כָּעַס
to be angry
also: be vexed, be indignant, be wroth, be grieved fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Hiphil verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘vex’
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘be vexed’
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
3 verses where H3707 appears in the Hiphil stem in the Book of 2 Chronicles. Filtered view — show all forms. 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 Chronicles
- 2 Chronicles 28:25 וַ/יַּכְעֵ֕ס conj + Hiphil wimpf 3ms In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked to anger Yahweh, the God of his fathers.
- 2 Chronicles 33:6 לְ/הַכְעִיסֽ/וֹ prep + Hiphil inf.cs + sfx pers 3ms He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he practiced sorcery, and used enchantments, and practiced sorcery, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he worked much evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.
- 2 Chronicles 34:25 הַכְעִיסֵ֔/נִי Hiphil inf.cs + sfx pers 1cs Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out on this place, and it shall not be quenched.
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.
כעס — transliterated kaʻaç — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to be angry.” It first appears in Deuteronomy 4:25. With 53 verses in 13 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. The verb spans 3 stems, from Qal to Piel. From the same root come כעס. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3707 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 →
- 53
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 53 distinct verses.
- 13 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 13 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #686
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 686 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 53 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 53 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 37 verses · 70%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 11 verses · 21%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 5 verses · 9%
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: Anger 8×, Provoke me to anger 7×, Provoke him to anger 6×
- American Standard Version: Anger 7×, Provoke him to anger 7×, Provoke me to anger 6×
- Berean Standard Bible: Provoke me to anger 7×, Provoking him to anger 6×, Provoking 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Anger 5×, Provoking 5×, Angry 4×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3707 across 54 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 27 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 H3707 across 54 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 30 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 H3707 across 53 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 23 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 H3707 across 66 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 32 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
7 senses and sub-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 7 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.
Qal
- Pf. כ׳ ψ 112:10 Ec 5:16; Impf. וַיִּכְעַס Ne 3:33 2 Ch 16:10; 1 s. אֶכְעַס Ez 16:42; Inf. לִכְעוֹס Ec 7:9.— e.g. Psalms 112:10
- 1. be vexed, indignant ψ 112:10 Ne 3:33 Ec 5:16. e.g. Psalms 112:10
- 2. be angry Ez 16:42 Ec 7:9, c. אֶל pers. 2 Ch 16:10. e.g. Ezekiel 16:42
Piel
- Pf. 3 fs. sf. כִּעֲסַתָּה 1 S 1:6; 3 mpl. sf. כִּעֲסוּנִי Dt 32:21 angered (בְּהַבְלֵיהֶם). e.g. 1 Samuel 1:6
Hiphil
- Pf. הִכְעִיס Ho 12:15 1 K 15:30; sf. הִכְעִיסוֹ 2 K 23:26 + 4 times Pf.; הַכְעִסֵו֯נִי Je 25:7; (scribal error for תַּכְעִיסוּני according to SS); Impf. וַיַּכְעֵס 1 K 22:54 2 Ch 28:25; 3 fs. sf. תַּכְעִיסֶנָּה 1 S 1:7 + 6 times Impf.; Inf. cstr. הַכְעִיס 1 K 16:13 + 5 times; sf. הַכְעִ(י)סֵנִי Je 7:18 + 11 times, + 6 times sfs.; Pt. pl. מַכְעִיסִים Je 7:19 + 4 times— e.g. Hosea 12:15
- 1. vex, c. acc. pers. 1 S 1:7 Ez 32:9. e.g. 1 Samuel 1:7
- 2. vex, provoke to anger, especially of provoking Yahweh by worship of other gods Ju 2:12 1 K 14:9, 15; 16:33; 22:54 2 K 17:11; 23:19 2 Ch 28:25 Ne 3:37 Je 7:18, 19; 11:17; 32:29, 32; 44:3 Ez 8:17; 16:26 Is 65:3 Ho 12:15; c. בּ instr. בְּתוֹעֵבֹת Dt 32:16; בְּגוֹי נָבָל Dt 32:21 1 K 16:13, 26; בחטאתם 1 K 16:2; במעשׂ(י) יד(יו) Dt 31:29 1 K 16:7 Je 25:6, 7; 32:30; 44:8; בכל מעשׂ(ה) ידיהם 2 K 22:17 = 2 Ch 34:25; בבמות ψ 78:58; בפסיליהם Je 8:19; במעלליהם ψ 106:29; cf. the phrases עשׂה הרע(ה) בעיני י׳ להכעיס(ו) do the evil in the eyes of Yahweh to provoke (him) to anger Dt 4:25; 9:18; 31:29 1 K 16:7 2 K 17:17; 21:6 = 2 Ch 33:6; so מכעסים 2 K 21:15 Je 32:30; כעס(ים) אשׁר הכעיס 1 K 15:30; 21:22 2 K 23:26.—The phrase is characteristic of D Je and the compiler of Kings; see DrIntr. 191; Dt 4:25 HolzEinl. Hex. 287. e.g. Judges 2:12
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 vexed, angry (NH כָּעַס, Aramaic כְּעַס (not Syriac));—
— 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.
