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מָהַר

to hasten

‘to hasten’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓

H4116 Strong's Hebrew
mâhar Transliteration
/maw-har'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 64 appearances

Compare with another word →

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.

“to hasten” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb מהר (mâhar). Older and newer Bibles part ways — “haste” in the King James Version, “quickly” (Berean Standard Bible) and “hurried” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. It appears 60 verses across 20 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its moderately common vocabulary. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 18:6. Read the stem: it spans 3 stems, including Niphal and Piel. See the sense tree, 60-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
be carried headlong
Modern gloss
to hasten
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H4116 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 →

60
distinct verses
The word appears in 60 distinct verses.
20 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 20 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 18:6
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 18:6.
Malachi 3:5
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Malachi 3:5.
#607
by frequency
Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 607 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 60 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 16 · 27%
  • Historical 26 · 43%
  • Wisdom 7 · 12%
  • Prophets 11 · 18%

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 60 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 32 verses · 53%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 16 verses · 27%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 12 verses · 20%

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 2 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: Haste 5×, Hasted 5×, Made haste 4×
  • American Standard Version: Haste 5×, Hasted 4×, Made haste 4×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Quickly 14×, Hurried 7×, Hurry 5×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Hurried 14×, Hurry 10×, And 8×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H4116 across 64 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Haste” 5×
  • “Hasted” 5×
  • “Made haste” 4×
  • “Make haste” 4×
  • “She hasted” 4×
  • “Hasten” 2×
  • “Hastened” 2×
  • “Hasteth” 2×
  • “He hasted” 2×
  • “They hasted” 2×

Plus 32 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 H4116 across 64 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Haste” 5×
  • “Hasted” 4×
  • “Made haste” 4×
  • “Make haste” 4×
  • “She hasted” 4×
  • “They make haste” 3×
  • “Fetch quickly” 2×
  • “Hastened” 2×
  • “Hasteth” 2×
  • “He hasted” 2×
  • “It” 2×
  • “Quickly” 2×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 26 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 H4116 across 65 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Quickly” 14×
  • “Hurried” 7×
  • “Hurry” 5×
  • “She quickly” 5×
  • “Immediately” 3×
  • “Bring” 2×
  • “They are swift” 2×

Plus 27 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 H4116 across 84 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Hurried” 14×
  • “Hurry” 10×
  • “And” 8×
  • “Hasten” 5×
  • “She hurried” 5×
  • “Hastening” 2×
  • “He hurried” 2×
  • “Hurrying” 2×
  • “Then” 2×
  • “They” 2×
  • “They hurried” 2×
  • “They hurry” 2×

Plus 28 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 6 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.

מהר I hasten (NH Pi., and deriv.

Niphal

  • Pf. 3 fs. נִמְהָ֑רָה Jb 5:13; Pt. נִמְהָר Hb 1:6; pl. נִמְהָרִים Is 32:4; cstr. נִמְהֲרֵי Is 35:4;—be hurried = anxious, disturbed נִמְהֲרֵי־לֵב Is 35:4; hasty, precipitate, subj. עֵצָה Jb 5:13; so pt. as subst. Is 32:4; impetuous, of Chaldeans, Hb 1:6 (‖ מַר). e.g. Job 5:13

