חַי
living
‘living’ is one of 5 main senses 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.
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
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).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Both
- Attested as both masculine and feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H2416 appears in the Book of Deuteronomy — 19 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.
Deuteronomy
- Deuteronomy 4:4 חַיִּ֥ים adj Adjective mp But you who did cleave to Yahweh your God are alive everyone of you this day.
- Deuteronomy 4:9 חַיֶּ֑י/ךָ n c mp cs + sfx pers 2ms Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children's children;
- Deuteronomy 4:10 חַיִּים֙ adj Adjective mp the day that you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, Assemble me the people, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.
- Deuteronomy 5:3 חַיִּֽים adj Adjective mp Yahweh didn't make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.
- Deuteronomy 5:26 חַיִּ֜ים adj Adjective mp For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?
- Deuteronomy 6:2 חַיֶּ֑י/ךָ n c mp cs + sfx pers 2ms that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.
- Deuteronomy 7:22 חַיַּ֥ת n c fs cs Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you by little and little: you may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you.
- Deuteronomy 12:1 חַיִּ֖ים adj Adjective mp These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth.
- Deuteronomy 16:3 חַיֶּֽי/ךָ n c mp cs + sfx pers 2ms You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
- Deuteronomy 17:19 חַיָּ֑י/ו n c mp cs + sfx pers 3ms and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;
- Deuteronomy 28:66 חַיֶּ֔י/ךָ בְּ/חַיֶּֽי/ךָ n c mp cs + sfx pers 2ms prep + n c mp cs + sfx pers 2ms and your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.
- Deuteronomy 30:6 חַיֶּֽי/ךָ n c mp cs + sfx pers 2ms Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.
- Deuteronomy 30:15 הַֽ/חַיִּ֖ים ptcl def.art + n c mp Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil;
- Deuteronomy 30:19 הַ/חַיִּ֤ים בַּֽ/חַיִּ֔ים ptcl def.art + n c mp prep det + n c mp I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed;
- Deuteronomy 30:20 חַיֶּ֨י/ךָ֙ n c mp cs + sfx pers 2ms to love Yahweh your God, to obey his voice, and to cleave to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days; that you may dwell in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
- Deuteronomy 31:13 חַיִּים֙ adj Adjective mp and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.
- Deuteronomy 31:27 חַ֨י adj Adjective ms For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against Yahweh; and how much more after my death?
- Deuteronomy 32:40 חַ֥י adj Adjective ms For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, As I live forever,
- Deuteronomy 32:47 חַיֵּי/כֶ֑ם n c mp cs + sfx pers 2mp For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.
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.
חי — transliterated chay — is a Hebrew word carrying the sense “living.” The King James Version’s older “liveth” has given way to “life” in modern versions, as the renderings breakdown shows. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 450 verses — common. It first appears in Genesis 1:20. It is not a single-sense word — see its full sense range. See the sense tree, 450-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2416 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 →
- 450
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 450 distinct verses.
- 29 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 29 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #99
- by frequency
- Top 100 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 99 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 450 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 450 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 194 verses · 43%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 138 verses · 31%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 118 verses · 26%
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).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 5 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Life 122×, Liveth 66×, Living 53×
- American Standard Version†: Life 107×, Liveth 58×, Living 52×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Life 100×, Lives 62×, Living 53×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Life 118×, Living 92×, Life of 58×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2416 across 498† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 80 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 3 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2416 across 492† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 108 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 H2416 across 485† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 56 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 14 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2416 across 528† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 53 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
16 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 16 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.
חי I alive, living
- 1.
