כֹּה
thus
also: here, in this manner 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
- Adverb
- A word that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb.
Every verse where H3541 appears in the Book of 2 Kings — 29 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.
2 Kings
- 2 Kings 1:4 כֹּֽה adv Now therefore thus says Yahweh, You shall not come down from the bed where you are gone up, but shall surely die. Elijah departed.
- 2 Kings 1:6 כֹּ֚ה adv They said to him, There came up a man to meet us, and said to us, Go, turn again to the king who sent you, and tell him, Thus says Yahweh, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you send to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron? therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you are gone up, but shall surely die.
- 2 Kings 1:11 כֹּֽה adv Again he sent to him another captain of fifty and his fifty. He answered him, man of God, thus has the king said, Come down quickly.
- 2 Kings 1:16 כֹּֽה adv He said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you are gone up, but shall surely die.
- 2 Kings 2:21 כֹּֽה adv He went forth to the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and said, Thus says Yahweh, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from there any more death or miscarrying.
- 2 Kings 3:16 כֹּ֖ה adv He said, Thus says Yahweh, Make this valley full of trenches.
- 2 Kings 3:17 כֹ֣ה adv For thus says Yahweh, You shall not see wind, neither shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, and you shall drink, both you and your cattle and your animals.
- 2 Kings 4:43 כֹ֥ה adv His servant said, What, should I set this before a hundred men? But he said, Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, They shall eat, and shall leave of it.
- 2 Kings 6:31 כֹּֽה וְ/כֹ֣ה adv conj + adv Then he said, God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.
- 2 Kings 7:1 כֹּ֣ה adv Elisha said, Hear you the word of Yahweh: thus says Yahweh, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be [sold] for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.
- 2 Kings 9:3 כֹּֽה adv Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus says Yahweh, I have anointed you king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and don't wait.
- 2 Kings 9:6 כֹּֽה adv He arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I have anointed you king over the people of Yahweh, even over Israel.
- 2 Kings 9:12 כֹּ֚ה adv They said, It is false; tell us now. He said, Thus and thus spoke he to me, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I have anointed you king over Israel.
- 2 Kings 9:18 כֹּֽה adv So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, Thus says the king, Is it peace? Jehu said, What have you to do with peace? turn you behind me. The watchman told, saying, The messenger came to them, but he isn't coming back.
- 2 Kings 9:19 כֹּֽה adv Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, Thus says the king, Is it peace? Jehu answered, What have you to do with peace? turn you behind me.
- 2 Kings 18:19 כֹּֽה adv Rabshakeh said to them, Say you now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust?
- 2 Kings 18:29 כֹּ֚ה adv Thus says the king, Don't let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand:
- 2 Kings 18:31 כֹ֨ה adv Don't listen to Hezekiah: for thus says the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and eat you everyone of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and everyone drink the waters of his own cistern;
- 2 Kings 19:3 כֹּ֚ה adv They said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
- 2 Kings 19:6 כֹּ֥ה כֹּ֣ה adv adv Isaiah said to them, Thus shall you tell your master, Thus says Yahweh, Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
- 2 Kings 19:10 כֹּ֣ה adv Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
- 2 Kings 19:20 כֹּֽה adv Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Whereas you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard [you].
- 2 Kings 19:32 כֹּֽה adv Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
- 2 Kings 20:1 כֹּֽה adv In those days was Hezekiah sick to death. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Set your house in order: for you shall die, and not live.
- 2 Kings 20:5 כֹּֽה adv Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the prince of my people, Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: behold, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of Yahweh.
- 2 Kings 21:12 כֹּֽה adv therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Behold, I bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle.
- 2 Kings 22:15 כֹּֽה adv She said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Tell you the man who sent you to me,
- 2 Kings 22:16 כֹּ֚ה adv Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on the inhabitants of it, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read.
- 2 Kings 22:18 כֹּ֥ה כֹּֽה adv adv But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, thus shall you tell him, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: As touching the words which you have heard,
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.
