גָּלָה
to uncover
‘to uncover’ is one of 4 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. Here: ‘uncover’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘intr. remove’
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”). Here: ‘refl.’
- Hophal
- The passive counterpart of the Hiphil (“he was caused to…”).
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
Form
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
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).
Person
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
1 verse where H1540 appears in the Qal stem in the Book of Ruth. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Ruth
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, גלה (gâlâh) means “to uncover.” The King James Version usually renders it “thou shalt not uncover,” while modern versions prefer “have sexual relations with her” (Berean Standard Bible) — see the renderings breakdown. Spanning 167 verses in 27 books, it ranks among the common words of the Hebrew Bible. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 9:21. As a verb its force shifts by stem, across 7 stems (Qal, Niphal, and more). Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1540 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 →
- 167
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 167 distinct verses.
- 27 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 27 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #251
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 251 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 167 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 167 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 100 verses · 60%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 38 verses · 23%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 29 verses · 17%
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: Thou shalt not uncover 12×, Uncover 7×, Carried away captive 5×
- American Standard Version: Thou shalt not uncover 12×, Uncovered 7×, Carried away captive 4×
- Berean Standard Bible: Have sexual relations with her 6×, Carried away 5×, Exile 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Uncover 26×, You shall 14×, And 8×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1540 across 190 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 109 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 H1540 across 187 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 101 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 H1540 across 170 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 102 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 16 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1540 across 210 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 86 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
25 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 Pual (the passive of Piel), Hophal (the passive of Hiphil), and 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 25 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׳ etc. 1 S 4:21 + (18 t.times in all); Impf. יִגְלֶה 1 S 20:2 + 5 times וַיִּ֫גֶֽל 2 K 17:23 + 3 times, also juss. יִ֫גֶל Jb 20:28; 36:15; 3 mpl. יִגְלוּ Am 6:7; Imv. ms. גְּלֵה Ez 12:3; Inf. abs. גָּלֹה Am 5:5 + 2 times, cstr. גְּלוֹת Ju 18:30 Je 1:3; Pt. גּוֹלֶה 2 K 24:14, גֹּלֶה 1 S 22:8 + 3 times, f. גּוֹלָה Is 49:21; pass. גָּלוּי Est 3:14 + 2 times, cstr. גְּלוּי Nu 24:4, 16;— e.g. 1 Samuel 4:21
- 1. גָּלָה אֹזֶן uncover the ear of one, i.e. reveal to him 1 S 9:15; 20:2, 12, 13; 22:8(×2), 17 2 S 7:27 1 Ch 17:25 Ru 4:4 Jb 33:16; 36:10, 15; גְּלוּי עינים uncovered of eyes, having the eyes open Nu 24:4, 16; גָּלָה סוֹד reveal a secret Am 3:7 Pr 20:19; הגלוי the revealed opp. הֶחָתוּם Je 32:11; גָּלוּי לְ disclosed, published Est 3:14; 8:13. e.g. 1 Samuel 9:15
- 2. intr. remove, depart, גלה משׂושׂ הארץ the mirth of the land is departed Is 24:11; יגל יבול ביתו the increase of his house shall depart Jb 20:28; גלה חציר Pr 27:25. e.g. Isaiah 24:11
- 3. go into exile Ju 18:30 2 K 17:23; 25:21 Is 5:13 Je 1:3; 52:27 Ez 12:3; 39:23 Am 1:5; 5:5; 6:7; 7:11, 17 Mi 1:16 La 1:3; גלה כבוד 1 S 4:21, 22 Ho 10:5; pt. גֹּלֶה an exile 2 S 15:19 2 K 24:14 Is 49:21 Am 6:7. e.g. Judges 18:30
Niphal
- Pf. נִגְלָה 1 S 3:1 + 9 times, נִגְלָתָה Is 53:1, נִגְלֵתִי 1 S 2:27, נִגְלוּ Gn 35:7 + 2 times, נִגְלִינוּ 1 S 14:8; Impf. יִגָּלֶה, תִּגָּלֶה 1 S 3:7 + 4 times תִּגָּל Is 47:3, יִגָּלוּ 2 S 22:16 + 2 times; Imv. הִגָּלוּ Is 49:9; Inf. abs. נִגְלֹה 1 S 2:27; cstr. נִגְלוֹת 2 S 6:20, הִגָּלוֹת 2 S 6:20 + 2 times; Pt. pl. נִגְלֹת Dt 29:28;— e.g. 1 Samuel 3:1
- 1. refl.
