נָא
please
also: I pray, now 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
- Particle
- A short function word — article, negation, interrogative, the sign of the direct object, and the like.
Every verse where H4994 appears in the Book of 2 Samuel — 33 distinct verses. 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.
2 Samuel
- 2 Samuel 1:4 נָ֣א ptcl exh David said to him, How went the matter? Please tell me. He answered, The people are fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen and dead; and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.
- 2 Samuel 1:9 נָ֤א ptcl exh He said to me, Stand, I pray you, beside me, and kill me; for anguish has taken hold of me, because my life is yet whole in me.
- 2 Samuel 2:14 נָא֙ ptcl exh Abner said to Joab, Please let the young men arise and play before us. Joab said, Let them arise.
- 2 Samuel 7:2 נָ֔א ptcl exh that the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains.
- 2 Samuel 13:5 נָא֩ ptcl exh Jonadab said to him, Lay you down on your bed, and feign yourself sick: and when your father comes to see you, tell him, Please let my sister Tamar come and give me bread to eat, and dress the food in my sight, that I may see it, and eat it from her hand.
- 2 Samuel 13:6 נָ֞א ptcl exh So Amnon lay down, and feigned himself sick: and when the king was come to see him, Amnon said to the king, Please let her sister Tamar come, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat from her hand.
- 2 Samuel 13:7 נָ֗א ptcl exh Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, Go now to your brother Amnon's house, and dress him food.
- 2 Samuel 13:13 נָ֣א ptcl exh I, where shall I carry my shame? and as for you, you will be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, please speak to the king; for he will not withhold me from you.
- 2 Samuel 13:17 נָ֥א ptcl exh Then he called his servant who ministered to him, and said, Put now this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her.
- 2 Samuel 13:24 נָ֥א נָ֥א ptcl exh ptcl exh Absalom came to the king, and said, See now, your servant has sheep-shearers; let the king, I pray you, and his servants go with your servant.
- 2 Samuel 13:25 נָ֤א ptcl exh The king said to Absalom, No, my son, let us not all go, lest we be burdensome to you. He pressed him: however he would not go, but blessed him.
- 2 Samuel 13:26 נָ֥א ptcl exh Then said Absalom, If not, please let my brother Amnon go with us. The king said to him, Why should he go with you?
- 2 Samuel 13:28 נָ֠א ptcl exh Absalom commanded his servants, saying, Mark you now, when Amnon's heart is merry with wine; and when I tell you, Smite Amnon, then kill him; don't be afraid; haven't I commanded you? be courageous, and be valiant.
- 2 Samuel 14:2 נָ֞א נָ֣א ptcl exh ptcl exh Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched there a wise woman, and said to her, please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, Please, and don't anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has a long time mourned for the dead:
- 2 Samuel 14:11 נָ֨א ptcl exh Then said she, Please let the king remember Yahweh your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son. He said, As Yahweh lives, there shall not one hair of your son fall to the earth.
- 2 Samuel 14:12 נָ֧א ptcl exh Then the woman said, Please let your handmaid speak a word to my lord the king. He said, Say on.
- 2 Samuel 14:15 נָּ֣א ptcl intj Now therefore seeing that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and your handmaid said, I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.
- 2 Samuel 14:17 נָּ֛א ptcl intj Then your handmaid said, Please let the word of my lord the king be comfortable; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: and Yahweh your God be with you.
- 2 Samuel 14:18 נָ֨א נָ֖א ptcl exh ptcl exh Then the king answered the woman, Please don't hide anything from me that I shall ask you. The woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.
- 2 Samuel 14:21 נָ֥א ptcl exh The king said to Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Absalom back.
- 2 Samuel 15:7 נָּ֗א ptcl intj It happened at the end of forty years, that Absalom said to the king, please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to Yahweh, in Hebron.
- 2 Samuel 15:31 נָ֛א ptcl exh One told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. David said, Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.
- 2 Samuel 16:9 נָּ֖א ptcl intj Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over and take off his head."
- 2 Samuel 17:1 נָּ֗א ptcl intj Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:
- 2 Samuel 17:5 נָ֔א ptcl exh Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he says.
