גָּדוֹל
great
‘great’ is one of 12 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
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- 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.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H1419 appears in the Book of Joshua — 24 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.
Joshua
- Joshua 1:4 הַ/גָּד֣וֹל הַ/גָּד֖וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.
- Joshua 6:5 גְדוֹלָ֑ה adj Adjective fs It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him.
- Joshua 6:20 גְדוֹלָ֔ה adj Adjective fs So the people shouted, and [the priests] blew the trumpets; and it happened, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
- Joshua 7:9 הַ/גָּדֽוֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will compass us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what will you do for your great name?
- Joshua 7:26 גָּד֗וֹל adj Adjective ms They raised over him a great heap of stones, to this day; and Yahweh turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place was called "The valley of Achor" to this day.
- Joshua 8:29 גָּד֔וֹל adj Adjective ms The king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the evening: and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised thereon a great heap of stones, to this day.
- Joshua 9:1 הַ/גָּד֔וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms It happened, when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill-country, and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the great sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard of it;
- Joshua 10:2 גְּדוֹלָה֙ גְדוֹלָה֙ adj Adjective fs adj Adjective fs that they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men of it were mighty.
- Joshua 10:10 גְדוֹלָ֖ה adj Adjective fs Yahweh confused them before Israel, and he killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth Horon, and struck them to Azekah, and to Makkedah.
- Joshua 10:11 גְּדֹל֧וֹת adj Adjective fp It happened, as they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth Horon, that Yahweh cast down great stones from the sky on them to Azekah, and they died: they were more who died with the hailstones than they whom the children of Israel killed with the sword.
- Joshua 10:18 גְּדֹל֖וֹת adj Adjective fp Joshua said, Roll great stones to the mouth of the cave, and set men by it to keep them:
- Joshua 10:20 גְדוֹלָֽה adj Adjective fs It happened, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of killing them with a very great slaughter, until they were consumed, and the remnant which remained of them had entered into the fortified cities,
- Joshua 10:27 גְּדֹלוֹת֙ adj Adjective fp It happened at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave in which they had hidden themselves, and laid great stones on the mouth of the cave, to this very day.
- Joshua 14:12 גְּדֹל֣וֹת adj Adjective fp Now therefore give me this hill-country, of which Yahweh spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and cities great and fortified: it may be that Yahweh will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as Yahweh spoke.
- Joshua 14:15 הַ/גָּד֛וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms Now the name of Hebron before was Kiriath Arba; [which Arba was] the greatest man among the Anakim. The land had rest from war.
- Joshua 15:12 הַ/גָּד֖וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms The west border was to the great sea, and the border [of it]. This is the border of the children of Judah round about according to their families.
- Joshua 15:47 הַ/גָּד֖וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms Ashdod, its towns and its villages; Gaza, its towns and its villages; to the brook of Egypt, and the great sea, and the border [of it].
- Joshua 17:17 גָּדוֹל֙ adj Adjective ms Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, You are a great people, and have great power; you shall not have one lot only:
- Joshua 20:6 הַ/גָּד֔וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms He shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the manslayer return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city from whence he fled.
- Joshua 22:10 גָּד֖וֹל adj Adjective ms When they came to the region about the Jordan, that is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to look on.
- Joshua 23:4 הַ/גָּד֖וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun.
- Joshua 23:9 גְּדֹלִ֣ים adj Adjective mp For Yahweh has driven out from before you great nations and strong: but as for you, no man has stood before you to this day.
- Joshua 24:17 הַ/גְּדֹלוֹת֙ ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective fp for Yahweh our God, he it is who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed;
- Joshua 24:26 גְּדוֹלָ֔ה adj Adjective fs Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Yahweh.
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.
“great” is the headline sense of the Hebrew word גדול (gâdôwl). Carrying more than one sense, it rewards its full sense range. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 499 verses — common. First canonically at Genesis 1:16, it enters the text early. It shares a root with גדל, גדל and גדל. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1419 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 →
- 499
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 499 distinct verses.
- 35 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 35 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #93
- by frequency
- Top 100 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 93 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 499 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Jeremiah 47 verses 9%
- Deuteronomy 41 verses 8%
- 1 Samuel 34 verses 7%
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 499 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 269 verses · 54%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 134 verses · 27%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 96 verses · 19%
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).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Great 284×, High 20×, Loud 19×
- American Standard Version†: Great 263×, High 19×, Loud 18×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Great 230×, Large 27×, High 20×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Great 371×, Is great 14×, Large 13×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1419 across 525† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 87 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 4 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H1419 across 524† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 111 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 H1419 across 501† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 75 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 22 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1419 across 524† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 36 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
13 senses and sub-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 13 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.
