נָחַל
to inherit
‘to inherit’ is one of 4 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Qal 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: ‘take possession’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘give as a possession’
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘divide for a possession’
- Hophal
- The passive counterpart of the Hiphil (“he was caused to…”).
Form
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- 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
- 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.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms 27 distinct
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 9 times (15%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 6 times (10%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 4 times (7%)
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 4 times (7%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct 4 times (7%)
- Verb, Hithpael, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 3 times (5%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 3 times (5%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 times (3%)
+19 more forms (24 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 59 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H5157 appears — 57 distinct verses across 16 books. 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.
Exodus 3 verses
- Exodus 23:30 וְ/נָחַלְתָּ֖ conj + Qal wpf 2ms Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.
- Exodus 32:13 וְ/נָחֲל֖וּ conj + Qal wpf 3cp Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'"
- Exodus 34:9 וּ/נְחַלְתָּֽ/נוּ conj + Qal pf 2ms + sfx pers 1cp He said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us; although this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."
Leviticus 1 verse
Numbers 12 verses
- Numbers 18:20 תִנְחָ֔ל Qal impf 2ms Yahweh said to Aaron, You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them: I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.
- Numbers 18:23 יִנְחֲל֖וּ Qal impf 3mp But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations; and among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
- Numbers 18:24 יִנְחֲל֖וּ Qal impf 3mp For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as a heave-offering to Yahweh, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance: therefore I have said to them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
- Numbers 26:55 יִנְחָֽלוּ Qal impf 3mp Notwithstanding, the land shall be divided by lot: according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.
- Numbers 32:18 הִתְנַחֵל֙ Hithpael inf.cs We will not return to our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.
- Numbers 32:19 נִנְחַל֙ Qal impf 1cp For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.
- Numbers 33:54 וְ/הִתְנַחַלְתֶּם֩ תִּתְנֶחָֽלוּ conj + Hithpael wpf 2mp Hithpael impf 2mp You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance: wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers shall you inherit.
- Numbers 34:13 תִּתְנַחֲל֤וּ Hithpael impf 2mp Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, This is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which Yahweh has commanded to give to the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe;
- Numbers 34:17 יִנְחֲל֥וּ Qal impf 3mp These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun.
- Numbers 34:18 לִ/נְחֹ֥ל prep + Qal inf.cs You shall take one prince of every tribe, to divide the land for inheritance.
- Numbers 34:29 לְ/נַחֵ֥ל prep + Piel inf.cs These are they whom Yahweh commanded to divide the inheritance to the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.
- Numbers 35:8 יִנְחָ֔לוּ Qal impf 3mp Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many; and from the few you shall take few: everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give of his cities to the Levites.
Deuteronomy 8 verses
- Deuteronomy 1:38 יַנְחִלֶ֥/נָּה Hiphil impf 3ms + sfx pers 3fs Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there: encourage you him; for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
- Deuteronomy 3:28 יַנְחִ֣יל Hiphil impf 3ms But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see.
- Deuteronomy 12:10 מַנְחִ֣יל Hiphil ptcp.act ms But when you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety;
- Deuteronomy 19:3 יַנְחִֽילְ/ךָ֖ Hiphil impf 3ms + sfx pers 2ms You shall prepare you the way, and divide the borders of your land, which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there.
- Deuteronomy 19:14 תִּנְחַ֔ל Qal impf 2ms You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess it.
- Deuteronomy 21:16 הַנְחִיל֣/וֹ Hiphil inf.cs + sfx pers 3ms then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn:
- Deuteronomy 31:7 תַּנְחִילֶ֥/נָּה Hiphil impf 2ms + sfx pers 3fs Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of good courage: for you shall go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it.
- Deuteronomy 32:8 בְּ/הַנְחֵ֤ל prep + Hiphil inf.cs When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, When he separated the children of men, He set the bounds of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel.
Joshua 8 verses
- Joshua 1:6 תַּנְחִיל֙ Hiphil impf 2ms Be strong and of good courage; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
- Joshua 13:32 נִחַ֥ל Piel pf 3ms These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho, eastward.
- Joshua 14:1 נָחֲל֥וּ נִֽחֲל֜וּ Qal pf 3cp Piel pf 3cp These are the inheritances which the children of Israel took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed to them,
- Joshua 16:4 וַ/יִּנְחֲל֥וּ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp The children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.
- Joshua 17:6 נָחֲל֥וּ Qal pf 3cp because the daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons. The land of Gilead belonged to the rest of the sons of Manasseh.
