מַהֵר
swift
also: hurrying, speedy, hastening fuller range ↓
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
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H4118 appears in the Book of Proverbs — 1 distinct verse. 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.
Proverbs
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.
“swift” is the headline sense of the Hebrew word מהר (mahêr). First canonically at Exodus 32:8, it enters the text early. With 17 verses in 7 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. It concentrates in Deuteronomy, which alone accounts for 41% of its uses. Lexicons map it across 2 senses — beyond “swift” it also covers “hurrying”, “speedy”, and “hastening”. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4118 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 →
- 17
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 17 distinct verses.
- 7 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 7 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,612
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,612 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 17 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Deuteronomy 7 verses 41%
- Psalms 4 verses 24%
- Judges 2 verses 12%
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 17 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 8 verses · 47%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 5 verses · 29%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 4 verses · 24%
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†: Quickly 6×, Speedily 4×, Hastily 2×
- American Standard Version†: Quickly 5×, Speedily 3×, Hastily 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Quickly 6×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Quickly 12×, Hurry 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4118 across 18† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 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 H4118 across 18† 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H4118 across 17† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 11 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 H4118 across 18† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 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
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 0 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 hastening, speedy, swift (strictly Pi. Pt. for מְמַהֵר v. sub מהר)
מהר II quickly, speedily (strictly Pi. inf. abs.) always immediately after vb.
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. adj. hastening, speedy, swift (strictly Pi. Pt. for מְמַהֵר v. sub מהר);—of יוֹם י׳, קָרוֹב וּמ׳ מְאֹד Zp 1:14; read also f. הַמְּהֵרָה (רַגְלוֹ) 1 S 23:22 his swift foot (for MT ר׳ מִי רָאָהוּ) Th We Dr Bu; deeper corruption assumed by HPS.
II. adv. quickly, speedily (strictly Pi. inf. abs.) always immediately after vb.; Ex 32:8 (J), Dt 4:26; 7:4, 22; 9:3, 12(×2), 16; 28:20 Jos 2:5 (J), Ju 2:17, 23 Pr 25:8 (on ψ 69:18; 79:8; 102:3; 143:7, where מ׳ precedes, v. supr. sub מָהַר).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from מהר (mâhar) (H4116) — to hasten.
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 12 distinct written forms H4118 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| מַהֵ֔ר | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Absolute | Deuteronomy 7:22 | 4 |
| מַהֵ֗ר | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Absolute | Deuteronomy 9:12 | 3 |
| מַהֵ֥ר | Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 69:17 | 2 |
| וּ/מַהֵ֣ר | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Zephaniah 1:14 | 1 |
| מַ֘הֵ֤ר | Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 143:7 | 1 |
| מַ֫הֵ֥ר | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Absolute | Proverbs 25:8 | 1 |
| מַ֭הֵר | Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 79:8 | 1 |
| מַהֵ֑ר | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Absolute | Judges 2:23 | 1 |
| מַהֵ֛ר | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Absolute | Joshua 2:5 | 1 |
| מַהֵֽר | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Absolute | Deuteronomy 7:4 | 1 |
| מַהֵר֒ | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Absolute | Deuteronomy 4:26 | 1 |
| מַהֵר֙ | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Absolute | Deuteronomy 9:12 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4118, 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
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 7 — not the complete family. 2 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 16 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 17 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.
