נָבַט
to look
‘to look’ 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 Hiphil verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- 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).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
66 distinct verses where H5027 appears in the Hiphil stem, across 16 books. Filtered view — show all forms. 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 3 verses
- Genesis 15:5 הַבֶּט Hiphil impv 2ms Yahweh brought him outside, and said, "Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." He said to Abram, "So shall your seed be."
- Genesis 19:17 תַּבִּ֣יט Hiphil juss 2ms It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, "Escape for your life! Don't look behind you, neither stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed!"
- Genesis 19:26 וַ/תַּבֵּ֥ט conj + Hiphil wimpf 3fs But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Exodus 2 verses
- Exodus 3:6 מֵ/הַבִּ֖יט prep + Hiphil inf.cs Moreover he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God.
- Exodus 33:8 וְ/הִבִּ֨יטוּ֙ conj + Hiphil wpf 3cp It happened that when Moses went out to the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, everyone at their tent door, and watched Moses, until he had gone into the Tent.
Numbers 3 verses
- Numbers 12:8 יַבִּ֑יט Hiphil impf 3ms with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of Yahweh shall he see: why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?
- Numbers 21:9 וְ/הִבִּ֛יט conj + Hiphil wpf 3ms Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the standard: and it happened, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked to the serpent of brass, he lived.
- Numbers 23:21 הִבִּ֥יט Hiphil pf 3ms He has not saw iniquity in Jacob; Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel: Yahweh his God is with him, The shout of a king is among them.
1 Samuel 4 verses
- 1 Samuel 2:32 וְ/הִבַּטְתָּ֙ conj + Hiphil wpf 2ms You shall see the affliction of [my] habitation, in all the wealth which [God] shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.
- 1 Samuel 16:7 תַּבֵּ֧ט Hiphil juss 2ms But Yahweh said to Samuel, "Don't look on his face, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for [Yahweh sees] not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart."
- 1 Samuel 17:42 וַ/יַּבֵּ֧ט conj + Hiphil wimpf 3ms When the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and withal of a fair face.
- 1 Samuel 24:8 וַ/יַּבֵּ֤ט conj + Hiphil wimpf 3ms David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, My lord the king. When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and did obeisance.
1 Kings 2 verses
- 1 Kings 18:43 הַבֵּ֣ט וַ/יַּבֵּ֔ט Hiphil impv 2ms conj + Hiphil wimpf 3ms He said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. He went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. He said, Go again seven times.
- 1 Kings 19:6 וַ/יַּבֵּ֕ט conj + Hiphil wimpf 3ms He looked, and, behold, there was at his head a cake baked on the coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drink, and laid him down again.
2 Kings 1 verse
1 Chronicles 1 verse
Job 5 verses
- Job 6:19 הִ֭בִּיטוּ Hiphil pf 3cp The caravans of Tema looked, The companies of Sheba waited for them.
- Job 28:24 יַבִּ֑יט Hiphil impf 3ms For he looks to the ends of the earth, And sees under the whole sky.
- Job 35:5 הַבֵּ֣ט Hiphil impv 2ms Look to the heavens, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.
- Job 36:25 יַבִּ֥יט Hiphil impf 3ms All men have looked thereon. Man sees it afar off.
- Job 39:29 יַבִּֽיטוּ Hiphil impf 3mp From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off.
Psalms 17 verses
- Psalms 10:14 תַּבִּיט֮ Hiphil impf 2ms But you do see trouble and grief; You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.
- Psalms 13:3 הַבִּ֣יטָֽ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
- Psalms 22:17 יַ֝בִּ֗יטוּ Hiphil impf 3mp I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.
- Psalms 33:13 הִבִּ֣יט Hiphil pf 3ms Yahweh looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men.
- Psalms 34:5 הִבִּ֣יטוּ Hiphil pf 3cp They looked to him, and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame.
- Psalms 74:20 הַבֵּ֥ט Hiphil impv 2ms Honor your covenant, For haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.
- Psalms 80:14 הַבֵּ֣ט Hiphil impv 2ms Turn again, we beg you, God of hosts. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,
- Psalms 84:9 וְ֝/הַבֵּ֗ט conj + Hiphil impv 2ms Behold, God our shield, Look at the face of your anointed.