- Joshua 19:9 וַ/יִּנְחֲל֥וּ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp Out of the part of the children of Judah was the inheritance of the children of Simeon; for the portion of the children of Judah was too much for them: therefore the children of Simeon had inheritance in the midst of their inheritance.
- Joshua 19:49 לִ/נְחֹל prep + Qal inf.cs So they made an end of distributing the land for inheritance by the borders of it; and the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun in the midst of them:
- Joshua 19:51 נִחֲל֣וּ Piel pf 3cp These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance by lot in Shiloh before Yahweh, at the door of the tent of meeting. So they made an end of dividing the land.
Judges 1 verse
1 Samuel 1 verse
1 Chronicles 1 verse
Job 1 verse
Psalms 3 verses
- Psalms 69:36 יִנְחָל֑וּ/הָ Qal impf 3mp + sfx pers 3fs The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.
- Psalms 82:8 תִ֝נְחַ֗ל Qal impf 2ms Arise, God, judge the earth, For you inherit all of the nations.
- Psalms 119:111 נָחַ֣לְתִּי Qal pf 1cs I have taken your testimonies as a heritage forever, For they are the joy of my heart.
Proverbs 6 verses
- Proverbs 3:35 יִנְחָ֑לוּ Qal impf 3mp The wise will inherit glory, But shame will be the promotion of fools.
- Proverbs 8:21 לְ/הַנְחִ֖יל prep + Hiphil inf.cs That I may give wealth to those who love me. I fill their treasuries.
- Proverbs 11:29 יִנְחַל Qal impf 3ms He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind. The foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart.
- Proverbs 13:22 יַנְחִ֥יל Hiphil impf 3ms A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, But the wealth of the sinner is stored for the righteous.
- Proverbs 14:18 נָחֲל֣וּ Qal pf 3cp The simple inherit folly, But the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
- Proverbs 28:10 יִנְחֲלוּ Qal impf 3mp Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way, He will fall into his own trap; But the blameless will inherit good.
Isaiah 3 verses
- Isaiah 14:2 וְ/הִֽתְנַחֲל֣וּ/ם conj + Hithpael wpf 3cp + sfx pers 3mp The peoples shall take them, and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Yahweh for servants and for handmaids: and they shall take them captive whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
- Isaiah 49:8 לְ/הַנְחִ֖יל prep + Hiphil inf.cs Thus says Yahweh, In an acceptable time have I answered you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage:
- Isaiah 57:13 יִנְחַל Qal impf 3ms When you cry, let those who you have gathered deliver you; but the wind shall take them, a breath shall carry them all away: but he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain.
Jeremiah 3 verses
- Jeremiah 3:18 הִנְחַ֖לְתִּי Hiphil pf 1cs In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.
- Jeremiah 12:14 הִנְחַ֥לְתִּי Hiphil pf 1cs Thus says Yahweh against all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.
- Jeremiah 16:19 נָחֲל֣וּ Qal pf 3cp Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, [even] vanity and things in which there is no profit.
Ezekiel 3 verses
- Ezekiel 46:18 יַנְחִ֣ל Hiphil impf 3ms Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance, to thrust them out of their possession; he shall give inheritance to his sons out of his own possession, that my people not be scattered every man from his possession.
- Ezekiel 47:13 תִּתְנַחֲל֣וּ Hithpael impf 2mp Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This shall be the border, by which you shall divide the land for inheritance according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph [shall have two] portions.
- Ezekiel 47:14 וּ/נְחַלְתֶּ֤ם conj + Qal wpf 2mp You shall inherit it, one as well as another; for I swore to give it to your fathers: and this land shall fall to you for inheritance.
Zephaniah 1 verse
Zechariah 2 verses
- Zechariah 2:12 וְ/נָחַ֨ל conj + Qal wpf 3ms Yahweh will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
- Zechariah 8:12 וְ/הִנְחַלְתִּ֗י conj + Hiphil pf 1cs "For the seed of peace and the vine will yield its fruit, and the ground will give its increase, and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things.
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.
נחל (nâchal) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to inherit.” Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 5 stems, among them Qal and Piel. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 57 verses — moderately common. Debuting at Exodus 23:30, it then recurs through the corpus. Related forms include נחל and נחלה. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5157 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 →
- 57
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 57 distinct verses.
