יָטַב
to be good
also: be pleasing, be well, be glad fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Hiphil verb in the Hebrew Bible →
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”). Here: ‘be glad’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
Form
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- 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”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
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.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
42 distinct verses where H3190 appears in the Qal stem, across 15 books. 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.
Genesis 5 verses
- Genesis 12:13 יִֽיטַב Qal impf 3ms Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you."
- Genesis 34:18 וַ/יִּֽיטְב֥וּ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp Their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem, Hamor's son.
- Genesis 40:14 יִ֣יטַב Qal impf 3ms But remember me when it will be well with you, and show kindness, please, to me, and make mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.
- Genesis 41:37 וַ/יִּיטַ֥ב conj + Qal wimpf 3ms The thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
- Genesis 45:16 וַ/יִּיטַב֙ conj + Qal wimpf 3ms The report of it was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, "Joseph's brothers have come." It pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.
Leviticus 2 verses
- Leviticus 10:19 הַ/יִּיטַ֖ב ptcl inter + Qal impf 3ms Aaron spoke to Moses, "Behold, this day they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before Yahweh; and such things as these have happend to me: and if I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been pleasing in the sight of Yahweh?"
- Leviticus 10:20 וַ/יִּיטַ֖ב conj + Qal wimpf 3ms When Moses heard that, it was pleasing in his sight.
Deuteronomy 9 verses
- Deuteronomy 1:23 וַ/יִּיטַ֥ב conj + Qal wimpf 3ms The thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe:
- Deuteronomy 4:40 יִיטַ֣ב Qal impf 3ms You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh your God gives you, forever.
- Deuteronomy 5:16 יִ֣יטַב Qal impf 3ms "Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you; that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
- Deuteronomy 5:29 יִיטַ֥ב Qal impf 3ms Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!
- Deuteronomy 6:3 יִיטַ֣ב Qal impf 3ms Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
- Deuteronomy 6:18 יִ֣יטַב Qal impf 3ms You shall do that which is right and good in the sight of Yahweh; that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers,
- Deuteronomy 12:25 יִיטַ֤ב Qal impf 3ms You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh.
- Deuteronomy 12:28 יִיטַ֨ב Qal impf 3ms Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.
- Deuteronomy 22:7 יִ֣יטַב Qal impf 3ms you shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take to yourself; that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
Joshua 2 verses
- Joshua 22:30 וַ/יִּיטַ֖ב conj + Qal wimpf 3ms When Phinehas the priest, and the princes of the congregation, even the heads of the thousands of Israel that were with him, heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them well.
- Joshua 22:33 וַ/יִּיטַ֣ב conj + Qal wimpf 3ms The thing pleased the children of Israel; and the children of Israel blessed God, and spoke no more of going up against them to war, to destroy the land in which the children of Reuben and the children of Gad lived.
Judges 3 verses
- Judges 18:20 וַ/יִּיטַב֙ conj + Qal wimpf 3ms The priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went in the midst of the people.
- Judges 19:6 וְ/יִטַ֥ב conj + Qal impf 3ms So they sat down, and ate and drink, both of them together: and the young lady's father said to the man, Please be pleased to stay all night, and let your heart be merry.
- Judges 19:9 וְ/יִיטַ֣ב conj + Qal impf 3ms When the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father-in-law, the young lady's father, said to him, Behold, now the day draws toward evening, please stay all night: behold, the day grows to an end, lodge here, that your heart may be merry; and tomorrow get you early on your way, that you may go home.
Ruth 2 verses
- Ruth 3:1 יִֽיטַב Qal impf 3ms Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?
- Ruth 3:7 וַ/יִּיטַ֣ב conj + Qal wimpf 3ms When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down.
1 Samuel 2 verses
- 1 Samuel 18:5 וַ/יִּיטַב֙ conj + Qal wimpf 3ms David went out wherever Saul sent him, [and] behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and it was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants.
- 1 Samuel 24:4 יִטַ֣ב Qal impf 3ms The men of David said to him, Behold, the day of which Yahweh said to you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe secretly.
2 Samuel 2 verses
- 2 Samuel 3:36 וַ/יִּיטַ֖ב conj + Qal wimpf 3ms All the people took notice of it, and it pleased them; as whatever the king did pleased all the people.
- 2 Samuel 18:4 יִיטַ֥ב Qal impf 3ms The king said to them, What seems you best I will do. The king stood by the gate-side, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.
