יָפֶה
beautiful
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
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
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H3303 appears in the Book of Genesis — 7 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.
Genesis
- Genesis 12:11 יְפַת adj Adjective fs cs It happened, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look on.
- Genesis 12:14 יָפָ֥ה adj Adjective fs It happened that when Abram had come into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
- Genesis 29:17 יְפַת וִ/יפַ֥ת adj Adjective fs cs conj + Adjective Adjective fs cs Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful and well favored.
- Genesis 39:6 יְפֵה וִ/יפֵ֥ה adj Adjective ms cs conj + Adjective Adjective ms cs He left all that he had in Joseph's hand. He didn't concern himself with anything, except for the food which he ate. Joseph was well-built and handsome.
- Genesis 41:2 יְפ֥וֹת adj Adjective fp cs Behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, well-favored and fat-fleshed, and they fed in the reed-grass.
- Genesis 41:4 יְפֹ֥ת adj Adjective fp cs The ill-favored and lean-fleshed cattle ate up the seven well-favored and fat cattle. So Pharaoh awoke.
- Genesis 41:18 וִ/יפֹ֣ת conj + Adjective Adjective fp cs and, behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, fat-fleshed and well-favored. They fed in the reed-grass,
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.
“beautiful” is the headline sense of the Hebrew adjective יפה (yâpheh). Its English rendering has broadened — “fair” classically, “beautiful” (Berean Standard Bible) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 39 verses — moderately common. More than a quarter of its appearances fall in Song of Solomon. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 12:11. See the sense tree, 39-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3303 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 →
- 39
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 39 distinct verses.
- 14 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 14 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #837
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 837 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 39 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Song of Solomon 12 verses 31%
- Genesis 7 verses 18%
- 1 Samuel 3 verses 8%
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 39 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 18 verses · 46%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 13 verses · 33%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 8 verses · 21%
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: Fair 10×, Behold thou art fair 5×, Well 4×
- American Standard Version: Fair 9×, And 4×, Behold 4×
- Berean Standard Bible: Beautiful 21×, Handsome 4×, Sleek 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Beautiful 20×, Beautiful of 4×, Handsome 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3303 across 40 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H3303 across 40 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 16 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 H3303 across 42 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 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 H3303 across 44 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 7 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 1 sense 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.
- fair, beautiful, handsome
Word origin
adj. fair, beautiful;—m. abs. יָפֶה 2 S 14:25 + 4 times; cstr. יְפֵה Gn 39:6(×2) + 6 times; f. יָפָה 12:14 + 14 times; cstr. יְפַת 2:11 + 6 times; sf. יָפָתִי Ct 2:10, 13; pl. יָפוֹת Jb 42:15 Am 8:13; cstr. יְפוֹת Gn 41:2; יְפֹת v 4, 18;—fair, beautiful, as attribute of woman 2 S 13:1 1 K 1:3 Am 8:13 Pr 11:22; cf. Jb 42:15 Ct 6:10 (י׳ כלבנה); pred. Gn 12:14 1 K 1:4 Ct 1:15(×2); 4:1(×2), 7; 6:4; = subst. fair one 1:8; 2:10, 13; 5:9; 6:1; often cstr. יְפַת־מַרְאֶה Gn 12:11; 29:17; 2 S 14:27; יְפַת־תֹּאַר Gn 29:17; 1 S 25:3; Dt 21:11; Est 2:7: of kine יְפוֹת־מַרְאֶה Gn 41:2, cf. v 4; יְפוֹת־תֹּאַר v 18; less often of boy, young man אִישׁ יָפֶה 2 S 14:25; pred. Ct 1:16; יְפֵה תֹאַר Gn 39:6; וִיפֵה מַרְאֶה v 6 (of Joseph); of Jerusalem יְפֵה נוֹף ψ 48:3; of a singer יְפֵה קוֹל Ez 33:32; of trees: olive יְפֵה פְרִי־תֹאַר Je 11:16; cedar (fig. of Egypt) יְפֵה עָנָף Ez 31:3, cf. v 9; יָפֶה of everything in its time Ec 3:11; of various acts 5:17.—In עִם יְפֵה עֵינַיִם 1 S 16:12, עִם יְפֵה מַרְאֶה 17:42, either יפה = subst. abstr. with beauty of eyes, or עִם is textual error (Gr Krenkel ZAW, 1882, 309 Bu עֶלֶם youth), v. Dr.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from יפה (yâphâh) (H3302) — to be beautiful.
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.
