חָזָק
strong
also: stout, mighty fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
2 verses where H2389 appears in the Construct state in the Book of Ezekiel. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Ezekiel
- Ezekiel 2:4 וְ/חִזְקֵי conj + Adjective Adjective mp cs The children are impudent and stiff-hearted: I do sent you to them; and you shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 3:7 חִזְקֵי adj Adjective mp cs But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are of hard forehead and of a stiff heart.
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.
At its core, חזק (châzâq) means “strong.” It first appears in Exodus 3:19. It turns up in 54 verses across 18 books, a moderately common footprint. Beyond its headline sense, its full sense range takes in “stout” and “mighty”. It clusters with חזק, חזק and חזק under a shared root. Dig into 54-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2389 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 →
- 54
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 54 distinct verses.
- 18 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 18 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #678
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 678 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 54 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Deuteronomy 10 verses 19%
- Ezekiel 9 verses 17%
- Exodus 6 verses 11%
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 54 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 27 verses · 50%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 19 verses · 35%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 8 verses · 15%
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: Strong 18×, Mighty 13×, Is mighty 2×
- American Standard Version: Strong 15×, Mighty 13×, Is strong 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Mighty 19×, Strong 11×, Hard 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Strong 23×, Mighty 14×, Hard 4×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2389 across 56 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 21 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 H2389 across 56 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 21 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 H2389 across 55 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2389 across 54 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 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
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.
- 1. strong:
- a. of men, rarely pred. Nu 13:18 (opp. רָפֶה), v 31 (compar. c. מִן), Jos 14:11; 17:18 (all JE), Ju 18:26 (compar. c. מִן); also of גֹּאֲלָם Je 50:34 Pr 23:11; of hand of י׳ Jos 4:24 (D), so Ez 3:14 𝔊 Co (v. supr. and חָזַק Qal 3); cf. of Tyre הָֽיְתָה חֲזָקָה בַּיָּם Ez 26:17 (del. B Co). e.g. Numbers 13:18
- b. usually attrib.; of arm of Pharaoh Ez 30:22 (opp. נִשְׁבָּ֑רֶת); especially of hand of י׳ in delivering Isr. from Egypt, Ex 3:19 (gloss? v. Di), 6:1(×2); 13:9 (all J), Dt 6:21; 7:8; 9:26 Dn 9:15; in wonders done by agency of Moses Dt 34:12; also בְּכֹחַ גָּדוֹל וּבְיָד חֲזָקָה Ex 32:11 (JE), cf. Ne 1:10, but oftener ביד חזקה וּבִזְרוֹעַ נְטוּיָה Dt 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 11:2; 26:8 Je 32:21 ψ 136:12; of control of enemies and deliverance from exile Ez 20:33, 34; more gen. Dt 3:24 (‖ גָּדְלְךָ), 1 K 8:42 = 2 Ch 6:32; of י׳’s opposition to Zedekiah Je 21:5; once of Edom, opp. Isr. בעם כבד וביד חזקה Nu 20:20 (JE). e.g. Ezekiel 30:22
- c. of sword of י׳ Is 27:1 (‖ הַקָּשָׁה וְהַגְּדוֹלָה), of wind Ex 10:19 (J), 1 K 19:11; sound of trumpet (= loud) Ex 19:16 (E). e.g. Isaiah 27:1
- d. severe, sharp, hot, of war 1 S 14:52 (pred.), battle 2 S 11:15, sickness 1 K 17:17 (pred.), famine 18:2. e.g. 1 Samuel 14:52
- e. firm, hard, of face, פנים Ez 3:8, forehead, מֵצַח v 8; adamant, sim. of forehead v 9 (compar., c. מִן); of sky Jb 37:18 (pred.) In pl. cstr. ח׳ לֵב Ez 2:4 hard of heart (‖ קְשֵׁי פָנִים) but om. B Co, ח׳־מֵצַח 3:7 hard (= impudent) of forehead (‖ קְשֵׁי־לֵב). e.g. Ezekiel 3:8
- 2. as subst., a strong one, of י׳ (בְּחָזָק, as, in the character of, a strong one) Is 40:10; of י׳’s agent Is 28:2 (‖ אַמִּץ); v. also וְחָזָק לֹא יְאַמֵּץ כֹּחוֹ Am 2:14; c. מִן comp. = one too strong for Je 31:11 ψ 35:10. In Ez 34:16 MT uses הח׳ in bad sense (‖ הַשְּׁמֵנָה), 𝔊 Co, with diff. text, in good sense. (v. VB). e.g. Isaiah 40:10
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
adj. strong, stout, mighty;—ח׳ Ex 10:19 + 18 times; f. חֲזָקָה Ex 3:19 + 31 times + Ez 3:14 (Co for MT vb. 3 fs.); pl. חֲזָקִים Ju 18:25 + 2 times; cstr. חִזְקֵי Ez 2:4 (del. Co v. infr.) 3:7;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from חזק (châzaq) (H2388) — to strengthen.
