דָּבַק
to cleave
‘to cleave’ 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 Qal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘cling’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘cause to cling or cleave to’
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
- Hophal
- The passive counterpart of the Hiphil (“he was caused to…”).
Form
- 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).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- 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).
- 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”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H1692 appears in the Book of Psalms — 8 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.
Psalms
- Psalms 22:15 מֻדְבָּ֣ק Hophal ptcp.pass ms My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
- Psalms 44:25 דָּבְקָ֖ה Qal pf 3fs For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body cleaves to the earth.
- Psalms 63:8 דָּבְקָ֣ה Qal pf 3fs My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up.
- Psalms 101:3 יִדְבַּ֣ק Qal impf 3ms I will set no vile thing before my eyes. I hate the deeds of faithless men. They will not cling to me.
- Psalms 102:5 דָּבְקָ֥ה Qal pf 3fs By reason of the voice of my groaning, My bones stick to my skin.
- Psalms 119:25 דָּֽבְקָ֣ה Qal pf 3fs My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!
- Psalms 119:31 דָּבַ֥קְתִּי Qal pf 1cs I cling to your statutes, Yahweh. Don't let me be disappointed.
- Psalms 137:6 תִּדְבַּ֥ק Qal impf 3fs Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don't remember you; If I don't prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy.
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.
דבק — transliterated dâbaq — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to cleave.” Older and newer Bibles part ways — “cleave” in the King James Version, “cling” (Berean Standard Bible) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. Spanning 52 verses in 16 books, it ranks among the moderately common words of the Hebrew Bible. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 2:24. As a verb its force shifts by stem, across 4 stems (Qal, Pual, 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 H1692 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 →
- 52
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 52 distinct verses.
- 16 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 16 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #696
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 696 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 52 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Psalms 8 verses 15%
- Deuteronomy 7 verses 13%
- Job 6 verses 12%
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 52 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 20 verses · 38%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 19 verses · 37%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 13 verses · 25%
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: Cleave 9×, Cleaveth 6×, Clave 5×
- American Standard Version: Cleave 8×, Cleaveth 5×, Shall cleave 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Cling 7×, Hold fast 4×, Clings 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Cling 9×, Clings 6×, And 4×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1692 across 54 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 24 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 H1692 across 54 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
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 H1692 across 54 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 32 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 H1692 across 62 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 31 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