The Hebrew word כה centers on the idea of “thus.” Alongside “thus” the lexicon also lists “here” and “in this manner” — part of its full sense range. Spanning 541 verses in 26 books, it ranks among the most common words of the Hebrew Bible. Jeremiah dominates its distribution — 159 of 541 verses. Debuting at Genesis 15:5, it then recurs through the corpus. Dig into 541-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3541 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 →
- 541
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 541 distinct verses.
- 26 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 26 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #86
- by frequency
- Top 100 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 86 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 541 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 541 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 479 verses · 89%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 37 verses · 7%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 25 verses · 5%
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: So 4×, Here 3×, Manner 2×
- American Standard Version: Thus 4×, Here 3×, Manner 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Is what 452×, Thus 16×, This 13×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Thus 314×, This 135×, Is what 32×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3541 across 25 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H3541 across 25 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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 H3541 across 534 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 38 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H3541 across 505 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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
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 5 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.
- 1. of manner, thus (so most freq., and usually pointing to what is to follow, while כֵּן points commonly to what has preceded), Gn 15:5 כה יהיה זרעך thus shall thy seed be, Nu 6:23 1 K 2:30 כֹּה דִבֶּר יוֹאָב וְכֹה עָנָנִי, 5:25 Is 24:13 (answered by כְּ, as Je 23:29); with a subst. Is 20:6 הִנֵּה כֹה מַבָּטֵנוּ, Je 9:21 (si vera l.), 23:29 1 S 27:11. Mostly confined to particular phrases: thus e.g. Genesis 15:5
- a. with diff. forms of אמר, כה תאמר thus shalt thou say Ex 3:14, 15; 19:3; 20:22 etc.; especially כה אמר י״י thus saith (or said) י׳ Ex 4:22; 5:1; 7:17, 26; 8:16 etc.; and continually in the prophets, as Is 7:7; 8:11; 18:4 etc.; Je 2:2, 5; 4:27; 6:16 etc.; also in the idiom. formula אִם כֹּה יֹאמַר if he say (or used to say) (the words spoken following) †Gn 31:8 1 S 14:9, 10; 20:7 2 S 15:26. e.g. Exodus 3:14
- b. with עשׂה to do thus, Ex 5:15 Dt 7:5; pointing back, Nu 22:30 Jos 6:14 1 S 27:11 al.; especially in the phrase כה יעשׂה אלהים וכה יוסיף (with variations), 1 S 3:17 + (v. יסף), in which כֹּה points to an imprecation understood but not expressed. With בְּ prefixed †1 K 22:20 ויאמר זה בְּכֹה וזה אמר בְּכֹה and one spake in this wise, and another spake in that wise (‖ 2 Ch 18:19 כָּכָה … כָּכָה; prob. rightly). e.g. Exodus 5:15
- 2. of place, here (rare, chiefly in E), Gn 31:37 שִׂים כֹּה place it here before my brethren, Nu 23:15(×2) 2 S 18:30 Ru 2:8. Repeated, Ex 2:12 וַיִּפֶן כֹּה וָכֹה and he turned this way and that way; כֹּה … כֹּה on this side … on that side Nu 11:31. With עַד Gn 22:5 and we will go עַד־כֹּה as far as here (δεικτικῶς) i.e. yonder. e.g. Genesis 31:37
- 3. of time, עַד כֹּה hitherto, Ex 7:16 (cf. עַד־הֵנָּה), Jos 17:14; עַד־כֹּה וְעַד־כֹּה till now and till then, i.e. meanwhile, 1 K 18:45. e.g. Exodus 7:16
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
demonstr. adv. thus, here (BA כָּה; 𝔗 𝔖Jerus. Mand. כָּא here: in Syriac with prefixes ܠܟܳܐ hither, ܡܶܟܳܐ (𝔖Jerus. ܡܶܢ ܟܳܐ) hence, ܐܰܝܟܳܐ where? cf. אֵיכָה, p. 32, and Köii. 1, 252)—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from הוא (hûwʼ) (H1931) — he.
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.
