לָאָה
to be weary
also: be impatient, be grieved, be offended fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Niphal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- 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).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- 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
- 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.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms 16 distinct
- Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 3 times (16%)
- Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (11%)
- Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 1 time (5%)
- Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 1 time (5%)
- Verb, Niphal, Participle Active, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (5%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (5%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (5%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (5%)
+8 more forms (8 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 19 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H3811 appears — 18 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.
Genesis 1 verse
Exodus 1 verse
Job 3 verses
- Job 4:2 תִּלְאֶ֑ה Qal impf 2ms "If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?
- Job 4:5 וַ/תֵּ֑לֶא conj + Qal wimpf 2ms But now it is come to you, and you faint; It touches you, and you are troubled.
- Job 16:7 הֶלְאָ֑/נִי Hiphil pf 3ms + sfx pers 1cs But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made desolate all my company.
Psalms 1 verse
Proverbs 1 verse
Isaiah 4 verses
- Isaiah 1:14 נִלְאֵ֖יתִי Niphal pf 1cs My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts; They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.
- Isaiah 7:13 הַלְא֣וֹת תַלְא֖וּ Hiphil inf.cs Hiphil impf 2mp He said, "Listen now, house of David: Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also?
- Isaiah 16:12 נִלְאָ֥ה Niphal pf 3ms It shall happen, when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, that he shall not prevail.
- Isaiah 47:13 נִלְאֵ֖ית Niphal pf 2fs You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels: let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from the things that shall come on you.
Jeremiah 5 verses
- Jeremiah 6:11 נִלְאֵ֣יתִי Niphal pf 1cs Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh; I am weary with holding in: pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.
- Jeremiah 9:5 נִלְאֽוּ Niphal pf 3cp They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.
- Jeremiah 12:5 וַ/יַּלְא֔וּ/ךָ conj + Hiphil wimpf 3mp + sfx pers 2ms If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?
- Jeremiah 15:6 נִלְאֵ֖יתִי Niphal pf 1cs You have rejected me, says Yahweh, you are gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting.
- Jeremiah 20:9 וְ/נִלְאֵ֥יתִי conj + Niphal wpf 1cs If I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I can't [contain].
Ezekiel 1 verse
Micah 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, לאה (lâʼâh) means “to be weary.” First canonically at Genesis 19:11, it enters the text early. With 18 verses in 9 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Jeremiah (28% of all occurrences). The verb spans 3 stems, from Qal to Niphal. 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 H3811 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 →
- 18
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 18 distinct verses.
- 9 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 9 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,563
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,563 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 18 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 18 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 11 verses · 61%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 5 verses · 28%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 11%
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: I am weary 2×
- American Standard Version: Thee 3×, I am weary 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: I am weary 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Make 2×, Weary 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3811 across 19 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 17 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 H3811 across 19 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 14 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 H3811 across 19 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 17 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 H3811 across 24 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 20 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.
Qal
- Impf. 2 ms. תִּלְאֶה Jb 4:2; וַתֵּ֫לֶא Jb 4:5; 3 pl. וַיִּלְאוּ Gn 19:11;—be weary (in vain endeavour) sq. Inf. Gn 19:11; be weary, impatient at attempted consolation abs. Jb 4:2; at calamity abs. Jb 4:5 (‖ בָּהַל). e.g. Job 4:2
Niphal
- Pf. נִלְאָה Pr 26:15 + 2 times; 2 fs. נִלְאֵית Is 47:13; נִלְאֵיתִי Is 1:14 + 3 times;—sq. inf. be weary (ל) of doing a thing, Ex 7:18 (JE), make oneself weary in doing something Pr 26:15 (of sluggard’s laziness), weary (i.e. strenuously exert) oneself to Je 9:4; 20:9 (both ל om.); abs. of hopeless prayer נִל׳ על־הַבָּמָה Moab, Is 16:12 (‖ נִרְאָה, בָּא אֶל־מִקְדָּשׁוֹ לְהִתְפַּלֵּל); of vain consultations, (sq. בְּ) Babylon Is 47:13; subj. י׳, sq. inf. Is 1:14; Je 6:11; 15:6, always of exhausted patience; fig. of parched soil (abs.) ψ 68:10. e.g. Proverbs 26:15
Hiphil
- Pf. 3 ms. sf. הֶלְאָנִי Jb 16:7; 3 fs. הֶלְאָת Ez 24:12 (del. 𝔊 Co), 1 s. sf. הֶלְאֵתִיךָ Mi 6:3; Impf. וַיַּלְאוּךָ Je 12:5; תַּלְאוּ Is 7:13; Inf. cstr. הַלְאוֹת Is 7:13;—weary, make weary, exhaust, sq. acc. Jb 16:7 (subj. God); exhaust patience of, obj. God Is 7:13; obj. men Is 7:13; Je 12:5; Mi 6:3. e.g. Job 16:7
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 weary, impatient (cf. Arabic لَأَى be slow, hesitating (Frey); بَعْدَ لَأْىٍ after difficulty, لَأْيًا with difficulty (Lane3007); Aramaic לְאִי, ܠܐܴܐ, ܠܐܻܝ );—
— 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.
לָאָה
- , v. לאי
לאי
- (b. h.) to labor (in vain); to be tired. Gen. R. s. 50 (expl. וילאו, Gen. XIX, 11), v. next w. e.g. Genesis 19:11
- to be exhausted. B. Kam. 82ᵃ; a. e.
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 18 distinct written forms H3811 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 H3811, 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
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 18 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 18 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
- Genesis 19:11
- Exodus 7:18
- Job 4:2
- Psalms 68:9
- Proverbs 26:15
- Isaiah 1:14
- Jeremiah 6:11
- Ezekiel 24:12
- Micah 6:3
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.