14 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 Hophal (the passive of Hiphil).
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 14 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. דָּבַק 1 K 11:2 + 2 times; וְדָבַק consec. Gn 2:24; דָּבֵ֑ק 2 K 3:3; 3 fs. דָּֽבְקָה Ru 1:14 + 5 times; דָּבֵ֑קָה Job 29:10; 1 s. דָּבַקְתִּי ψ 119:31; 3 pl. דָּֽבְקוּ 2 S 20:2; וְדָֽבְקוּ consec. Dt 28:60; דָּבֵ֑קוּ Jb 41:15; וּדְבַקְתֶּם consec. Jos 23:12; Impf. יִדְבַּק Dt 13:18 + 3 times; 3 fs. תִּדְבַּק 2 K 5:27 ψ 137:6; וַתִּדְבַּק Gn 34:3 + 2 times; sf. תִּדְבָּקַנִי Gn 19:19; 2 ms. תִּדְבָּ֑ק Dt 10:20 Ez 29:4 (del. B Co); 2 fs. תִּדְבָּקִין Ru 2:8, 21; 3 pl. יִדְבְּקוּ Nu 36:7, 9; 2 mpl. תִּדְבָּ֑קוּ Jos 23:8; תִּדְבָּקוּ֑ן Dt 13:5; Inf. cstr. וּלְדָבְקָה־בּוֹ Dt 11:22 + 2 times;—in Hexateuch only JD, except Nu 36:7, 9 (P);— e.g. 1 Kings 11:2
- 1. cling, cleave to,
- a. lit. sq. בְּ Jb 19:20 (bone to skin), so sq. לְ ψ 102:6; sq. אֶל 2 S 23:10 (hand to sword; accidentally om. with other words 1 Ch 11:13 cf. Dr 2 S 23:11), Je 13:11 (girdle to loins), La 4:4 (tongue to roof of mouth, in thirst), so sq. לְ Jb 29:10 ψ 137:6 (as a judgment); so also in metaph. ψ 44:26 דָּֽבְקָה לָאָרֶץ בִּטְנֵנוּ our belly cleaveth to the earth (‖ שָׁחָה לֶעָכָּר נַפְשֵׁנוּ), 119:25 דָּֽבְקָה לֶעָפָר נַפְשִׁי; fish to scales of crocodile (fig. of Pharaoh), sq. בְּ Ez 29:4 (but cf. supr.); abs. (recipr.) of folds of crocodile’s belly Jb 41:15; further of the חֵרֶם remaining in (sticking to) the hand sq. בְּ Dt 13:18; so of spot, stain Jb 31:7. e.g. Job 19:20
- b. so also of abiding on the land of one’s tribe Nu 36:7, 9 (sq. בְּ). e.g. Numbers 36:7
- c. = remain with, close to sq. עִם Ru 2:8, 21 sq. בְּ v 23. e.g. Ruth 2:8
- a. fig. of loyalty, affection etc., sometimes with idea of physical proximity retained, sq. בְּ Gn 2:24 (J; man to wife) cf. 34:3 (J) 1 K 11:2 Jos 23:12 (D); further Ru 1:14 (Ruth to Naomi); 2 S 20:2 (people to king); especially (sq. בְּ) of cleaving to י׳ Dt 11:22 (‖ אָהֵב, הָלַךְ בְּכָל־דְּרָכָיו) 30:20 (‖ אָהֵב, שָׁמַע בְּקֹלוֹ), Jos 22:5 (‖ אָהֵב, הָלַךְ וגו׳, שָׁמַר מִצְוֹתָיו); cf. further Dt 10:20; 13:5; Jos 23:8 (all D), 2 K 18:6; ψ 63:9 (sq. אַחֲרֵי) & ψ 119:31 דָּבַקְתּי בְעֵֽדְוֹתֶ֑יךָ; so e.g. Genesis 2:24
- b. of the opposite בְּחַטֹּאות יָֽרָבְעָם … דָּבֵ֑ק 2 K 3:3; e.g. 2 Kings 3:3
- c. subj. disease, calamity, sq. בְּ pers. Dt 28:60 2 K 5:27; sq. אַחֲרֵי Je 42:16; sq. acc. Gn 19:19 (J); subj. sin ψ 101:3 (sq. בְּ pers.) e.g. Deuteronomy 28:60
Pual
- Impf. 3 mpl. יְדֻבָּ֑קוּ pass. of Hiph. 1. sq. בְּ, of crocodile’s scales, they are joined together Jb 41:9 (‖ יִתְלַכְּדוּ); abs. of earth-clods Jb 38:38. e.g. Job 41:9
Hiphil
- Pf. 3 fs. sf. הִדְבִּיקָ֑תְהוּ Ju 20:42; 3 pl. sf. הִדְבִּיקֻהוּ 2 S 1:6; 1 s. הִדְבַּקְתִּי Je 13:11; וְהִדְבַּקְתִּי Ez 29:4; Impf. juss. יַדְבֵּק Dt 28:21; וַיַּדְבֵּק Gn 31:23; אַדְבִּיק Ez 3:26; וַיַּדְבִּיקוּ Ju 18:22; 20:45; וַיַּדְבְּקוּ 1 S 14:22 + 2 times (cf. Ges§ 53 R 4 Kö i 210). e.g. Judges 20:42
- 1. cause to cling or cleave to, sq. acc. + אֶל, lit. וּלְשׁוֹנְךָ אַדְבִּיק אֶל־חִכֶּ֑ךָ Ez 3:26; v. also 29:4 (sq. acc. + בְּ; lit., but in metaph.); fig. of causing to cleave to י׳ Je 13:11 (sq. acc. + אֶל); cf. further Dt 28:21 (subj. י׳, sq. acc. of disease + בְּ). e.g. Ezekiel 3:26
- 2. pursue closely, sq. אַחֲרִי Ju 20:45 1 S 14:22; 1 Ch 10:2 = 1 S 31:2 (sq. acc.); so also 2 S 1:6 (sq. acc.) e.g. Judges 20:45
- 3. overtake, sq. acc. Gn 31:23 (E), Ju 18:22; cf. 20:42 (subj. הַמִּלְחָמָה). e.g. Genesis 31:23
Hophal
- Pt. וּלְשׁוֹנִי מֻדְבָּק מַלְקוֹחָ֑י ψ 22:16 and my tongue is made to cleave (to) my gums; cf. sub Qal 1. e.g. Psalms 22:16
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. cling, cleave, keep close (NH id., Arabic دَبِقَ, Aramaic דְּבֵק, דְּבַק, ܕܒܶܩ, ܕܒܰܩ )—
— 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.