Piel

  • Pf. מִהַר 1 S 4:14; Is 51:14; 3 fs. מִהֲרָה Je 48:16 etc.; Impf. יְמַהֵר Is 5:19 + 2 times; וַיְמַהֵר Gn 18:6 + 8 times (1 S 28:20 v. infr.); 3 fpl. תְּמַהֵרְנָה Je 9:17 etc.; Imv. ms. מַהֵר Gn 19:22 +; מַהֲרָה 1 S 23:27; 1 K 22:9, etc.; Inf. cstr. מַהֵר Pr 7:23 +; Pt. מְמַהֵר Gn 41:32; Mal 3:5 (on מַהֵר Zp 1:14 [1 S 23:22] cf. Kö i. 268, Schwally ZAW x. 1890, 176 vid. i. מַהֵר infra), fpl. מְמַהֲרוֹת Pr 6:18;— e.g. 1 Samuel 4:14
  • 1. hasten, make haste, = go or come quickly Gn 18:6 1 S 9:12 (but del. 𝔊 We Dr Kit Bu HPS), Na 2:6; Is 49:17; 1 Ch 12:9; = go eagerly, (sq. Inf. of purpose) Pr 1:16; Is 59:7; Pt. = swift, prompt Mal 3:5; of bird Pr 7:23; fig. of calamity Is 5:19 (‖ חוּשׁ), Je 48:16, cf. מַהֵר שָׁלָל חָשׁ בַּז Is 8:1, 3, infr. e.g. Genesis 18:6
  • 2. hasten + vb., (מ׳ having really adverbial force): sq. Inf. Gn 18:7 (מִהַר לַעֲשׂת); cf. 27:20; 41:32 (subj. God), Ex 2:18; 10:16; 12:33; 2 S 15:14; Is 32:4; 51:14; Pr 6:18; Ec 5:1; more often sq. vb. c. ו Gn 24:18, 20, 46; 44:11 (all J), 45:9, 13 (E), prob. 43:30 (J), also Ex 34:8 (J), Jos 4:10; 8:14, 19 (all JE), Ju 13:10; 1 S 4:14; 17:48; 23:27; 25:18, 23, 34(×2); 28:24; 2 S 15:14; 19:17; 1 K 20:33, 41; 2 K 9:13; Je 9:17; so even when act. is not wholly voluntary 1 S 28:20 (but read prob. וַיִּבָּהֵל 𝔊 We Dr Kit Bu); also, ו om., ψ 106:13; especially c. Imv. Gn 19:22 (J), Ju 9:48; Est 6:10; so also מַהֵר עֲנֵנִי ψ 69:18; 102:3; 143:7; cf. 79:8 (v. Olad loc.). e.g. Genesis 18:7
  • 3. trans. hasten, = prepare quickly Gn 18:6; = bring quickly 1 K 22:9 = 2 Ch 18:8, Est 5:5; = do quickly 2 Ch 24:5(×2). e.g. Genesis 18:6

מהר II denom. acquire by paying purchase-price (Arabic مَهَرَ give a dowry, marry for a مَهْرٌ

Qal

  • Pf. 3 pl. מָהָ֑רוּ ψ 16:4 usually obtain another in exchange (or, by paying a price, cf. Che), but text dub.; Impf. 3 ms. sf. + Inf. abs. מָהֹר יִמְהָרֶנָּה לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה Ex 22:15 (E). e.g. Psalms 16:4

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. hasten (NH Pi., and deriv.; Arabic مَهَرَ be practised, skilled (with Assyrian mâru, send, order, govern, cf. ii. מהר); Ethiopic መሀረ train, teach; Syriac ܡܗܪ Pa. id.; cf. also Egypt. māhar, trained warrior Bondi 57);—

II. vb. denom. acquire by paying purchase-price (Arabic مَهَرَ give a dowry, marry for a مَهْرٌ; cf. GerberVerb. denom. 12 Buhl SS);—

— 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

Part of speech: Verb TWOT: 1152


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.

הַר

  • mound, mountain; trnsf. eminent person. Midd. II, 1, a. fr. הַר הבית the Temple mount. Yeb. 17ᵃ (play on ה̇ר̇פ̇נ̇יא) ה̇ר̇ שהכל פ̇ונ̇ין בו a hill to which all turn (whose spurious descent prevents them from getting wives elsewhere); a. v. fr.—Ḥull. 39ᵇ (in Chald. diction) רישיך והר here is thy head and here the mountain (a colloquial phrase for compelling one to give up a bargain).—Ex. R. s. 28 (ref. to Ex. XIX, 3) בזכות הה׳ for the merit of the distinguished one (Abraham), ואין הה׳ אלא אבות har means the patriarchs (ref. to Mic. VI, 2). Snh. 107ᵃ ה׳ שבכם the most prominent of you; a. fr.—[For proper nouns composed with הר, v. respective determinants.]—Pl. הָרִים, הֲרָרִים. Tam. 32ᵃ, a. e. הָרֵי חושך, v. חו̇שֶׁךְ.—Snh. 24ᵃ עוקר הרי הרים uprooting the highest mountains (a figure for dialectical ingenuity). Y. Yeb. I, 3ᵃ bot. בין שני הֶהָ׳ וכ׳ between the two high mountains (great scholars). Ex. R. s. 15 ואין ה׳ אלא אבות, v. supra.—Ḥag. I, 8 כה׳ תלויין בשערה like mountains suspended on a hair (a slender Bible text for numerous Talmudic laws); a. v. fr. e.g. Exodus 19:3

מָהַר

  • to exchange, buy. Denom. מוֹהַר.
    • (cmp. חָלַף)
    • 1. to hurry, be speedy. Sabb. 97ᵃ מְמַהֶרֶת לבוא וכ׳ comes quicker than &c. B. Kam. 93ᵃ מְמַהֲרִין לצועק וכ׳ he who cries for revenge will sooner be punished than he who is cried against. Sifré Deut. 277 מְמַהֵר אני ליפרע ע"י עני I (the Lord) will sooner take revenge when a poor man is wronged than when a rich man is; a. fr.
    • 2. to expedite. Kidd. 31ᵇ מַהֲרוּנִי expedite me (on my journey).