- a. uncover oneself (one’s nakedness) 2 S 6:20. e.g. 2 Samuel 6:20
- b. discover or shew oneself Is 49:9, אֶל 1 S 14:8, 11. e.g. Isaiah 49:9
- c. reveal himself (of God), אֶל Gn 35:7 (E) 1 S 2:27; 3:21, באזני Is 22:14. e.g. Genesis 35:7
- 2. pass.
- a. be uncovered (one’s nakedness), ערוה Ex 20:26 (E) Is 47:3 Ez 16:36; 23:29, שׁולים Je 13:22. e.g. Exodus 20:23
- b. be disclosed, discovered, foundations 2 S 22:16 (= ψ 18:16) Ez 13:14; gates of death Jb 38:17, עון Ho 7:1, פשׁע Ez 21:29, רעה Pr 26:26 Ez 16:57. e.g. 2 Samuel 22:16
- c. be revealed כבוד י׳ Is 40:5, זרוע י׳ Is 53:1, דבר י׳ 1 S 3:7, צדקה Is 56:1; with לְ Is 23:1 Dn 10:1, הַנִּגְלֹת the things revealed Dt 29:28. e.g. Isaiah 40:5
- 3. be removed, דּוֹרִי נִסַּע וְנִגְלָה מִנִּי my habitation is plucked up and removed from me Is 38:12. e.g. Isaiah 38:12
Piel
- Pf. גִּלָּה Lv 20:11, גִּלִּית Is 57:8, גִּלֵּיתִי Je 33:6; Impf. יְגַלֶּה Dt 23:1, תְּגַל Pr 25:9; Imv. גַּל ψ 119:18, גַּלִּי Is 47:2; Inf. גַּלּוֹת Lv 18:6; Pt. מְגַלֶּה Jb 12:22;— e.g. Leviticus 20:11
- 1. uncover,
- a. nakedness (often = contract marriage, RSLagGN 1882, 408; JPh. ix. 94) Lv 18:6–19; 20:11–21 (H 23 times) Ez 22:10; cf. כנף אביו Dt 23:1; 27:20; of exposure, as a reproach, Ez 16:37; 23:10, cf. נבלת Ho 2:12, שׁולים Na 3:5; immodesty Ez 23:18, מקור דמיה Lv 20:18 (H), תזנותיה Ez 23:18; ג׳ alone Is 57:8 (all subj. fem.) e.g. Leviticus 18:6
- b. in gen.; feet Ru 3:4, 7, leg Is 47:2, veil v 2 (i.e. remove it) cf. 22:8, פני לבושׁו Jb 41:5, eyes Nu 22:31 (E) ψ 119:18 (open them so as to see). e.g. Ruth 3:4
- 2. disclose, discover, lay bare, secret places Je 49:10, deep places Jb 12:22, foundations Mi 1:6, blood Is 26:21, iniquity Jb 20:27, secret Pr 11:13; 25:9, a wanderer (betray) Is 16:3. e.g. Jeremiah 49:10
