דָּכָא
to crush
also: be crushed, be contrite, be broken 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
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
Form
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- 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”).
- 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.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms 13 distinct
- Verb, Hithpael, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 times (11%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 times (11%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (11%)
- Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct 2 times (11%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 times (11%)
- Verb, Niphal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 1 time (6%)
- Verb, Pual, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (6%)
- Verb, Pual, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 1 time (6%)
+5 more forms (5 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 18 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H1792 appears — 18 distinct verses across 6 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.
Job 6 verses
- Job 4:19 יְ֝דַכְּא֗וּ/ם Piel impf 3mp + sfx pers 3mp How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before the moth!
- Job 5:4 וְ/יִֽדַּכְּא֥וּ conj + Hithpael impf 3mp His children are far from safety, They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,
- Job 6:9 וִֽ/ידַכְּאֵ֑/נִי conj + Piel impf 3ms + sfx pers 1cs Even that it would please God to crush me; That he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
- Job 19:2 וּֽ/תְדַכְּאוּ/נַ֥נִי conj + Piel impf 2mp + sfx pers 1cs "How long will you torment me, And crush me with words?
- Job 22:9 יְדֻכָּֽא Pual impf 3ms You have sent widows away empty, And the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
- Job 34:25 וְ/יִדַּכָּֽאוּ conj + Hithpael impf 3mp Therefore he takes knowledge of their works. He overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed.
Psalms 4 verses
- Psalms 72:4 וִֽ/ידַכֵּ֣א conj + Piel impf 3ms He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, And will break the oppressor in pieces.
- Psalms 89:10 דִכִּ֣אתָ Piel pf 2ms You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one of the slain. You have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
- Psalms 94:5 יְדַכְּא֑וּ Piel impf 3mp They break your people in pieces, Yahweh, And afflict your heritage.
- Psalms 143:3 דִּכָּ֣א Piel pf 3ms For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
Proverbs 1 verse
Isaiah 5 verses
- Isaiah 3:15 תְּדַכְּא֣וּ Piel impf 2mp What do you mean that you crush my people, And grind the face of the poor?" says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts.
- Isaiah 19:10 מְדֻכָּאִ֑ים Pual ptcp.pass mp The pillars [of Egypt] shall be broken in pieces; all those who work for hire [shall be] grieved in soul.
- Isaiah 53:5 מְדֻכָּ֖א Pual ptcp.pass ms But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
- Isaiah 53:10 דַּכְּא/וֹ֙ Piel inf.cs + sfx pers 3ms Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand.
- Isaiah 57:15 נִדְכָּאִֽים Niphal ptcp.act mp For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Jeremiah 1 verse
Lamentations 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.
דכא (dâkâʼ) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to crush.” Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 5 stems, among them Qal and Niphal. It turns up in 18 verses across 6 books, an uncommon footprint. It concentrates in Job, which alone accounts for 33% of its uses. It first appears in Job 4:19. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1792 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.
- 6 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 6 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,612
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,612 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.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 12 verses · 67%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 6 verses · 33%
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: Pieces 2×
- American Standard Version: Crush 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Crush 3×, Crush me 2×, Crushed 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Crush 2×, Crushed 2×, They are crushed 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1792 across 21 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 19 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 H1792 across 20 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1792 across 18 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 11 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 H1792 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.
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
- ;—
Niphal
- Pt. נִדְכָּאִים Is 57:15;—crushed, fig. = contrite ones. e.g. Isaiah 57:15
Piel
- Pf. דִּכָּא ψ 143:3; 2 ms. דִּבִּאתָ ψ 89:11; Impf. וִידַכֵּא ψ 72:4; 2 ms. תְּדַכֵּא Pr 22:22 (juss.); יְדַכְּאוּ ψ 94:5, תְּדַכְּאוּ Is 3:15; sf. וִידַכְּאֵנִי Jb 6:9, יְדַכְּאוּם Jb 4:19; 2 mpl. וּתְדַכּאוּנַּנִי Jb 19:2 (so Baer, v. his ed. p. 44, cf. Norzi); Inf. לְדַכֵּא La 3:34; sf. דַּכְּאוֹ Is 53:10;—crush, (fig.) c. acc. one’s life to the earth ψ 143:3, Egypt ψ 89:11 (cf. De Che; י׳ subj.), servant of Yahweh Is 53:10 (י׳ subj.), Jb 6:9 וְיֹאֵל אֱלוֹהַּ וִיד׳; oppressor ψ 72:4, God’s people ψ 94:5 (‖ יְעַנּוּ), Is 3:15, cf. Pr 22:22 illegally in tribunal, La 3:34 ד׳ תחת רגליו (in all human oppressor subj.); crush me בְּמִלִּים Jb 19:2 (Job’s friends, subj.; ‖ תּוֹגְיוּן נַפְשִׁי); never lit., not even Jb 4:19 (יְדַכְּאוּם, with indef. subj.), for suff. ref. not to בָּֽתֵּי־חֹמֶר, but rather to שֹׁכְנֵי, i.e. men inhabiting the clay houses, bodies, cf. Di. e.g. Psalms 143:3
Pual
- Pf. דֻּכְּאוּ Je 44:10; Impf. יְדֻכָּא Jb 22:9; Pt. מְדֻכָּא Is 53:5, מְדֻכָּאִים Is 19:10;—crushed, broken in pieces, shattered Jb 22:9 c. obj. fem. זרועות; Is 19:10 subj. שָׁתוֹת (here metaphor. for nobles); fig. of servant of י׳ Is 53:5; made humble, contrite Je 44:10. e.g. Jeremiah 44:10
Hithpael
- Impf. יִדַּכְּאוּ Jb 5:4, יִדַּכָּ֑אוּ Jb 34:25;—must let themselves be crushed, i.e. maltreated Jb 5:4 (in court בשׁער, cf. Pi. Pr 22:22); are crushed Jb 34:25 (the mighty, by God). e.g. Job 5:4
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. crush, poet. (Assyrian dakû, crush, Muss-ArnoltHbr Oct. 1890, 66) not in
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from דכה (dâkâh) (H1794) — to crush.
