עוּף
to fly
also: fly about, fly away 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: ‘fly’
- Polel
- A stem of hollow/geminate roots functioning like the Piel — intensive active. Here: ‘fly about’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
- Hithpolel
- The reflexive counterpart of the Polel. Here: ‘fly about’
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”).
- 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 Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- 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”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms 18 distinct
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 8 times (25%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 3 times (9%)
- Verb, Polel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (6%)
- Verb, Polel, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 2 times (6%)
- Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 times (6%)
- Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct 2 times (6%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 2 times (6%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 1 time (3%)
+10 more forms (10 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 32 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H5774 appears — 29 distinct verses across 14 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.
Genesis 1 verse
Deuteronomy 1 verse
Judges 1 verse
1 Samuel 2 verses
- 1 Samuel 14:28 וַ/יָּ֖עַף conj + Qal wimpf 3ms Then answered one of the people, and said, Your father directly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats food this day. The people were faint.
- 1 Samuel 14:31 וַ/יָּ֥עַף conj + Qal wimpf 3ms They struck of the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon. The people were very faint;
2 Samuel 2 verses
- 2 Samuel 21:15 וַ/יָּ֥עַף conj + Qal wimpf 3ms The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint;
- 2 Samuel 22:11 וַ/יָּעֹ֑ף conj + Qal wimpf 3ms He rode on a cherub, and did fly; Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind.
Job 3 verses
- Job 5:7 עֽוּף Qal inf.cs But man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.
- Job 11:17 תָּ֝עֻ֗פָ/ה Qal impf 3fs + sfx h Life shall be clearer than the noonday; Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning.
- Job 20:8 יָ֭עוּף Qal impf 3ms He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.
Psalms 4 verses
- Psalms 18:10 וַ/יָּעֹ֑ף conj + Qal wimpf 3ms He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind.
- Psalms 55:6 אָע֥וּפָה Qal coh 1cs I said, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest.
- Psalms 90:10 וַ/נָּעֻֽפָ/ה conj + Qal wimpf 1cp + sfx h The days of our years are seventy, Or even by reason of strength eighty years; Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, For it passes quickly, and we fly away.
- Psalms 91:5 יָע֥וּף Qal impf 3ms You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day;
Proverbs 2 verses
- Proverbs 23:5 ה/תעוף הֲ/תָ֤עִיף ו/עיף יָע֥וּף ptcl inter + Qal impf 2ms ptcl inter + Hiphil impf 2ms conj + Qal wpf 3ms Qal impf 3ms Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
- Proverbs 26:2 לָ/ע֑וּף prep + Qal inf.cs Like a fluttering sparrow, Like a darting swallow, So the undeserved curse doesn't come to rest.
Isaiah 7 verses
- Isaiah 6:2 יְעוֹפֵֽף Polel impf 3ms Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.
- Isaiah 6:6 וַ/יָּ֣עָף conj + Qal wimpf 3ms Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.
- Isaiah 11:14 וְ/עָפ֨וּ conj + Qal wpf 3cp They shall fly down on the shoulder of the Philistines on the west; together shall they despoil the children of the east: they shall put forth their hand on Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
- Isaiah 14:29 מְעוֹפֵֽף Polel ptcp.act ms Don't rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent's root shall come forth an adder, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
- Isaiah 30:6 מְעוֹפֵ֔ף Polel ptcp.act ms The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit [them].
- Isaiah 31:5 עָפ֔וֹת Qal ptcp.act fp As birds hovering, so will Yahweh of Hosts protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver [it], he will pass over and preserve [it].
- Isaiah 60:8 תְּעוּפֶ֑ינָה Qal impf 3fp Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?
Ezekiel 1 verse
Hosea 1 verse
Nahum 1 verse
Habakkuk 1 verse
Zechariah 2 verses
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, עוף (ʻûwph) means “to fly.” Scripture first uses it in Genesis 1:20. It appears 29 verses across 14 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its moderately common vocabulary. Beyond its headline sense, its full sense range takes in “fly about” and “fly away”. It clusters with מועף, מעוף and עוף under a shared root. Dig into 29-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5774 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 →
- 29
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 29 distinct verses.
- 14 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 14 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,086
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,086 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 29 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 29 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 18 verses · 62%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 9 verses · 31%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 7%
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 6 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†: Flying 5×, Did fly 2×, Flieth 2×
- American Standard Version†: Flying 4×, Flieth 3×, Did fly 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Flying 4×, Flew 3×, Flies 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Flying 4×, Fly 3×, He flew 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5774 across 30† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 19 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 H5774 across 30† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 19 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 H5774 across 26† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5774 across 37† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 21 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
8 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 one or more reduplicated stems (the Pōlēl/Pilpēl type), which for hollow or geminate roots behave much like Piel — often intensive or iterative.
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 8 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.
עוף I fly (NH id., (rare) flicker, flutter, עוֹף fowl
Qal
- Pf. 3 mpl. וְעָפוּ consec. Is 11:14; Impf. 3 ms. יָעוּף Jb 20:8 ψ 91:5 + Pr 23:5b Qr (> Kt ועוף [van d. H.], or ועיף [Ginsb]); וַיָּעֹ֑ף 2 S 22:11 = ψ 18:11; Na 3:16, וַיָּ֫עָף Is 6:6; 3 fs. (הֲ)תָעוּף Pr 23:5a Kt (v. infr.); 3 fpl. תְּעוּפֶינָה Is 60:8, etc.; Inf. cstr. עוּף Jb 5:7; Pr 26:2; Pt. fs. עָפָה Zc 5:1, 2; pl. עָפוֹת Is 31:5;— e.g. Isaiah 11:14
- 1.