- a. of God, as the living one, the fountain of life אֵל חַי Jos 3:10 (J), Ho 2:1 ψ 42:3; 84:3; אלהים חי 2 K 19:4, 16 = Is 37:4, 17; אלהים חיים Dt 5:23 1 S 17:26, 36 Je 10:10; 23:36; חי יהוה Yahweh is living ψ 18:47 = 2 S 22:47; גאלי חי my avenger is living Jb 19:25; the formula of the oath is חַי י׳ Ju 8:19 Ru 3:13 1 S 14:39, 45; 19:6; 20:3, 21; 25:34; 26:10, 16; 28:10; 29:6 2 S 4:9; 12:5; 14:11; 15:21 1 K 1:29; 2:24; 17:1, 12; 18:10; 22:14 = 2 Ch 18:13, 2 K 5:16, 20 Ho 4:15 Je 4:2; 5:2; 12:16; 16:14, 15; 23:7, 8; 38:16; חי אל Jb 27:2; חי האלהים 2 S 2:27; חי אדני י׳ Je 44:26; חי י׳ צבאות 1 K 18:15 2 K 3:14; as used by God Himself it is חי אנכי Dt 32:40, elsewhere חי אני Nu 14:21, 28 (P) Is 49:18; Je 22:24; 46:18 Ez 5:11; 14:16, 18, 20; 16:48; 17:16, 19; 18:3; 20:3, 31, 33; 33:11, 27; 34:8; 35:6, 11 Zp 2:9, cf. also חֵי דרך באר שׁבע, חֵי אלהיך דן Am 8:14; with the exception of בְּחֵי הָעֹולָם by him who liveth for ever Dn 12:7, חֵי is always (as an artificial distinction of scribes) used of non-sacred oaths, v. b. e.g. Joshua 3:10
- b. of man; אָדָם חַי a living man La 3:39, in antith. מֵת: חי חי Is 38:19; הַחַי collective Ec 7:2; Absalom 2 S 19:7; Naboth 1 K 21:15; a son or lad 2 S 12:21 1 K 3:22(×2), 23(×2), 25, 26(×2), 27; 17:23; usually pl. חיים alive, living Nu 16:30, 33 (J), 17:13 (P), Dt 4:4; 5:3 Is 8:19 ψ 55:16; 124:3 Pr 1:12 Ec 4:2(×2), 15; 6:8; 9:4, 5 Ru 2:20; taking prisoners alive Jos 8:23 (J) 1 S 15:8 1 K 20:18(×2) 2 K 7:12; 10:14(×2) 2 Ch 25:12; living (prosperously) 1 S 25:6 (We reads לָחִי = לְאָחִי (v. Klo Dr) to my brother, after 𝔙 fratribus meis); elsewhere in phrase כל־הימים אשׁר הֵם (אַתֶּם) היים על (פני) האדמה all the days that they (ye) live upon (the face of) the land Dt 4:10; 12:1; 31:13 1 K 8:40 = 2 Ch 6:31. Note phrases: עוֹד חַי (ים) yet alive Gn 25:6; 43:7, 27, 28; 45:28; 46:30 (J), 45:3, 26 Ex 4:18 (E), Dt 31:27 1 Sa 20:14 2 S 12:22; 18:14 1 K 20:32; בהיות חי 2 S 12:18 1 K 12:6 2 Ch 10:6; אֶרֶץ (הַ)חַיִים land of the living Is 38:11; 53:8 Je 11:19 Ez 26:20; 32:23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 32 ψ 27:13; 52:7; 142:6 Jb 28:13; ארצות הח׳ ψ 116:9; ספר ח׳ ψ 69:29; צרור הח׳ bundle of the living 1 S 25:29; אור הח׳ light of the living Jb 33:30 ψ 56:14. In the oath by life of men חי is pointed always חֵי: חֵי אדני המלך as my lord the king liveth 2 S 15:21; חֵי פרעה Gn 42:15, 16 (E); חֵי נַפְשְׁךָ 1 S 1:26; 17:55 2 S 14:19; חַי י׳ וְחֵי נַפְשְׁךָ as Yahweh liveth and as thy soul (or thyself) liveth 1 S 20:3; 25:26 2 K 2:2, 4, 6; 4:30 חַיֶּךָ וְחֵי נ׳ 2 S 11:11 (but on text v. We Dr). e.g. Lamentations 3:39
