גָּבַר
to be strong
‘to be strong’ is one of 2 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: ‘be strong’
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- 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”).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H1396 appears in the Book of Genesis — 5 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.
Genesis
- Genesis 7:18 וַ/יִּגְבְּר֥וּ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp The waters prevailed, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.
- Genesis 7:19 גָּֽבְר֛וּ Qal pf 3cp The waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered.
- Genesis 7:20 גָּבְר֖וּ Qal pf 3cp The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.
- Genesis 7:24 וַ/יִּגְבְּר֥וּ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp The waters prevailed on the earth one hundred fifty days.
- Genesis 49:26 גָּֽבְרוּ֙ Qal pf 3cp 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.
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.
גבר (gâbar) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to be strong.” Across 4 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Qal, Piel). It turns up in 24 verses across 13 books, an uncommon footprint. It first appears in Genesis 7:18. From the same root come גבור, גביר and גבר. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1396 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 →
- 24
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 24 distinct verses.
- 13 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 13 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,282
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,282 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 24 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 24 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 11 verses · 46%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 7 verses · 29%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 6 verses · 25%
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: Prevailed 8×, Prevail 3×, I will strengthen 2×
- American Standard Version: Prevailed 7×, Prevail 3×, I will strengthen 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Prevailed 5×, Prevail 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Rose 3×, And 2×, Is strong 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1396 across 25 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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 H1396 across 25 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1396 across 25 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1396 across 31 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 18 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
8 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 Hithpael (reflexive or reciprocal).
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 8 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. ג׳ ψ 103:11 + 5 times; גָּבְֽרוּ Gn 7:19 + 6 times; גָּבֵ֑רוּ 2 S 1:23; Impf. יִגְבַּר 1 S 2:9; וַיִּגְבְּרוּ Gn 7:18, 24;— e.g. Psalms 103:11
- 1. be strong, mighty, abs. גָּבְֽרוּ חַיִל mighty in power Jb 21:7; with מִן stronger than 2 S 1:23 ψ 65:4; with בְּ mighty among 1 Ch 5:2. e.g. Job 21:7
- 2. prevail:—
- a. abs. e.g. enemies Ex 17:11(×2) (E) 1 S 2:9 La 1:16, waters Gn 7:18, 19, 20, 24 (P), power Je 9:2; e.g. Exodus 17:11
- b. with עַל prevail over, subj. enemies 2 S 11:23, blessings Gn 49:26 (J), mercy of God ψ 103:11; 117:2. e.g. 2 Samuel 11:23
Piel
- Pf. גִּבַּרְתִּי Zc 10:6; sf. גִּבַּרְתִּים Zc 10:12; Impf. יְגַבֵּר Ec 10:10 make strong, strengthen. e.g. Zechariah 10:6
Hiphil
- Pf. הִגְבִּיר בְּרִית לְ confirm a covenant Dn 9:27; Impf. נַגְבִּיר לִלְשֹׁנֵנוּ we will confirm a covenant with our tongue Ew Ol Che (or, to our tongue will we give strength Hi De) ψ 12:5. e.g. Daniel 9:27
Hithpael
- Impf. יִתְגַּבָּ֑ר Jb 15:25 Is 42:13; יִתְגַּבָּ֑רוּ Jb 36:9:—of י׳, shew himself a mighty one against (עַל) Is 42:13; of wicked, behave proudly toward (אֶל) Jb 15:25; of erring righteous (abs.) 36:9. e.g. Job 15:25
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. be strong, mighty (NH id., Aramaic גְּבַר; Arabic جَبَرَ (conj. I. dial.; usually in derived conj.) compel, force; جَبَرِيَّةٌ overbearing behaviour, جَبْرٌ constraint; Ethiopic ገብረ I, 1, subigere; II, 2, cogere; Syriac ܐܶܬܓܰܒܰܪ play the man, is denom. from ܓܒܰܪ man)—
— 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.
גָּבַר
- v. גבב) to be uppermost, prevail; to be strong. Num. R. s. 7 לשון גָּבַר, v. אָנוּשׁ. Sot. IX, 15 גָּבְרוּ בעלי זרוע the violent prevailed. Y. Bets. II, 61ᶜ top; Tosef. Ḥag. II, 11; Bets. 20ᵃ גָּבְרָה יָדָן וכ׳ the Shammaites prevailed over (outnumbered) the Hillelites; a. fr.
- to make strong, strengthen, sustain. Lam. R. to III, 1 גִּבְּרַנִי לעמוד בכולן he made me strong enough to survive all these calamities; ib. 12. Cant. R. to II, 14 מְגַבְּרָן לישראל (ed. Wil. מַגְבִּירָן Hif.) sustains Israel. Ib. III, 7 שהן מְגַבְּרִין את וכ׳ they (the sixty words of the priestly benediction) strengthen Israel. Mekh. B’shall., Amalek, s. 1 וכי … מְגַבְּרוֹת ישראל can Moses’ (uplifted) hands make Israel victorious?; a. fr.—Part. pass. מְגוּבָּר, v. infra.