גדול I great
- 1. in magnitude and extent, e.g. sea Nu 34:6, river Gn 15:18, wilderness Dt 1:19, rain 1 K 18:45, mountain Zc 4:7, city Gn 10:12, house Je 52:13, altar Jos 22:10, throne 2 Ch 9:17, sea-monsters Gn 1:21, fish Jon 2:1, eagle Ez 17:3, terebinth 2 S 18:9, substance Gn 15:14, wealth Dn 11:2, victory 1 S 19:5; 1 S 19:22 בּוֹר הַגָּדוֹל read ב׳ הַגֹּרֶן according to 𝔊 We Dr. e.g. Numbers 34:6
- 2. in number, e.g. nation Gn 12:2, congregation Je 31:8, camp 1 Ch 12:22, army Ez 17:17, sacrifice 2 K 10:19. slaughter Dt 28:59 1 S 4:17. e.g. Genesis 12:2
- 3. in intensity, fear Dt 4:34, weeping Is 38:3, power כּחַ Ex 32:11, joy Jon 4:6, anger Dt 29:23, indignation Je 21:5, sin Gn 20:9, iniquity Gn 4:13, evil Gn 39:9, trespass Ez 9:7. e.g. Deuteronomy 4:34
- 4. in sound, loud voice Gn 39:14, cry Ex 11:6, shout Jos 6:5. e.g. Genesis 39:14
- 5. in age, elder, eldest, son Gn 27:1, daughter Gn 29:16, brother Gn 10:21, sister Ez 16:46. e.g. Genesis 27:1
- 6. in importance,
- a. things †(הַ)דָּבָר (הַ)גָּדֹל an important thing or affair Ex 18:22 Dt 4:32 1 S 12:16 2 K 5:13; 8:13; יום יהוה Je 30:7 Ho 2:2 Jo 2:11; 3:4 Zp 1:14 Mal 3:23. e.g. Exodus 18:22
- b. of men, great, distinguished, Moses Ex 11:3, David 2 S 5:10, Job Jb 1:3, Mordecai Est 9:4, kings Ec 9:14 Je 27:7; especially of king of Assyrian הַמֶּלֶךְ הַגָּדוֹל 2 K 18:19, 28 = Is 36:4, 13, = Assyrian šarru rabbu, šarru dannu, e.g. KB i. 94, 1. 1; הַכֹּהֵן הַגָּדוֹל the h. p. Lv 21:10 + 20 times; (הָ)אִישׁ גָּדוֹל 1 S 25:2 2 S 19:33 2 K 5:1; אִשָּׁה גְדוֹלָה 2 K 4:8; †גָּדוֹל a great man 2 S 3:38 Mi 7:3; לֹא תֶהְדַּר פְּנֵי גָדוֹל thou shalt not honour (favour) the person of a great man (opp. דָּל) Lv 19:15 (H); †(הַ)גְּדוֹלִים the great 2 S 7:9 = 1 Ch 17:8 Ne 11:14 (vid. infr.) Pr 18:16; 25:6 Je 5:5 (2 K 10:11 𝔊L ἀγχιστεύοντας, Klo גֹּאֲלָיו); further גְּדֹלֵי הָעִיר 2 K 10:6; (כָּל־)גְּדֹלָיו 2 K 10:11; Jon 3:7; כָּל־גְּדוֹלֶיהָ Na 3:10. e.g. Exodus 11:3
- c. †of God, himself 2 Ch 2:4 Ne 4:8; 8:6 ψ 86:10; 99:2; 135:5; 147:5 Is 12:6 Je 10:6; (הָ)אֵל (הַ)גָּדוֹל Dt 7:21; 10:17 Ne 1:5; 9:32 ψ 77:14; 95:3 Je 32:18 Dn 9:4; גדול מכל האלהים Ex 18:11; גדול ומהלל מאד 1 Ch 16:25 ψ 48:2; 96:4; 145:3; מלך גדול ψ 47:3; 95:3 Mal 1:14; †his works Dt 11:7 Ju 2:7 ψ 111:2, †glory ψ 21:6; 138:5, †name Jos 7:9 1 S 12:22 1 K 8:42 2 Ch 6:32 ψ 76:2; 99:3 Je 10:6; 44:26 Ez 36:23 Mal 1:11(×2), mercy 1 K 3:6 2 Ch 1:8 ψ 57:11; 86:13; 108:5, goodness Ne 9:25, compassion Is 54:7. e.g. 2 Chronicles 2:4
- 7. in phrases †עוֹד הַיּוֹם גָּדוֹל it is yet high day (Fr. grand jour, Germ. hoch am Tage, the day is at its height) Gn 29:7; †כַּקָּטֹן כַּגָּדֹל (or reverse) as well small as great Dt 1:17 1 Ch 25:8; 26:13 2 Ch 31:15; †(לְ)מִקָּטֹן וְעַד גָּדוֹל (or reverse) from small to great Gn 19:11 1 S 5:9; 30:2, 19 2 K 23:2; 25:26 2 Ch 15:13; 34:30 Est 1:5, 20 Je 6:13; 8:10; 31:34; 42:1, 8; 44:12 Jon 3:5. e.g. Genesis 29:7
- 8. cstr. גְּדֹל (הַ)כְּנָפַיִם great of wings Ez 17:3, 7, so of anger Pr 19:19 (Qr); usually of God, in power Na 1:3, counsel, Je 32:19, mercy ψ 145:8. e.g. Ezekiel 17:3