- 16 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 16 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #647
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 647 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 57 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Numbers 12 verses 21%
- Deuteronomy 8 verses 14%
- Joshua 8 verses 14%
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 57 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 24 verses · 42%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 22 verses · 39%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 11 verses · 19%
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†: Inherit 6×, Inheritance 5×, Shall inherit 4×
- American Standard Version†: Inherit 6×, Inheritance 5×, Shall inherit 5×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Inheritance 9×, Will inherit 4×, Distributed 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Inherit 18×, Will inherit 6×, Inherited 4×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5157 across 62† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 35 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H5157 across 62† 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H5157 across 58† 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 H5157 across 87† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 44 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
16 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 Hithpael (reflexive or reciprocal) and Hophal (the passive of Hiphil).
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 16 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.
נחל I denom. get or take as a possession (cf. Gerber 236 ff.
Qal
- Pf. נ׳ Zc, 2:16; 2 ms. נָמַלְתָּ Ex 23:30 + 8 times Pf.; Impf. 3 ms. יִנְחַל Is 57:13; 3 mpl. יִנְחֲלוּ Nu 18:23 + 5 times; יִנְחָ֑לוּ 26:55 + 2 times; + 8 times Impf.; Inf. נִחֹל Nu 34:18 Jos 19:49;— e.g. Zechariah 2:16
- 1. take possession, inherit:
- a. land of Canaan, Ex 23:30 (E), 32:13 (J), Is 57:13 Ez 47:14; Zion and Judah ψ 69:37. e.g. Exodus 23:30
- b. special sections in the land, of tribes and individuals, נחל נחלה Jos 17:6 (J); נחלה אשׁר נ׳ Dt 19:14 (D), Nu 35:8 (P), cf. Jos 14:1 (P); without acc., have or get a (landed) property, Nu 18:20, 23, 24; 26:55; 32:19 Jos 16:4; 19:9 (all P), Ju 11:2. e.g. Joshua 17:6
- c. land of Moab and Ammon by conquest Zp 2:9; landed property בכל הגוים ψ 82:8. e.g. Zephaniah 2:9
- d. God takes possession of Israel as his private property Ex 34:9 (J); Judah Zc 2:16. e.g. Exodus 34:9
- 2. fig. have or get as a possession, property: testimonies ψ 119:111, glory Pr 3:35, good things 28:10, lies Je 16:19, wind Pr 11:29, simplicity 14:18. e.g. Psalms 119:111
- 3. divide the land for a possession, Nu 34:17, 18 Jos 19:49 (all P; incorrect pointing for Piel, so SS). e.g. Numbers 34:17
Piel
- divide for a possession: Pf. 3 ms. נִחַל Jos 13:32; 3 pl. נִחֲלוּ Jos 14:1; 19:51; Inf. נַחֵל Nu 34:29 (all P); also Nu 34:17, 18 Jos 19:49 (v. Qal 3). e.g. Joshua 13:32
Hithpael
- Pf. 3 pl. sf. הִתְנַחֲלוּם Is 14:2; 2 mpl. הִתְנַחַלְתֶּם Lv 25:46 Nu 33:54; Impf. תִּתְנַחֲלוּ Nu 34:13 Ez 47:13; תִּתְנֶתָ֑לוּ Nu 33:54; Inf. הִתְנַחֵל Nu 32:18; possess oneself of land (acc.) Nu 33:54; 34:13 (P) Ez 47:13; נחלה Nu 32:18 (P); slaves Lv 25:46 (P) Is 14:2; abs., ref. to land Nu 33:54 (P); all c. לְ pers. (for whose benefit), except Nu 32:18; 34:13 Is 14:2. e.g. Isaiah 14:2
Hiphil
- Pf. 1 s. הִנְחַ֫לְתִּי Je 3:18 + 3 times Pf.; Impf. 3 ms. יַנְחִיל Dt 3:28; יַנְחִל Ez 46:18; 2 ms. sf. תַּנְחִילָנָּה Dt 31:7 + 5 times Impf.; Inf. cstr. הַנְחִיל Is 49:8 Pr 8:21; בְּהַנְחֵל Dt 32:8 (on form cf. Ew§ 238 d Köi 315 Ges§ 53 k; read בְּהַנְחִל?); sf. הַנְחִילוֹ Dt 21:16; Pt. מַנְחִיל Dt 12:10;— e.g. Jeremiah 3:18
- 1. give as a possession:
- a. land of Canaan (given by י׳ or his servants), acc. pers. et rei, Dt 1:38; 3:28; 12:10; 19:3; 31:7 Jos 1:6 (all D), Je 3:18; 12:14. e.g. Deuteronomy 1:38
- b. various things, acc. pers. et rei, especially blessings, Zc 8:12 1 S 2:8 Pr 8:21; acc. rei Is 49:8; acc. pers. Dt 32:8. e.g. Zechariah 8:12
- 2. cause to inherit, give as an inheritance, c. acc. pers. et rei, Dt 21:16; acc. pers. + מן rei, Ez 46:18; acc. pers. Pr 13:22 ל pers. 1 Ch 28:8. e.g. Deuteronomy 21:16
Hophal
- Pf. 1 s. הָנְחַלְתּי Jb 7:3 made to possess, c. acc. rei, e.g. months of vanity. e.g. Job 7:3
נחל II (√ of foll.