- 3. make known, shew, reveal, רִיב אֶל make known a cause unto Je 11:20; 20:12; with לְ Je 33:6; גִּלָּה צִדְקָתוֹ לעיני shew his righteousness in the eyes of ψ 98:2; with עַל: על עון, על חטאת make known concerning, iniquity, sin La 2:14; 4:22. e.g. Jeremiah 11:20
Pual
- Pf. גֻּלְּתָה be uncovered Na 2:8; Pt. תּוֹכַחַת מְגֻלָּה open rebuke Pr 27:5. e.g. Nahum 2:8
Hiphil
- Pf. הֶגְלָה 2 K 17:11 +, הִגְלָה 2 K 24:14, הֶגְלָם 1 Ch 8:7, הִגְלָם Je 20:4; Impf. וַיֶּגֶל 2 K 17:6 + 3 times; sf. וַיַּגְלֶהָ 2 K 16:9, וַיַּגְלֵם 2 K 15:29, 1 Ch 5:26, יַגְלוּם 1 Ch 8:6: Inf. הַגְלוֹת 1 Ch 5:41 + 5 times, בַּגְלוֹתוֹ Je 27:20;—carry away into exile, take into exile 2 K 15:29; 16:9; 17:6, 11, 26, 27, 28, 33; 18:11; 24:14, 15; 25:11 1 Ch 5:6, 26, 41; 8:6, 7 2 Ch 36:20 Ezr 2:1 Ne 7:6 Est 2:6 Je 20:4; 22:12; 24:1; 27:20; 20:1, 4, 7, 14; 39:9; 43:3; 52:15, 28, 29, 30 La 4:22 Ez 39:28 Am 1:6; 5:27. e.g. 2 Kings 17:11
Hophal
- Pf. הָגְלָה Est 2:6; f. הָגְלְתָה Est 2:6, הָגְלוּ 1 Ch 9:1 Je 40:7, הָגְלָת Je 13:19(×2) (Ges§ 75 m); Pt. pass. מֻגְלִים Je 40:1 carried into exile. e.g. Esther 2:6
Hithpael
- 1. Impf. וַיִּתְגַּל was uncovered (naked) Gn 9:21. e.g. Genesis 9:21
- 2. Inf. בְּהִתְגַּלּוֹת לִבּוֹ that his heart may reveal itself Pr 18:2. e.g. Proverbs 18:2
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. uncover, remove (NH id., cf. Arabic جَلَا be or become clear, uncovered; display, reveal, declare; go forth, emigrate; cf. Ethiopic ገለወ obducere, velare, & 11: ገለየ in deriv. (rare) Di1141; Aramaic גְּלָא, ܓܠܴܐ reveal)—
— 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.
גִּלָּה
- (גלל, cmp. גַּל 3) a valve, folding. Y. Sabb. XII, beg. 13ᶜ מטה של ג׳ folding couch.—Pl. גִּלִּין. Bab. Sabb. 138ᵃ כסא ג׳ camp chair.
גֻּלָּה
- , v. גּוּלָּה
גָּלָה
- , v. גלי
גלי
- (b. h.)
- 1. to be uncovered. Tosef. Mikv. III, 1 a pit שגָּלַת ed. Zuck. which was left open.—Part. pass. גָּלוּי open, revealed. Sabb. 55ᵃ ג׳ וידוע וכ׳ it is open and known to me. Ber. 60ᵇ; a. fr. V. גָּלוּי.