- 9. as subst. concr. †עשׂה גדלות do great things, of God’s great acts of redemption and judgment Dt 10:21 Jb 5:9; 9:10; 37:5 ψ 71:19; 106:21; of the miracles of Elisha 2 K 8:4; of things too great and so presumptuous, haughty תבקשׁ ג׳ Je 45:5; מדברת ג׳ ψ 12:4; לא הלכתי בג׳ ψ 131:1 (cf. Biblical Aramaic Dn 7:8, 11, 20; also Rev 13:5). e.g. Deuteronomy 10:21
- 10. †as subst. neut. greatness of arm Ex 15:16; cf. גָּבֹהַּ 4. e.g. Exodus 15:16
גדול II m. father of Zabdiel Ne 11
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
I. adj. great—ג׳ Gn 4:13 + 279 times; גָּדֹל Dt 26:8 + 22 times; cstr. גְּדוֹל Ex 15:16 belongs rather sub גֹּ֫דֶל Ez 17:3, 7, גְּדֹל Ex 15:16 Je 32:19, גְּדָל־ Pr 19:19, גְּדָו֯ל־ ψ 145:8 Na 1:3; sf. גְּדוֹלָם Je 6:13 + 2 times; pl. גְּדוֹלִים Ex 7:4 + 11 times, גְּדֹלִים Gn 12:17 + 22 times; cstr. גְּדֹלֵי ψ 79:11 2 K 10:6; sf. גְּדֹלָיו 2 K 10:11 Jon 3:7; גְּדוֹלָיהָ Na 3:10; f. גְּדוֹלָה Nu 22:18 + 96 times; גְּדֹלָה Gn 15:12 + 31 times; pl. גְּדוֹלֹת Ne 9:26; 12:31, גְּדֹלוֹת Dt 27:2 + 30 times, גְּדֹלֹת Nu 13:28 + 7 times;—great,
I. n.pr.m. father of Zabdiel Ne 11:14 (RV & so most; but 𝔊 RVm al. the great).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from גדל (gâdal) (H1431) — to grow.
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.
גָּדוֹל
- 1. great, distinguished; (noun) a great man, leader. Sabb. 94ᵇ, a. fr. ג׳ כבוד הבריות וכ׳ human dignity is something great, for it overrules a prohibitive law &c. Ned. 49ᵇ ג׳ מלאכה וכ׳ labor is something great, for it honors him who pursues it.—Sot. I, 9 ג׳ ממנו his superior. Gen. R. s. 100 גְּדוֹל העולמים the Great One of the worlds, the Lord.—Snh. 21ᵇ גְּ׳ העולם a world-renowned man (Solomon). M. Kat. 22ᵃ גְּ׳ הדור a prominent man of his days. Y. ib. III, 82ᶜ top גְּ׳ המשפחה the chief of the family; a. v. fr.
- 2. adult, of age, older. Yeb. II, 8 בג׳ on the eldest brother. Ib. XIII, 11 ג׳ וקטנה if one of the brother’s widows is of age, and the other a minor; a. fr.—כהן גדול (abbr. כ"ג) Highpriest. Ib. IX, 1; a. fr.—Pl. גְּדוֹלִים, גְּדוֹלִין; גְּדוֹלוֹת. Koh. R. to VII, 8 גְּדוֹלֵי הדור scholars, v. supra; ג׳ ירושלים prominent citizens of Jerusalem.—Ab. Zar. 18ᵃ ג׳ רומי Roman dignitaries; a. fr.—Ber. 23ᵇ, a. e. גדולים (sub. נקבים) the larger functions of the body, movement of the bowels; v. דַּק.
גִּדּוּל
- , v. גִּידּוּל
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 185 distinct written forms H1419 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 125 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1419, 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
- גדל gâdêl H1432 growing up
- גדל gôdel H1433 greatness
- גדל gᵉdil H1434 tassels
- מגדל migdâl H4026 tower
Derived from this word
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- גדל Giddêl H1435 Giddel
- גדליה Gᵉdalyâh H1436 Gedaliah
- גדלתי Giddaltîy H1437 Giddalti
- יגדליהו Yigdalyâhûw H3012 Igdaliah
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 11 — 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 454 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 499 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 1:16
- Exodus 3:3
- Leviticus 19:15
- Numbers 13:28
- Deuteronomy 1:7
- Joshua 1:4
- Judges 2:7
- 1 Samuel 2:17
- 2 Samuel 3:38
- 1 Kings 1:40
- 2 Kings 3:27
- 1 Chronicles 11:9
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.
