נָסַע
to journey
‘to journey’ 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 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: ‘pull out or up’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘cause to set out’
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”). Here: ‘be pulled up’
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”).
- 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”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
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
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
10 verses where H5265 appears in the Qal stem in the Book of Exodus. 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.
Exodus
- Exodus 12:37 וַ/יִּסְע֧וּ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp The children of Israel traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, besides children.
- Exodus 13:20 וַ/יִּסְע֖וּ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp They took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.
- Exodus 14:10 נֹסֵ֣עַ Qal ptcp.act ms When Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them; and they were very afraid. The children of Israel cried out to Yahweh.
- Exodus 14:15 וְ/יִסָּֽעוּ conj + Qal juss 3mp Yahweh said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward.
- Exodus 14:19 וַ/יִּסַּ֞ע וַ/יִּסַּ֞ע conj + Qal wimpf 3ms conj + Qal wimpf 3ms The angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them, and stood behind them.
- Exodus 16:1 וַ/יִּסְעוּ֙ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
- Exodus 17:1 וַ֠/יִּסְעוּ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to Yahweh's commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.
- Exodus 19:2 וַ/יִּסְע֣וּ conj + Qal wimpf 3mp When they had departed from Rephidim, and had come to the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mountain.
- Exodus 40:36 יִסְע֖וּ Qal impf 3mp When the cloud was taken up from over the tent, the children of Israel went onward, throughout all their journeys;
- Exodus 40:37 יִסְע֔וּ Qal impf 3mp but if the cloud wasn't taken up, then they didn't travel until the day that it was taken up.
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.
The Hebrew verb נסע centers on the idea of “to journey.” The word gravitates to Numbers (61%), then Genesis and Exodus. It turns up in 140 verses across 15 books, a common footprint. Read the stem: it spans 3 stems, including Qal and Niphal. Older and newer Bibles part ways — “they departed” in the King James Version, “they set out” (Berean Standard Bible) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. 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 H5265 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 →
- 140
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 140 distinct verses.
- 15 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 15 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #307
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 307 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 140 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 140 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 114 verses · 81%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 19 verses · 14%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 7 verses · 5%
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: They departed 21×, They removed 18×, Journeyed 14×
- American Standard Version: They journeyed 51×, Journeyed 18×, Set forward 6×
- Berean Standard Bible: They set out 47×, Set out 25×, They shall set out 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: They set out 60×, Set out 27×, And 21×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5265 across 146 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 43 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 H5265 across 146 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 46 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 H5265 across 145 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 50 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 H5265 across 184 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 34 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