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.
דָּכָא
- , Pi. דִּכֵּא (b. h.; v. preced.) to crush, humble. Midr. Till. to Ps. XCIII, 3 (play on דכים ib.) אני מְדַכְּאָן וכ׳ I will crush them (the Philistines) by means of severe afflictions. Ib. וִידַּכְּאוּ ישראל וכ׳ and crush Israel by means of persecutions; a. e.—Part. pass. מְדוּכָּא, pl. מְדוּכָּאִין. Keth. 8ᵇ
דְּכָא
- , v. דְּכִי
דְּכִי
- (= h. זָכָה) [to be clear (cmp. דְּכַךְ),]
- 1. to be clean, pure; to be cleared, acquitted, cleansed from sin. Targ. Lev. XII, 7 ותִדְכֵּי O. ed. Berl. (ed. ותַ׳ incorr., Y. ותִדְכֵי). Ib. XVI, 30 תִּדְכּוֹן O. (Y. תֵּידְכוּן). Targ. Ezek. XXIV, 13 תִדְכִּין (Nun emphat.; ed. Lag. תדכן); a. fr.
- 2. to be deserving, privileged, admitted (cmp. זכי). Targ. O. Deut. XXIII, 2 sq.—Targ. Ruth II, 10. Ib. 13 מִדְכֵי (sub. למיעל).—Lev. R. s. 34 [read:] זכי בי או דכי בי, v. זְכֵי.—Part. דָּכֵי, f. דַּכְיָא. Targ. Is. LXV, 5 דְּכֵינָא וכ׳ I am purer than &c., v. דְּכֵי. [Targ. Prov. VI, 11, v. דְּרַךְ.]
- to clear, purify; to restore to levitical cleanness, to cleanse. Targ. Ezek. XXIV, 13. Targ. Lev. XVI, 30; a. fr.—Gen. R. s. 79 לית אנן מְדַכָּן יתה וכ׳ should we not restore it (Tiberias) to levitical cleanness from the slain (buried there)?; Yalk. ib. 133 מְדַכְּיָין. Gen. R. l. c. [read:] צרוכין אנו מְדַכְּיָהּ לטבריא we must cleanse Tiberias (Pesik. B’shall. p. 89ᵇ למזכייה); Koh. R. to X, 8.—Ib. דדַכְּיֵיה which he had declared clean. Y. Shebi. IX, 38ᵈ מְדַכֵּי טיבריא.—Nidd. 6ᵇ מְדַכָּן וכ׳ observe the same levitical cleanness as required for Temple offerings, v. חַבְרָא.
- 1. to became clean, be cleansed (from sin), be purified. Targ. II Sam. XI, 4. Targ. Lev. XIV, 4 לִדְמִדַּכֵּי ed. Berl. (Var. לַמִּידַּכֵּי; Y. לִדְמִדְכֵּי); ib. 7; a. fr.
- 2. to be cleared away, be removed, be gone. Ber. 2ᵇ אִדַּכֵּי יומא the day is past; v. טְהֵר.
- to polish; trnsf. to train. Targ. Prov. XXII, 6 אדכא ed. Lag. (Ms. אדכיח, read אַדְכֵיה; some ed. אַדְרְכָא; h. text חנך).
כָּא
- (b. h. כֹּה, v. preced.) adverb of place: here, v. הָכָא; of time: now. Targ. Gen. XXII, 5. Targ. Job XXXVIII, 11; a. fr.—Y. Ber. IV, 7ᶜ top וכא אמר הכין and here he says so? Ib. וכה; a. v. fr.—לְכָא hither; מִיכָּא from here. Targ. Josh. VIII, 20. Targ. Ex. XVII, 12; a. fr.—Y. Bets. V, 63ᵃ פצל … לכא ולכא skimmed the water in both directions. Y. B. Mets. VI, 11ᵃ top מיכא ללוד from here to Lydda; a. fr.—v. אִיכָּא, לִיכָּא &c.; כַּאַן, כַּן &c.
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 18 distinct written forms H1792 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 H1792, 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.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 6 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
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
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.