- 2 Samuel 18:19 נָּ֔א ptcl intj Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, Let me now run, and bear the king news, how that Yahweh has avenged him of his enemies.
- 2 Samuel 18:22 נָּ֥א ptcl intj Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok yet again to Joab, But come what may, Please let me also run after the Cushite. Joab said, Why will you run, my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the news?
- 2 Samuel 19:37 נָ֤א ptcl exh Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city, by the grave of my father and my mother. But behold, your servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to you.
- 2 Samuel 20:16 נָ֣א ptcl exh Then cried a wise woman out of the city, "Hear, hear! Please say to Joab, 'Come near here, that I may speak with you.'"
- 2 Samuel 24:2 נָ֞א ptcl exh The king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go now back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number you the people, that I may know the sum of the people.
- 2 Samuel 24:10 נָא֙ ptcl exh David's heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to Yahweh, I have sinned greatly in that which I have done: but now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.
- 2 Samuel 24:14 נָּ֤א ptcl intj David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man.
- 2 Samuel 24:17 נָ֥א ptcl exh David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father's house.
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.
“please” is the headline sense of the Hebrew word נא (nâʼ). Scripture first uses it in Genesis 12:11. With 374 verses in 30 books, it is a common word in the Hebrew Bible. Not a single-sense word: its full sense range also takes in “I pray” and “now”. See the sense tree, 374-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4994 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 →
- 374
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 374 distinct verses.
- 30 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 30 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #123
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 123 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 374 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 374 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 217 verses · 58%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 96 verses · 26%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 61 verses · 16%
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 3 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†: I beseech thee 1×, I pray now 1×, I pray thee 1×
- American Standard Version†: I pray thee 2×, Now 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Please 163×, Now 58×, I pray 7×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Please 306×, Now 50×, Indeed 6×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4994 across 9† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4994 across 9† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 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 H4994 across 253† 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 151 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4994 across 393† 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.
14 senses and sub-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 14 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.
נא I part. of entreaty or exhortation, I (we) pray, now (enclitic) (Syriac ܢܺܐ, ܢܺܝ
- 1. to the imv., especially in colloquial style, when it expresses an entreaty or admonition, as Gn 12:13 אִמְרִי־נָא say, I pray, 13:9 הִפָּרֶד־נָא מֵעָלַי, v 14 שָׂא־נָא עֵינֶיךָ, 15:5 הַבֶּט־נָא השׁמימה, 24:2 + often, Nu 20:10 שׁמעו־נא המוֹרים, Ju 13:4; 16:6, 10, 28; 18:5, etc., Is 1:18; 5:3 Am 7:2, 5; rarely in a command, Gn 22:2 Is 7:3. Ironically, in a challenge, Is 47:12 Jb 40:10. Once anomalously attached to a subst., or (accents) prefixed to a verb, Nu 12:13 אֵ֕ל נָא֛ רְפָ֥א נָא֖ (Ew§ 246 a Di אַל־נָא; v. 3 b). e.g. Genesis 12:13
- 2. to the pf. with waw consec., in a precative sense (Dr§ 119 δ) Gn 40:14. e.g. Genesis 40:14
- 3. to the impf., when leave is asked, or a prayer or desire expressed;
- a. in 1 pers., especially with ה cohort., Gn 19:8 אוציאה־נא let me, I pray, bring out, v 20 אִמָּֽלְטָה־נָּא שָׁ֑מָּה, Ex 3:18 נלכה־נא let us go, I pray, אֵלְכָה נָּא 4:18 אִיעָצֵּךְ נָא עֵצָה let me give thee counsel, I pray, 1 Ki 1:12 Nu 20:17 Is 5:5; and in self-deliberation, Gn 18:21 ארדה־נּא I will go down, now! Ex 3:3 אסורה־נּא ואראה I will turn aside, now, and see, 2 S 14:15 Ct 3:2 Is 5:1; with אַל Jb 32:21. e.g. Genesis 19:8
- b. in 2 pers., with אַל, in deprecation, Gn 18:3 אל־נא תעבר מעל עבדך, 19:7; 47:29 Nu 10:31, etc.; hence ellipt. אל־נא do not, I pray, (do this,) Gn 19:18; 33:10 Nu 12:13 Ew Di e.g. Genesis 18:3
- c. in 3 pers., Gn 18:4 יֻקַּח־נָא let there be brought, I pray, 26:28; 33:14; 44:18, 33, etc., 2 S 14:11, 12, 17 1 K 17:21 2 K 2:9 ψ 7:10; 118:2, 3; ironically Is 19:12; 47:13, or defiantly Jer 17:15 where is the word of J.? יָבוֹא נָא; with אַל, Gn 13:8 אַל־נָא תְהִי מְרִיבָה, 18:30 אַל־נָא יִחַר לַאדֹנָי, 37:27 Nu 12:12. e.g. Genesis 18:4
- 4. joined to conjunctions and interjections:
- a. [אָהּ־נָא, contr.] אָ֫נָּא; v. p. 58.