- c. of animals, alive, living: ox Ex 21:35; 22:3 (E); goat Lv 16:10, 20, 21 (P); bird Lv 14:4, 6(×2), 7, 51, 53; dog, לְכֶלֶב חַי הוּא טוֹב מִן־הָאַרְיֵה הַמֵּת Ec 9:4 (comp. Arabic prov. Kalb ḥay wa-lâ maiyit, a living dog and no dead lion Wetzst Verhand. Berl. Anthrop. Ges 1878, 388); reptiles Gn 1:28 (P); animals in general Gn 9:3 (P); בשׂר חי living, raw flesh Lv 13:10, 14, 15(×2), 16 (P) 1 S 2:15. e.g. Exodus 21:35
- d. animals and man, phrases for either or both: כל חי Gn 3:20; 8:21 (J) Jb 12:10; 28:21; 30:23 ψ 143:2; 145:16; כל החי Gn 6:19 (P); נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה Gn 1:20, 24, 30 (P) 2:7, 19 (J); כל נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה Gn 9:12, 15, 16 (P) Ez 47:9; כל נפשׁ החיה Gn 1:21; 9:10 Lv 11:10, 46 (P). e.g. Genesis 3:20
- e. (dub.) of vegetation, as thorns, green, ψ 58:10 (Ges Ew Ol Pe, but De Ri Che Bae raw flesh, v. c supr. ad fin.) e.g. Psalms 58:10
- f. of water, flowing, fresh מים חיים Gn 26:19 (J), Lv 14:5, 6, 50, 51, 52; 15:13 Nu 19:17 (P), Je 2:13; 17:13 Zc 14:8 Ct 4:15. e.g. Genesis 26:19
- 2. (dub.) lively, active: אישׁ חַי an active man 2 S 23:20 (but Qr אישׁ חַיִל is to be preferred); איבי חיים mine enemies are lively ψ 38:20 (RV, but Houb Ol Ew Hu. Che al. read חִנָּם, ‖ שׁקר). e.g. 2 Samuel 23:20
- 3. reviving: כָּעֵת חַיָּה at the time (when it is) reviving, the spring Gn 18:10, 14 (J), 2 K 4:16, 17. e.g. Genesis 18:10
חי II [m.] kinsfolk (Arabic حَىٌّ a group of families united by vital ties RSK 36–40 DrSm 119), pl. sf. חַיַּי 1 S 18
חי III living thing, animal (Zinj. wild beast DHMSendsch. 34)
- 1. animal, as a living, active being:
- a. in general, Gn 8:17 Lv 11:2, 27, 47(×2) Nu 35:3 (P) ψ 104:25 Is 46:1 Dn 8:4. e.g. Genesis 8:17
- b. wild animals, on account of their vital energy and activity Gn 7:14, 21; 8:1, 19; 9:5 (P) Lv 17:13; 25:7 (H) Jb 37:8 ψ 148:10 Is 40:16 Ez 14:15; 33:27 Zp 2:14, 15; ח׳ קנה ψ 68:31 wild animal of the reeds; ח׳ רעה evil beast Gn 37:20, 33 (JE) Lv 26:6 (H) Ez 5:17; 14:15, 21; 34:25; ח׳ טמאה Lv 5:2 (P) unclean beast; ח׳ הארץ Gn 1:25, 30; 9:2, 10(×2) (P) 1 S 17:46 Ez 29:5; 32:4; 34:28 Jb 5:22; חיתו ארץ Gn 1:24 (P) ψ 79:2; ח׳ השׂדה Ex 23:11, 29 (covt. code) Lv 26:22 (H) Dt 7:22 2 S 21:10, 2 K 14:9 = 2 Ch 25:18, Ho 2:14, 20; 4:3; 13:8 Is 43:20 Je 27:6; 28:14 Ez 38:20; 39:4 Jb 5:23; 39:15; כל ח׳ השׂדה Gn 2:19, 20; 3:1, 14 (J) Jb 40:20 Je 12:9 Ez 31:6, 13; 34:5, 8; 39:17; חיתו שׂדי Is 56:9 ψ 104:11; חיתו (ב)יער Is 56:9 ψ 50:10; 104:20; פְּרִיץ חיות Is 35:9 destroyer among beasts. e.g. Genesis 7:14
