גָּלַח
to shave
‘to shave’ is one of 3 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: ‘shave’
- 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”).
- 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).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Person
- 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).
Grammatical forms 12 distinct
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 6 times (26%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 4 times (17%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 3 times (13%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct 1 time (4%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (4%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (4%)
- Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (4%)
+4 more forms (4 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 23 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H1548 appears — 18 distinct verses across 10 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.
Genesis 1 verse
Leviticus 4 verses
- Leviticus 13:33 וְ/הִ֨תְגַּלָּ֔ח יְגַלֵּ֑חַ conj + Hithpael wpf 3ms Piel impf 3ms then he shall be shaved, but he shall not shave the itch; and the priest shall shut him up who has the itch seven more days.
- Leviticus 14:8 וְ/גִלַּ֣ח conj + Piel wpf 3ms "He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water; and he shall be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, but shall dwell outside his tent seven days.
- Leviticus 14:9 יְגַלַּ֣ח יְגַלֵּ֑חַ Piel impf 3ms Piel impf 3ms It shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his body in water, then he shall be clean.
- Leviticus 21:5 יְגַלֵּ֑חוּ Piel impf 3mp "'They shall not shave their heads, neither shall they shave off the corners of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
Numbers 3 verses
- Numbers 6:9 וְ/גִלַּ֤ח יְגַלְּחֶֽ/נּוּ conj + Piel wpf 3ms Piel impf 3ms + sfx pers 3ms "If any man dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles the head of his separation; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day he shall shave it.
- Numbers 6:18 וְ/גִלַּ֣ח conj + Piel wpf 3ms The Nazirite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the Tent of Meeting, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings.
- Numbers 6:19 הִֽתְגַּלְּח֥/וֹ Hithpael inf.cs + sfx pers 3ms The priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the hands of the Nazirite, after he has shaved the head of his separation;
Deuteronomy 1 verse
Judges 3 verses
- Judges 16:17 גֻּלַּ֨חְתִּי֙ Pual pf 1cs He told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man."
- Judges 16:19 וַ/תְּגַלַּ֕ח conj + Piel wimpf 3fs She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man, and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.
- Judges 16:22 גֻּלָּֽח Pual pf 3ms However the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved.
2 Samuel 2 verses
- 2 Samuel 10:4 וַ/יְגַלַּח֙ conj + Piel wimpf 3ms So Hanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away.
- 2 Samuel 14:26 וּֽ/בְ/גַלְּח/וֹ֮ יְגַלֵּ֔חַ וְ/גִלְּח֑/וֹ conj + prep + Piel inf.cs + sfx pers 3ms Piel impf 3ms conj + Piel wpf 3ms + sfx pers 3ms When he cut the hair of his head (now it was at every year's end that he cut it; because it was heavy on him, therefore he cut it); he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels, after the king's weight.
1 Chronicles 1 verse
Isaiah 1 verse
Jeremiah 1 verse
Ezekiel 1 verse
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.
גלח (gâlach) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to shave.” It first appears in Genesis 41:14. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 18 verses — uncommon. The verb spans 3 stems, from Piel to Pual. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1548 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 →
- 18
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 18 distinct verses.
- 10 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 10 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,368
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,368 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 18 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 18 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 9 verses · 50%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 8 verses · 44%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 1 verse · 6%
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: He shall shave 3×, He polled 2×, Shave 2×
- American Standard Version: He shall shave 3×, He cut 2×, Shave 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Shave 2×, Shave off 2×, Shaved 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: He shall shave 4×, He shaved 3×, Shave 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1548 across 23 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 16 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 H1548 across 23 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1548 across 18 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 5 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1548 across 25 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 16 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
7 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) 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 7 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.
Piel
- shave, shave off (so NH, Aramaic)—Pf. וְגִלַּח consec. Lv 14:8 + 2 times; sf. וְגִלְּחוֹ consec. 2 S 14:26; 3 fs. וְגִלְּחָה consec. Dt 21:12; Impf. יְגַלַּח Lv 14:9 Is 7:20, יְגַלֵּ֑חַ Lv 13:33 + 2 times, וַיְגַלַּח Gn 41:14 2 S 10:4; sf. (3 ms.) יְגַלְּחֶנּוּ, וַיְגַלְּחֵם 1 Ch 19:4; 3 fs. וַתְּגַלַּח Ju 16:19; 3 mpl. יְגַלֵּ֑חוּ Lv 21:5 Ez 44:20; Inf. sf. of subj. גַּלְּחוֹ 2 S 14:26;— e.g. Leviticus 14:8
- 1. shave, obj. the head, רֹאשׁ Nu 6:9(×2), 18 (P) Dt 21:12 (hair as containing impurity cf. RSSem i 407), 2 S 14:26(×2) cf. 26 Ez 44:20; Lv 13:33 (P), obj. הַנֶּתֶק; obj. persons 1 Ch 19:4. e.g. Numbers 6:9
- 2. shave off, the hair שֵׂעָר Lv 14:8, 9(×2) (P) cf. Ju 16:19; the beard זָקָן Lv 21:5 (H) 2 S 10:4. e.g. Leviticus 14:8
- 3. fig. of devastation by Assyrians Is 7:20 (obj. הָרֹאשׁ, שַׂעַר הָרַגְלָ֑יִם and הַזָּקָן) e.g. Isaiah 7:20
- 4. intrans. he shaved (himself) Gn 41:14 (E). e.g. Genesis 41:14
Pual
- Pf. גֻּלָּ֑ח Ju 16:22, גֻּלַּחְתִּי Ju 16:17; Pt. cstr. מְגֻלְּחֵי Je 41:5;—be shaven, subj. pers. (of Samson) Ju 16:17, 22; מְגֻלְּחֵי זָקָן Je 41:5. e.g. Judges 16:22
Hithpael
- Pf. וְהִתְגַּלָּ֑ח consec. Lv 13:33; Inf. sf. הִתְגַּלְּחוֹ Nu 6:19;—shave oneself Lv 13:33; c. acc. אֶת־נִזְרוֹ Nu 6:19 (both P). e.g. Leviticus 13:33
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 bald (Arabic جَلِحَ );
— 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.
גָּלַח
- , Pi. גִּלֵּחַ, גִּילֵּחַ to cut the hair, shave. Naz. VI, 3. Ib. IV, 6 ג׳ או גִילְּחוּהוּ וכ׳ if he himself or his friends cut his hair. M. Kat. III, 1 ואלו מְגַלְּחִין וכ׳ the following are permitted to cut their hair during the festive week. Ib. 14ᵃ מותר לְגַלֵּחַ; a. fr.—Part. pass. מְגוּלָּח, f. מְגוּלַּחַת. Naz. IV, 5 אשה מְגֻלַּ׳ a woman with her hair cut; Y. ib. IV, end, 53ᶜ
גְּלַח
- ch. Pa. גַּלַּח same. Targ. O. Lev. XIII, 33; a. fr.—M. Kat. 17ᵇ איבעי ליה לגַלּוּחֵי וכ׳ he ought to have his hair cut &c.
- to have one’s hair cut. Targ. Jud. XVI, 17; 22.—Sabb. 110ᵇ לִיגַּלַּח וכ׳ let him have the middle part of his head shaved.
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 19 distinct written forms H1548 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.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 18 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 18 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 41:14
- Leviticus 13:33
- Numbers 6:9
- Deuteronomy 21:12
- Judges 16:17
- 2 Samuel 10:4
- 1 Chronicles 19:4
- Isaiah 7:20
- Jeremiah 41:5
- Ezekiel 44:20
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.