- 1. same; v. supra.—2)
- to grow strong. Ib. עתידין … לְהַגְבִּיר בד"ת וכ׳ (Moses’ uplifted hands indicated that the Lord remembered that) Israel would in the future be strong in the Law which was to be given through his (Moses’) hands, opp. להמיך; Yalk. Ex. 264.
- , Nithpa. נִתְגַּבֵּר to rise, swell; to grow strong, gather courage; to make one’s self master. Tanḥ. B’resh. 7 המים מִתְגַּבְּרִין the waters of the Nile rose. Num. R. s. 19 ומִתְגַּבֶּרֶת שם and rose there. Ib. מלא מים מְגוּבָּרִין full of high waters. Snh. 96ᵃ לא נ׳ עד וכ׳ had no courage until he came to Dan. R. Hash. III, 8 היו מִתְגַּבְּרִין they were victorious. Ḥag. 16ᵃ, a. e. if one feels שיצרו מתג׳ עליו that his passion threatens to make itself master over him; Kidd. 80ᵇ. Ned. 81ᵃ מפני שהן מתגברין על הצבור because they lord it over the people (Ar. מתגדרין, v. גָּדַר). Num. R. s. 18, v. גָּבַהּ. Yalk. Is. 287 (ref. to Is. XVII, 11) מכה מִתְגַּבֶּרֶת (Lev. R. s. 18 מגרת, corr. acc. or מגברת) an affliction which makes itself the master, v. אָנוּשׁ. Gen. R. s. 76; a. fr. e.g. Isaiah 17:11
גְּבַר I
- Targ. Ps. CIII, 11.—Gitt. 60ᵇ, v. אַלִּים. Pes. 76ᵃ, a. fr. עילאה ג׳ in the case of a contact between warm and cold substances, the upper one prevails (heating or cooling the substance into which it is poured); תתאה ג׳ the lower prevails.
- as preced. Pi. Targ. Am. V, 9. Targ. Zech. X, 6; a. e.—Part. pass. מְגַבַּר growing, swelling. Targ. Is. VIII, 8.
- to make strong, to cause to overpower. Targ. Is. XLI, 25.—Snh. 38ᵃ אַגְבְּרוּ חמרא וכ׳ let the wine get the better of the young men, i.e. give them plenty to drink, that they may become mirthful.
גֶּבֶר
- 1. man, master. Lam. R. to III, 1. Kidd. 80ᵇ (ref. to Lam. III, 39) וכי ג׳ על הטאיו הוא (Rashi) is man master over his sins (sinless)? e.g. Lamentations 3:39
- 2. cock. Yoma I, 8 בקריאת הג׳ at the time of the crowing of the cock; ib. 20ᵇ; Y. Shek. V, 48ᵈ bot.; Y. Succ. V, 55ᶜ disputed meaning: man’s (the cryer’s) crying, or the cock’s crowing, v. כָּרוֹזָא.
- 3. (euphem.) membrum virile. Bekh. VII, 5 (44ᵇ) בעל ג׳ a man with an abnormally large membrum.
גְּבַר II
- ; man. Targ. Gen. II, 24; a. v. fr.—Ber. 63ᵃ באתר דלית ג׳ כ׳ where there is no man, (leader). B. Mets. 97ᵃ (prov.) ג׳ דנשי וכ׳ for a man whom women killed there is no law or judge. Erub. 53ᵇ, v. אוּשְׁפִּיזָא.—Men. 42ᵇ, a. e. חובת ג׳ personal duty, opp. ח׳ טלית the duty resting on the garment (whether or not you wear it).—ההוא גברא a certain man. B. Mets. l. c.; a. v. fr. [Frequ. האי גברא, or ההוא, euphem. for I, or thou; v. ההוא.]—Bekh. 36ᵃ בלא גברא (Rashi גברי) without naming an authority.—Pl. גַּבְרִין, גַּבְרַיָּיא, גַּבְרֵי. Targ. O. Deut. I, 13; a. v. fr.—Lev. R. s. 23 יהוון גַּבְ׳ בכל מילייא (Cant. R. to II, 2 גּוּבְרִין) they shall be strong (trained) in all things. B. Kam. 92ᵇ (prov.) כד הוינן זוטרי לג׳ וכ׳ when we were young, we were esteemed as men, now that we are old &c.; a. v. fr.—Keth. 6ᵃ בלא ג׳, v. supra. Ib. 53ᵇ סימן דגברי ש̇ק̇ ז̇ר̇ף̇ the mnemonical sign for the authorities quoted is &c. (ש̇שת, לק̇יש, אלעז̇ר, ר̇בא, פ̇פא).—Fem. גְּבַרְתָּא, only assumed for argument, v. אַנְתְּרוֹפִי. V. also גּוּבְרָא.
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 23 distinct written forms H1396 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 H1396, 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 → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 24 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 24 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 7:18
- Exodus 17:11
- 1 Samuel 2:9
- 2 Samuel 1:23
- 1 Chronicles 5:2
- Job 15:25
- Psalms 12:4
- Ecclesiastes 10:10
- Isaiah 42:13
- Jeremiah 9:3
- Lamentations 1:16
- Daniel 9:27
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.