יָפֶה
- ; pl. יָפִין, יָפוֹת (b. h.; יפי to join, [well-joined, cmp. כָּשֵׁר, יָאֶה a. Arab. wafa,]
- 1. appropriate; strong, healthy; handsome, beautiful, fine (of build); auspicious; (adv.) well, right. Ned. 66ᵇ (an ambiguous expression, v. מוּם) עד שתראי מום י׳ שביך וכ׳ until thou showest to R. … ‘an appropriate blemish’ (or ‘something handsome’) in thee; י׳ קורין וכ׳ it was nice (appropriate) that they named her lakhlukhith (aversion). Ber. 4ᵃ י׳ דנתי have I well argued (was I right)?; י׳ חייבתי was I right in convicting?—Ib. 34ᵃ, a. e. רובן קשה ומיעוטן י׳ a large dose of them is injurious, a small one wholesome (or becoming). Ib. 39ᵃ י׳ ללב וטוב וכ׳ wholesome for the heart, and good &c. Ib. 56ᵇ י׳ לו or י׳ is an auspicious dream; a. v. fr.—דעת יָפָה, v. דַּעַת.—יָדַיִם יָפוֹת skilled hands for grabbing. Pes. 89ᵇ members of a Passover party שהיו ידיו של אחד מהן י׳ one of whom is extremely quick (in taking and eating); Tosef. ib. VII, 10 רפות ed. Zuck. (corr. acc.). Sifra K’dosh. Par. 1, ch. III אפי׳ בריא אפי׳ ידיו י׳ even if (among the poor coming for their share in the harvest) he (who insists on grabbing instead of distributing) is very strong, very skillful.—כֹּחַ יָפֶה a strong legal right, privilege, prerogative. Kidd. 21ᵃ י׳ כחו ליגאל לעולם the privilege of its redemption remains unimpaired forever (up to the jubilee year); י׳ … בשנה שנייה the privilege of redemption in the second year is unimpaired; opp. הורע כחו. Shebu. 48ᵃ י׳ כח הבן וכ׳ the son’s prerogative is stronger (more extended) than that of his deceased father was; Ḥull. 49ᵇ; a. fr.—Ohol. XVIII, 6; Zab. III, 1, v. כֹּחַ.—יְפַת תֹּאַר handsome woman, esp. (ref. to Deut. XXI, 10 sq.) a gentile captive with whom the captor has had intercourse before deciding on converting and making her his legitimate wife. Kidd. 21ᵇ כהן מהו בי׳ ת׳ is a priest permitted to marry a gentile captive?—Snh. 21ᵃ. Ib. 107ᵃ כל הנושא י׳ ת׳ וכ׳ he who marries a gentile captive will have a rebellious son (ref. to Deut. l. c. a. ib. 18 sq.); a. fr. e.g. Deuteronomy 21:10
- 2. (cmp. טוֹב) worth, valued. Keth. VIII, 3 (79ᵇ) שמין אותה כמה היא יָפָה וכ׳ (Mish. … אותן … הן יָפִין) we assess the land how much it is worth with the fruits and how much without. Ib. III, 7; a. fr.—Denom.
יִפָּה
- 1. to beautify; to make pleasant, popular. Gen. R. s. 39, beg. (ref. to Ps. XLV, 12) ליַפּוֹתָיךְ בעולם to make thee popular in the world. Ned. IX, 10 יִיפּוּהָ they improved her appearance. Ber. 43ᵇ (ref. to Koh. III, 11) שי׳ הקב"ה אומנתו בפני כל וא׳ א׳ Ms. M. (differ. in ed.), v. אוּמָנוּת.—Part. pass. מְיוּפֶּה adorned, elaborate. Cant. R. to I, 1 נמצא מי׳ ומרובה וכ׳ was Solomon’s palace more elaborate and extensive than the Temple?—2) to improve (land). Y. Sabb. VII, 10ᵃ top קצר ליַיפּוֹת וכ׳ he cut the grass for the sake of improving the land. Ib. חייב משום מְיַיפֶּה וכ׳ he is guilty of the offence of improving the land on the Sabbath. Pesik. S’liḥoth, p. 166ᵃ יַפֵּה כחך improve thy strength (by practicing). e.g. Psalms 45:12
- 3. (with כח) to strengthen one’s rights, to confer prerogatives. B. Bath. VII, 2 ליַיפּוֹת כחו של מוכר to give the seller the prerogative. Y. ib. VIII, 16ᵃ top יִיפִּיתָה כחה בנכסי האם thou hast (the Law has) given her a prerogative with reference to her mother’s property; a. fr.
- , with כח, to be made stronger. Peah VI, 6 [read:] יופה כחו של וכ׳ (Ms. M. ייפיה, ed. יופי) the prerogative of the owner has been made firmer, opp. הורע.—Part. מְיוּפֶּה (v. supra). Y. Gitt. II, beg. 44ᵃ חתימה … כחו מי׳ by two persons testifying to the signature her case is improved.
- , Nithpa. נִתְיַפֶּה
- 1. to become handsome. Taan. 23ᵇ תִּתְיַיפִּי חנה Hannah, grow handsome, ונִתְיַיפְּתָה Ms. M. (ed. … פָּת) and she did &c.
- 2. to be praised. Gen. R. s. 59 נִתְיַיפִּיתָ וכ׳ thou (Abraham) hast been praised among the angels &c.
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 27 distinct written forms H3303 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 H3303, 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 6 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 38 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 39 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 12:11
- Deuteronomy 21:11
- 1 Samuel 16:12
- 2 Samuel 13:1
- 1 Kings 1:3
- Esther 2:7
- Job 42:15
- Psalms 48:2
- Proverbs 11:22
- Ecclesiastes 3:11
- Song of Solomon 1:8
- Jeremiah 11:16
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.
