כָּהָה
to grow dim
‘to grow dim’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Qal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘rebuke’
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Plural 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Qal, Infinitive Absolute 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (13%)
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (13%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 8 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H3543 appears — 7 distinct verses across 7 books. 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 1 verse
Deuteronomy 1 verse
1 Samuel 1 verse
Job 1 verse
Isaiah 1 verse
Ezekiel 1 verse
Zechariah 1 verse
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, כהה (kâhâh) means “to grow dim.” First canonically at Genesis 27:1, it enters the text early. With 7 verses in 7 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. Read the stem: it spans 2 stems, including Qal and Piel. From the same root come כהה. Dig into 7-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3543 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 →
- 7
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 7 distinct verses.
- 7 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 7 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,625
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,625 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 7 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Genesis 1 verse 14%
- Deuteronomy 1 verse 14%
- 1 Samuel 1 verse 14%
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 7 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 4 verses · 57%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 29%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 1 verse · 14%
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).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Darkened 1×, He restrained 1×, He shall not fail 1×
- American Standard Version†: Darkened 1×, He will not fail 1×, Is dim 1×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Has faded 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: And 2×, Become blind 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3543 across 8† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H3543 across 8† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H3543 across 9† 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H3543 across 13† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 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.
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 3 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.
כהה I be or grow dim, faint (NH id.
Qal
- Pf. 3 fs. כָּֽהֲתָה Dt 34:7; Impf. יִכְהֶה Is 42:4; 3 fs. תִּכְהֶה Zc 11:17; וַתֵּ֫כַהּ Jb 17:7; וַתִּכְהֶיןָ Gn 27:1: Inf. abs. כָּהֹה Zc 11:17;—grow dim, of eye Gn 27:1 (J), Dt 34:7 Jb 17:7; of violent putting out of eye Zc 11:17(×2); he shall not grow dim Is 42:4, of servant of י׳ under fig. of lamp or fire (v. Kay Che De), or grow faint (cf. Di). e.g. Deuteronomy 34:7
Piel
- Pf. 3 fs. וְכִהֲתָה consec. Ez 21:12 (subj. כָּל־רוּחַ; ‖ וְנָמֵס כָּל־לֵב) grow faint (Pi intrans., Ges§ 52 k, Köi. 187; but read perhaps כָּֽהֲתָה). e.g. Ezekiel 21:12
כהה II
Piel
- rebuke (Syriac ܟܳܐܐ, Mand. כהא (NöM. 72) id.), only 1 S 3:13 sq. בְּ, וְלֹא כִהָה בָּם. e.g. 1 Samuel 3:13
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. be or grow dim, faint (NH id.; Aramaic כְּהָא; cf. Arabic كَهِىَ be أَكْهَى, i.e. weak, cowardly)—
— 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.
כְּהָא
- , v. כהי
כֵּהֶה
- preced.)
- 1. (of light) dim. Gen. R. s. 31 בשעה שהיא כ׳ when it (the jewel) shone faintly.—Pl. כֵּהִים, כֵּהוֹת, כֵּי׳. Ib.; Y. Pes. I, beg. 27ᵃ בשעה שהיו כ׳ וכ׳ when the lights burned dimly, we knew it was day-time. Ib. 27ᵇ top בשעה שהיו כיהות when the jewels were dim.—Pesik. Kumi, p. 145ᵇ (ref. to כ̇ה̇חלנות Ez. XL, 25) חלונות כ׳ היו the windows were dim (stained glass). Ḥag. 16ᵃ עיניו כ׳ his eyes will grow dim; a. e. e.g. Ezekiel 40:25
- 2. (of leprosy) faint, dull, opp. עזה. Neg. II, 1, v. בַּהֶרֶת. Ib. 2 לפי שהכ׳נראית עזה because (in the early morning &c.) the faint spot appears bright; Sifra Thazr., Neg., Par. II, ch. II.—Y. Shebu. I, 32ᵈ הִכְהָה טמא הִכְ׳ מן הַכֵּ׳ טהור if it grows one shade fainter, it is unclean, but when it grows fainter than the next fainter shade, it is clean; Sifra l. c. ed. Ven.; Yalk. Lev. 551 כִּיהָה מן הכֵּ׳; Y. l. c.; a. fr.—
- *3. (trnsf.) doubtful. Nidd. 19ᵃ; Naz. 65ᵇ; Snh. 87ᵇ; Keth. 75ᵇ ר׳ י׳ אומר כ׳ R. Josh. says, It is doubtful; (Neg. IV, 11 ר׳ י׳ קֵיהָה or כִּיהָה, v. כהי, קהי).
