִּרְכַּ֣ת n c fs cs Yahweh's blessing brings wealth, And he adds no trouble to it.
- Proverbs 11:11 בְּ/בִרְכַּ֣ת prep + n c fs cs By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
- Proverbs 11:25 בְּרָכָ֥ה n c fs The liberal soul shall be made fat. He who waters shall be watered also himself.
- Proverbs 11:26 וּ֝/בְרָכָ֗ה conj + n c fs People curse someone who withholds grain, But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.
- Proverbs 24:25 בִרְכַּת n c fs cs But it will go well with those who convict the guilty, And a rich blessing will come on them.
- Proverbs 28:20 בְּרָכ֑וֹת n c fp A faithful man is rich with blessings; But one who is eager to be rich will not go unpunished.
Isaiah 4 verses
- Isaiah 19:24 בְּרָכָ֖ה n c fs In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth;
- Isaiah 36:16 בְרָכָה֙ n c fs Don't listen to Hezekiah: for thus says the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and eat you everyone of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and drink you everyone the waters of his own cistern;
- Isaiah 44:3 וּ/בִרְכָתִ֖/י conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 1cs For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring:
- Isaiah 65:8 בְרָכָ֖ה n c fs Thus says Yahweh, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, Don't destroy it, for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all.
Ezekiel 2 verses
- Ezekiel 34:26 בְּרָכָ֑ה בְרָכָ֖ה n c fs n c fs I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing.
- Ezekiel 44:30 בְּרָכָ֖ה n c fs The first of all the first fruits of every thing, and every offering of everything, of all your offerings, shall be for the priest: you shall also give to the priests the first of your dough, to cause a blessing to rest on your house.
Joel 1 verse
Zechariah 1 verse
Malachi 2 verses
- Malachi 2:2 בִּרְכֽוֹתֵי/כֶ֑ם n c fp cs + sfx pers 2mp If you will not listen, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name," says Yahweh of Hosts, "then will I send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.
- Malachi 3:10 בְּרָכָ֖ה n c fs Bring the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough for.
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, ברכה (Bᵉrâkâh) means “blessing.” Not a single-sense word: explore its full sense range. It appears 64 verses across 18 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its moderately common vocabulary. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 12:2. It clusters with ברך, ברך and ברך under a shared root. Dig into 64-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1293 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.
- 18 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 18 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #575
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 575 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 64 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Genesis 12 verses 19%
- Deuteronomy 12 verses 19%
- Psalms 9 verses 14%
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.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 26 verses · 41%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 20 verses · 31%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 18 verses · 28%
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: Blessing 37×, Blessings 7×, According to the blessing 2×
- American Standard Version: Blessing 28×, Blessings 6×, According to the blessing 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Blessing 40×, Blessings 12×, Gift 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Blessing 39×, Blessings 10×, Blessing of 8×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1293 across 69 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 17 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 H1293 across 69 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1293 across 69 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 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 H1293 across 71 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
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.
- 1. n.pr.loc. Valley in wilderness by Tekoa 2 Ch 20:26(×2) mod. Bereikût cf. Be & reff. e.g. 2 Chronicles 20:26
- 2. n.pr.m. one of David’s band 1 Ch 12:3. e.g. 1 Chronicles 12:3
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
Derived from ברך (bârak) (H1288) — to bless.
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.
בְּרָכָה
- 1. blessing, bestowal of prosperity, good wishes, choice, plenty. Keth. 5ᵃ הואיל … ב׳ לדגים because on it the blessing was given to the fish (Gen. I, 22, to be fruitful). Y. ib. I, beg. 24ᵈ אין כתיב ב׳ וכ׳ the blessing (Gen. II, 3) refers not to man but to the day.—Erub. 63ᵇ, a. fr. תבא עליו ב׳ blessing rest upon him (he acts rightly). Keth. 103ᵃ; B. Bath. 144ᵇ בִּרְכַת הבית ברובה the blessing of a house consists in the number of inmates (every member of a household contributes to its comfort); Tosef. Keth. XII, 3 ב׳ הבית מרובה. B. Mets. 42ᵃ אין הב׳ מצוייה וכ׳ blessing (unexpected supply, miraculous increase) will not take place in things which are weighed &c.; Taan. 8ᵇ; a. fr.—Pes. 50ᵇ, a. fr. אינו רואה סימן ב׳ לעולם will never see a sign of prosperity; a. fr. e.g. Genesis 1:22
- 2. benediction, prayer to be recited on certain occasions. Ber. 35ᵃ man must not taste anything בלא ב׳ without a blessing. Ib. 40ᵇ כל ב׳ שאין וכ׳ a benediction in which the Name of the Lord is not invoked, is no benediction; a. fr.—Pl. בְּרָכוֹת. 1) blessings, benedictions. Ib. 45ᵇ; a. v. fr.—Sabb. 115ᵇ כותבי ב׳ those who write out the formulas of prayer.—2) B’rakhoth, the first treatise of the Mishnah, Talmud, a. Tosefta.—Compounds: בִּרְכַת אבלים the prayer for consolation inserted in the mourners’ grace after meal. Keth. 8ᵇ; a. fr.—ב׳ ארוסין benediction preceding betrothal, v. אֵרוּסִין Ib. 7ᵇ.—ב׳ הארץ that portion of the grace after meal which refers to Palestine. Ib. 8ᵇ.—ב׳ הזבח the benediction before partaking of the festive offering (חֲגִיגָה) which accompanies the Paschal lamb. Pes. X, 9 (120ᵃ).—ב׳ הזימון the appeal to the partakers of a meal to say grace, common prayer. Ber. 45ᵇ.—ב׳ חתנים benediction on performing the marriage ceremony, also inserted in the grace after wedding meals during seven days. Keth. 8ᵇ.—ב׳ כהנים the priestly benediction (Num. VI, 24—26). Sot. VII, 6.—ב׳ המזון grace after meal. Keth. l. c.—ב׳ המצוות benediction on performing a divine command (of a symbolic nature). Ib. 7ᵇ.—ב׳ רחבה benediction of consolation pronounced in open air on the mourners’ return from burial (v. הַבְרָאָה). Ib. 8ᵇ.—ב׳ התורה benediction before and after reading the Law. Y. Ber. I, 3ᶜ.—[For other compounds see the respective determinants.] e.g. Numbers 6:24
- 3. blasphemy. בִּרְכַת השם. Snh. 56ᵃ sq.; (Tosef. Ab. Zar. VIII (IX), 4 קיללת).
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 46 distinct written forms H1293 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’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 H1293, 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.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- ברוך Bârûwk H1263 Baruch
- ברכאל Bârakʼêl H1292 Barachel
- יברכיהו Yᵉberekyâhûw H3000 Jeberechiah
- ברכה Bᵉrâkâh H1294 Berachah
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 9 — not the complete family. 4 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 59 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 12:2
- Exodus 32:29
- Leviticus 25:21
- Deuteronomy 11:26
- Joshua 15:19
- Judges 1:15
- 1 Samuel 25:27
- 2 Samuel 7:29
- 2 Kings 5:15
- Job 29:13
- Psalms 3:8
- Proverbs 10:6
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.
