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גָּנַב

to steal

also: steal away, carry away fuller range ↓

H1589 Strong's Hebrew
gânab Transliteration
/gaw-nab'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 40 appearances

Compare with another word →

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.

גנב — transliterated gânab — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to steal.” Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 5 stems, among them Qal and Niphal. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 36 verses — moderately common. More than a quarter of its appearances fall in Genesis. It first appears in Genesis 30:33. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
carry away
Modern gloss
to steal
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H1589 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 →

36
distinct verses
The word appears in 36 distinct verses.
14 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 14 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 30:33
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 30:33.
Zechariah 5:3
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Zechariah 5:3.
#909
by frequency
Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 909 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 36 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 18 · 50%
  • Historical 7 · 19%
  • Wisdom 6 · 17%
  • Prophets 5 · 14%

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 36 distinct verses.

  • Torah (Pentateuch) 18 verses · 50%
  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 11 verses · 31%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 7 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).

  • King James Version: Had stolen 3×, Stole 3×, Be stolen 2×
  • American Standard Version: Stole 4×, Be stolen 2×, Steal 2×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Steal 6×, Had stolen 2×, Stole 2×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Steal 5×, And 4×, Stole 3×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H1589 across 38 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Had stolen” 3×
  • “Stole” 3×
  • “Be stolen” 2×
  • “Steal” 2×
  • “Steal away” 2×
  • “Stealing” 2×

Plus 24 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 1 further occurrence.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H1589 across 38 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Stole” 4×
  • “Be stolen” 2×
  • “Steal” 2×
  • “Steal away” 2×
  • “Stealing” 2×

Plus 26 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 H1589 across 38 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Steal” 6×
  • “Had stolen” 2×
  • “Stole” 2×
  • “Stole him away” 2×
  • “Stolen” 2×

Plus 24 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 2 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H1589 across 55 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Steal” 5×
  • “And” 4×
  • “Stole” 3×
  • “Stolen” 3×
  • “She stole” 2×
  • “Stealing” 2×
  • “Stolen by” 2×
  • “You shall” 2×

Plus 32 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) 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 5 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. 3 fs. sf. גְּנָבַתּוּ Jb 21:18; 27:20, גְּנָבָ֫תַם Gn 31:32; 2 ms. גָּנַבְתָּ Gn 31:30; 1 s. וְגָנַ֑בְתִּי consec. Pr 30:9; גָּֽנְבוּ Jos 7:11 2 S 21:12; sf. גְּנַבוּךָ 2 S 19:42; Impf. יִגְּנֹֽב־ Ex 21:37, יִגְנוֹב Pr 6:30, וַיִּגְנֹב Gn 31:20; 3 fs. וַתִּגְנֹב Gn 31:19 + 2 times; 2 ms. תִּגְנֹב Ex 20:15; Dt 5:17, וַתִּגְנֹב Gn 31:26, 27; יִגְנְבוּ Ob 5, תִּגְנֹ֑בוּ Lv 19:11, נִגְנֹב Gn 44:8; Inf. abs. גָּנֹב Ex 22:11 + 2 times; Pt. גֹּנֵב Ex 21:16 + 2 times, גָּנוּב Gn 30:33; f. cstr. גְּנֻֽבְתִי Gn 31:39(×2); pl. גְּנוּבִים Pr 9:17; in Hexateuch always JED, except Lv 19:11 (H);—steal c. acc. rei Gn 31:19, 30, 32; 44:8 Ex 21:37 2 S 21:12 cf. pass. Gn 30:33; 31:39 Pr 9:17; c. obj. pers. Ex 21:16 Dt 24:7 2 S 19:42; = take by stealth (for good purpose) 2 K 11:2 = 2 Ch 22:11; abs. Ex 20:15 = Dt 5:17, Lv 19:11; Jos 7:11; Pr 6:30; 30:9; Ob 5; Zc 5:3, cf. inf. abs. Ho 4:2 Je 7:9 & (c. Niph.) Ex 22:11; גנב לֵב = deceive Gn 31:20, 26 cf. Di; ג׳ אֹתִי Gn 31:27 id.; of sudden sweeping off by storm, in simile Jb 21:18; fig. of destruction of wicked 27:20. e.g. Job 21:18

Niphal

Piel

  • steal away (trans.) וַיְגַנֵּב אבשׁלום את־לֵב 2 S 15:6; מְגַנְּבֵי דְּבָרַי Je 23:30. e.g. 2 Samuel 15:6

