גָּדַע
to hew
‘to hew’ is one of 5 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Piel verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
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”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
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”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
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).
Grammatical forms 15 distinct
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 3 times (14%)
- Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (5%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (5%)
+7 more forms (7 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 22 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H1438 appears — 22 distinct verses across 11 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.
Deuteronomy 2 verses
- Deuteronomy 7:5 תְּגַדֵּע֔וּ/ן Piel impf 2mp + sfx n But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their engraved images with fire.
- Deuteronomy 12:3 תְּגַדֵּע֑וּ/ן Piel impf 2mp + sfx n and you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods; and you shall destroy their name out of that place.
Judges 1 verse
1 Samuel 1 verse
2 Chronicles 4 verses
- 2 Chronicles 14:3 וַ/יְגַדַּ֖ע conj + Piel wimpf 3ms for he took away the foreign altars, and the high places, and broke down the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim,
- 2 Chronicles 31:1 וַ/יְגַדְּע֣וּ conj + Piel wimpf 3mp Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke in pieces the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.
- 2 Chronicles 34:4 גִּדֵּ֑עַ Piel pf 3ms They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and the sun-images that were on high above them he hewed down; and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images, he broke in pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it on the graves [of those] who had sacrificed to them.
- 2 Chronicles 34:7 גִּדַּ֖ע Piel pf 3ms He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the engraved images into powder, and hewed down all the sun-images throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.
Psalms 2 verses
Isaiah 5 verses
- Isaiah 9:10 גֻּדָּ֔עוּ Pual pf 3cp The bricks are fallen, but we will build with hewn stone; the sycamores are cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.
- Isaiah 10:33 גְּדוּעִ֔ים Qal ptcp.pass mp Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, will lop the boughs with terror: and the high of stature shall be hewn down, and the lofty shall be brought low.
- Isaiah 14:12 נִגְדַּ֣עְתָּ Niphal pf 2ms How you are fallen from heaven, day-star, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
- Isaiah 22:25 וְ/נִגְדְּעָ֣ה conj + Niphal wpf 3fs In that day, says Yahweh of hosts, shall the nail that was fastened in a sure place give way; and it shall be hewn down, and fall; and the burden that was on it shall be cut off; for Yahweh has spoken it.
- Isaiah 45:2 אֲגַדֵּֽעַ Piel impf 1cs I will go before you, and make the rough places smooth; I will break in pieces the doors of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron;
Jeremiah 2 verses
Lamentations 1 verse
Ezekiel 1 verse
Amos 1 verse
Zechariah 2 verses
- Zechariah 11:10 וָ/אֶגְדַּ֖ע conj + Qal wimpf 1cs I took my staff Favor, and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples.
- Zechariah 11:14 וָֽ/אֶגְדַּע֙ conj + Qal wimpf 1cs Then I cut apart my other staff, even Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
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, גדע (gâdaʻ) means “to hew.” Read the stem: it spans 4 stems, including Qal and Niphal. Spanning 22 verses in 11 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Hebrew Bible. Scripture first uses it in Deuteronomy 7:5. From the same root come גדעון, גדעם and גדעני. Dig into 22-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1438 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 →
- 22
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 22 distinct verses.
- 11 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 11 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,412
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,412 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 22 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Isaiah 5 verses 23%
- 2 Chronicles 4 verses 18%
- Deuteronomy 2 verses 9%
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 22 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 13 verses · 59%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 7 verses · 32%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 9%
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: Cut down 4×, Cut off 2×
- American Standard Version: Hewed down 2×, Is cut off 2×, Shall be hewn down 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Cut down 3×, Chopped down 2×, Cut through 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: He cut to pieces 3×, I will cut off 2×, Will be cut down 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1438 across 24 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H1438 across 24 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1438 across 22 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1438 across 21 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 14 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
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 Pual (the passive of Piel).