11 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.
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 11 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. 3 ms. נ׳ Gn 33:17 +, 3 mpl. נָֽסְעוּ Dt 10:6, נָסָ֑עוּ Nu 2:34 +, etc.; Impf. יִסַּע Is 33:20, וַיִּסַּע Gn 12:9 +, sf. וַיִּסָּעֵם Ju 16:3; 3 mpl. יִסְעוּ Ex 40:36 +, יִסָּ֑עוּ Nu 2:9 +; 2 mpl. תִּסְעוּ Jos 3:3; 1 pl. נִסְעָה cohort. Gn 33:12, וַנִּסַּע Dt 1:19; 2:1, וַנִּסְעָה Ezr 8:31, etc.; Imv. סְעוּ Dt 2:24 +; Inf. abs. נָסוֹעַ Gn 12:9; cstr. נְסֹעַ Jos 3:14 +; sf. נָסְעָם Gn 11:2 Nu 10:34; Pt. נֹסֵעַ Ex 14:10; Nu 10:33; pl. נֹסְעִים Nu 10:29;— e.g. Genesis 33:17
- 1. pull out or up, city-gate and gate-posts Ju 16:3; loom v 14 (on text cf. GFM), tent-pegs Is 33:20 (fig. of Jerusalem; cf. also Niph.) e.g. Judges 16:3
- 2. hence (from pulling up tent-pegs),
- a. set out Gn 35:5; Nu 12:15 (both E), Je 4:7 (‖ יָצָא מִמְּקוֹמוֹ); even of lifeless things, e.g. the ark, הָאָרוֹן Nu 10:35 (JE); often in P: Ex 14:15; 40:37; Nu 1:51; 4:5, 15; 9:17 + 8 times Nu 9, 10:5, 6, 17, 18, 21, 22, 25, so prob. also 2:8 + 6 times Nu 2 (v. infr.; even of lifeless things, דֶּגֶל 10:18, 22, מִשְׁכָּן 1:51, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד 2:17), 33:3; וַיִּסַּע … וַיָּבֹא Gn 46:1 (E) and Isr. set out, and came, etc., Ex 16:1; 19:2; Nu 20:22; Jos 9:17 (all P), Dt 1:7, נִסְעָה וְנֵלֵ֑כָה 33:12 (J); (… וַיַּעֲלוּ) וַיִּסְעוּ Ju 18:11, סְעוּ וְעִבְרוּ Dt 2:24; נ׳ often c. מִן Gn 35:16 (E), Nu 10:34 (JE), נ׳ מֵאָהֳלֵיהֶם לַעֲבֹר Jos 3:14 (JE), set out from their tents, to cross, etc., cf. נ׳ מִן … לָלֶכֶת Ezr 8:31; c. מִן + ויבא, Jos 3:1 (JE), Nu 33:9 (P), + וַיֵּלֶךְ v 3 (D), Dt 1:19, + וַיַּעַבְרוּ Nu 33:8 (P); + וַיָּשָׁב + וַיַּחֲנוּ Nu 33:7 (P). e.g. Genesis 35:5
- b. depart, c. מִן Gn 37:17 (J), 2 K 3:27; 19:8, 36 = Is 37:8, 37; even of עַמּוּד הֶעָנָן Ex 14:19 (J); of angel v 19 (E; + וַיֵּלֶךְ). e.g. Genesis 37:17
- 3. journey, march (by stages) Gn 12:9; 35:21 both J), Nu 10:13, 14, 28 (P), (poss. also Nu 2:9 etc., cf. 2 supr.); + לְמַסְעֵיהֶם according to their stations, i.e. by stages Ex 17:1; Nu 10:12 (+ מִן), cf. Ex 40:36 (all P); sq. ה loc. Gn 12:9; 33:17 (both J), Dt 1:40; 2:1; סְעוּ לָכֶם הַמִּדְבָּר Nu 14:25 (JE); sq. מִקֶּדֶם eastward (v. מִן 1. c) Gn 11:2; 13:11 (both J), אַחֲרֵי Ex 14:10 (J), אֶל־ Nu 10:29, לִפְנֵי v 33 (of ark; all J); sq. מִן + ה loc. Gn 20:1 (E), Dt 10:6, 7; Ex 12:37 (P), + acc. loc. Nu 11:35 (JE); sq. מִן + acc. of distance, דֶּרֶךְ 10:33 (JE), 21:4 (P); especially וַיִּסְעוּ מִן … וַיַּחֲנוּ Nu 21:12, 13 (JE), Ex 13:20; Nu 21:11; 33:5 + 37 times Nu 33 (all P); of shepherds Je 31:24.—נָֽסְעוּ כְמוֹ צֹאן Zc 10:2 is dub.; We נָעוּ or יָנֻעוּ, so Now. e.g. Genesis 12:9
- 4. of wind, נ׳ רוּחַ מֵאֵת י׳ Nu 11:31 there set forth (sprang up) a wind from י׳. e.g. Numbers 11:31
Niphal
- Pf. be pulled up, removed: 3 ms. דּוֹרִי נִסַּע וְנִגְלָה מִנִּי כְּאֹהֶל רֹעִי Is 38:12; of wealth הֲלֹא נִסַּע Jb 4:21 (reading יְתֵדָם for יִתְרָם, v. ii. יֶתֶר). e.g. Isaiah 38:12
Hiphil
- Impf. 3 ms. יַסַּע ψ 78:26, וַיַּסַּע Ex 15:22 + 2 times; 2 ms. תַּסִּיעַ ψ 80:9, 3 fs. תַּסִּיעִי 2 K 4:4; 3 mpl. וַיַּסִּ֫עוּ 1 K 5:31; Pt. מַסִּיעַ Ec 10:9;— e.g. Psalms 78:26
- 1. cause to set out, lead out, c. acc. pers. Ex 15:22 (J; + מִן, וַיֵּצְאוּ), ψ 78:52 (כַּצֹּאן; ‖ וַיְנַהֲגֵם), 80:9 (מִן; fig. of vine); fig. of a wind, cause to spring up, יַסַּע קָדִים ψ 78:26 (‖ וַיְנַהֵג; cf. Qal 4). e.g. Exodus 15:22
- 2. remove, c. acc. rei 2 K 4:4; וַיַּסַּע כָּעֵץ תִּקְוָתִי Jb 19:10; specif., remove from quarry, quarry: 1 K 5:31 and they quarried great stones, cf. Ec 10:9. e.g. 2 Kings 4:4
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. pull out or up, set out, journey (NH id., move, march; Assyrian nisû, set out, withdraw, etc. DlHWB 470; NöZMG xl (1886), 723 cp. also Arabic نَزَعَ, Ethiopic ነዝዐ: [rare] pull up, away, so BaES 51);—
— 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.