- Psalms 91:8 תַבִּ֑יט Hiphil impf 2ms You will only look with your eyes, And see the recompense of the wicked.
- Psalms 92:11 וַ/תַּבֵּ֥ט conj + Hiphil wimpf 3fs My eye has also seen my enemies. My ears have heard of the wicked enemies who rise up against me.
- Psalms 94:9 יַבִּֽיט Hiphil impf 3ms He who implanted the ear, won't he hear? He who formed the eye, won't he see?
- Psalms 102:19 הִבִּֽיט Hiphil pf 3ms For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, Yahweh saw the earth;
- Psalms 104:32 הַ/מַּבִּ֣יט ptcl def.art + Hiphil ptcp.act ms He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke.
- Psalms 119:6 בְּ֝/הַבִּיטִ֗/י prep + Hiphil inf.cs + sfx pers 1cs Then I wouldn't be disappointed, When I consider all of your commandments.
- Psalms 119:15 וְ֝/אַבִּ֗יטָה conj + Hiphil coh 1cs I will meditate on your precepts, And consider your ways.
- Psalms 119:18 וְ/אַבִּ֑יטָה conj + Hiphil coh 1cs Open my eyes, That I may see wondrous things out of your law.
- Psalms 142:4 הַבֵּ֤יט Hiphil impv 2ms Look on my right, and see; For there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.
Proverbs 1 verse
Isaiah 14 verses
- Isaiah 5:12 יַבִּ֔יטוּ Hiphil impf 3mp The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; But they don't regard the work of Yahweh, Neither have they considered the operation of his hands.
- Isaiah 8:22 יַבִּ֑יט Hiphil impf 3ms and they shall look to the earth, and see, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness [they shall be] driven away.
- Isaiah 18:4 וְ/אַבִּ֣יטָה conj + Hiphil coh 1cs For thus has Yahweh said to me, I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling-place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
- Isaiah 22:8 וַ/תַּבֵּט֙ conj + Hiphil wimpf 2ms He took away the covering of Judah; and you did look in that day to the armor in the house of the forest.
- Isaiah 22:11 הִבַּטְתֶּם֙ Hiphil pf 2mp you made also a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn't look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who purposed it long ago.
- Isaiah 38:11 אַבִּ֥יט Hiphil impf 1cs I said, I shall not see Yah, Yah in the land of the living: I shall see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
- Isaiah 42:18 הַבִּ֥יטוּ Hiphil impv 2mp Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see.
- Isaiah 51:1 הַבִּ֨יטוּ֙ Hiphil impv 2mp Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh: look to the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hold of the pit whence you were dug.
- Isaiah 51:2 הַבִּ֨יטוּ֙ Hiphil impv 2mp Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many.
- Isaiah 51:6 וְֽ/הַבִּ֧יטוּ conj + Hiphil impv 2mp Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and those who dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
- Isaiah 63:5 וְ/אַבִּיט֙ conj + Hiphil impf 1cs I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my wrath, it upheld me.
- Isaiah 63:15 הַבֵּ֤ט Hiphil impv 2ms Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where are your zeal and your mighty acts? the yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.
- Isaiah 64:9 הַבֶּט Hiphil impv 2ms Don't be angry very sore, Yahweh, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we beg you, we are all your people.
- Isaiah 66:2 אַבִּ֔יט Hiphil impf 1cs For all these things has my hand made, and [so] all these things came to be, says Yahweh: but to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.
Lamentations 6 verses
- Lamentations 1:11 וְֽ/הַבִּ֔יטָ/ה conj + Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h All her people sigh, they seek bread; They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh the soul: Look, Yahweh, and see; for I am become abject.
- Lamentations 1:12 הַבִּ֣יטוּ Hiphil impv 2mp Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, With which Yahweh has afflicted [me] in the day of his fierce anger.
- Lamentations 2:20 וְֽ/הַבִּ֔יטָ/ה conj + Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- Lamentations 3:63 הַבִּ֔יטָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h See you their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.
- Lamentations 4:16 לְ/הַבִּיטָ֑/ם prep + Hiphil inf.cs + sfx pers 3mp The anger of Yahweh has scattered them; he will no more regard them: They didn't respect the persons of the priests, they didn't favor the elders.
