כָּרָה
to trade
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
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- 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”).
Person
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 1 time (33%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (33%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (33%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 3 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H3739 appears — 3 distinct verses across 3 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.
Deuteronomy 1 verse
2 Kings 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.
The Hebrew verb כרה centers on the idea of “to trade.” With only 3 verses it sits in the long tail of Hebrew Bible vocabulary. The word gravitates to Deuteronomy (33%), then 2 Kings and Hosea. First canonically at Deuteronomy 2:6, it enters the text early. Across 2 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Qal, Niphal). 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 H3739 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 →
- 3
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 3 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #4,179
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 4,179 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 3 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Deuteronomy 1 verse 33%
- 2 Kings 1 verse 33%
- Hosea 1 verse 33%
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 3 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 2 verses · 67%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 33%
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 4 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†: He prepared 1×, I bought 1×, Make a banquet 1×
- American Standard Version†: Fishermen make traffic 1×, He prepared 1×, I bought 1×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Barter 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: He provided 1×, I bought her 1×, You will purchase 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3739 across 4† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H3739 across 4† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H3739 across 4† 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H3739 across 3† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
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 4 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.
כרה I dig (NH id.
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. כָּרָה 2 Ch 16:14 ψ 7:16; 2 ms. כָּרִיתָ ψ 40:7; 1 s. כָּרִיתִי Gn 50:5; 3 pl. כָּרוּ Je 18:20 + 3 times; sf. כָּרוּהָ Nu 21:18; Impf. 3 ms. יִכְרֶה Ex 21:33; 3 mpl. וַיִּכְרוּ Gn 26:25; Pt. כֹּרֶה Pr 16:27; 26:27;—dig a grave, קֶבֶר Gn 50:5 (J), cf. 2 Ch 16:14; a well, בְּאֵר Gn 26:25 (J), Nu 21:18 (song in JE); a pit, בּוֹר Ex 21:33; fig. of plotting against others ψ 7:16; so sq. שׁוּחָה Je 18:20, 22, sq. שִׁיחָה ψ 57:7; 119:85; sq. שַׁחַת Pr 26:27; hence כֹּרֶה רָעָה Pr 16:27 one digging a calamity; אָזְנַיִם כ׳ לִי ψ 40:7 ears hast thou dug (with allusion to the cavity of the ear) for me, thou hast given me the means of hearing and obeying thy will.—On ψ 22:17 v. II. כּוּר. e.g. 2 Chronicles 16:14
Niphal
- Impf. 3 ms. עַד יִכָּרֶה שַׁחַת ψ 94:13 until the pit be digged for the wicked, fig. of judgment. e.g. Psalms 94:13
כרה II cistern (or well), only pl. cstr. in נְוֹת כְּרֹת רֹעִים Zp 2
כרה III get by trade, trade (NH כִּירָה act of buying, purchase (so ‘in den Küstenländern,’) LevyNWB ii. 323 f.)
Qal
- Impf. 1 s. sf. וָאֶכְּרֶהָ Ho 3:2 (d. f. dirim., si vera l. punctat., Ges§ 20. 2, b; but cf. We); 3 mpl. יִכְרוּ Jb 40:30; 2 mpl. תִּכְרוּ Dt 2:6 Jb 6:27;—get by trade, buy, c. acc. Ho 3:2 Dt 2:6; sq. עַל־ trade in, make trade of Jb 6:27; 40:30. e.g. Hosea 3:2
כרה IV give a feast (lit. perhaps bring (guests), invite
Qal
- Impf. c. acc. cogn., וַיִּכְרֶה לָהֶם כֵּרָה גְדוֹלָה 2 K 6:23 and he gave a great feast for them (the context requires this sense, but text dubious, Nö ZMG 1886, 724, cf. Klo). e.g. 2 Kings 6:23
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
I. vb. dig (NH id.; Aramaic כְּרָא, Ethiopic ከረየ Arabic كَرَا (c. و and especially ى, Dozy ii. 461); Syriac ܟܪܳܐ is be short, cut off (i.e. rounded off ?), Arabic كُرَةٌ ball; 𝔗 כְּרֵי heap Dalm Gr 109; Syriac ܟܰܪܝܳܐ, Mish. כרי id.; Assyrian karê, large vessels for holding corn, etc., DlHWB 353, cf. kirû (dub.) Wkl Tel Am. Vocab.; Ba ZMG 1887, 615 conjectures be round as orig. √ meaning, and comp. Arabic كَرِيَتِ السَّاقُ the leg is round);—
II. n.f. cistern (or well), only pl. cstr. in נְוֹת כְּרֹת רֹעִים Zp 2:6 pastures of (= with) wells of shepherds, but text dub.; כ׳ a gloss according to Kö ii. 176, (§ 94 a) Anm.; 𝔊 κρήτη; We (והיתה כרת נות רעים, as 𝔊) kereth = Philistia; v. further כְּרֵתִי; Böhme ZAW vii. 1887, 212 views כְּרֹת, plausibly, as erron. variant of preceding נְוֹת, so Schwally ib. x. 1890, 185, 186; Rothstein in KauAT.