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 4 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. גָּדַע La 2:3; וְגָדַעְתִּ֫י 1 S 2:31; Impf. וָאֶגְדַּע Zc 11:10, 14; Pt. pass. גְּדוּעָה Is 15:2 (so many edd. but) Baer גְּרוּעָה; cf. infr., גְּדֻעִים Is 10:33;—hew, cut in two, a staff Zc 11:10, 14; metaph. hew off, an arm 1 S 2:31; horns La 2:3; hew down, trees Is 10:33; if in Is 15:2 then = shave off (object זקן, beard), but no other indication of this meaning, and true MT גְּרוּעָה, cf. Baer’s note & Je 48:37; v. גרע. e.g. Lamentations 2:3
Niphal
- Pf. נִגְדַּע Ju 21:6, נֶגְדַּע Je 50:23; 3 fs. נִגְדְּעָה Je 48:25, וְנִגְדְּעָה consec. Is 22:25; 2 ms. נִגְדַּעְתָּ Is 14:12; 3 pl. וְנִגְדְּעוּ consec. Ez 6:6 Am 3:14;—be hewn off, of altarhorns Am 3:14, of idols Ez 6:6 (‖ נשׁבר); of severance of a tribe from nation Ju 21:6; fig. of king of Babylon Is 14:12; of Babylon as hammer Je 50:23 (‖ נשׁבר); of a minister, under fig. of secure per or pin Is 22:25; of horn of Moab Je 48:25 (‖ נשׁבר). e.g. Judges 21:6
Piel
- Pf. גִּדַּע 2 Ch 34:7, גִּדֵּ֑עַ 2 Ch 34:4 ψ 107:16, וַיְגַדַּע 2 Ch 14:2, אֲגַדֵּ֑ע ψ 75:11 Is 45:2, וַיְגַדְּעוּ 2 Ch 31:1; 3 mpl. תְּגַדֵּע֑וּן Dt 7:5; 12:3;—hew off, down, in two (cf. Qal) of Asherîm Dt 7:5 2 Ch 14:2; 31:1, of idols Dt 12:3 (פְּסִילִים) 2 Ch 34:4, 7 (חַמָּנִים); fig. horns of wicked ψ 75:11; bars of iron (i.e. of Babylon’s gates) Is 45:2, cf. ψ 107:16. e.g. 2 Chronicles 34:7
Pual
- Pf. גֻּדָּ֑עוּ Is 9:9 be hewn down (of trees). e.g. Isaiah 9:9
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. hew, hew down or off (NH id. (rare), Aramaic גְּדַע Ithp.; Arabic جَدَعَ cut off hand or other member, mutilate)—
— 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.
גָּדַע
- v. גדד I) to cut, chop, lop off.—Y. Sabb. IV, end, 7ᵃ חריות שגְּדָעָן וכ׳ twigs which one cut off (trimming the date tree) with the intention of using them for &c. (Bab. ib. 50ᵃ גדר).—Part. pass. גָּדוּעַ, f. גְּדוּעָה; pl. גְּדוּעִים, גְּדוּעוֹת. Midr. Till. to Ps. LXXV, end קרני ישראל ג׳ the horns (power) of Israel are lopped off (checked).
- . Ib.; Midr. Sam. ch. V, end קרנות שג׳ צדיקו וכ׳ the horns which the Righteous One of the world (the Lord) has lopped.
- to be lopped, diminished. Cant. R. to III, 7 נ׳ גובה וכ׳ (Var. נגרע, v. גרע) Adam’s high stature was reduced. [V. גָּוַע.]
גְּדַע
- *Targ. II Sam. X, 4 (ed. Lag. גרע).
- to be cut, mutilated. Targ. Y. Ex. XII, 12; Num. XXXIII, 4. e.g. Numbers 33:4
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 21 distinct written forms H1438 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 H1438, 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.
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → 3 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 19 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 22 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
- Deuteronomy 7:5
- Judges 21:6
- 1 Samuel 2:31
- 2 Chronicles 14:3
- Psalms 75:10
- Isaiah 9:10
- Lamentations 2:3
- Ezekiel 6:6
- Amos 3:14
- Zechariah 11:10
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.
