נָגַשׁ
to approach
‘to approach’ is one of 6 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
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘human subj.’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Hophal
- The passive counterpart of the Hiphil (“he was caused to…”).
- 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).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- 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”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
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 H5066 appears in the Book of Malachi — 5 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.
Malachi
- Malachi 1:7 מַגִּישִׁ֤ים Hiphil ptcp.act mp You offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, 'How have we polluted you?' In that you say, 'Yahweh's table contemptible.'
- Malachi 1:8 תַגִּשׁ֨וּ/ן תַגִּ֛ישׁוּ Hiphil impf 2mp + sfx n Hiphil impf 2mp When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn't that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn't that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person?" says Yahweh of Hosts.
- Malachi 1:11 מֻגָּ֛שׁ Hophal ptcp.pass ms For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the nations," says Yahweh of Hosts.
- Malachi 2:12 וּ/מַגִּ֣ישׁ conj + Hiphil ptcp.act ms Yahweh will cut off, to the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Jacob, and him who offers an offering to Yahweh of Hosts.
- Malachi 3:3 מַגִּישֵׁ֥י Hiphil ptcp.act mp cs and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness.
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.
נגש — transliterated nâgash — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to approach.” Where the King James Version says “came near,” newer translations reach for “approached” (Berean Standard Bible) and “and” (unfoldingWord Literal Text); the renderings breakdown has the detail. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 112 verses — common. Debuting at Genesis 18:23, it then recurs through the corpus. As a verb its force shifts by stem, across 5 stems (Qal, Niphal, and more). See the sense tree, 112-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5066 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 →
- 112
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 112 distinct verses.
- 23 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 23 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #352
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 352 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 112 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 112 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 64 verses · 57%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 38 verses · 34%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 10 verses · 9%
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: Came near 12×, Come near 8×, Came 7×
- American Standard Version: Came near 10×, Came 6×, Drew near 6×
- Berean Standard Bible: Approached 18×, Approach 7×, Come near 6×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: And 16×, Approached 14×, Came near 11×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5066 across 127 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 63 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 H5066 across 124 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 63 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 H5066 across 123 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 58 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 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5066 across 173 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 62 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
7 senses and sub-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 Hophal (the passive of Hiphil) and 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 7 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
- Impf. יִגַּשׁ Ex 24:14 +, יִגָּ֑שׁ ψ 91:7, וַיִּגַּשׁ Gn 18:23 +; 3 fs. וַתִּגַּשׁ Gn 33:7; 2 ms. תִּגַּשׁ־ Is 65:5; 3 mpl. יִגְּשׁוּ Is 41:1 +, יִגָּ֑שׁוּ Ex 24:2, יִגַּ֑שׁוּ Jb 41:8 (Baer; van d. H. יִגָּ֑שׁוּ); 3 fpl. וַתִּגַּשְׁןָ Gn 33:6, etc.; Imv. גַּשׁ 2 S 1:15, גֶּשׁ־ Gn 19:9, גְּשָׁה Gn 27:21 +; גֹּשִׁי Ru 2:14, וּגְשׁוּ Je 46:3 גּשׁוּ Jos 3:9; Inf. cstr. לָגֶ֫שֶׁת Ju 20:23 +; sf. גִּשְׁתּוֹ Gn 33:3; גִּשְׁתָּם Ex 28:43 + 2 times;—draw or come near, e.g. Exodus 24:14