דָּבֵק
- (b. h.) to cleave, adhere, stick. B. Bath. 91ᵇ, v. infra.—Yalk. Gen. 133 דבקו כל החיל וכ׳ the whole army was close to the fortress.—Ib. Deut. 824 ד׳ לסדומיים he joined the Sodomites.—2) to join, glue, affix. Y. Meg. I, 71ᵈ top דּוֹבְקִין בְּדֶבֶק the parchment is joined with glue.—Part. pass. דָּבוּק, f. דְּבוּקָה attached, close, cleaving. Sot. 42ᵇ (ref. to Ruth I, 14) בני הדבוקה the descendants of her who was attached (to Naomi). Gen. R. s. 20 דְּבוּקִין לעור close to the skin. Snh. 64ᵃ (ref. to Deut. IV, 4) like two dates הדְּבוּקִים וכ׳ which stick to one another (easily separated); ib. דבוקים ממש really glued (inseparable); Yalk. Deut. 824 כשתי … הדְּבוּקוֹת; a. fr. e.g. Ruth 1:14
- to be joined, attached, affixed. Keth. 111ᵇ; Yalk. l. c. is it possible for man לִידָּבֵק וכ׳ to be joined to the Divine Majesty? Ib. כאילו נ׳ כשכינה (Keth. l. c. מִדַּבֵּק) as though he were joined. B. Bath. 91ᵇ ששבה ונִדְבְּקָה וכ׳ (Ms. H. ודָבְקָה) (Ruth) who came back and remained attached to Bethlehem (v. supra); a. fr.
- 1. to glue. R. Hash. III, 6 (27ᵃ; 27ᵇ).
- 2. to invite one to join in travel. Gen. R. s. 29 ראה אחד ודִיבְּקוֹ he saw a person and made him go with him.—Part. pass. מְדוּבָּק Yalk. Deut. l. c. שמְדוּבָּקִים לחייו וכ׳ who cling to the Life of the World (the Lord).
- to paste, fasten. Pes. 37ᵃ הרתיח ולבסוף ה׳ he heated the pot and then pasted the dough to its wall. Ib. 37ᵇ
- to be joined. Gen. R. s. 59 אין ארור מִתְדַּבֵּק בברוך (Yalk. Hos. 528 מִדַּבֵּק) the cursed (Eliezer) shall not be joined (through marriage) to the blessed (Isaac). Keth. l. c., v. Nif.—Yalk. Deut. l. c. מִדַּבֶּקֶת; a. fr. [Sabb. 113ᵇ [read:] לִידַּבֵּק עם הנשים or לדבר, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note.]
דְּבֵק
- , to adhere &c. Targ. Ps. XLIV, 26. Targ. Prov. XVIII, 24 דָּבֵיק ed. Lag.; a. e.—Keth. 111ᵇ וכי אפשר לדְבוּקֵי, v. preced. Nif.
- to paste, glue. Men. 11ᵃ דַּבְּקֵיה לקומץ וכ׳ if he pasted the handfull of dough to the wall of the vessel.
- to be attached, join. Targ. Ruth I, 14; a. fr.—Gitt. 56ᵇ מהו לאִידְּבוּקֵי בהו how about joining their ranks?—Pes. 49ᵃ לאִידְּבַק אנא בזרעיה Ms. M. (ed. דאדבק בזרעיה) that I should be connected with his descendants. Sabb. 113ᵇ. Gen. R. s. 14 אית חספין מִתְדַּבְּקִין can broken earthen vessels be joined together?
- 1. to reach, overtake, attain to, obtain (corresp. to h. הִשִּׂיג). Targ. Gen. XXXI, 23. Targ. O. Lev. XIV, 21 sq.; a. fr.—Part. pass. מַדְבַּק joined work. Targ. I Kings VII, 29 (h. text ליות; v. 30 עובד דיבוק).
- 2. to join (plans), to contrive fraud (nectere dolos; h. text הצמיד). Targ. Ps. L, 19 (Ms. Pa.).
דֶּבֶק
- preced.)
- 1. glue, paste. Y. Meg. I, 71ᵈ top, v. דָּבַק. Sabb. VIII, 4, v. שַׁבְשֶׁבֶת.
- 2. junction. Ḥull. 50ᵃ מקום הד׳ the place where the entrails adhere to the hip.—Pl. דְּבָקִים followers. Yalk. Deut. 824 אתם ודִבְקֵיכֶם ye and your followers.
- 3. nexus, cause. Pl. as above; constr. דִּבְקֵי, דִּיבְ׳.—ד׳ מיתה duties the neglect of which is the cause of premature death. Sabb. 32ᵃ (a Variant of בדקי, v. בֶּדֶק); Y. ib. II, 5ᵇ bot.; Tosef. ib. II, 10 דיבק ed. Zuck. (corr. acc.); Ber. 31ᵇ
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 49 distinct written forms H1692 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 H1692, 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
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 48 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 52 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 2:24
- Numbers 36:7
- Deuteronomy 10:20
- Joshua 22:5
- Judges 18:22
- Ruth 1:14
- 1 Samuel 14:22
- 2 Samuel 1:6
- 1 Kings 11:2
- 2 Kings 3:3
- 1 Chronicles 10:2
- Job 19:20
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.