כהי
- 1. to be dim (of sight, light). Gen. R. s. 65 כָּהוּ עיניו his eyes grew dim. Ib. שיִכְהוּ עיניו that his eye-sight shall fail. Kidd. 24ᵇ … הכהו וכָהֲתָה if the master struck him on his eye, and it grew dim; a. fr.—Part. pass. כָּהוּי, f. כָּהוּיָה. Ib. הרי שהיתה עינו כ׳ וכ׳ if his eye-sight was dim, and he (the master) made him perfectly blind.
- 2. (of color) to be dull, v. כֵּהֶה. [Tosef. Erub. XI (VIII), 8; Tanḥ. Noah 9, v. כָּחַח.]
- to grow duller, to be shaded. Sifra Thazr., Neg., Par. 2, ch. II אם העז וכ׳ if the spot grew brighter and grew duller again; a. fr.—2) to declare doubtful. Neg. IV, 11 ר׳ י׳ כ׳, v. כֵּהֶה.
- 1. same. Y. Shebu. I, 32ᵈ, v. כֵּהֶה. Neg. XI, 5 ה׳ בתחלה if the suspicious spot grew fainter at once (before the ordered isolation was begun); ה׳ בראשון if it grew faint in the first week; Tosef. ib. V, 6 quot. in R. S. to Neg. l. c. (ed. Zuck. כהה כתחלה, oth. ed. only כתחלה, corr. acc.); a. fr.
- 2. to make dim. Gen. R. l. c. הריני מַכְהֶה וכ׳ I will make his eye-sight dim. Yalk. Ruth 601 ייסורין מַכְהִין וכ׳ … sufferings of poverty dim men’s eyes. Pesik. R. s. 14 מכהה גלגל חמה dimmed (outshone) the sun in brightness; Pesik. Parah, p. 37ᵃ שיַכְהֶה; a. e.
כְּהִי
- Targ. Gen. XXVII, 1. Targ. I Kings XIV, 4; a. e.—Y. Ned. IX, 41ᵇ bot. עיני כַּהֲיָיא my eye-sight is failing.
- 1. to dim, make blind. Yoma 69ᵇ; Snh. 64ᵃ כַּהֲיִינְהוּ לעיניה Ar. (ed. כחלינהו, cmp. כְּבִי) they made his eye-sight dim. Ib. 27ᵃ ליכַהֲיוּהוּ לעיניה (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 80) he shall be blinded.
- 2. (sub. לִבֵּיה) to be angry; (with ב־ of person) to rebuke. Targ. I Sam. III, 13.
- 1. to dim. Targ. Ez. XXXII, 7 באַכְהָיוּתִי when I make dim (h. text בכבותך).
- 2. to make the heart faint, to annoy, reproach (falsely). Ib. XIII, 22 אַכְהֵיתִין לב וכ׳ ye denounced the heart of the righteous to be false (h. text הכאות).
- to be reproached. Ib. (h. text הכאבתיו).
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 8 distinct written forms H3543 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| וְ/כִהֲתָ֣ה | Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Ezekiel 21:7 | 1 |
| וַ/תִּכְהֶ֥יןָ | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Plural | Genesis 27:1 | 1 |
| וַ/תֵּ֣כַהּ | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Job 17:7 | 1 |
| יִכְהֶה֙ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Isaiah 42:4 | 1 |
| כִהָ֖ה | Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 1 Samuel 3:13 | 1 |
| כָהֲתָ֥ה | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Deuteronomy 34:7 | 1 |
| כָּהֹ֥ה | Verb, Qal, Infinitive Absolute | Zechariah 11:17 | 1 |
| תִכְהֶֽה | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Zechariah 11:17 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3543, 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
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 7 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 7 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.