- c. living beings, of the cherubic chariot Ez 1:5, 13(×2), 14, 15(×2), 19(×2), 20, 21, 22; 3:13; 10:15, 17, 20. e.g. Ezekiel 1:5
- 2. life, only in late poetry, ψ 143:3 Jb 33:18, 20, 22, 28; 36:14 Ez 7:13(×2), and (dub.) ψ 74:19; 78:50. e.g. Psalms 143:3
- 3. appetite, activity of hunger: חית כפרים appetite of young lions Jb 38:39. e.g. Job 38:39
- 4. revival, renewal: חַיַּת יָדֵךְ מָצָאתְ thou didst find renewal of thy strength (re-invigoration) Is 57:10; v. חָיָה 2. e.g. Isaiah 57:10
חי IV (si vera l.) community (= fem. of ii. חַי according to NöZMG, 1886, 176)
- —Several other passages are dub.: וַיֵּאָסְפוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים לַחַיָּה 2 S 23:11 assembled into a troop, or by bands (RV, but neither rend. justif.: Bö Ew We Klo Dr rightly read לֶ֫חְיָה to Leḥi, cf. Ju 15:9; wd. om. by accident in ‖ 1 Ch 11:13 Dr); חַיָּֽתְךָ יָֽשְׁבוּ־בָהּ ψ 68:11 thy troop dwelt in it (Thes SS RVm Hi Ri Che, but 𝔊 𝔖 Jer Pe thy (living) creatures, of the people; Hup id., ref. to quails; improb.); אַל־תִּתֵּן לְחַיַּת נֶפֶשׁ תּוֹרֶךָ חַיַּת עֲנִיֶּיךָ אַל־תִּשְׁכַּח לָנֶ֫צַח ψ 74:19 give not the soul of thy turtle-dove to the wild beasts, the life of thine afflicted do not forget for ever: RV Hi Pe Bae Sch render thus, giving חית diff. meanings in the two clauses, the former being archaic fem. abs. Ges§ 80, 2. R. 2; text doubtless corrupt, read poss. למות Schr Ri, for לחית, or לשׁחת Kroch; Gr either of these; Che either, or better לחרב. e.g. 2 Samuel 23:11
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
I. v. sub חיה infr.
II. adj. alive, living;—ח׳ Gn 25:6 +; חָ֑י Gn 3:20 +, חֵי Am 8:14 + 15 times (Ew§ 329 explains as cstr., but Ges§ 93, R 7 n. al. as contracted abs.); f. חַיָּה Gn 1:20 +; pl. חַיִּים ψ 116:9 +;—
III. n.[m.] kinsfolk (Arabic حَىٌّ a group of families united by vital ties RSK 36–40 DrSm 119), pl. sf. חַיַּי 1 S 18:18, incorrectly pointed with the interpretation my life RV, but read חַיִּי my kinsfolk, We Ki Dr RS SS RVm VB. It is explained by the gloss משׁפחת אבי We (Klo reads אַחַי וּ).
