חֲלַף
to pass over
‘to pass over’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
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”).
Form
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H2499 appears — 4 distinct verses across 1 book. 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.
Daniel 4 verses
- Daniel 4:16 יַחְלְפ֥וּן Qal impf 3mp let his heart be changed from man's, and let a animal's heart be given to him; and let seven times pass over him.
- Daniel 4:23 יַחְלְפ֥וּן Qal impf 3mp Whereas the king saw a watcher and a holy one coming down from the sky, and saying, Hew down the tree, and destroy it; nevertheless leave the stump of the roots of it in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field, and let it be wet with the dew of the sky: and let his portion be with the animals of the field, until seven times pass over him;
- Daniel 4:25 יַחְלְפ֣וּן Qal impf 3mp that you shall be driven from men, and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass as oxen, and shall be wet with the dew of the sky, and seven times shall pass over you; until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he will.
- Daniel 4:32 יַחְלְפ֣וּן Qal impf 3mp and you shall be driven from men; and they dwelling shall be with the animals of the field; you shall be made to eat grass as oxen; and seven times shall pass over you; until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he will.
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, חלף (chălaph) means “to pass over.” A scarce word — 4 verses in all of the Hebrew Bible. The word gravitates to Daniel (100%). Scripture first uses it in Daniel 4:16. Catalogued under 2 senses, its meaning is not single-sense. 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 H2499 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 →
- 4
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 4 distinct verses.
- 1 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 1 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #3,696
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 3,696 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 4 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Daniel 4 verses 100%
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 4 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 4 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: Pass 2×, Shall pass 2×
- American Standard Version: Pass 2×, Shall pass 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Pass him 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Pass 2×, Will pass 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2499 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2499 across 4 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H2499 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2499 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.
Senses in BDB
The 2 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- to pass by, pass over
- (Peal) to pass by, pass over
Word origin
[ חֲלַף ] vb. pass (over)
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from חלף (châlaph) (H2498) — to pass through.
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.
חָלַף
- [to be smooth, glistening, sharp-edged,]
- 1. to cut. Denom. חַלִּיף, חֵילֶף.
- 2. (cmp גּוּז) to pass by, be gone. Num. R. s. 10 (ref. to חלוף, Prov. XXXI, 8) שח׳ והלך וכ׳ of him who passed away and went &c. e.g. Proverbs 31:8
- 3. to change, exchange. Y. Ber. II, 5ᶜ top נַחֲלוֹף את וכ׳ let us change our meeting-place. Dem. III, 5 חשודה לַחֲלוֹף (Y. ed. לחַלֵּף, Pi.) suspected of exchanging (the provision in her trust). Ib. 6 לח׳ את המתקלקל to replace what has been spoiled; a. fr.
- same. Yalk. Gen. 148 מי מְחַלְּפוֹ who will replace him? (v. חֲלִיפִין). Dem. III, 5, v. supra; a. e.
- 1. to exchange, barter. B. Mets. VIII, 4 המַחֲלִיף פרה ב־ if one exchanges a cow for an ass.—Dem. l. c. חשודה להַחֲלִיף, v. supra; Ḥull. 6ᵇ חשודה מַחֲלֶפֶת; a. fr.
- 2. to drive young shoots, to grow again. Erub. 100ᵇ; a. e., v. גֶּזַע. Pesik. R. s. 11 מַחֲלִיף וכ׳, v. גָּזַז.
- 3. to change; to reverse. Erub. 9ᵃ ובלבד שלא יַחֲלִיפוּ provided they do not change carriers. Sabb. 8ᵇ; a. fr.—Erub. 99ᵃ לעולם לא תַחֲלִיף it is not necessary to reverse (the authorities; Bets. 3ᵇ, a. e. תיפוך, v. אֲפַךְ).—Part. pass. מוּחֲלָף, f. מוּחֲלֶפֶת. Ib. מ׳ השיטה the statement must be reversed (the authorities for the two opinions must be exchanged); Bets. 3ᵃ
- 4. to be ambiguous, to equivocate. Snh. 92ᵃ; a. e. כל המחליף וכ׳ he who equivocates in his speech, is like an idolater.
- , Nithpa. נִתְחַלֵּף
- 1. to be exchanged, mixed up. Y. Pes. VI, 33ᶜ bot. דבר שאין דרכו (לֵחָלֵף) לִיתְחַלֵּף a thing which is not likely to be exchanged (by mistake); ib. להִתְחַלֵּיף; ib.ᵈ top. Ab. Zar. 17ᵇ מעות … נִתְחַלְּפוּ לי וכ׳ money set aside for Purim was mixed up with money &c. Nidd. 52ᵃ ונִתְחַלְּפָה לך וכ׳ and thou madest a mistake between Iyob and oyeb; B. Bath. 16ᵃ ונתחלף. Ib. לא נ׳ לי I make no mistake; a. e.
