לָחַץ
to oppress
‘to oppress’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Qal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
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”). Here: ‘squeeze’
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- 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).
- 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.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms 11 distinct
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 3 times (16%)
- Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 3 times (16%)
- Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct 3 times (16%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 times (11%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (11%)
- Verb, Niphal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (5%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (5%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 1 time (5%)
+3 more forms (3 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 H3905 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.
Exodus 3 verses
- Exodus 3:9 לֹחֲצִ֥ים Qal ptcp.act mp Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
- Exodus 22:21 תִלְחָצֶ֑/נּוּ Qal impf 2ms + sfx pers 3ms "You shall not wrong an alien, neither shall you oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
- Exodus 23:9 תִלְחָ֑ץ Qal impf 2ms "You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, seeing you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Numbers 1 verse
Judges 5 verses
- Judges 1:34 וַ/יִּלְחֲצ֧וּ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the hill-country; for they would not allow them to come down to the valley;
- Judges 2:18 לֹחֲצֵי/הֶ֖ם Qal ptcp.act mp cs + sfx pers 3mp When Yahweh raised them up judges, then Yahweh was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented Yahweh because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and vexed them.
- Judges 4:3 לָחַ֞ץ Qal pf 3ms The children of Israel cried to Yahweh: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.
- Judges 6:9 לֹחֲצֵי/כֶ֑ם Qal ptcp.act mp cs + sfx pers 2mp and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land;
- Judges 10:12 לָחֲצ֖וּ Qal pf 3cp The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and you cried to me, and I saved you out of their hand.
1 Samuel 1 verse
2 Kings 3 verses
- 2 Kings 6:32 וּ/לְחַצְתֶּ֤ם conj + Qal wpf 2mp But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him; and [the king] sent a man from before him: but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See you how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? behold, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door fast against him: isn't the sound of his master's feet behind him?
- 2 Kings 13:4 לָחַ֥ץ Qal pf 3ms Jehoahaz begged Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how that the king of Syria oppressed them.
- 2 Kings 13:22 לָחַ֖ץ Qal pf 3ms Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.
Psalms 2 verses
- Psalms 56:1 יִלְחָצֵֽ/נִי Qal impf 3ms + sfx pers 1cs Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me.
- Psalms 106:42 וַ/יִּלְחָצ֥וּ/ם conj + Qal wimpf 3mp + sfx pers 3mp Their enemies also oppressed them. They were brought into subjection under their hand.
Isaiah 1 verse
Jeremiah 1 verse
Amos 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, לחץ (lâchats) means “to oppress.” Scripture first uses it in Exodus 3:9. It appears 18 verses across 9 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its uncommon vocabulary. The word gravitates to Judges (28%), then Exodus and 2 Kings. As a verb its force shifts by stem, across 2 stems (Qal, Niphal, and more). Dig into 18-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3905 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) 12 verses · 67%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 4 verses · 22%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 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: Oppressed 5×, Oppress 2×
- American Standard Version: Oppressed 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Oppressors 3×, Oppress 2×, Oppressed 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: And 2×, Oppressed 2×, Oppressors 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3905 across 19 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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 H3905 across 19 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 16 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 H3905 across 19 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 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 H3905 across 22 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.
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.
Qal
- Pf. ל׳ Ju 4:3 + 2 times etc.; Impf. sf. יִלְחָצֵנִי ψ 56:2; 3 fs. וַתִּלְחַץ Nu 22:25, etc.; Pt. pl. לֹחֲצִים Ex 3:9 + 2 times, etc.— e.g. Judges 4:3
- 1. squeeze, press: sq. acc. + ה or אֶל Ju 1:34 Nu 22:25b (J); sq. acc. + בְּ instr. 2 K 6:32 shut the door and press him (back, out) with the door. e.g. Judges 1:34
- 2. oppress: sq. acc. pers. Ex 22:20 (‖ הוֹנָה), 23:9 (both E), ψ 56:2; of people Ex 3:9 (E; + acc. cogn.), Ju 2:18; 4:3; 6:9; 10:12 1 S 10:18 Am 6:14 2 K 13:4, 22 Je 30:20 ψ 106:42; abs. Is 19:20. e.g. Exodus 22:20
Niphal
- Impf. 3 fs. וַתִּלָּחֵץ Nu 22:25a (J) squeeze oneself, of Balaam’s ass, sq. אֶל־הַקִּיר. e.g. Numbers 22:25
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. squeeze, press, fig. oppress (Arabic لَحَّصَ; Chr-Pal. ܠܚܨ SchwallyIdioticon 48 (with which NöM 74 comp. Mand. הלאצא, torture, NS. ܚܵܠܸܨ press together, urge, exert oneself); see also rare deriv. in Syriac PS 1932);—
— 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.
לָחַץ
- (b. h.) to squeeze; to force, press. Kidd. 22ᵃ (ref. to Deut. XXI, 12) ‘thou shalt bring her to thy house’ מלמד שלא יִלְחֲצֶנָּהּ במלחמה this intimates that he must not urge her (to yield to him) during the war. B. Mets. 59ᵇ והלוֹחֲצוֹ and he who presses him (the stranger), contrad. to אִנָּה.—Part. pass. לָחוּץ, pl. לְחוּצִים. Num. R. s. 11 דחוקים ול׳ pushed and pressed. e.g. Deuteronomy 21:12
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 19 distinct written forms H3905 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 H3905, 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 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
- Exodus 3:9
- Numbers 22:25
- Judges 1:34
- 1 Samuel 10:18
- 2 Kings 6:32
- Psalms 56:1
- Isaiah 19:20
- Jeremiah 30:20
- Amos 6:14
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.