מֹהַר

  • , v. מוֹהַר

מָהִר

  • preced. art.) quick, ready. Ab. V, 12 מ׳ לשמוע ומ׳ לאבד quick of perception and quick to forget. Ex. R. s. 11, beg.; 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 57 distinct written forms H4116 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/יְמַהֵ֣ר Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 10:16 4
וַ/תְּמַהֵ֗ר Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Genesis 24:18 3
וַ/יְמַהֵ֖ר Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 34:8 2
מִֽהֲר֖וּ Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 2 Chronicles 24:5 2
וְ/הַ/נִּמְהָ֑ר Verb, Niphal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Habakkuk 1:6 1
וִֽ/ימַהֲר֔וּ Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Isaiah 59:7 1
וִֽ֝/ימַהֲר֗וּ Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Proverbs 1:16 1
וַ/יְמַהֲר֥וּ Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Joshua 4:10 1
וַ/יְמַהֵ֕ר Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Kings 20:41 1
וַ/יְמַהֵ֗ר Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Samuel 19:16 1
וַ/יְמַהֵ֧ר Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Genesis 18:6 1
וַ/תְּמַהֵ֕ר Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 Samuel 25:23 1
וַ/תְּמַהֵ֖ר Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 Samuel 28:24 1
וַ/תְּמַהֵ֞ר Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 Samuel 25:42 1
וַ/תְּמַהֵ֣ר Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 Samuel 25:18 1
וַ/תְּמַהֵר֙ Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Judges 13:10 1
וַֽ/יְמַהֲר֔וּ Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Joshua 8:19 1
וַֽ/יְמַהֲר֗וּ Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Kings 9:13 1
וַֽ/יְמַהֲר֜וּ Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Kings 20:33 1
וַֽ/יְמַהֲר֡וּ Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Joshua 8:14 1
וּ/מְמַהֵ֥ר Verb, Piel, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 41:32 1
וּ/מִֽהַרְתֶּ֛ם Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Genesis 45:13 1
וּ/תְמַהֵ֕רְנָה Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Plural Jeremiah 9:18 1
וַֽ/יְמַהֲר֗וּ Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Genesis 44:11 1
יְמַֽהֲרוּ֙ Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Nahum 2:5 1
יְמַהֵ֛ר Verb, Piel, Jussive, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Ecclesiastes 5:2 1
יְמַהֵ֤ר Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Samuel 15:14 1
יְמַהֵ֧ר Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 5:19 1
כְּ/מַהֵ֣ר Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct Proverbs 7:23 1
לְ/מַהֵ֖ר Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct Exodus 12:33 1
לְ/מַהֵֽר Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct 1 Chronicles 12:8 1
לְ/נִמְהֲרֵי Verb, Niphal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct Isaiah 35:4 1
מְ֝מַהֲר֗וֹת Verb, Piel, Participle Active, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Proverbs 6:18 1
מְמַהֵ֗ר Verb, Piel, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Malachi 3:5 1
מִֽ֭הֲרוּ Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Psalms 106:13 1
מִהֲרָ֖ה Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Jeremiah 48:16 1
מִהַ֔ר Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Samuel 4:14 1
מִהַ֗רְתְּ Verb, Piel, Perfect, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 Samuel 25:34 1
מִהַ֥ר Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 51:14 1
מִהַ֥רְתָּ Verb, Piel, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Genesis 27:20 1
מִהַרְתֶּ֥ן Verb, Piel, Perfect, 2nd Person, Feminine, Plural Exodus 2:18 1
מַ֠הֵר Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Esther 6:10 1
מַהֲר֖וּ Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Judges 9:48 1
מַהֲר֣וּ Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Samuel 15:14 1
מַהֲרִ֞י Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular Genesis 18:6 1
מַהֲרָ֖/ה Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Kings 22:9 1
מַהֲרָ֣/ה Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Samuel 23:27 1
מַהֲרוּ֙ Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Esther 5:5 1
מַהֲרוּ֮ Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Genesis 45:9 1
מַהֵ֖ר Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Chronicles 18:8 1
מַהֵ֣ר Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Samuel 9:12 1
מַהֵר֙ Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Genesis 19:22 1
מָ֫הָ֥רוּ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Psalms 16:4 1
נִמְהָֽרָה Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Job 5:13 1
נִמְהָרִ֖ים Verb, Niphal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Isaiah 32:4 1
תְּמַהֲר֣וּ Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Chronicles 24:5 1
תְּמַהֵ֖ר Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Isaiah 32:4 1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4116, 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 → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. 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 57 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 60 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.

Reading settings

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