כָּא
- (b. h. כֹּה, v. preced.) adverb of place: here, v. הָכָא; of time: now. Targ. Gen. XXII, 5. Targ. Job XXXVIII, 11; a. fr.—Y. Ber. IV, 7ᶜ top וכא אמר הכין and here he says so? Ib. וכה; a. v. fr.—לְכָא hither; מִיכָּא from here. Targ. Josh. VIII, 20. Targ. Ex. XVII, 12; a. fr.—Y. Bets. V, 63ᵃ פצל … לכא ולכא skimmed the water in both directions. Y. B. Mets. VI, 11ᵃ top מיכא ללוד from here to Lydda; a. fr.—v. אִיכָּא, לִיכָּא &c.; כַּאַן, כַּן &c.
כֹּה
- (b. h.) here; thus. Gen. R. s. 56 (ref. to עד־כה, Gen. XXII, 5) נלך … בסופו של כה we shall go and see what will be the outcome of koh (the promise, ‘thus shall be thy seed’, Gen. XV, 5); Tanḥ. Vayera 23. e.g. Genesis 22:5
כָּה
- ch., v. כָּא
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 31 distinct written forms H3541 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.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| כֹּֽה | Adverb | Amos 5:16 | 161 |
| כֹּ֤ה | Adverb | Amos 3:11 | 80 |
| כֹּ֚ה | Adverb | Amos 1:3 | 66 |
| כֹּ֥ה | Adverb | Amos 4:12 | 64 |
| כֹּ֣ה | Adverb | Amos 7:7 | 50 |
| כֹּה | Adverb | Amos 7:17 | 33 |
| כֹ֣ה | Adverb | 2 Kings 3:17 | 19 |
| כֹּ֖ה | Adverb | Exodus 11:4 | 18 |
| וְ/כֹ֣ה | Adverb | 1 Kings 2:23 | 13 |
| כֹ֤ה | Adverb | Amos 5:3 | 11 |
| כֹ֨ה | Adverb | Ezekiel 14:21 | 11 |
| כֹ֥ה | Adverb | Amos 5:4 | 8 |
| כֹה֙ | Adverb | Amos 7:11 | 8 |
| וְ/כֹ֥ה | Adverb | 1 Kings 2:30 | 4 |
| כֹה֩ | Adverb | 1 Kings 11:31 | 4 |
| כֹּ֑ה | Adverb | Genesis 22:5 | 4 |
| כֹּה֮ | Adverb | Amos 3:12 | 4 |
| וְ/כֹֽה | Adverb | 2 Samuel 16:7 | 2 |
| כֹ֖ה | Adverb | Exodus 5:15 | 2 |
| כֹֽה | Adverb | Isaiah 30:15 | 2 |
| כֹּ֔ה | Adverb | Genesis 31:37 | 2 |
| כֹּ֗ה | Adverb | 1 Kings 18:45 | 2 |
| בְּ/כֹ֔ה | Adverb | 1 Kings 22:20 | 1 |
| בְּ/כֹֽה | Adverb | 1 Kings 22:20 | 1 |
| וְ/כֹ֖ה | Adverb | 2 Samuel 3:9 | 1 |
| וָ/כֹ֔ה | Adverb | Exodus 2:12 | 1 |
| כֹ֛ה | Adverb | Isaiah 21:16 | 1 |
| כֹ֧ה | Adverb | Jeremiah 23:29 | 1 |
| כֹּ֨ה | Adverb | 1 Samuel 14:10 | 1 |
| כֹּה֙ | Adverb | Exodus 2:12 | 1 |
| כֹּה֩ | Adverb | Ruth 1:17 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3541, 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
Derived from this word
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 506 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 541 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 15:5
- Exodus 2:12
- Numbers 6:23
- Deuteronomy 7:5
- Joshua 6:3
- Judges 6:8
- Ruth 1:17
- 1 Samuel 2:27
- 2 Samuel 3:9
- 1 Kings 2:23
- 2 Kings 1:4
- 1 Chronicles 17:4
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.