- b. אַל־נָא, see above 3 b, c.
- c. אִם־נָא, especially in the phrase אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך, used by one craving a favourable hearing †Gn 30:27; 33:10 Ju 6:17; 1 S 27:5, and with נא repeated in the request itself †Gn 18:3; 47:29; 50:4 Ex 33:13; 34:9; otherwise Gn 24:42. e.g. Genesis 30:27
- d. הִנֵּה־נָא behold, I pray, craving a favourable consideration of the fact pointed to by הִנֵּה, and of the request founded upon it (with which נא is often repeated), Gn 12:11; 16:2; 18:27, 31; 19:2, 8, 19, 20; 27:2 Ju 13:3; 19:9 1 S 9:6; 16:15 2 S 13:24 2 K 2:16, 19; 4:9 +, Jb 13:18; 33:2; 40:15, 16. e.g. Genesis 12:11
- e. (לנו) אוֹי־נָא לי Woe, now, to me (us)! †Je 4:31; 45:7 La 5:16. e.g. Jeremiah 4:31
- f. אַיֵּה־נָא where, pray? †ψ 115:2. e.g. Psalms 115:2
- g. נֶגְדָּה־נָּא, peculiarly, †ψ 116:14, 18 my vows to J. I will perform, נגדה־נא לכל־עמו O that (it may be) before all his people! e.g. Psalms 116:14
נא II raw, of flesh Ex 12
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. part. of entreaty or exhortation, I (we) pray, now (enclitic) (Syriac ܢܺܐ, ܢܺܝ; cf. Ethiopic ነዒ: veni, age! Di§ 160. 1 Lex675 Köii. 244);—attached:
III. adj. raw, of flesh Ex 12:9 (P; opp. בשׁל).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive particle of incitement and entreaty, which may usually be rendered: "I pray," "now," or "then"
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.
נָא I
- = אֲנָא. Y. Ter. V, 43ᶜ bot. ואוף נא וכ׳ I, too, think so. Y. Ber. IV, beg. 7ᵃ וָנָא אמרית וכ׳ and I gave a reason for it; a. fr.—V. דְּנָה, לֵינָא.—Pl. נַן. Y. B. Kam. II, beg. 2ᵈ מה נן אמרין וכ׳ why do we say &c.; a. fr.
נָא II
- (also adverb)(b. h.;
- 1. hurried, half-done. Pes. 41ᵃ bot. אכלו נא if he ate it (the Passover lamb) half-done. Ib.ᵇ ישנו בבל תאכל נא is subject to the law (Ex. XII, 9) &c. Tosef. Macc. IV (III), 1, contrad. to חַי. Men. 78ᵇ מצה נא, v. הַיָנָא; a. fr. e.g. Exodus 12:9
- 2. slender, fine, brittle. — Pl. נָאִין; f. נָאוֹת. Tosef. Kel. B. Kam. II, 9 [read with R. S. to Kel. III, 2:] הוסקו והנאין (= והן נאין) if the vessels were heated but turned out brittle. B. Bath, 97ᵇ (expl. פיטסות, ib. VI, 2) נאות ומגופרות thin, but lined with pitch; Tosef. ib. VI, 3.
נָא III
- (b. h.) I pray, prithee. Yoma IV, 2; a. fr.—Ber. 9ᵃ, a. e. אין נא אלא וכ׳, v. בַּקָּשָׁה.
