כָּהַן
to serve as priest
‘to serve as priest’ is one of 4 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
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- 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).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct 15 times (65%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (9%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (4%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (4%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (4%)
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (4%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 23 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H3547 appears — 23 distinct verses across 9 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.
Exodus 12 verses
- Exodus 28:1 לְ/כַהֲנ/וֹ prep + Piel inf.cs + sfx pers 3ms "Bring Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, near to you from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons.
- Exodus 28:3 לְ/כַהֲנ/וֹ prep + Piel inf.cs + sfx pers 3ms You shall speak to all who are wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron's garments to sanctify him, that he may minister to me in the priest's office.
- Exodus 28:4 לְ/כַהֲנ/וֹ prep + Piel inf.cs + sfx pers 3ms These are the garments which they shall make: a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, and his sons, that he may minister to me in the priest's office.
- Exodus 28:41 וְ/כִהֲנ֥וּ conj + Piel wpf 3cp You shall put them on Aaron your brother, and on his sons with him, and shall anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister to me in the priest's office.
- Exodus 29:1 לְ/כַהֵ֣ן prep + Piel inf.cs "This is the thing that you shall do to them to make them holy, to minister to me in the priest's office: take one young bull and two rams without blemish,
- Exodus 29:44 לְ/כַהֵ֥ן prep + Piel inf.cs I will sanctify the tent of meeting and the altar: Aaron also and his sons I will sanctify, to minister to me in the priest's office.
- Exodus 30:30 לְ/כַהֵ֥ן prep + Piel inf.cs You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may minister to me in the priest's office.
- Exodus 31:10 לְ/כַהֵֽן prep + Piel inf.cs the finely worked garments--the holy garments for Aaron the priest--the garments of his sons to minister in the priest's office,
- Exodus 35:19 לְ/כַהֵֽן prep + Piel inf.cs the finely worked garments, for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office.'"
- Exodus 39:41 לְ/כַהֵֽן prep + Piel inf.cs the finely worked garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office.
- Exodus 40:13 וְ/כִהֵ֥ן conj + Piel wpf 3ms You shall put on Aaron the holy garments; and you shall anoint him, and sanctify him, that he may minister to me in the priest's office.
- Exodus 40:15 וְ/כִהֲנ֖וּ conj + Piel wpf 3cp You shall anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may minister to me in the priest's office. Their anointing shall be to them for an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.
Leviticus 2 verses
- Leviticus 7:35 לְ/כַהֵ֖ן prep + Piel inf.cs This is the anointing portion of Aaron, and the anointing portion of his sons, out of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister to Yahweh in the priest's office;
- Leviticus 16:32 לְ/כַהֵ֖ן prep + Piel inf.cs The priest, who is anointed and who is consecrated to be priest in his father's place, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen garments, even the holy garments.
Numbers 2 verses
- Numbers 3:3 לְ/כַהֵֽן prep + Piel inf.cs These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests who were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the priest's office.
- Numbers 3:4 וַ/יְכַהֵ֤ן conj + Piel wimpf 3ms Nadab and Abihu died before Yahweh, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children. Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the presence of Aaron their father.
Deuteronomy 1 verse
1 Chronicles 2 verses
- 1 Chronicles 6:10 כִּהֵ֔ן Piel pf 3ms and Johanan became the father of Azariah, (he it is who executed the priest's office in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem),
- 1 Chronicles 24:2 וַֽ/יְכַהֲנ֔וּ conj + Piel wimpf 3mp But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children: therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest's office.
2 Chronicles 1 verse
Isaiah 1 verse
Ezekiel 1 verse
Hosea 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.
כהן (kâhan) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to serve as priest.” Exodus dominates its distribution — 12 of 23 verses. Spanning 23 verses in 9 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Hebrew Bible. It is not a single-sense word — see its full sense range. Its English rendering has broadened — “minister in the priest's office” classically, “serve me as priests” (Berean Standard Bible) and “be priests” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3547 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 →
- 23
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 23 distinct verses.