- 2. (of a place) to become bare of inhabitants (v. Jud. XVIII, 30; Jer. I, 3); (of the inhabitants) to leave home, go into exile. Y. Taan. I, 64ᵃ top בכ"מ שגָּלוּ … גָּלַת וכ׳ whithersoever Israel went as exiles, the Divine Majesty went with them (ref. to נגלה, I Sam. II, 27); Meg. 29ᵃ; a. e.—Pesik. Haḥod. p. 48ᵃ אם ג׳ אחד מכם … כאילו גְּלִיתֶם כולכם if one of you is banished (by the Roman Government) to &c.: … as though ye all had been banished; Pesik. R. s. 15; Cant. R. to II, 8. Arakh. 12ᵃ; Meg. 11ᵇ גָּלוּ בשבע they were transported to Babylonia in the seventh year (after the subjection of Jojakim). Macc. II, 1 אלו הן הַגּוֹלִין the following (involuntary homicides) have to leave for the city of refuge. Ib. אינו גוֹלֶה is not bound to flee to &c. Ib. 3 האב גולה ע"י הבן a father is banished for killing his son; a. fr. e.g. Judges 18:30
- to banish, carry into captivity. Macc. 12ᵇ היו … מַגְלִין וכ׳ the Israelites executed the law of banishment in the desert. Num. R. s. 23, end. Ruth R. to I, 1 ומַגְלָם מארצם and is the cause of their exile &c.; a. fr.—Koh. R. to XII, 6 (play on גלת ib.) ‘the golden bowl’ is the gullet, שהיא מַגְלָה את הזהב ומריצה וכ׳ (not שהיה; Lev. R. s. 18 שמכלה, corr. acc.) which banishes the gold and makes the silver run, i.e. which impoverishes the glutton.
- to be discovered, exposed to view; to reveal one’s self, appear. Tanḥ. Sh’moth 19 נ׳ עליו בקולו וכ׳ He revealed Himself to Moses with the voice of Amram &c.; Ex. R. s. 3. Ex. R. s. 2, end בכ"מ שהשכינה נִגְלֵית wherever the Divine Glory appears. Snh. II, 1, v. כָּסָה II; a. fr.
- to uncover, remove; to discover, reveal, publish. Ex. R. s. 15, beg. גִּלּוּ הצדיקים וכ׳ the righteous uncovered their heads. Sot. V, 2; Gen. R. s. 21 מי יְגַלֶּה עפר וכ׳ Oh that one would remove the dust from over thy eyes, i.e. Oh, that thou wouldst resurrect!; Y. Ber. IX, 13ᵈ bot.—Sabb. 88ᵃ מי גי׳ וכ׳ who revealed this secret to my children? Meg. 3ᵃ; a. fr.—ג׳ משפחות to expose to suspicion the legitimacy of families. Tosef. Naz. I, 3; Kidd. 71ᵃ.—ג׳ פנים בתורה (שלא כהלכה) a) to interpret the Law in opposition to the adopted sense, tomisinterpret, pervert. Ab. III, 11; a. e. b) to put the Law to shame by treating its teachers irreverently. Snh. 99ᵃ; a. e.—ג׳ פנים (in gen.) to expose, put to shame. Pirké d’R. El. ch. XLIV, v. לָבַן II.—Part. pass. מְגוּלֶּה, f. מְגוּלָּה uncovered. Par. XI, 1; Ḥull. 9ᵇ; a. fr. Pl. מְגוּלִּין. Ib.; a. fr.
- to be revealed; to be exposed. Pirké d’R. El. ch. XXIII ונתגל בתוך האהל his nakedness was exposed &c. Yoma 9ᵇ נתג׳ עונם their sins were public (they did not hide them); נתג׳ קיצם the end of their captivity was revealed (through prophecy). Naz. 23ᵇ נ׳ קלונו his disgrace is published.—Pes. 119ᵃ; a. fr.—Tanḥ. Mishp. 6; Yalk. Prov. 956, v. גָּלַע.
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 150 distinct written forms H1540 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 90 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1540, 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
- גולה gôwlâh H1473 exile
- גלה gᵉlâh H1541 to reveal
- גלות gâlûwth H1546 exile
- גליון gillâyôwn H1549 table
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 → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. 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 159 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 167 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 9:21
- Exodus 20:26
- Leviticus 18:6
- Numbers 22:31
- Deuteronomy 27:20
- Judges 18:30
- Ruth 3:4
- 1 Samuel 2:27
- 2 Samuel 6:20
- 2 Kings 15:29
- 1 Chronicles 5:6
- 2 Chronicles 36:20
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.