1 Kings 2 verses
- 1 Kings 3:10 וַ/יִּיטַ֥ב conj + Qal wimpf 3ms The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
- 1 Kings 21:7 וְ/יִטַ֣ב conj + Qal juss 3ms Jezebel his wife said to him, Do you now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be merry: I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.
2 Kings 1 verse
Nehemiah 2 verses
- Nehemiah 2:5 יִיטַ֥ב Qal impf 3ms I said to the king, If it please the king, and if your servant have found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may build it.
- Nehemiah 2:6 וַ/יִּיטַ֤ב conj + Qal wimpf 3ms The king said to me (the queen also sitting by him), For how long shall your journey be? and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
Esther 4 verses
- Esther 1:21 וַ/יִּיטַב֙ conj + Qal wimpf 3ms The saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan:
- Esther 2:4 תִּיטַב֙ וַ/יִּיטַ֧ב Qal impf 3fs conj + Qal wimpf 3ms and let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti. The thing pleased the king; and he did so.
- Esther 2:9 וַ/תִּיטַ֨ב conj + Qal wimpf 3fs The maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her things for her purification, with her portions, and the seven maidens who were meet to be given her out of the king's house: and he removed her and her maidens to the best place of the house of the women.
- Esther 5:14 וַ/יִּיטַ֧ב conj + Qal wimpf 3ms Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends to him, Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak you to the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go you in merrily with the king to the banquet. The thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.
Psalms 1 verse
Ecclesiastes 1 verse
Jeremiah 4 verses
- Jeremiah 7:23 יִיטַ֥ב Qal impf 3ms but this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk you in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.
- Jeremiah 38:20 וְ/יִ֥יטַב conj + Qal impf 3ms But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver you. Obey, I beg you, the voice of Yahweh, in that which I speak to you: so it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live.
- Jeremiah 40:9 וְ/יִיטַ֥ב conj + Qal impf 3ms Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan swore to them and to their men, saying, Don't be afraid to serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.
- Jeremiah 42:6 יִֽיטַב Qal impf 3ms Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice 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.
יטב — transliterated yâṭab — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to be good.” Where the King James Version says “pleased,” newer translations reach for “and” (unfoldingWord Literal Text); the renderings breakdown has the detail. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 105 verses — common. Debuting at Genesis 4:7, it then recurs through the corpus. Across 2 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Qal, Hithpael). See the sense tree, 105-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3190 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 →
- 105
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 105 distinct verses.
- 26 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 26 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #387
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 387 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 105 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Deuteronomy 19 verses 18%
- Jeremiah 16 verses 15%
- Genesis 9 verses 9%
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 105 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 49 verses · 47%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 35 verses · 33%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 21 verses · 20%
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: Pleased 11×, Do good 4×, Well 4×
- American Standard Version: Pleased 7×, Thee 6×, Do good 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Pleased 5×, Correct 4×, May go well 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: And 13×, Was good 12×, Do good 11×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3190 across 110 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 66 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 H3190 across 109 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 64 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 H3190 across 110 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 73 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 7 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H3190 across 140 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 48 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
9 senses and sub-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 Hithpael (reflexive or reciprocal).
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 9 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
- 1. be glad, joyful
- 2. be well placed
- 3. impers. be well for or with, go well with
- 4. be pleasing
Hithpael
- 1. make glad, rejoice
- 2. do good to, deal well with
- 3. do well or thoroughly
- 4. make a thing good, right, beautiful
- 5. do well, right, ethically
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
[ יָטַב ] vb. be good, well, glad, pleasing
— 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.
יָטַב
- (v. next w.), part. Hof. מוּטָב, q. v.
יְטַב
- (cmp. טוב) to be good, well. Impf. יֵיטַב. Targ. O. Gen. XII, 13 ed. Berl. (ed. יוֹטִיב, Y. יֵיטִיב). Targ. O. Deut. IV, 40 (Y. יוֹטֵיב); a. fr.
- 1. same, v. supra.—2)
- to do good, be kind. Targ. Gen. XXXII, 10; a. fr.—3) to do a thing well. Targ. I Sam. XVI, 17 מוֹטִיב לנגנא who plays well. Targ. Gen. VI, 7; a. e.
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 82 distinct written forms H3190 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; 22 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3190, 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.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. 2 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 98 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 105 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 4:7
- Exodus 1:20
- Leviticus 5:4
- Numbers 10:29
- Deuteronomy 1:23
- Joshua 22:30
- Judges 17:13
- Ruth 3:1
- 1 Samuel 2:32
- 2 Samuel 3:36
- 1 Kings 1:47
- 2 Kings 9:30
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.