III. vb. get by trade, trade (NH כִּירָה act of buying, purchase (so ‘in den Küstenländern,’) LevyNWB ii. 323 f.); Arabic كَرَى let for hire);—only
IV. vb. give a feast (lit. perhaps bring (guests), invite; cf. Assyrian karû, bring, kirêtu, feast, kireti iškun, he gave a feast, DlHWB 352);— only
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from כרה (kârâh) (H3738) — to dig.
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.
כֵּירָה
- a circle, esp. banquet. B. Bath. 75ᵃ (expl. יכרו Job XL, 30, with ref. to II Kings VI, 23) אין כ׳ אלא סעודה kerah means banquet. e.g. Job 40:30
כָּרָה
- , v. כרי
כֵּרָה
- , v. כֵּירָה
כְּרַהּ
- (v. כרח) to shrink, be narrow, (with or sub. רוחא) to be ill-tempered.—Part. כְּרִי, f. כַּרְיָא (= כריה, כריהא); pl. כְּרִין. Targ. Prov. XIV, 17; 29 דכ׳ רוחיה (h. text קצר רוח, קצר אפים).—ענבי דכְרִין grapes which shrunk, undeveloped (blackish) grapes. Naz. 34ᵇ, a. e., v. כְּרוּם ch.
- to be ill. Targ. Prov. XXIII, 35.
כרי
- (b. h.) [to round, heap, cave,]
- 1. to dig. Mekh. Mishp., N’zikin, s. 11 כּוֹרֶה מנין how am I to know that he who digs a pit is responsible?—B. Kam. 51ᵃ כורה אחר כורה one who digs after another one, i.e. who completes the pit to its legal size. Succ. 53ᵃ; Macc. 11ᵃ בשעה שכ׳ דוד וכ׳ when David dug for the foundations; a. fr.—Part. pass. כָּרוּי, f. כְּרוּיָה hollowed out. Kel. III, 5, a. e., v. חִידּוּק a. בָּרָה.
- 2. to sit in a circle, v. infra.
- 1. to heap, pile. Gen. R. s. 100 (ref. to כריתי, Gen. L, 5) הרבה ממון תַּכְרֶה עליה much money shalt thou pile up (give me) for it (the grave); (some ed. הכרה Jacob piled up in settling with Esau). Ib. הִכְרֵתִי (corr. הִכְרֵיתִי); v. כְּרִי; Pesik. R. s. 1 וכל ממון שהיה לו ה׳ וכ׳ (not מסר לו) and he (Jacob) piled up whatever money he had to place it before Esau &c. e.g. Genesis 50:5
- 2. to invite to a banquet;
- 3. (with play on כרת) to excise, to destroy. Snh. 20ᵃ; Yalk. Sam. 142 (ref. to להברות, II Sam. III, 35, where Raba had before him a K’thib. להכרות) כתיב להכרות … בתחלה להַכְרוֹתוֹ וכ׳ it is written l’hakhroth (to entertain) and read l’habroth (v. בָּרָה): originally they came with the intention of destroying him (for the murder of Abner), and finally (when convinced of his innocence) they came to comfort him; [Yalk. Ms. to Sam. l. c., quoted in Rabb. D. S. Snh. l. c. note 9: כתיב לִבְרוֹת וקרינן להַבְרוֹת בתחלה לברות וכ׳ it is written libroth (to pierce, cmp. Ez. XXIII, 47), and we read l’habroth &c.]. e.g. 2 Samuel 3:35
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 3 distinct written forms H3739 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| וַ/יִּכְרֶ֨ה | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 2 Kings 6:23 | 1 |
| וָ/אֶכְּרֶ֣/הָ | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Hosea 3:2 | 1 |
| תִּכְר֧וּ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Deuteronomy 2:6 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3739, 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 6 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 3 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 3 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.