Pual

  • be stolen away subj. pers. גֻּנֹּב גֻּנַּבְתִּי Gn 40:15; subj. rei וְגֻנַּב consec. Ex 22:6; be brought by stealth Jb 4:12 יְגֻנָּ֑ב. e.g. Genesis 40:15

Hithpael

  • go by stealth, steal away יִתְגַּנֵּב 2 S 19:4, וַיִּתְגַּנֵּב 2 S 19:4. (Syriac ܓܢܰܒ ܢܰܦܫܶܗ steal oneself away; so ܐܬܓܢܒ Gn 31:27.) e.g. 2 Samuel 19:4

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. steal (NH id., Aramaic גְּנַב, ܓܢܰܒ; Arabic جَنَب is hurt the side, or put aside, den. from جَنْبٌ side)—

— 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

Part of speech: Verb TWOT: 364


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.

גָּנַב

  • (b. h.) [to put behind, aside,] to steal. Y. Snh. VIII, 26ᵇ top לא תִגְנוֹב את … גוֹנֵב do not carry off steathily thine own property from the thief, lest thou appear to be stealing.—Snh. 86ᵃ גונב נפש one who kidnaps a person. B. Kam. VII, 2 ג׳ על פי שנים if he is convicted of stealing through two witnesses; a. fr.—ג׳ דעת to deceive, to create a false impression. Ḥull. 94ᵃ אסור לִגְנוֹב דעת וכ׳ it is forbidden to create &c. (e.g. to make believe as if you opened a fresh barrel of wine as a special attention to your guest, while you would have had to do it at any rate). Shebu. 39ᵃ; a. fr.—ג׳ עין to deceive by a false impression on the eye, to delude. B. Mets. IV, 12.—Part. pass. גָּנוּב, f. גְּנוּבָה. Ab. Zar. 44ᵇ; Meïl. 7ᵇ תשובה ג׳ a fallacious reply; v. גְּנוּבְתָּא II.
    • to keep behind. Ex. R. s. 5 היו מְגַנְּבִין את עצמן וכ׳ they kept themselves at a distance from Moses and then withdrew.
    • 1. to be stolen, kidnapped. B. Mets. III, 1. Gen. R. s. 84; a. fr.
    • 2. to be deceived (sub. דעת). Tosef. B. Kam. VII, 8 sq.; Mekh. Mishp. N’zikin, s. 13.
    • to sneak in. Pesik. R. s. 21, היו מִתְגַּנְּבִים וכ׳ they used to have stealthy intercourse &c. Mekh. l. c. המִתְגַּנֵּב אחר וכ׳ who steals himself (into the college room) behind a neighbor.

גְּנַב

  • Targ. Y. Gen. XXXI, 30. Ib. 20. Targ. O. Deut. XXIV, 7 גָּנֵיב (Y. גְּנִיב, corr. acc.); a. fr.—Part. pass. גְּנִיב. Targ. O. Gen. XL, 15 גְּנֵיבְנָא ed. Berl. I have been stolen.—Ruth R. introd. 3 (a trial before a Roman court) גְּנַבְתּוּן לא גְנַבְנוּן “Ye have stolen”.—‘We have not’ …; לא גָנַבְתְּ מאן ג׳ עמך “thou hast not stolen? Who has been stealing with thee?”; Gen. R. s. 37; s. 63. B. Kam. 65ᵇ תורא גַנְבִי מינך was it an ox I stole from thee?—Ib. 67ᵇ עד דגְנֵיב תרי (he is not bound to pay) unless he stole two animals; a. fr.
    • 1. same. Targ. Jer. XXIII, 30.—2) same.
    • to go round about. Keth. 19ᵃ גַנּוֹבָא גַּנּוּבֵי למה לך וכ׳ O thou cunning man, what is the use of thy going round about?; Yeb. 91ᵃ; B. Bath. 133ᵃ גַּנָּבָא גנובי Ms. R. (ed. גנבא גנבי, corr. acc.).—Part. pass. מְגַנַּב crooked. Targ. Jud. V, 6 אורחן מְגַנְּבָן (h. text עקלקל׳).
    • 1. to be stolen. Targ. Ex. XXII, 11. Targ. Y. Gen. XL, 15; a. e.—B. Mets. 34ᵃ top מי יימר דמִיגַּנְּבָא who can say that it will be stolen? Ib. 24ᵃ אִגְּנִיב כסא וכ׳ a silver goblet was stolen from the inn; a. e.
    • 2. to sneak away. Targ. II Sam. XIX, 4.

