אָחַז
to grasp
‘to grasp’ is one of 5 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”).
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Hophal
- The passive counterpart of the Hiphil (“he was caused to…”). Here: ‘pl.’
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
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”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H270 appears in the Book of Joshua — 2 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.
Joshua
- Joshua 22:9 נֹֽאחֲזוּ Niphal pf 3cp The children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession, which they owned, according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.
- Joshua 22:19 וְ/הֵאָחֲז֖וּ conj + Niphal impv 2mp However, if the land of your possession be unclean, then pass over to the land of the possession of Yahweh, in which Yahweh's tent dwells, and take possession among us: but don't rebel against Yahweh, nor rebel against us, in building you an altar besides the altar of Yahweh our God.
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.
אחז — transliterated ʼâchaz — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to grasp.” Across 4 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Qal, Niphal). With 63 verses in 20 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. Debuting at Genesis 22:13, it then recurs through the corpus. Sharing its root, it stands alongside אחזה, אחז and אחזי. 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 H270 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 →
- 63
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 63 distinct verses.
- 20 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 20 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #582
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 582 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 63 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 63 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 30 verses · 48%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 22 verses · 35%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 11 verses · 17%
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: Took 4×, Shall take hold 3×, Take 3×
- American Standard Version: Drawn 2×, Have taken hold 2×, Hold 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Took hold 3×, Caught 2×, Seize 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: And 6×, Seizes 5×, Held 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H270 across 67 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 44 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 H270 across 66 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 56 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 H270 across 65 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 54 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H270 across 76 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 42 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 Hophal (the passive of Hiphil).
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 4 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
- Pf. אָחַז Ex 15:14 +; אָֽחֲזָה Jb 23:11 Is 33:14; sf. אֲחָזַנִי 2 S 1:9; 1 s. sf. אֲחַזְתִּיו Ct 3:4, etc.; Impf. יֹאחֵז Jb 17:9 +; וַיֹּ֫אחֶז 2 S 6:6; 3 fs. תֹּאחֵז Dt 32:41; וַתֹּאחֶז Ru 3:15; וַתֹּחֶז 2 S 20:9; וָאֹחֵז Ju 20:6 יֹאחֵזוּן Is 13:8; sf. יֹאחֲזֵ֫מוֹ Ex 15:15; יֹאחֱזוּךְ Je 13:21, etc.;—†as פ׳ gutt. וַיֶּאֱחֹז Ju 16:3 1 K 6:10; 2 ms. תֶּאֱחֹז Ec 7:18; Inf. אֲחֹז 1 K 6:6; אֱחֹז 1 Ch 13:9 + 3 times; Imv. אֱחֹז Ex 4:4 2 S 2:21, אֶחֳזִי־ Ru 3:15; אֶהֱזוּ Ct 2:15; אֱחֹ֑זוּ Ne 7:3; Pt. act. אֹחֵז 2 Ch 25:5; pass. אָחוּז Est 1:6, etc.;—grasp, take hold of, sq. בְּ Gn 25:26 Ex 4:4 (both J) Ju 16:3; 20:6 (= וַיַּחֲזֵק בְּ 19:29) 2 S 4:10; 6:6; 20:9 1 K 1:51 Ru 3:15(×2); 1 K 6:6 of beams having hold in a wall; (cf. בֵּית אֲבָנִים יֶֽחֱזֶה֑ Jb 