- 2. to change (in appearance). Pesik. R. s. 29 (—30—30) נִתְחַלַּפְתֶּם מן הרעב you have changed (beyond recognition) through starvation; יש לכם להִתְחַלֵּף וכ׳ you will change through plenty. Yalk. Gen. 133 מאיזה שם אני מִתְחַלֵּף (prob. לאיזה) what name I may be ordered to assume in turn.
- 3. to be succeeded, relieved, transferred. Lev. R. s. 23, end נתח׳ המלך the king has been succeeded (displaced; Num. R. s. 9, beg. מת וכ׳). Yalk. Deut. 813 כיון שנ׳ וכ׳ when the governor was recalled and another &c. Num. R. s. 5, beg. להִתְחַלֵּף מעבודה וכ׳ to be transferred from one service to another. Y. Taan. II, beg. 65ᵃ היו מִתְחַלְּפִין עליה took turns in guarding it.
חֲלַף I
- , to pass by, be gone. Targ. Cant. II, 11. Targ. Job IX, 11. Ib. 26; a. e.
- 1. to pass repeatedly, promenade. Kidd. 12ᵇ ח׳ אבבא וכ׳ went up and down in front of the house of his father-in-law (to attract the attention of his mother-in-law).
- 2. to exchange. Targ. O. Lev. XXVII, 10; a. e.—Ḥull. 6ᵇ חַלּוּפֵי מבעיא so much the more may she be suspected of exchanging (substituting something of her own). Meg. 7ᵇ מְחַלְּפֵי וכ׳ (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 8; some ed. מִיחַ׳ Ithpa.) used to exchange their meals (on Purim).—Part. pass. f. מְחַלְּפָא. Y. Peah IV, 18ᵈ bot., a. e. מח׳ שיטתיה, v. preced. Hif.
- same. Targ. O. l. c.; a. e.
- to be exchanged; to change; to disappear. Targ. Ps. XC, 5; a. fr.—Gen. R. s. 78, beg. מִתְחַלְּפִין change their names. Ḥull. l. c. ולאִיחַלּוּפֵי לא וכ׳ Rashi (ed. לחַלּוּפֵי) and do we not apprehend an exchange?—Meg. l. c., v. supra.—B. Mets. 59ᵇ, v. חָסֵר II.
חִלֶף I
- (preced. wds.)
- 1. shoot.—Pl. חֲלָפִים, constr. הֶלְפֵי, חֶילְ׳. Bets. 3ᵇ; Yeb. 81ᵇ; Zeb. 72ᵇ ח׳ תרדין the young shoots of beet growing out of the root; Orl. III, 7 Ms. M. (ed. חוֹלְפוֹת; Y. ed. חִילְפּוֹת); Tosef. Ter. V, 10 חֲלִיפוֹת ed. Zuck. (Var. חילפות); Ukts. I, 4 חִלְפּוֹת. V. חֲלִיפִין, חֲלִיפָה.
- 2. rush, v. חֵילֶף.
חֵלֶף II
- (preced. wds.) reversion. Y. Sabb. VII, 9ᶜ או ח׳ is not perhaps the reverse the case?
חֶלֶף
- (b. h.) Ḥelef, a place in Naftali. Y. Meg. I, 70ᵃ bot. (ref. to Josh. XIX, 33) מחלף ח׳ me-Helef is (the present) Ḥ. Y. Erub. II, 20ᵃ top ר׳ … בהורי ח׳ וכ׳ R. Jerem. taught at Ḥ. &c. e.g. Joshua 19:33
חֲלַף II
- st. constr. (חלף) in place of, instead. Targ. Ex. XXI, 24; a. fr.—Sabb. 129ᵃ נפשא ח׳ נפשא life for life (meat is required after bloodletting), סומקא ח׳ סומקא red (wine) for red (blood).—Pl. חֲלָפֵי, with suffix חֲלָפוֹי in his place. Targ. Prov. XI, 8 Ms. (ed. תחותוהי, ed. Lag. both words).—חֲלַף סִדְרָא f. (an adaptation of κλεψύδρα) [change of order,] clepsydra, a water clock used in courts of justice for measuring the time given for argument. Gen. R. s. 49 (not סרדה); Yalk. ib. 83.
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 2 distinct written forms H2499 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| יַחְלְפ֣וּן | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Daniel 4:25 | 2 |
| יַחְלְפ֥וּן | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Daniel 4:16 | 2 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2499, 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
- חלוף chălôwph H2475 destruction
- חליפה chălîyphâh H2487 change
- חלף chêleph H2500 in exchange for
- מחלף machălâph H4252 knife
- מחלפה machlâphâh H4253 braid
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 7 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 3 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 4 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.
