נָגַף
to strike
‘to strike’ is one of 4 main senses 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
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 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).
Every verse where H5062 appears in the Book of Jeremiah — 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.
Jeremiah
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.
נגף (nâgaph) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to strike.” The King James Version usually renders it “smote,” while modern versions prefer “they had been defeated” (Berean Standard Bible) and “and” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) — see the renderings breakdown. Spanning 46 verses in 17 books, it ranks among the moderately common words of the Hebrew Bible. Scripture first uses it in Exodus 8:2. Read the stem: it spans 3 stems, including Qal and Niphal. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5062 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 →
- 46
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 46 distinct verses.
- 17 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 17 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #752
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 752 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 46 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Chronicles 8 verses 17%
- Exodus 6 verses 13%
- 1 Samuel 6 verses 13%
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 46 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 22 verses · 48%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 13 verses · 28%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 11 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).
- King James Version: Smote 5×, They were smitten 5×, Smite 3×
- American Standard Version: Smote 5×, They were put to the worse 4×, Will smite 4×
- Berean Standard Bible: They had been defeated 5×, Are defeated 2×, Defeated 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: And 11×, Strike 3×, Struck 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5062 across 49 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 20 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 H5062 across 48 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 23 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 H5062 across 48 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 23 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 H5062 across 68 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 34 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. This entry also uses Hithpael (reflexive or reciprocal).
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 3 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. נ׳ 2 Ch 13:15; Is 19:22 (וְ consec.); sf. נְגָפוֹ 2 Ch 21:18, etc.; Impf. יִגֹּף Ex 21:35 + 2 times; וַיִּגֹּף Ex 32:35 + 4 times; אֶגּוֹף ψ 89:24 +, etc.; Inf. abs. נָגֹף Is 19:22; cstr. לִנְגֹּף Ex 12:23(×2); נָגְפוֹ v 27;—strike, smite, of serious (even fatal) injury, sq. acc. pers. Ex 21:22, 35 (E); one’s foot against (בְּ) stone ψ 91:12; abs. (stumble) Pr 3:23; especially of judgment, subj. י׳, obj. individ. (fatal stroke) 1 S 25:38; 26:10; 2 S 12:15; 2 Ch 13:20; 21:18 (לָחֳלִי); obj. people (abs.) Ex 12:23(×2), 27 (JE), 32:35 Jos 24:5 (E), Is 19:22, cf. v 22; v. also ψ 89:24; cf. c. acc. cogn. מַגֵּפָה Zc 14:12, 18; 2 Ch 21:14 (sq. also בְּעַמֶּ֑ךָ); c. בְּ instr. Ex 7:27; of causing defeat in battle, sq. acc. + לִפְנֵי Ju 20:35 1 S 4:3 2 Ch 13:15; 14:11. e.g. 2 Chronicles 13:15
Niphal
- Pf. נִגַּף 2 S 10:15; נִגְּפוּ v 19 + 2 times, etc.; Impf. יִנָּגֵף 2 Ch 6:24; וַיִּנָּגֵף 1 S 4:2 + 4 times; Inf. abs. נִגּוֹף Ju 20:39; cstr. הִנָּגֵף 1 K 8:33; Pt. נִגָּף Dt 28:25; Ju 20:39, etc.;—be smitten, bef. enemy, in battle, sq. לִפְנֵי Ju 20:32, 39(×2) 1 S 4:2; 7:10; 2 S 10:15, 19; 18:7; 1 K 8:33; 2 K 14:12; 1 Ch 19:16, 19; 2 Ch 6:24; 25:22; Lv 26:17; Nu 14:42; Dt 1:42; abs. Ju 20:36; 1 S 4:10; 2 S 2:17; 2 Ch 20:22; Pt. after נָתַן, sq. לִפְנֵי Dt 28:7, 25 Vid. נָגַע Niph. e.g. 2 Samuel 10:15
Hithpael
- Impf. יִתְנַגְּפוּ Je 13:16 = stumble, subj. רַגְלֵיכֶם, sq. על (loc.); cf. Qal (ψ 91:12) and נֶגֶף 2. e.g. Jeremiah 13:16
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. strike, smite (Aramaic נְגַף);—
— 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.
נָגַף
- (b. h.) to strike, push; to injure. Tosef. B. Kam. I, 9 נגח נ׳ וכ׳ if he gored, pushed, bit &c. Num. R. s. 5 ונ׳ הקב"ה עושי וכ׳ and the Lord struck those who made the golden calf; a. fr.—Part. pass. נָגוּף; pl. נְגוּפִים. Midr. Till. to Ps. CXVIII, 23 כשיראו … אינן אלו הנ׳ וכ׳ when the nations shall see Israel in prosperity, they shall say, these are not the stricken, these are not the rejected &c.
- to be stricken. Yoma 19ᵇ
- to strike against. Lam. R. introd. (R. Joḥ. 2) לכשיִתְנַגְּפוּ רגליכם וכ׳ when your feet shall strike against the mountains &c. (fr. Jer. XIII, 16). e.g. Jeremiah 13:16
נְגַף
- Targ. Ps. LXXXIX, 24. Targ. Ex. XXI, 35; a. e.
- same. Part. pass. מְנַגַּף bruised, wounded. Yoma 53ᵃ עד דמְנַגְּפַן כרעיה וכ׳ (some ed. דמִינַּגְּפַן Ithpa.; Ms. M. a. Ar. דהוה מנקפן, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note) until his feet were bruised (bleeding) &c.
- to strike against, be bruised. Targ. Jer. XIII, 16.—Yoma l. c., v. supra.
נֶגֶף
- preced.) plague. Ex. R. s. 15 מצרים … לברוח מן הנ׳ וכ׳ the Egyptians went around seeking a way how to flee from the plague; 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 43 distinct written forms H5062 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 H5062, 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 45 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 46 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 8:2
- Leviticus 26:17
- Numbers 14:42
- Deuteronomy 1:42
- Joshua 24:5
- Judges 20:32
- 1 Samuel 4:2
- 2 Samuel 2:17
- 1 Kings 8:33
- 2 Kings 14:12
- 1 Chronicles 19:16
- 2 Chronicles 6:24
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.