8:17; Hoffm reads יֹחֲזָה = יֹא׳); also Ct 7:9 of taking hold of branches, in metaph.; poet. fig., of God’s seizing man in wrath Jb 16:12; taking hold graciously ψ 73:23; taking hold of judgment Dt 32:41; subj. man בַּאֲשֻׁרוֹ אָֽחֲזָה רַגְלִי Jb 23:11 (‖ דַּרְכּוֹ שָׁמַרְתִּי cf. also 17:9); of taking hold of folly Ec 2:3 cf. 7:18; subj. הַשַּׁהַר Jb 38:13, לֶאֱחֹז בְּכַנְפוֹת הָאָ֑רֶץ; also sq. acc. Ju 1:6; 12:6; 16:21 2 S 2:21 Is 5:29 Ct 2:15; 3:4 1 Ch 13:9 2 Ch 25:5 ψ 56:1; 137:9; cf. 1 K 6:10 (cf. v 6 supr.), subj. הַיָּצוּעַ, וַיֶּא׳ אֶת־הַבַּיִת בַּעֲצֵי אֲרָזִים; of a snare catching the heel, in metaph. Jb 18:9; fig., subj. God ψ 77:5; God’s hand 139:10; subj. pain, sorrow, fear, etc. Ex 15:14, 15 2 S 1:9 Jb 21:6; 30:16 ψ 48:7; 119:53 Is 21:3; 33:14 Je 13:21; 49:24; subj. man, obj. fear, etc. Jb 18:20 Is 13:8; obj. דֶּרֶךְ take one’s way Jb 17:9 יֹאחֵז צַדִּיק דַּרְכּוֹ AV RV hold on his way (cf. 23:11 supr., & Assyrian ṣabâtu urḫu, e.g. V. R 1, 74);—abs. Ne 7:3 of barring gates; pt. pass. caught Ec 9:12; fastened, held Est 1:6; taken (by lot) 1 Ch 24:6(×3) (on text v. Öt); taken out of a number Nu 31:30, 47; pt. act. of same form אֲחֻזֵי חֶרֶב Ct 3:8 cf. Thes BaNB 175 & Ethiopic pt.; similarly Aramaic אָחִיד, e.g. 𝔗 Am 2:5; ܐܰܚܺܝܕ e.g. 𝔖 Ju 8:10 1 Ch 5:18; & Ez 41:6(×2) (but v. Co). e.g. Exodus 15:14
Niphal
- Pf. 3 pl. נֹאחֲזוּ Jos 22:9; וְנֹא׳ (cons.) Nu 32:30; Impf. וַיֵּאָחֲזוּ Gn 47:27; Imv. הֵאָחֲזוּ Gn 34:10 Jos 22:19; Pt. נֶאֱחָז Gn 22:13; נֶאֱחָזִים Ec 9:12;—be caught Gn 22:13 Ec 9:12; elsewhere have possessions Gn 34:10; 47:27 Nu 32:30 Jos 22:9, 19 (P). e.g. Joshua 22:9
Piel
- Pt. מְאַחֵז Jb 26:9 c. acc. enclose, overlay (so Assyrian DlW, p. 294, cf. Aramaic ܐܚܕ, shut). e.g. Job 26:9
Hophal
- Pt. pl. מָאֳחָזִים 2 Ch 9:18 fastened to sq. לְ. e.g. 2 Chronicles 9:18
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. grasp, take hold, take possession (Arabic أَخَذَ, Sab. אחֿדֿ Sab. Denkm.39, Aramaic אְחַד, ܐܶܚܰܕ, Assyrian aḫâzu, Ethiopic አኀዘ )—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
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.
אָחַז
- 1. to press, seize, hold, keep; to befall. Snh. 27ᵇ אוֹחֲזִין מעשה וכ׳ holding in their hands the doing of their fathers, i.e. following their father’s example. Bekh. 33ᵇ אֲחָזוֹ דם he had an attack of congestion. Y. Pes. I, 28ᵇ אֲחוּזַת הדם the animal attacked with congestion. Y. Sabb. XIV, 14ᶜ bot. אֲחָזַתֹּו עין a pain in the eye seized him. Ib. XIX, end, 17ᵇ אחזתו חמה fever overtook him; a. fr.—אָחַז בְּ־ to have a hold of.—B. Mets. I, 1. Y. Yoma II, 39ᶜ top; a. fr.—Part. pass. אָחוּז holding fast, having a firm hold. Ex. R. s. 46 (v. אֲחַד).
- 2. א׳ את העינים to capture the eyesight, to delude by optical deception. Snh. 65ᵇ; a. e.
- to be seized. Y. Taan. II, 65ᵈ top; a. e.
- to distribute split wood (kindling chips) in the gaps of a large pile, to ignite with kindling wood. Sabb. I, 11 (19ᵇ sq.) ומַאֲחִיזִין ed. (Mss., Ar. a. Y. ib. beg. 4ᶜ ומחזין, ed. Ven. ומחיזין); v. חָזָה.
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 66 distinct written forms H270 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 6 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H270, 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.
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.
- אחז ʼÂchâz H271 Ahaz
- אחזי ʼAchzay H273 Ahasai
- אחזיה ʼĂchazyâh H274 Ahaziah
- אחזם ʼĂchuzzâm H275 Ahuzam
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 6 — not the complete family. 4 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 59 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 63 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 22:13
- Exodus 4:4
- Numbers 31:30
- Deuteronomy 32:41
- Joshua 22:9
- Judges 1:6
- Ruth 3:15
- 2 Samuel 1:9
- 1 Kings 1:51
- 1 Chronicles 13:9
- 2 Chronicles 9:18
- Esther 1:6
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.