- 1. human subj.: sq. אֶל־ pers. Gn 27:22; 43:19; 44:18; 45:4 (all J), Ex 19:15 (of sexual intercourse), 24:2 Nu 32:16; Jos 14:6 (all E), Ex 34:30; Jos 21:1 (P), + 10 times elsewhere (not D), + ψ 91:7 (subj. pestilence personif.); of priestly approach to י׳ Ez 44:13, cf. Je 30:21b, also sq. אֶל־ of altar Ex 28:43; 30:20; Lv 21:23 and abs., v 21 (all P or H); sq. אֶל־ rei also Nu 8:19; sq. עַד־ pers. Gn 33:3 (J), rei Ju 9:52; sq. עַל־ pers. Ez 9:6, rei 44:13; sq. בְּ pers. Is 65:5 (‖ קָרַב אֶל־); in Am 9:10 read תִּגַּשׁ בַּעֲדֵנוּ (for MT תַּגִּישׁ Hiph. cf. We GASm Dr Now; ‖ קִדֵּם); sq. לַמִּלְחָמָה draw near for battle Ju 20:23; Je 46:3; 2 S 10:13 = 1 Ch 19:14 (+ לִפְנֵי pers.); sq. acc. pers. 1 S 9:18; 30:21, rei Nu 4:19 (P), but acc. difficult; Dr reads אֶל־ for אֶת־ 1 S 9:18 Nu 4:19, cf. Klo HPS; in 1 S 30:21 Dr takes אֶת־ = with; sq. הֲלוֹם hither, 1 S 14:38 Ru 2:14; abs. Gn 18:23; 27:21; 29:10; 33:6, 7; 45:4 (all J), Ex 24:2 (E), Jos 8:11 (E; + ויבאו), + 9 times (not P, D), + Gn 27:26, 27 (E), Jos 3:9 (J), 2 S 1:15; 2 Ch 29:31 (all Imv. sq. 2nd Imv.), + Gn 19:9 (J), Lv 21:21(×2) (H), 2 K 4:27 (all sq. Inf. purpose). Note especially גֶּשׁ־הָ֫לְאָה Gn 19:9 lit. approach thither! i.e. move away! cf. גְּשָׁה־לִי וְאֵשֵׁ֑בָה Is 49:20 move away for me (make room for me) that I may dwell (‖ צַר־לִי הַמָּקוֹם). e.g. Genesis 27:22
- 2. inanim. subj. אֶחָד בְּאֶחָד יִגַּ֑שׁוּ Jb 41:8 one to another they approach (fit closely together; of scales of crocodile).—Qal not in D. e.g. Job 41:8
Niphal
- Pf. נִגַּשׁ Gn 33:7 +; 3 fs. וְנִגְּשָׁה Dt 25:9; 3 mpl. נִגְּשׁוּ Ex 34:32 +; נִגַּשְׁתֶּם 2 S 11:20, 21; Pt. pl. נִגָּשִׁים Ex 19:22;—draw near = Qal (and substit. for it in D):—sq. אֶל־ pers. Dt 25:9; 1 K 20:13; Ezr 9:1, of priestly approach to Yahweh Ex 19:22 (J), Je 30:21; sq. אֶל־ rei Ex 20:21; 24:2 (both E), 2 S 11:20, 21, אֶל־הַמִּשְׁפָּט Dt 25:1; sq. בְּ pers. Am 9:13; sq. לַמִּלְחָמָה 1 S 7:10; abs. Gn 33:7 (J), Dt 20:2 (‖ קרב), 21:5; Ex 34:32 (P), so fig. of worship Is 29:13. e.g. Genesis 33:7
Hiphil
- Pf. 3 ms. sf. consec. וְהִגִּישׁוֹ Ex 21:6(×2), וְהִגִּישָׁהּ Lv 2:8; 3 pl. הִגִּ֫ישׁוּ 2 S 17:29; 2 mpl. הִגַּשְׁתֶּם Am 5:25; Impf. juss. יַגֵּשׁ Jb 40:19; וַיַּגֶּשׁ־ Gn 27:25; וַיַּגַּ֑שׁ Ju 6:19; 3 fs. תַּגִּישׁ Am 9:10, וַתַּגֵּשׁ 1 S 28:25; 2 S 13:11; 3 mpl. יַגִּ֫ישׁוּ Is 41:22; 2 mpl. תַּגִּ֫ישׁוּ Mal 1:8, תַּגִּישׁוּן v 8, וַתַּגִּישׁוּן Am 6:3, etc.; Imv. ms. הַגִּ֫ישָׁה Gn 27:25 +; mpl. הַגִּ֫ישׁוּ 1 S 13:9 +; Pt. מַגִּישׁ Mal 2:12; pl. cstr. מַגִּישֵׁי Mal 3:3, etc.;—cause to approach, bring near, bring, sq. אֶל־ pers. (usually obj. acc. rei, rarely pers. Ex 21:6(×2) 1 S 15:32; Gn 48:10 cf. v 13):—Gn 48:10, 13 (E), Ex 21:6(×2) (E), 1 S 13:9; 14:34; 15:32; 2 S 13:11 (+ Inf. purpose), 2 K 4:5, 6; sq. אֶל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ Lv 2:8 (P; of sacrifice); עַל־מִזְבְּחִי Mal 1:7 (sacrif.); לְ pers. Gn 27:25(×2) (E), 1 S 30:7; 2 S 17:29 (read וַיַּגִּישׁוּ 𝔊 Th We Klo Kit, cf. Dr), of sacrifice Am 5:25 Mal 2:12; 3:3; לִפְנֵי pers. 1 S 28:25; 2 Ch 29:23; no prep. Ex 32:6 (J), 1 S 14:18, 34; 23:9; 30:7; Ju 6:19 (foll. הוציא אֶל־), Am 6:3; 1 K 5:1; Lv 8:14 (P), of sacrif. also Mal 1:8 (לִזְבֹּחַ), v 8 (‖ הקריב); fig. (obj. proofs, evidences) Is 41:21 (‖ קרב), v 22 (+ וַיַּגִּידוּ), cf. 45:21 (‖ הַגִּידוּ); הָעשֹׁוֹ יַגֵּשׁ חַרְבּוֹ Jb 40:19 let him that made him (the hippot.) draw near his sword, is dub.; Du הֶעָשׂוּ[י] נֹגֵשׂ חֲבֵרָו wh. is made ruler of its fellows (other conject. v. Di Bu); Am 9:10 read תִּגַּשׁ Qal q.v.). e.g. Exodus 21:6
Hophal
- Pf. 3 mpl. לֹא־לִנְחֻשְׁתַּיִם הֻנַּ֑שׁוּ 2 S 3:34 (Ginsb הֻנָּ֑שׁוּ) thy feet have not been brought near (put into) fetters; Pt. מֻגָּשׁ לשׁמי Mal 1:11 it (impers.) is offered to my name. e.g. 2 Samuel 3:34
Hithpael
- Imv. mpl. הִתְנַגְּשׁוּ Is 45:20 draw near! (‖ הִקָּֽבְצוּ וָבֹאוּ). e.g. Isaiah 45:20
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. draw near, approach, less freq. syn. of קרב q.v. (NH id. Hiph. (rare) and deriv.);—
— 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.