נָסַע
- (b. h.) to move, march. Tosef. Sot. VIII, 1 בכל יום … נוֹסֵעַ אחר וכ׳ every day the ark moved behind two standards (divisions), …, but on that day it moved in front; Sot. 33ᵇ. Num. R. s. 2 לאחר שהיו נוֹסְעִים … נוסעים את המשכן after these two standards had moved, the Levites marched (carrying) the Tabernacle. Yalk. ib. 686 מתקרבים לִיסַּע came together to make ready for the march. Mekh. B’shall., Vayass’a, s. 1 זו נסיעה לא נָסְעוּ וכ׳ this march they undertook by the order of Moses, but all other marches they made at the order of the Deity, a. fr.
- 1. to remove, cause to depart, to separate, take apart. Mekh. l. c. הִסִּיעָן בעל כרחן במקל he forced them to march, against their will, with the staff. Ib. ע"ז עברה … והִסִּיעָהּ משה וכ׳ an idol went with the Israelites across the sea, and Moses removed it &c. Kel. V, 7 צריך להַסִּיעוֹ he must (not only divide, but) separate the parts of the stove entirely. Sot. 8ᵃ בית דין מַסִּיעִין את העדים וכ׳ the court orders the witnesses to change their places; Tosef. Snh. IX, 1 (ed. Zuck. מַשִּׂיאִין). Gen. R. s. 38 (ref. to Gen. XI, 2) הִסִּיעוּ עצמן מקדמונו וכ׳ they removed themselves from the Originator of the world; ib. s. 41 ה׳ עצמו וכ׳ he removed himself &c. Mekh. B’shall., Shir., s. 10 גפן שהִסַּעְתָּה ממצרים the vine (Israel) which thou didst transfer from Egypt (Ps. LXXX, 9); a. fr.—B. Bath. 8ᵇ להַסִּיעַ על קיצתן to remove (place outside of the protection of the law, Rashi) those who disregard the terms fixed by the authorities.—Erub. VIII, 5 (86ᵃ) הסעי מלבו (Ms. M. הסירה; ed. Sonc. הסיחה מדעתו, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note) he has removed from his mind (the thought of returning to his residence). Mekh. B’shall. s. 3 (ref. to ויסעו, Ex. XIV, 15) יַסִּיעוּ דברים (שהיו דוברים) מלבן let them remove from their hearts the (evil) words which &c.; Ex. R. s. 21.—ה׳ דעת = הסיח דעת, v. נָסַח. Y. Ber. V, 9ᶜ bot.; a. fr.—[Y. Taan. IV, beg. 67ᵇ מפני מסיע, read: הֶסֵּיעַ.—Tosef. Shebi. II, 20 מסיעין, read מְסַיְּיעִין.]—2) to signalize, v. נָשָׂא. e.g. Genesis 11:2
- to be removed. Tosef. Yoma I, 4 ה׳ מן הכהונה was removed (deposed) from the high priesthood; Y. Hor. III, 47ᵈ top.
נְסַע
- Gen. R. s. 38 (ref. to Gen. XI, 2) נַסְעוּ מן מדינחא וכ׳ they moved from the east to go further east. e.g. Genesis 11:2
- to remove. Y. Meg. IV, 75ᶜ top אנא מסתכל ולא מַסַּע דעתי I can look (at the priests) without diverting my attention (from my prayers); Y. Taan. IV, beg. 67ᵇ מַסְּעָה; v. הֶסֵּעַ.
*נֶסַע
- (preced.) march.—Pl. נְסָעִים. Num. R. s. 2 תחלה לנ׳ (Judah was) the first in marching in the desert, opp. חֲנִיּיוֹת.
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 71 distinct written forms H5265 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; 11 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5265, 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 135 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 140 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 11:2
- Exodus 12:37
- Numbers 1:51
- Deuteronomy 1:7
- Joshua 3:1
- Judges 16:3
- 1 Kings 5:17
- 2 Kings 3:27
- Ezra 8:31
- Job 4:21
- Psalms 80:8
- Ecclesiastes 10:9
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.