נַן
- , pl. of נָא I.
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 43 distinct written forms H4994 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| נָ֣א | Particle, Exhortation | Ezekiel 8:8 | 66 |
| נָ֥א | Particle, Exhortation | Daniel 1:12 | 48 |
| נָ֤א | Particle, Exhortation | Daniel 9:16 | 33 |
| נָא֙ | Particle, Exhortation | Exodus 33:13 | 33 |
| נָ֖א | Particle, Exhortation | Exodus 4:13 | 31 |
| נָּ֣א | Particle, Interjection | Exodus 3:3 | 20 |
| נָ֞א | Particle, Exhortation | Genesis 16:2 | 19 |
| נָ֨א | Particle, Exhortation | Genesis 13:8 | 19 |
| נָ֔א | Particle, Exhortation | Amos 7:2 | 11 |
| נָ֛א | Particle, Exhortation | Genesis 24:17 | 11 |
| נָ֭א | Particle, Exhortation | Job 5:1 | 9 |
| נָ֠א | Particle, Exhortation | Genesis 19:2 | 8 |
| נָּא֙ | Particle, Interjection | Genesis 24:42 | 8 |
| נָ֗א | Particle, Exhortation | Genesis 37:32 | 7 |
| נָא֩ | Particle, Exhortation | Deuteronomy 4:32 | 7 |
| נָּ֤א | Particle, Interjection | Genesis 19:8 | 7 |
| נָּ֥א | Particle, Interjection | Genesis 27:21 | 7 |
| נָּ֖א | Particle, Interjection | 1 Chronicles 22:5 | 5 |
| נָּ֗א | Particle, Interjection | Deuteronomy 3:25 | 5 |
| נָ֑א | Particle, Exhortation | 1 Kings 20:35 | 4 |
| נָ֕א | Particle, Exhortation | Genesis 37:6 | 4 |
| נָ֜א | Particle, Exhortation | 1 Samuel 26:8 | 4 |
| נָ֧א | Particle, Exhortation | Haggai 2:11 | 4 |
| נָּ֛א | Particle, Interjection | Ecclesiastes 2:1 | 4 |
| נָ֡א | Particle, Exhortation | 1 Samuel 20:29 | 3 |
| נָ֝א | Particle, Exhortation | Psalms 124:1 | 2 |
| נָֽא | Particle, Exhortation | Genesis 24:45 | 2 |
| נָא | Particle, Exhortation | Isaiah 29:11 | 2 |
| נָא֮ | Particle, Exhortation | 2 Kings 2:16 | 2 |
| נָּ֜א | Particle, Interjection | Genesis 19:20 | 2 |
| נָּ֝֗א | Particle, Interjection | Psalms 116:14 | 2 |
| נָּ֨א | Particle, Interjection | Jeremiah 38:25 | 2 |
| נָּא | Particle, Interjection | Genesis 19:2 | 2 |
| נָ֝֗א | Particle, Exhortation | Psalms 115:2 | 1 |
| נָ֬א | Particle, Exhortation | Psalms 7:9 | 1 |
| נָּ֑א | Particle, Interjection | Psalms 118:25 | 1 |
| נָּ֔א | Particle, Interjection | 2 Samuel 18:19 | 1 |
| נָּ֞א | Particle, Interjection | Exodus 3:18 | 1 |
| נָּ֡א | Particle, Interjection | Exodus 5:3 | 1 |
| נָּ֭א | Particle, Interjection | Job 17:3 | 1 |
| נָּֽא | Particle, Interjection | Psalms 118:25 | 1 |
| נָּא֩ | Particle, Interjection | 1 Kings 20:31 | 1 |
| נא | Particle, Exhortation | 2 Kings 5:18 | 1 |
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 358 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 374 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 12:11
- Exodus 3:3
- Numbers 10:31
- Deuteronomy 3:25
- Joshua 2:12
- Judges 1:24
- Ruth 2:2
- 1 Samuel 2:36
- 2 Samuel 1:4
- 1 Kings 1:12
- 2 Kings 1:13
- 1 Chronicles 21:8
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.