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.
חָזַק
- [to squeeze together,] (neut. verb) to be thick, solid; to be strong. Y. Ber. I, 2ᶜ bot. (ref. to Gen. I, 6) יֶחֱזַק הרקיע וכ׳ let the expanse become solidified, let it coagulate, congeal; Gen. R. s. 4; (Yalk. ib. 5 יתחזק, Hithpa.). e.g. Genesis 1:6
- to join, repair, tighten, strengthen. Snh. 94ᵃ (expl. חזקיה) שחי׳ את ישראל וכ׳ (Ms. M. שהחזיק, Hif.) he joined Israel to their Father &c. Ib. שחִזְּקוֹ יה the Lord strengthened him. Pes. 45ᵃ שעשוי לחַזֵּק Ms. M. where the dough in the cracks is put in for repairing the trough. Sabb. 146ᵇ (העשוי) לחַ׳ when the hole was filled up for making the vessel sound, opp. לשמר to prevent evaporation; a. fr.—Part. pass. מְחוּזָּק, pl. מְחוּזָּקִים. Sifré Num. 1 אין מְחַזְּקִים אלא המח׳ (ed. תמוחז׳) only the strong-minded it is worth while to strengthen (encourage).
- 1. same, v. supra.— same, v. supra.—ה׳ טובה ל־ to attach merit to, to account as merit, to be grateful. Ab. II, 8 אל תַּחֲזִיק ט׳ לעצמך do not claim credit for it (be not proud). Yoma 86ᵇ אלא שמַחֲזִיק לו ט׳ but He even gives him credit (for his sins when he repents). Men. 53ᵃ הַחֲזֵק לי וכ׳ give me credit for making Thee known &c. Keth. 68ᵃ, a. e. בואו ונַחֲזִיק וכ׳ let us be thankful to the fraudulent poor &c.; a. fr.
- 2. (with יד) to strengthen, to encourage, abet. Gitt. V, 9 לפי שאין מַחֲזִיקִין וכ׳ because we must not encourage (by favors) those who do wrong. Ib. ומחזיקין ידי עכו"ם וכ׳ we may encourage (greet with תחזקנה ידיכם, Zech. VIII, 9) gentiles at agricultural work in the Sabbatical year; a. fr. e.g. Zechariah 8:9
- 3. to hold, contain. Ib. 57ᵃ אין עורו מחזיק וכ׳ its skin (once flayed) can not again cover its entire body (it shrinks). Ib. (in Chald. dict.) אפי׳ שתין … לא מ׳ it would not have room even for sixty myriads of reeds. Par. VII, 8 בשביל שתַּחֲזִיק וכ׳ in order that it (the reservoir) might hold more water. Ukts. III, 12 לא מצא … מחזיק וכ׳ the Lord found no vessel so fit to contain all blessings as peace; Deut. R. s. 5 end; a. fr.
- 4. (with ב) to take a hold of, seize, take possession. Ḥull. 4ᵃ, a. e. כל מצוה שהֶחֱזִיקוּ וכ׳ whatever Jewish law the Samaritans have adopted &c., v. דִּקְדֵּק. B. Mets. I, 4 וה׳ בה and took a hold of it. B. Bath. III, 3 במַחֲזִיק when one is in possession (basing his claim on possession). Ib. המַ׳ בנכסי הגר he who takes possession of the estate of a convert (who has no heirs in law). Ib. 2 ויַחֲזִיק שנה that he may be in possession for one year, v. אִסְפַּמְיָא; a. fr.; v. חֲזָקָה.—Y. Ḥag. I, 76ᶜ, a. e. שלא הֶחֱזִיקוּ בשכר וכ׳ they did not cling to the duty of maintaining teachers &c.
- 5. (v. חֲזָקָה) to presume, to be under a certain impression, to be convinced. Y. Kidd. IV, 66ᵇ היו מַחֲזִיקִין בו שהוא בנו וכ׳ if people were under the impression that a certain person was their neighbor’s son, but in his dying hour he declared &c. Ib. היו מ׳ אותו שהוא וכ׳ if people took him to be a relation of his; a. e.—Ḥag. 19ᵃ, v. infra.