I. n.f. living thing, animal (Zinj. wild beast DHMSendsch. 34)—ח׳ Gn 8:17 +; cstr. חַיַּת Is 57:10 +; old case ending (poetic) חַיְתוֹ Gn 1:24 ψ 50:10; 79:2; 104:11, 20 Is 56:9(×2) Zp 2:14; sf. חַיָּתִי ψ 143:3, etc.; pl. חַיּוֹת Lv 14:4 + 12 times—
II. n.f. (si vera l.) community (= fem. of ii. חַי according to NöZMG, 1886, 176)—וְחַיַּת פְּלִשְׁתִּים חֹנָה and a community of Philistines (i.e. a group of allied families, making a raid together) was encamping 2 S 23:13 (= מַחֲנֵה 1 Ch 11:15); perhaps also ψ 68:11 (cf. infr.)
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from חיה (châyâh) (H2421) — to live.
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.
חַי
- 1. living, alive; living creature; healthy. Ber. 27ᵇ אלמלא אני חי והוא מת יכול החי וכ׳ if I were alive and he dead, the living one might give the lie to the dead. Ib. V, 5 זה חי this one is destined to live (recover). Sabb. 94ᵃ, a. e. החי נושא את עצמו a living being carries itself (the carrying of a living being on the Sabbath is not unlawful). Ib. X, 5 את החי במטה (he who carries) a living person on a couch; a. v. fr.—אבר מן החי, v. אֵבֶר.—Pl. חַיִּים, חַיִּין. Ab. IV, 22 והח׳ לידון and the living are destined to be judged. Sabb. 94ᵃ בין ח׳ ובין שחוטין whether alive or slaughtered; a. fr.—Ab. Zar. 5ᵇ (ref. to החי, Gen. VI, 19) שחיין ראשי וכ׳ the ends of whose limbs live (exist). e.g. Genesis 6:19
- 2. in natural condition, raw (opp. בשול); unmixed (opp. מָזוּג). Snh. 70ᵃ בשר חי raw meat, יין חי unmixed wine. Ab. Zar. 38ᵃ, a. fr. הנאכל כמות שהוא חי what is eatable in its natural state; a. fr.—Fem. חַיָּה. Ḥull. 42ᵃ (ref. to Lev. XI, 2) ח׳ אכול וכ׳ what is in a healthy condition (viable), you may eat, v. טְרֵפָה. [V. חַיָּה.] e.g. Leviticus 11:2
חַי ²
- Targ. Gen. IX, 3; a. fr.—Targ. Ex. XII, 9 כד חי (half-)raw; a. fr.—Sabb. 18ᵇ קרא חייא raw cabbage.—Midr. Till. to Ps. XXII, 7 [read:] חשיך חי דבעי למיתא luckless in the living one that is dependent on the dead; Yalk. ib. 686; a. fr.—Pl. חַיִּין, חַיַּיָּא, חַיֵּי. Targ. Ps. XXXVIII, 20. Targ. Num. XVII, 13; a. fr.—Snh. 98ᵇ אי מן ח׳ הוא if he is one of the living (the present age); Y. Ber. II, 5ᵃ top; a. fr.—Fem. חַיָּיא, חַיָּא, חַיְּתָא, חַיְּי׳. Targ. Gen. I, 20. Targ. Y. ib. XXXVII, 2; a. e.—Sabb. 18ᵇ קדרא ח׳ a raw dish.—Pl. חַיָּיתָא, חַיָּין. Targ. Y. Gen. I, 21; a. fr.—Targ. Y. II, Ex. I, 19 (strong).—[B. Kam. 38ᵇ דהוה חַיָּה (h. form.) that she would have lived.
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 196 distinct written forms H2416 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 136 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2416, 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
- חיא chăyâʼ H2418 to live
- חיה châyeh H2422 lively
- חיות chayûwth H2424 living
- חיי châyay H2425 to live
- מחיה michyâh H4241 sustenance
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 10 — 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 425 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 450 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 1:20
- Exodus 1:14
- Leviticus 5:2
- Numbers 14:21
- Deuteronomy 4:4
- Joshua 1:5
- Judges 8:19
- Ruth 2:20
- 1 Samuel 1:11
- 2 Samuel 1:23
- 1 Kings 1:29
- 2 Kings 2:2
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.