נָגַשׁ
- (b. h.) also Nif. נִגַּשׁ to come in contact; to draw near. Yalk. Ps. 842 (ref. to יגש, Ps. XCI, 7) אין אחד מהם נִגָּשׁ אליך וכ׳ none of them comes to thee, none says, provide for me; Midr. Till. to Ps. XVII, 7 נוֹגֵשׁ אצלך ed. Bub. (oth. ed. נוֹגֵשׂ אותך, v. נָגַשׂ).—Tanḥ. Vayigg. 5 (ref. to Gen. XLIV, 18) שנ׳ בתוכחות he came near (attacked him, v. next w.) with rebukes. Yalk. Gen. 150 (ref. to Gen. l. c.) אין וַיִּגַּשׁ אלא לשון שלום vayyigash has the meaning of (coming near in) peacefulness &c., v. הַגָּשָׁה. e.g. Psalms 91:7
- to bring near. B. Kam. 46ᵇ (ref. to Ex. XXIV, 14) יַגִּישׁ ראיה אליהם (a claimant) must offer evidence &c.; יגיש דבריו וכ׳ must prefer his claims &c., is the first to be heard; a. e. e.g. Exodus 24:14
נְגַשׁ
- , to attack, gore. Targ. Y. Ex. XXI, 28. Ib. 32 (ed. Amst. a. oth. נגח).—[Yalk. Gen. 148, v. נְגַס.]—Part. נָגֵישׁ; f. נְגִישָׁא. Gen. R. s. 80, beg. (prov.) לית תורתא נ׳ עד וכ׳ ‘Rashi’ (ed. ענישא; Ar. עגישא) no cow is a gorer until her calf is a kicker (the mother is judged by her daughter).
נָגַשׂ
- cmp. preced.) to push on, drive, press. Midr. Till. to Ps. XVII, 7 ואין אחד מהם נוֹגֵשׂ אותך וכ׳ none of them presses thee &c., v. נָגַשׁ.—נוֹגֵשׂ task-master. Tanḥ. Sh’moth 9 אותו נ׳ עשוי וכ׳ that taskmaster was appointed over &c.; Ex. R. s. 1 נ׳ ממונה על עשרה שוטרים one (Egyptian) taskmaster was appointed over ten (Israelitish) officers. Lev. R. s. 32 (in Chald. dict.) קרץ נ׳ גבי וכ׳ Ar. (ed. קדם) the taskmaster came early to the officer, saying, go and gather thy men &c.; a. fr.—Pl. נוֹגְשִׂים, נוֹגְשִׂין. Ib.; Ex. R. l. c. Pirké d’R. El. ch. XLVIII נוֹגְשֵׂי פרעה the taskmasters appointed by Pharaoh; a. fr.—Esp. to exact a debt. Macc. 3ᵇ (ref. to Deut. XV, 2) לא קרינן ביה לא יִגּוֹשׂ we do not apply to him (he does not violate the law) ‘he shall not exact’; סוף אתי לידי יגוש he will finally (after the lapse of ten years) transgress &c.—Sifré Deut. 113 (ref. to Deut. XV, 3) ואת אחיך לא תִגּוֹשׂ but thou must not exact of thy brother. e.g. Deuteronomy 15:2
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 105 distinct written forms H5066 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 45 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 109 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 112 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 18:23
- Exodus 19:15
- Leviticus 2:8
- Numbers 4:19
- Deuteronomy 20:2
- Joshua 3:9
- Judges 6:19
- Ruth 2:14
- 1 Samuel 7:10
- 2 Samuel 1:15
- 1 Kings 18:21
- 2 Kings 2:5
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.