- (denom. of חֲזָקָה) to be presumed, be held for, be known for. Gitt. 14ᵃ בשה׳ כפרן when the man is known to be a liar. Shebu. 34ᵇ, a. fr. ה׳ כפרן (in such a case) he is considered a confirmed liar.—Y. Kidd. l. c. bot. הוּחְזְקוּ if they were generally assumed (to be husband and wife); a. fr.—Ḥag. 19ᵃ הטובל לחולין וה׳ לחולין if one takes an immersion for the purpose of being enabled to partake of ordinary food and is considered (by himself) to have immersed for that purpose. Ib. טבל ולא ה׳ if he did immerse but did not have a certain purpose in view. Ib. עודיהו … ה׳ לדבר קל מחזיק עצמו וכ׳ as long as he has one foot yet in the water, when he had had in view a minor purpose for his bath, he may still change it for a higher purpose. Ib. אם לא ה׳ מחזיק if he had had no particular object in view, he may on coming out define the object for which he has bathed.—Part. מוּחֲזָק
- 1. held in possession, adhered to. Bekh. VIII, 9 ולא בראוי כבמ׳ nor does he take a double share of what is coming due to the estate as he does of what is held in possession; B. Bath. 55ᵃ; a. fr.—Sabb. 130ᵃ עדיין היא מוּחֲזֶקֶת בידם it is still strongly adhered to, opp. מרופה, v. רָפָה.
- 2. being known, approved. Sifra K’dosh. Par. 3, ch. V במ׳ לך when he is known to thee (to be a proselyte); a. e.
- 3. being sure, convinced, knowing from experience. Keth. 25ᵇ מוּחֲזַקְנִי בזה וכ׳ (= מ׳ אני) I know this man to be a priest; a. e.—Sifré Num. 1, v. supra.
- 1. to become solid, strong. Yalk. Gen. 5 יִתְחַזֵּק, v. preced.
- 2. to feel encouraged, take courage. Ber. 32ᵃ נ׳ בתפלה became emboldened to pray.
חֲזַק
- 1. same.—Part. pass. חֲזִיק tied up, bandaged. Y. Ber. II, 4ᶜ top דהוה ח׳ רישיה when his head was tied up (with a turban); Pesik. R. s. 22 (not רישין, v. notes in ed. Fr.). Y. Pes. X, 37ᶜ וח׳ רישיה וכ׳ and his head was tied up (or he felt like having a bandage around his head) &c.; Y. Shek. III, 47ᶜ top והוה חזוק (read חזיק); וחזק (corr. acc.).
- 2. to take possession. B. Bath. 52ᵇ, sq. חֲזַק וקני take possession and acquire; a. fr.
- to fasten.—Lev. R. s. 21 [read] חַזֵּק כפתוי tighten his muzzle, v. כֵּיפְתָא.—Part. pass. מְחַזַּק. Targ. Y. Gen. L, 1.
- as preced. Hif.;
- 1. (with טיבו &c.) to give credit to. Y. Ber. II, 5ᵃ bot. אנא מַחֲזִיק טיבו לראשי וכ׳ I give credit to my head, which bends of itself &c. Bab. Ber. 19ᵃ לאַחֲזוּקֵי ליה וכ׳ that due credit for the preservation of Israel be given to Moses.
- 2. to presume. Shebu. 46ᵇ לאַחֲזוּקֵי אינש בגנבי לא מַחְזְקִינָן we must not put a person in the category of thieves (on the charge of one individual); a. e.
- 3. to adhere to, adopt. Ḥull. 4ᵃ כיון דאַחֲזִיקוּ בהו א׳ בהו since they (the Samaritans) have adopted it, they observe it (also for Israelites). Ib. אַחֲזוּק ולא א׳ וכ׳ as to their observance or non-observance of adopted unwritten customs for Israelites there are differences of opinion; a. fr.
- 4. to take possession, to claim possession. B. Bath. 29ᵇ כי היכי דלא תַחְזְקוּ אהדדי ed. (differ. in Ms. M., v. Rabb. D. S. a. l.) that you might not claim possession against one another. Ib. 36ᵃ האי מאן דא׳ וכ׳ if one claims a field on the ground of possession, if it lies outside &c., v. גּוּדָּא I. Ib. לא מַחְזְקֵי בן ולא מַחְזְקִינָן בהו they have no claim of possession against us (for one might have been afraid to disturb them), and they have no claim against us (for, being wealthy, they might not have cared to drive one out); a. fr.
- 5. to be strong, encouraged. Gitt. 62ᵃ אַחֲזוּקוּ ‘be strong’ (a greeting to field laborers, v. preced.).
- 1. to adhere to. Targ. Prov. IV, 13; a. e.
- 2. to be known, be under the presumption. Targ. Y. Lev. XIX, 33 (v. preced.).—Ḥull. 10ᵇ היכא דלא א׳ where no presumption (of leprosy) has as yet been formed. Snh. 89ᵇ דמִיתְחֲזַק וכ׳ Ms. M. (ed. מוחזק) where one is approved (as a righteous prophet), it is different.
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 34 distinct written forms H2389 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’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 H2389, 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
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 → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. 3 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 51 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 54 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
- Exodus 3:19
- Numbers 13:18
- Deuteronomy 3:24
- Joshua 4:24
- Judges 18:26
- 1 Samuel 14:52
- 2 Samuel 11:15
- 1 Kings 8:42
- 2 Chronicles 6:32
- Job 5:15
- Psalms 35:10
- Proverbs 23:11
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.
