חָבָה
to hide
‘to hide’ 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 Niphal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- 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).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
Person
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Niphal, Infinitive Construct 2 times (40%)
- Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (20%)
- Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (20%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (20%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 5 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H2247 appears — 5 distinct verses across 5 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.
Joshua 1 verse
1 Kings 1 verse
2 Kings 1 verse
Isaiah 1 verse
Jeremiah 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.
The Hebrew verb חבה centers on the idea of “to hide.” With only 5 verses it sits in the long tail of Hebrew Bible vocabulary. Debuting at Joshua 2:16, it then recurs through the corpus. Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 2 stems, among them Qal and Niphal. It shares a root with חבב, חב and חבא. 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 H2247 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 →
- 5
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 5 distinct verses.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #3,337
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 3,337 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 5 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 5 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 5 verses · 100%
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: Hide 3×
- American Standard Version: Hide 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Hide 2×, Hide yourselves 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Hide 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2247 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 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 H2247 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 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 H2247 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears 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 H2247 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 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.
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 2 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
- Imv. ms. חֲבִי Is 26:20 (Aramaic form, Ol§ 235, 3 Ew§ 224 c Du; Di reads חֲבֵי = חֲבֵה), withdraw into privacy (‖ בֹּא בַחֲדָרֶיךָ). e.g. Isaiah 26:20
Niphal
- Pf. וְנֶחְבָּה consec. Je 49:10; וְנַחְבֵּתֶם consec. Jos 2:16 (JE); Inf. לְהֵחָבֵה (as ל״א) 1 K 22:25 2 K 7:12; withdraw, hide oneself, lit. Jos 2:16 (JE), sq. שָׁמָּה; 2 K 7:12 c. בְּ loc.; 1 K 22:25; of Esau = Edom, hiding from judgment of י׳, וְנֶחְבָּה לֹא יוּכָ֑ל Je 49:10, as pointed, meant no doubt as pf., but constr. then hard; read rather inf. abs. נַחְבֹּה; so Gf Gie al. (v. Köi. 624). e.g. Jeremiah 49:10
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. withdraw, hide, cf. חבא;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from חבב (châbab) (H2245) — to love.
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.
חִבָּה
- (preced. wds.) love, esteem, honor. Koh. K. to V, 14 בא לעולם בח׳ וכ׳ man enters the world with love (caressed by his nearest), and leaves with love. Y. Bicc. II, 64ᵈ top לשבעה מיתה של ח׳ a death after seven days of sickness is a death of (divine) love; (ib.ᶜ bot. לשבעים מיתה של ח׳, read שֵׂיבָה).—Ab. III, 14 ח׳ יתירה וכ׳ the greater divine love consists in its being made known to him &c. Ḥull. 33ᵃ, a. e. חִיבַּת הקדש מכשרתן the honor in which sacred objects are held makes them fit for levitical uncleanness (even without contact with liquids, v. כָּשַׁר). Ex. R. s. 2, a. fr. לשון ח׳ the repetition of a name intimates endearment. Y. Succ. IV, 54ᵈ top לשון ח׳ (the word שֵׁכָר, Num. XXVIII, 7) expresses something dear; (Bab. ib. 49ᵇ; Num. R. s. 21 שתייה).—Keth. 56ᵃ חיבת חופה וכ׳ the affection produced by the seclusion in the bridal department is the final act of possession. Gen. R. s. 93; Yalk. ib. 150 [read:] על חיבת העין כך על בעל אכסניא וכ׳ if this was done for a dear object of sight (our sister), how much more shall we do in defence of the host of the Lord (Benjamin, v. אוּשְׁפִּיזְכָן); a. fr.—Ch. חִיבְּתָא. e.g. Numbers 28:7
חֵבָה
- (חבא) reserve, storage. B. Kam. 101ᵇ שגיבבן בחיבה Ms. M. (oth. בחבה; ed. בחֵבָא, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note) which he gathered up for storage; Succ. 40ᵃ לחוּבָה ed. (Ms. Ms. 2 בחיבה, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 200).
חבי
- (b. h.) to cover, hide. —Part. pass. (fr. חבה) חָבוּי, f. חֲבוּיָה. Cant. R. to II, 1 (play on ח̇ב̇צ̇ל̇ת, ib.) ח̇ב̇ויה בצ̇ל̇ן של מצרים hidden (disregarded) in the shade of Egypt; ח׳ בצלו של ים nearly covered up by the darkness of the Sea; ח׳ בצלו של סיני nearly covered up by the shade of Sinai (threatening to fall upon me) &c.—Ib. שח׳ בְצֵלָהּ its (the young lily’s) onion is hidden (its leaves not being unfolded).—Ib. כל מתי … חֲבוּיִים בי all the dead of the world are buried in me (the earth).
- to be hidden. Sabb. 60ᵃ היו נֶחְבָּאִין וכ׳ they hid in a cave. Taan. 23ᵇ, v. infra.
- to hide. Taan. l. c. they named him חנן הנחבא מפני שה׳ עצמו Ms. M. (ed. שהיה מַחְבִּיא) because he hid himself (in his modesty). Y. Kil. V, 30ᵃ top (play on בתי כְלָאִים, Is. XLII, 22) בית שמַחְבִּיאִין … כִּלְאַיִם a garden house in which it is permitted to keep plants of a different species (from the surrounding vines). Sot. 34ᵇ (play on נחבי) שה׳ וכ׳ he hid (suppressed) the word of God (truth); Tanḥ. Sh’laḥ 6 שה׳ את דבריו he suppressed the words he ought to have said; ib. Haăz. 7. [Lam. R. introd. (R. Josh. 2) מחבי חביים, read: מחבר חברים, v. חָבַר.] e.g. Isaiah 42:22
- to hide one’s self. Midr. Prov. ch. IX; Tanḥ. Ki Thabo 2 מִתְחַבְּאִים trying to hide themselves.
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 5 distinct written forms H2247 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| וְ/נֶחְבָּ֖ה | Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Jeremiah 49:10 | 1 |
| וְ/נַחְבֵּתֶ֨ם | Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Joshua 2:16 | 1 |
| חֲבִ֥י | Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular | Isaiah 26:20 | 1 |
| לְ/הֵחָבֵ֤ה | Verb, Niphal, Infinitive Construct | 2 Kings 7:12 | 1 |
| לְ/הֵחָבֵֽה | Verb, Niphal, Infinitive Construct | 1 Kings 22:25 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2247, 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
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- חבב Chôbâb H2246 Hobab
- חביה Chăbayâh H2252 Habaiah
- חובה chôwbâh H2327 Hobah
- יחבה Yᵉchubbâh H3160 Jehubbah
- נחבי Nachbîy H5147 Nahbi
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 10 — not the complete family. 5 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 5 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 5 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.