כָּעַס
- (b. h.) [to be dark, hot, cmp. חמץ,]
- 1. to be angry, displeased. Ber. 61ᵇ top, v. כָּבֵד III. Tem. 16ᵃ (play on עַכְסָה) כל … כּוֹעֵס על וכ׳ whoever saw her became displeased with his own wife. Ned. 22ᵃ, a. fr. כל הכועס whoever allows himself to be carried away by his wrath. Ex. R. s. 45 מטרונה שכָּעֲסָה על וכ׳ a matron (queen) that was angry with the king’s daughter; a. fr.—Part. pass. כָּעוּס, f. כְּעוּסָה; pl. כְּעוּסִים, כְּעוּסוֹת. Ib. כשיהיו פניך כ׳ וכ׳ when thou shalt be angry, I shall conciliate thee &c.; (Tanḥ. Ki Thissa 27 כשאהיה אני בכעס); a. e.—V. כָּעוּס.—
- *2. to grow hot in the stomach, to ferment, swell. Gitt. 70ᵃ לכשתִּכְעוֹס תעמוד על מליאה Ar. (ed. מילואך) when it (the food) swells, it will just fill the capacity of thy stomach.
- to provoke to anger. Deut. R. s. 3. שהם עתידים להַכְעִיס אותי that they are going to provoke me (through idolatry). Ab. V, 2 היו מַכְעִיסִין וכ׳ were constantly provoking (the Lord). Snh. 27ᵃ, a. fr. להַכְעִיס in a spirit of defiance, v. מוּמָר; a. fr.—Imper. אַכְעִיס (for הכעיס). Ruth R. end (ref. to Ps. IV, 5) ארגיז יצרך … א׳ יצרך ולא תחטא let thy tempter rage, but sin not; but the Rabbis say, arouse thy (good) inclination to indignation, and thou shalt not sin. [Midr. Till. to Ps. l. c. אַכְחֵישׁ … ואל יחטיאך weaken thy tempter (by ascetics) &c.; Yalk. Ps. 627;—Pesik. Shubah, p. 158ᵃ אכופס, corr. acc.] e.g. Psalms 4:5
כְּעַס
- Targ. Ps. CXII, 10.—Y. Ber. VII, 11ᵇ bot. שמע … מלכא וכ׳ King Jannai heard of it and became angry; Gen. R. s. 91; a. fr.—[Targ. Y. Gen. XXXVIII, 15 כְּעִיסַת אפין angry-looking, morose (h. text כסתה פניה); prob. a. corrupt. of כַּסִּיאַת, and רחים, at the end of the sentence, to be read חכים; cmp. Gen. R. s. 85].
- to provoke to anger; א׳ (עובדא) קדם to act provokingly, defiantly against. Targ. Y. II, Deut. XXXII, 19. Ib. 21.—Esth. R. introd. מדאַכְעֲסוּ … עובדיהון וכ׳ when the beloved children (Israel) defied &c.; (Yalk. Esth. 1044; Yalk. Job 920 ארגיזו).
כַּעַס
- preced.) anger, grief. Tosef. Yeb. VI, 6 היה לה כ׳ מבעלה if she had been living on bad terms with her husband; Yeb. 42ᵇ; Keth. 60ᵇ בבית בעלה; Erub. 47ᵃ עם ב׳. Ex. R. s. 45 כשאהיה בכ׳ וכ׳, v. כָּעַס. Ab. IV, 18 אל … בשעת כּעֲסוֹ do not try to pacify thy neighbor while he is excited. Sifré Num. 157, v. כְּלָל; a. fr.
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 46 distinct written forms H3707 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3707, 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 45 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 53 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
- Deuteronomy 4:25
- Judges 2:12
- 1 Samuel 1:6
- 1 Kings 14:9
- 2 Kings 17:11
- 2 Chronicles 16:10
- Psalms 106:29
- Ecclesiastes 5:17
- Isaiah 65:3
- Jeremiah 7:18
- Ezekiel 8:17
- Hosea 12:14
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.
