כְּסַף
silver
‘silver’ is one of 3 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
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Particle, Definite Article 9 times (69%)
- Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 4 times (31%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 13 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H3702 appears — 13 distinct verses across 2 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.
Ezra 7 verses
- Ezra 5:14 וְ/כַסְפָּ/א֒ conj + n c ms det + ptcl def.art The gold and silver vessels also of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem, and brought into the temple of Babylon, those did Cyrus the king take out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor;
- Ezra 6:5 וְ/כַסְפָּ/א֒ conj + n c ms det + ptcl def.art Also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought to Babylon, be restored, and brought again to the temple which is at Jerusalem, everyone to its place; and you shall put them in the house of God.
- Ezra 7:15 כְּסַ֣ף n c ms and to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem,
- Ezra 7:16 כְּסַ֣ף n c ms and all the silver and gold that you shall find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill-offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem;
- Ezra 7:17 בְּ/כַסְפָּ֣/א prep + n c ms det + ptcl def.art therefore you shall with all diligence buy with this money bulls, rams, lambs, with their meal-offerings and their drink-offerings, and shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.
- Ezra 7:18 כַּסְפָּ֥/א n c ms det + ptcl def.art Whatever shall seem good to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do you after the will of your God.
- Ezra 7:22 כְּסַף֮ n c ms to one hundred talents of silver, and to one hundred measures of wheat, and to one hundred baths of wine, and to one hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much.
Daniel 6 verses
- Daniel 2:32 כְסַ֑ף n c ms As for this image, its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass,
- Daniel 2:35 כַּסְפָּ֣/א n c ms det + ptcl def.art Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them: and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
- Daniel 2:45 כַּסְפָּ֣/א n c ms det + ptcl def.art Because you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God has made known to the king what shall happen hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation of it sure.
- Daniel 5:2 וְ/כַסְפָּ֔/א conj + n c ms det + ptcl def.art Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink from it.
- Daniel 5:4 וְ/כַסְפָּ֛/א conj + n c ms det + ptcl def.art They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
- Daniel 5:23 כַסְפָּֽ/א n c ms det + ptcl def.art but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which don't see, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not glorified.
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.
“silver” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun כסף (kᵉçaph). More than half of its appearances fall in Ezra. It appears 13 verses across 2 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its uncommon vocabulary. First canonically at Ezra 5:14, it enters the text early. Lexicons map it across 3 senses. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3702 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 →
- 13
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 13 distinct verses.
- 2 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 2 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,001
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,001 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 13 occurrences in the concordance →
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 13 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 13 verses · 100%
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: Silver 12×
- American Standard Version: Silver 12×
- Berean Standard Bible: Silver 11×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Silver 12×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3702 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H3702 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H3702 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 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 H3702 across 14 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 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 3 senses 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.
- silver
- as metal
- as money
Word origin
Derived from כסף (keçeph) (H3701) — silver.
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.
כָּסַף
- (b. h.) to peel, whiten (cmp. חָסַף).—Part. pass. כָּסוּף, pl. כְּסוּפִים bright. Sifré Deut. 13 וותיקים כ׳ distinguished (of position), bright of intellect; ib. Num. 92 וכסופים.
- 1. to grow pale, fade, wither. Pes. III, 5 (expl. שיאור) כל שהִכְסִיפוּ פניו כאדם וכ׳ a dough the surface of which becomes pale and wrinkled, like (the sight of) a man whose hair (שַׂעַר) stands up from fright. Nidd. 47ᵃ משיַכְסִיף ראש וכ׳ when the centre of the oblate portion of the breast begins to be wrinkled; Tosef. ib. VI, 4 משיִכָּסֵף (Nif.). Sabb. 34ᵇ ה׳ התחתון when the lower horizon becomes pale (is no longer red); Y. Ber. I, 2ᵇ bot.—Pes. 39ᵃ פניו מַכְסִיפִין the leaves look faded (and curled); a. e.
- 2. to deteriorate, fall in value, opp. השביח (cmp. חָסַר). Arakh. 30ᵃ וה׳ ועמד על מנה and fell until it was worth only one Manah. Keth. 80ᵇ שמא תַכְסִיף the soil may deteriorate (through neglect); a. e.
- 3. to put to shame; to frighten, to alarm. Ex. R. s. 35 (play on כֶּסֶף, I Chr. XXIX, 4) שהיה מַכְסִיף כל הזהבים it alarmed all gold-workers (emptying their shops); Cant. R. to III, 10; Y. Yoma IV, 41ᵈ top שהיה מ׳ בעד וכ׳ spread alarm among all the shops of &c. e.g. 1 Chronicles 29:4
- to grow pale &c., v. supra.
כְּסַף I
- , to feel ashamed, frightened. Targ. Y. Num. XII, 14 (h. text הכלם); a. e.—Arakh. 16ᵇ דלִיכְסוֹף זרעיה וכ׳ that the seed of Rab should be put to shame through me. Taan. 22ᵃ וכְסִיפָא להו מילתא וכ׳ Ms. M. 2 a. Rashi (Ms. M. 1 only וכסיפא להו, ed. ואִכְּסִיפוּ Ithpe.) and the gentlemen (you) felt abashed to tell us; a. fr.—[Targ. Ps. XLI, 7 יכסף some ed., read: יכנף, v. כְּנַף I.]