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. vb. denom. get or take as a possession (cf. Gerber 236 ff.; Ecclus נחל 45:22 b +; NH id. (rare));—
II. (√ of foll.; meaning unknown).
— 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.
נַחַל
- wady, river-bed, ravine, stream. Sabb. 56ᵇ (ref. to I Sam. XV, 5) על עסקי נ׳ (he was discussing) the subject of naḥal (Deut. XXI, 4), i.e. the regard due to human lives. Cant. R. to I, 2 עד שנעשה כנ׳ נובע until he (through his erudition) becomes like a bubbling stream; a. e.—Pl. נְחָלִים, נְחָלִין. Ib. מה מים … ונעשין נ׳ נ׳ as waters come down in drops and grow to be torrents; Midr. Till. to Ps. I. Ber. 1Ber. 16ᵃ (ref. to Num. XXIV, 6) מה נ׳ … אף אהלים וכ׳ as the waters of streams raise man from uncleanness to cleanness, so do the tents (of learning) &c.; a. fr. e.g. 1 Samuel 15:5
נַחַל ²
- Targ. Gen. XXVI, 19. Targ. Num. XIII, 24. Targ. Ps. LXXIV, 15; a. fr.—[Targ. Is. XXXVIII, 12 נְחַל, v. נְוַול III.]—Pl. נַחֲלִין, נַחֲלַיָּא, נַחֲלֵי. Targ. Deut. VIII, 7. Targ. Koh. I, 7. Targ. Prov. VIII, 26 (h. text חוצות); a. e.
נָחַל
- , q. v.) to inherit. B. Bath. VIII, 1 יש נוֹחֲלִין ומַנְחִילִין there are such relations as inherit from and eventually transmit to one another (e. g. father and son); ויש נוחלין ולא מנחילין and some inherit, but (when they die) do not transmit their estate to those whose natural heirs they would have been (e. g. son and mother). Kidd. I, 10 ונוֹחֵל את הארץ and shall inherit the land (of life everlasting). Sifré Num. 133 יודע … שהבנות נוֹחֲלוֹת Moses knew that daughters (in the absence of sons) are legal heirs. Midr. Till. to Ps. V, beg. (ref. to Num. XXI, 19) משנָחֲלוּ ע"ז בא עליהם וכ׳ when they adopted idolatry, the angel of death came upon them. Ib. נחלו להק"בה לאלוה והוא נ׳ וכ׳ they adopted the Lord as God, and he adopted them as a people; ib. ממתנה נָחַלְתִּי לאל through the gift (of the well in the desert) I adopted God; מתוך שנתן לי הקב"ה הבאר נחלתי אותו (ed. Bub.) because the Lord gave me the well as a gift, I adopted him; Erub. 54ᵃ וכיון שניתנה לו במתנה נְחָלוֹ אל and since it (the Law) is given him as a gift, the Lord claims him as his own; a. fr. e.g. Numbers 21:19
- to transmit by legal succession; to give in possession. B. Bath. l. c., v. supra. Tosef. B. Mets. XI, 32, a. fr. שעל מנת כן ה׳ וכ׳ for Joshua gave possession of the land with such provisions (restricting the rights of ownership). Ukts. III, 12 עתיד הקב"ה להַנְחִיל וכ׳ (Snh. 100ᵃ ליתן) the Lord will in the hereafter give every righteous man possession of &c. B. Bath. 114ᵇ אין הבן יורש את אמו בקבר להנחיל וכ׳ a son in the grave does not succeed his mother so as to transmit his estate to his paternal brothers; a. fr.
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 53 distinct written forms H5157 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 H5157, 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 55 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 57 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 23:30
- Leviticus 25:46
- Numbers 18:20
- Deuteronomy 1:38
- Joshua 1:6
- Judges 11:2
- 1 Samuel 2:8
- 1 Chronicles 28:8
- Job 7:3
- Psalms 82:8
- Proverbs 3:35
- Isaiah 14:2
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.