- 9 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 9 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,368
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,368 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 23 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 23 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 17 verses · 74%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 3 verses · 13%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 3 verses · 13%
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: Minister in the priest's office 5×, He may minister unto me in the priest's office 4×, They may minister unto me in the priest's office 3×
- American Standard Version: Minister in the priest 4×, He may minister unto me in the priest 2×, Ministered in the priest 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Serve me as priests 5×, Serve as priests 4×, Priests 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Be priests 8×, And 3×, To 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3547 across 23 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H3547 across 23 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H3547 across 23 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H3547 across 31 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.
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 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.
- 1. minister as a priest, abs. Ex 31:10; 35:19; 39:41 Lv 16:32 Nu 3:3, 4 (all P); כ׳ לִי minister to me (י׳) Ex 28:1, 3, 4, 41; 29:1, 44; 30:30; 40:13, 15 (all P), Ez 44:13 Ho 4:6; כ׳ ליהוה Lv 7:35 (P), 1 Ch 5:36; 24:2 2 Ch 11:14 (always of Aaron and his sons, except Ez 44:13 2 Ch 11:14, where Levites are forbidden to minister; and Ho 4:6 of Israel, whose national priesthood is taken away). e.g. Exodus 31:10
- 2. be or become priest Dt 10:6 (E?). e.g. Deuteronomy 10:6
- 3. play the priest: כֶּחָתָן יְכַהֵן פְּאֵר Is 61:10 as a bridegroom (that) priests it with his turban, decks himself with a splendid turban such as the priests wore. e.g. Isaiah 61:10
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. only Pi.denom. act as priest;—Pf. כִּהֵן Ex 40:13 1 Ch 5:36; 3 mpl. כִּהֲנוּ Ex 28:41; 40:15; Impf. 3 ms. יְכַהֵן Nu 3:4 + 2 times; pl. יְכַהֲנוּ 1 Ch 24:2; Inf. cstr. כַּהֵן Ex 29:1 + 11 times; sf. כַּהֲנוֹ Ex 28:1, 3, 4.—
— 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, apparently meaning to mediate in religious services
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.
כֹּהֵן
- , v. כּוּן; cmp. b. h. כַּן) [standing, stationed,] officer, esp. priest. Yoma 6ᵃ, a. fr. כ׳ גדול (abbr. כ"ג) high priest, כ׳ הדיוט ordinary priest. Meg. I, 9 כ׳ משוח an anointed high priest, contrad. to מרובה בגדים a high priest distinguished only by his robes (but not anointed, as in the days of the Second Temple). Ib. כ׳ משמש officiating highpriest, כ׳ שעבר a substitute of the high priest no longer required, ex-substitute. Hor. III, 8 ממזר … קודם לכ"ג ע"ה a bastard who is a scholar has the precedence of an ignorant high priest; a. v. fr.—Pl. כֹּהֲנִים. Yeb. 86ᵇ, a. e. בכ"ד מקומות נקראו הכ׳ וכ in twenty four Biblical passages the priests are designated as Levites; a. v. fr.—תּוֹרַת כֹּהֲנִים (abbr. ת"כ) Torath Kohănim, a) name of the third book of Moses, Leviticus. Kidd. 33ᵃ. Lev. R. s. 7 מפני מה … בת"כ why do we, in teaching children, commence with Leviticus? a. e.—b) name of an halachic commentary to Leviticus, also named Sifra. Yeb. 72ᵇ; a. fr.—Fem. כֹּהֶנֶת, כּוֹהֶ׳ a priest’s daughter or wife. Ḥull. 131ᵇ, sq.—Keth. IV, 8 ובכ׳ and in the case of a priest’s wife. Ib. VII, 1, sq. (70ᵃ) ובכ׳ Mish. a. Y. ed. (Bab. ed. ובכהן). Ib. 71ᵃ; a. fr.—Pl. כֹּהֲנוֹת, כּוֹהֲ׳. Ber. 44ᵃ. Yeb. III, 10 אם היו כ׳ (Y. ed. כוה׳) if they are daughters of priests; a. e.