גַּנָּב

  • (b. h.) thief. Y. Snh. VIII, 26ᵇ top גָּנַב בפני עדים גַּ׳ וכ׳ if one carries an object off in the sight of witnesses, he is a thief (amenable to the law Ex. XXI, 37), if in the owner’s presence, he is a robber. B. Kam. 57ᵃ since he keeps himself hidden ג׳ הוא he is a thief (not a robber). Ib., a. fr. טוען טענת ג׳ he pleads that a thief had stolen the object in his charge. Snh. 26ᵇ ג׳ ניסן וכ׳ a thief (a laborer or tenant who takes fruits) in Nisan or in Tishri is not a thief (to be considered unfit to testify in court); a. fr.—Pl. גַּנָּבִים, גַּנָּבִין. Tosef. B. Kam. VII, 8; Mekh. Mishp., N’zikin, s. 13; a. fr. e.g. Exodus 21:37

גַּנָּב ²

  • 1. same. Targ. Ex. XXII, 1; a. e.—Ber. 5ᵇ (prov.) בתר ג׳ גנוב וכ׳ steal after the thief (take thine own stealthily from him), and thou hast a taste (of theft), v. גָּנַב. Snh. 22ᵃ (prov.) חסריה לג׳ נפשיה וכ׳ when strength fails the thief, he pretends to be honest.—Pl. גַּנָּבִין, גַּנָּבַיָּא, גַּנְּבֵי. Targ. Y. Ex. XX, 13; a. fr.—Ab. Zar. 70ᵃ. Snh. 109ᵃ, v. אַתְּ; a. fr.
  • 2. cunning. B. Bath. 133ᵃ, v. גְּנַב Pa.

גָּנֵב

  • m. = גְּנֵיבָה q. v.

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 36 distinct written forms H1589 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.

Form Parsing Example Uses
גְּנָבַ֥תּ/וּ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Job 21:18 2
וַ/תִּגְנֹ֖ב Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Genesis 31:26 2
וַ/תִּגְנֹ֤ב Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 2 Chronicles 22:11 2
תִּגְנֹֽב Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 5:19 2
גָנַ֖בְתָּ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Genesis 31:30 1
גֻנֹּ֣ב Verb, Pual, Infinitive Absolute Genesis 40:15 1
גְּנָב֨וּ/ךָ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 2 Samuel 19:41 1
גְּנָבָֽתַ/ם Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Genesis 31:32 1
גְּנֻֽבְתִ֣י Verb, Qal, Participle Passive, Feminine, Singular, Construct Genesis 31:39 1
גְּנוּבִ֥ים Verb, Qal, Participle Passive, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Proverbs 9:17 1
גָּֽנְבוּ֙ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Joshua 7:11 1
גָּנ֥וּב Verb, Qal, Participle Passive, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 30:33 1
גָּנְב֨וּ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 2 Samuel 21:12 1
גָּנֹ֥ב Verb, Qal, Infinitive Absolute Exodus 22:12 1
גֹּנֵ֨ב Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 24:7 1
גֻּנַּ֔בְתִּי Verb, Pual, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Genesis 40:15 1
הֲ/גָנֹ֤ב Verb, Qal, Infinitive Absolute Jeremiah 7:9 1
הַ/גֹּנֵ֗ב Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Zechariah 5:3 1
וְ/גָנַ֑בְתִּי Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Proverbs 30:9 1
וְ/גָנֹ֖ב Verb, Qal, Infinitive Absolute Hosea 4:2 1
וְ/גֹנֵ֨ב Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 21:16 1
וְ/גֻנַּ֖ב Verb, Pual, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 22:7 1
וַ/יְגַנֵּב֙ Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Samuel 15:6 1
וַ/יִּגְנֹ֣ב Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Genesis 31:20 1
וַ/יִּתְגַּנֵּ֥ב Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Samuel 19:3 1
וַ/תִּגְנֹ֣ב Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Genesis 31:19 1
וּ/גְנֻֽבְתִ֖י Verb, Qal, Participle Passive, Feminine, Singular, Construct Genesis 31:39 1
יְגֻנָּ֑ב Verb, Pual, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Job 4:12 1
יִגְנ֑וֹב Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Proverbs 6:30 1
יִגְנְב֖וּ Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Obadiah 1:5 1
יִגְנֹֽב Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 22:1 1
יִגָּנֵ֖ב Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 22:12 1
יִתְגַּנֵּ֗ב Verb, Hithpael, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Samuel 19:3 1
מְגַנְּבֵ֣י Verb, Piel, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct Jeremiah 23:30 1
נִגְנֹב֙ Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Plural Genesis 44:8 1
תִּגְנֹ֑בוּ Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Leviticus 19:11 1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1589, 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

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 → 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 36 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 36 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

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.

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