- Lamentations 5:1 הביט הַבִּ֖יטָ/ה Hiphil impv 2ms Hiphil impv 2ms + sfx h Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach.
Amos 1 verse
Jonah 1 verse
Habakkuk 4 verses
- Habakkuk 1:3 תַּבִּ֔יט Hiphil impf 2ms Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.
- Habakkuk 1:5 וְֽ/הַבִּ֔יטוּ conj + Hiphil impv 2mp "Look among the nations, watch, and wonder marvelously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is told you.
- Habakkuk 1:13 וְ/הַבִּ֥יט תַבִּיט֙ conj + Hiphil inf.cs Hiphil impf 2ms You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,
- Habakkuk 2:15 הַבִּ֖יט Hiphil inf.cs "Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, pouring your inflaming wine until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their naked bodies!
Zechariah 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, נבט (nâbaṭ) means “to look.” It first appears in Genesis 15:5. Spanning 67 verses in 16 books, it ranks among the moderately common words of the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Psalms (25% of all occurrences). Not a single-sense word: explore its full sense range. 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 H5027 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 →
- 67
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 67 distinct verses.
- 16 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 16 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #569
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 569 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 67 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Psalms 17 verses 25%
- Isaiah 15 verses 22%
- Lamentations 6 verses 9%
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 67 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 30 verses · 45%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 29 verses · 43%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 8 verses · 12%
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: Look 12×, Looked 5×, Behold 4×
- American Standard Version: Look 15×, Behold 6×, Looked 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Look 16×, Looked 5×, Consider 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Look 21×, And 4×, Looked 4×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5027 across 69 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 33 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 H5027 across 66 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 32 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 H5027 across 68 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 33 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 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5027 across 82 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 36 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 2 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.
Piel
- . look
Hiphil
- . look
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
[ נָבַט ] vb. Pi., Hiph. look
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
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.
נָבַט
- Del. Proleg. p. 98) to burst forth, to shine
- 1. to illumine. Targ. II Esth. I, 2 (in an enigma about nafta) נשפך כמים ומַבִּיט לבית it is poured out like water and illumines the house.
- 2. (cmp. הֵצִיץ fr. צִיץ) to look. Yalk. Gen. 76 (ref. to Gen. XV, 5) אין הַבֵּט וכ׳ (Gen. R. s. 44 הַבָּטָה q. v.). Pesik. R. s. 21 [read:] האיקונין הזו … מַבִּיטִים בה … בי היא מַבֶּטֶת a thousand people look at a portrait, every one says, it is looking at me. Ib. ולהַבִּיט בכל אחד ואחד וכ׳ and for the Lord to look at every one of the Israelites and say &c. Ib. מה לך מביט באלו why dost thou look up to those men?; a. fr. e.g. Genesis 15:5
- same, to have a vision. Snh. 101ᵇ (play on נבט) שני׳ ולא ראה he (Nebat) had a vision but did not see (interpret it properly); ib. שלשה נִבְּטוּ וכ׳; Yalk. Kings 196.
נְבַט
- (v. preced.) to sprout, grow. Taan. 4ᵃ כיון דנ׳ נ׳ when it once has sprouted, it grows fast. M. Kat. 18ᵇ הדר נ׳ (the rumor after having died out) comes up again.
נְבָט I
- (b. h.) pl. n. m. Nebat, father of Joroboam I. Snh. 101ᵇ, v. נָבַט. Ber. 35ᵇ; a. fr.
נְבָט II
- Nebaṭ, an Arabic settlement south-east of Palestine (v. Sm. Bibl. Dict. s. v. Nebayoth). Targ. Is. LX, 7 (ed. Lag. a. oth. נביות). Targ. Y. Num. XI, 22. Targ. Ez. XXVII, 21 (h. text קֵדָר).
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 60 distinct written forms H5027 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 H5027, 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 60 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 67 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 15:5
- Exodus 3:6
- Numbers 12:8
- 1 Samuel 2:32
- 1 Kings 18:43
- 2 Kings 3:14
- 1 Chronicles 21:21
- Job 6:19
- Psalms 13:3
- Proverbs 4:25
- Isaiah 5:12
- Lamentations 1:11
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.