כָּהַן
- , (b. h.), Nithpa. נִתְכַּהֵן (denom. of כֹּהֵן) to be appointed priest, to act as priest. Zeb. 101ᵇ לא נ׳ פנחס וכ׳ Phineas was not appointed high priest until &c. Ib. 102ᵃ לא נ׳ משה וכ׳ Moses acted as priest only during &c.
כָּהֵן
- Targ. Jer. XIV, 18. Targ. Mal. II, 7. Targ. Lev. I, 7; a. v. fr.—Snh. 110ᵃ, a. fr. כ׳ רבא high priest. Ḥull. 49ᵃ ישמעאל כ׳ מסייע כהני Ishmael, being a priest, favors the priests. Gitt. 59ᵇ קרי בכ׳ read from the Torah in the priest’s place, i.e. was called up the first; Meg. 22ᵃ Ms. O. (ed. בכהני pl.); a. fr.—Pl. כַּהֲנִין, כַּהֲנַיָּא, כַּהֲנֵי. Targ. Ex. XIX, 6. Targ. O. Lev. I, 5; a. fr.—Gitt. l. c. כ׳ חשיבי דא"י highly esteemed Palestinean priests; a. fr.—Fem. (כֹּהֶנֶת) כַּהַנְתָּא. Ḥull. 131ᵇ … יהיב לכ׳ gave priestly gifts to a priest’s daughter (married to an Israelite). Pes. 49ᵃ נסיב כ׳ married a priest’s daughter.—Pl. כַּהֲנָתָא. Ber. 44ᵃ
כָּהֵן ²
- (or כֹּהֵן), כַּהֲנָא II pr. n. m. Kahen, Kahăna, name of several Amoraim. Y. Ber. III, 6ᵃ, a. fr. ר׳ כהן.—B. Kam. 117ᵃ. Y. R. Hash. IV, beg. 59ᵇ; a. fr.—Erub. 8ᵇ רב כ׳ רביה דרב (v., however, Ms. M. a. Rabb. D. S. a. l. notes); a. fr.—v. Fr. M’bo, p. 109ᵇ, sq.
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 15 distinct written forms H3547 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| לְ/כַהֵֽן | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct | Exodus 31:10 | 4 |
| לְ/כַהֲנ/וֹ | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct | Exodus 28:1 | 3 |
| לְ/כַהֵ֖ן | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct | Leviticus 7:35 | 2 |
| לְ/כַהֵ֣ן | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct | Exodus 29:1 | 2 |
| לְ/כַהֵ֥ן | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct | Exodus 29:44 | 2 |
| וְ/כִהֲנ֖וּ | Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Exodus 40:15 | 1 |
| וְ/כִהֲנ֥וּ | Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Exodus 28:41 | 1 |
| וְ/כִהֵ֥ן | Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Exodus 40:13 | 1 |
| וַ/יְכַהֵ֛ן | Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Deuteronomy 10:6 | 1 |
| וַ/יְכַהֵ֤ן | Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Numbers 3:4 | 1 |
| וַֽ/יְכַהֲנ֔וּ | Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | 1 Chronicles 24:2 | 1 |
| יְכַהֵ֣ן | Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Isaiah 61:10 | 1 |
| כִּהֵ֔ן | Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 1 Chronicles 6:10 | 1 |
| מִ/כַּהֵ֖ן | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct | 2 Chronicles 11:14 | 1 |
| מִ/כַּהֵ֣ן | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct | Hosea 4:6 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3547, 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 22 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 23 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
- Exodus 28:1
- Leviticus 7:35
- Numbers 3:3
- Deuteronomy 10:6
- 1 Chronicles 6:10
- 2 Chronicles 11:14
- Isaiah 61:10
- Ezekiel 44:13
- Hosea 4:6
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.