- , Af. אַכְסֵיף
- 1. to frighten; to put to shame. Targ. Ps. XLIV, 10; a. fr.—Kidd. 81ᵃ כַּסִּיפְתִּינָן (כַּסַּפְ׳) thou didst frighten us (by a false alarm). Ḥag. 5ᵃ וכַסַּפְתֵּיה and thou didst put him to shame; Koh. R. end וכַסִּיפְתֵּיה. Sabb. 3ᵇ דאי לאו … כספתיה וכ׳ for if he were not a great man, thou mightst have put him to shame, for he might have given thee an inappropriate reply. Hor. 13ᵇ מַכְסְפִיתוּ לי Ms. M. (ed. כסיפיתנן, corr. כַּסִּיפְתּוּנָן) you might have put me to shame; a. e.
- 2. to reduce in value, to cause deterioration. Keth. 104ᵇ מְכַסְּפֵי (or מַכְסְפֵי) they (the heirs) will neglect it (instead of improving).—[
- 3. to feel ashamed. Targ. Ps. LXXIV, 21 מַכְסִיף (prob. to be read: מַכְסַף or מְכַסַּף, part. pass.).]
- to be made pale, to be frightened, to be put to shame. Targ. Job VI, 20; a. e.—Kidd. l. c. מוטב תִּיכַּסְּפוּ … ולא תיכספו מיני וכ׳ it is better that you of the house of Amram be frightened through me in this world, than that you should be ashamed of me (as a sinner) in the world to come. B. Bath. 111ᵃ; Ab. Zar. 36ᵃ איכ׳ he felt alarmed. Taan. 25ᵃ אִיכַּסְּפָא ועיילא וכ׳ (missing in Ms. M.) she felt abashed and went &c.; a. fr.
כֶּסֶף
- preced. wds.) silver; (sub. מעה) a silver piece, M’ah (one sixth of a Denar, v. Zuckerm. Jüd. Münz. p. 15; p. 33, note 203); in gen. money, value. Kidd. I, 1 בכ׳ by (handing to her) an object of value. Yeb. 63ᵇ שמזונותיו תלויין בכַסְפּוֹ whose livelihood depends on his money (a money-lender). Shebu. VI, 1 הטענה שתי כ׳ the claim must amount to no less than two M’ah. Tosef. Keth. XIII (XII), 3 כ׳ בבל the Babylonian silver standard; כ׳ א"י the Palestinean &c. Ib. כ׳ שדיברה … זו היא כ׳ צורי זה ירושלמי wherever the Torah speaks of Kesef (as fines), it must be paid according to the Tyrian standard … that is the Jerusalem kesef (eight times the provincial kesef כ׳ מדינה, v. Zuckerm. l. c.); a. v. fr.—Pl. כְּסָפִים. B. Mets. 42ᵃ; Pes. 31ᵇ כ׳ אין להם שמירה וכ׳ coins given in trust are not duly guarded unless they are buried in the ground. Y. Yoma IV, beg. 41ᵇ בשלשה … ובכ׳ by three methods was the land of Israel divided, by lots, by the Urim and Tummim, and according to the value of property; a. e.
כְּסַף II
- Targ. Gen. XX, 16. Ib. XLIV, 8; a. fr.—Y. Kidd. I, 58ᵈ יַקִּירָא. Y. Bicc. III, 65ᵈ top מתמני בכ׳ appointed to office for money. B. Kam. 87ᵃ אפחתה מכַּסְפָּהּ Ms. M. he lessened her value; a. fr.—Pl. כַּסְפַּיָּיא. Targ. Gen. XLII, 25; 35.—Y. Bicc. l. c. לא בכ׳ אתמני was it not through gifts of money that he was appointed?
כַּסָּף
- (denom. of כֶּסֶף) silver-smith.—Pl. כַּסָּפִים, כַּסָּפִין. Succ. 51ᵇ. Cant. R. to V, 5.
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 10 distinct written forms H3702 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| וְ/כַסְפָּ/א֒ | Particle, Definite Article | Ezra 5:14 | 2 |
| כְּסַ֣ף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ezra 7:15 | 2 |
| כַּסְפָּ֣/א | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 2:35 | 2 |
| בְּ/כַסְפָּ֣/א | Particle, Definite Article | Ezra 7:17 | 1 |
| וְ/כַסְפָּ֔/א | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 5:2 | 1 |
| וְ/כַסְפָּ֛/א | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 5:4 | 1 |
| כְסַ֑ף | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Daniel 2:32 | 1 |
| כַסְפָּֽ/א | Particle, Definite Article | Daniel 5:23 | 1 |
| כְּסַף֮ | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ezra 7:22 | 1 |
| כַּסְפָּ֥/א | Particle, Definite Article | Ezra 7:18 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3702, 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
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 → 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 12 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 13 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.
