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 Nehemiah — 27 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.
Nehemiah
- Nehemiah 1:3 גְדֹלָ֖ה adj Adjective fs They said to me, The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates of it are burned with fire.
- Nehemiah 1:5 הַ/גָּד֖וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms and said, I beg you, Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments:
- Nehemiah 1:10 הַ/גָּד֔וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand.
- Nehemiah 2:10 גְדֹלָ֑ה adj Adjective fs When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, because a man had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.
- Nehemiah 3:1 הַ/גָּד֜וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even to the tower of Hammeah they sanctified it, to the tower of Hananel.
- Nehemiah 3:20 הַ/גָּדֽוֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms After him Baruch the son of Zabbai earnestly repaired another portion, from the turning [of the wall] to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest.
- Nehemiah 3:27 הַ/גָּדוֹל֙ ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms After him the Tekoites repaired another portion, over against the great tower that stands out, and to the wall of Ophel.
- Nehemiah 4:14 הַ/גָּד֤וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms I looked, and rose up, and said to the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Don't be you afraid of them: remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.
- Nehemiah 5:1 גְּדוֹלָ֑ה adj Adjective fs Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews.
- Nehemiah 5:7 גְדוֹלָֽה adj Adjective fs Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, You exact usury, everyone of his brother. I held a great assembly against them.
- Nehemiah 6:3 גְדוֹלָה֙ adj Adjective fs I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I can't come down: why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?
- Nehemiah 7:4 וּ/גְדוֹלָ֔ה conj + Adjective Adjective fs Now the city was wide and large; but the people were few therein, and the houses were not built.
- Nehemiah 8:6 הַ/גָּד֑וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms and Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great God. All the people answered, Amen, Amen, with the lifting up of their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshiped Yahweh with their faces to the ground.
- Nehemiah 8:12 גְדוֹלָ֑ה adj Adjective fs All the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
- Nehemiah 8:17 גְּדוֹלָ֥ה adj Adjective fs All the assembly of those who were come again out of the captivity made booths, and lived in the booths; for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the children of Israel had not done so. There was very great gladness.
- Nehemiah 9:4 גָּד֔וֹל adj Adjective ms Then stood up on the stairs of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, [and] Chenani, and cried with a loud voice to Yahweh their God.
- Nehemiah 9:18 גְּדֹלֽוֹת adj Adjective fp Yes, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt, and had committed awful blasphemies;
- Nehemiah 9:25 הַ/גָּדֽוֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms They took fortified cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns hewn out, vineyards, and olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance: so they ate, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.
- Nehemiah 9:26 גְּדוֹלֹֽת adj Adjective fp Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.
- Nehemiah 9:32 הַ/גָּד֜וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keep covenant and loving kindness, don't let all the travail seem little before you, that has come on us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.
- Nehemiah 9:37 גְדוֹלָ֖ה adj Adjective fs It yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins: also they have power over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.
- Nehemiah 11:14 הַ/גְּדוֹלִֽים ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective mp and their brothers, mighty men of valor, one hundred twenty-eight; and their overseer was Zabdiel, the son of Haggedolim.
- Nehemiah 12:31 גְּדוֹלֹ֨ת adj Adjective fp Then I brought up the princes of Judah on the wall, and appointed two great companies who gave thanks and went in procession. [One went] on the right hand on the wall toward the dung gate;
- Nehemiah 12:43 גְּדוֹלִ֜ים גְדוֹלָ֔ה adj Adjective mp adj Adjective fs They offered great sacrifices that day, and rejoiced; for God had made them rejoice with great joy; and the women also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.
- Nehemiah 13:5 גְדוֹלָ֗ה adj Adjective fs had prepared for him a great chamber, where before they laid the meal-offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the heave-offerings for the priests.
- Nehemiah 13:27 הַ/גְּדוֹלָה֙ ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective fs Shall we then listen to you to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God in marrying foreign women?
- Nehemiah 13:28 הַ/גָּד֔וֹל ptcl def.art + Adjective Adjective ms One of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me.
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.