- a. fly, of birds Dt 4:17, specif. of swallow (in sim.) Pr 26:2 (‖ נוּד); of seraph Is 6:6 (cf. Pōʿl.); י׳ riding (רכב) on cherub 2 S 22:11 = ψ 18:11; roll (in vision) Zc 5:1, 2; arrow ψ 91:5; of swift army Is 11:14 (under fig. of bird, sq. בְּכָתֵף) Hb 1:8 (sim. of vulture); fig. of ships (like cloud, or doves) Is 60:8; בְּנֵי־רֶשֶׁף יַגְבִּיהוּ עוּף Jb 5:7 make high to fly, i.e. make their flight high, soar aloft (sim. of irresistible tendency). e.g. Deuteronomy 4:17
- b. hover (protectingly) Is 31:5 (birds, sim. of י׳; on sense cf. Dt 32:11). e.g. Isaiah 31:5
- 2. fly away, to a distance, ψ 55:7 (fig.; ‖ אַרְחִיק נְדֹד v 8); = vanish, of locusts Na 3:16 (fig.); כְּנֶשֶׁר יָעוּף הַשָּׁמַיִם Pr 23:5b (Qr) sim. of riches (v. Toy); of wicked Jb 20:8 (כַּחֲלוֹם); end of life, in gen., וַנָּעֻ֑פָה ψ 90:10.—הֲתָעוּף Pr 23:5a Kt, do thine eyes fly (light) upon it? (הֲתָעִיף Hiph. Qr dost thou cause thine eyes to fly, etc.?) is difficult, and line perhaps not original (v. Toy). e.g. Psalms 55:7
Pōʿl
- 1. fly about, to and fro; Impf. 3 ms. יְעוֹפֵף of birds Gn 1:20 (P); seraphim Is 6:2; Pt. שָׂרָף מְעוֹפֵף flying fiery serpent Is 14:29; 30:6. e.g. Genesis 1:20
- 2. cause to fly to and fro, brandish, Inf. cstr. sf. בְּעוֹפְפִי חַרְבִּי Ez 32:10 when I brandish my sword before them. Hithpōʿl. Impf. 3 ms. כָּעוֹף יִתְעוֹפֵף כְּבוֹדָם Ho 9:11 like a bird their glory shall fly away. e.g. Ezekiel 32:10
Hiphil
- Impf. 2 ms. Qr, v. Qal ad fin.
עוף II I. [עִיף] vb. be dark
עוף III = II. עוּף q.v. for עֵיפָה, עֵיפַי etc.
עוף IV be faint (cf. Syriac ܥܳܦ 3, PS2835
Qal
- Pf. 3 fs. עָֽיְפָה נַפְשִׁי לְ Je 4:31 (? read עֲיֵפָה); Impf. 3 ms. וַיָּ֫עַף Ju 4:21 (וְיָעֵף GFM Bu), 1 S 14:28 (del. We Bu Kit Löhr, emend. HPS), v 31 (read וַיִּעַף [√ יעף] Buhl HPS), 2 S 21:15 (corrupt, HPS; for Philist. name We Dr Bu Kit). e.g. Jeremiah 4:31
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. fly (NH id., (rare) flicker, flutter, עוֹף fowl; Aramaic עוֹפָא, ܥܰܘܦܳܐ id.; Ethiopic ዖፍ id.; Arabic عَوْفٌ augury, from birds (cf. WeHeid. 2, 202), fortune, عيف, عَافَ practice augury, عَاىَٔفٌ augur; also عوف, عَاَفَ fly about, of birds);—
II. I. [עִיף] vb. be dark;—only Qal Impf. 2 fs. תָּעֻ֫פָה Jb 11:17 (though) it be dark, but read prob. תְּעֻפָה, subst., v. infr.
I. n.f. id.;—so read prob. for תָּעֻ֫פָה Jb 11:17 (opp. בֹּקֶר).
I. = II. עוּף q.v. for עֵיפָה, עֵיפַי etc.
II. vb. be faint (cf. Syriac ܥܳܦ 3, PS2835; ‖ form of יעף q.v.; occurrences dub.);—
— 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.
עוּף I
- to be bent, doubled; to be wearied. Ḥull. II, 3 ועָף, v. שָׁחַז. Midr. Sam. ch. XXIII, beg. מריב עונית … עָפִים ומתעלפים on account of the multitude of my sins are the righteous in me wearied and faint.—Denom. עוֹף, עָיֵף.
עוּף
- ch., v. עִיף
עוּף II
- to fly. Sabb. 26ᵃ מפני שהוא עָף because it is volatile (explosive). [Sot. 45ᵃ עפו, עף Ar., v. צוּף.]
- same. Ber. 63ᵃ פרנסתו מְעוֹפֶפֶת לו כעוף his sustenance comes flying to him like a bird. Ḥull. XII, 3 היתה מעופפת if the mother bird was flying about the nest; Tosef. ib. X, 10. Pirké d’R. El. ch. IV ובשתים מְעוֹפְפִים וכ׳ and with two wings they fly, and they sanctify &c.; Yalk. Is. 271; a. e.
עוּף ²
- Targ. O. Deut. IV, 17 דפרח דתיעוף ed. Lisb. (ed. only דפרח; דתיעוף being a gloss).
עוֹף
- [bend, wing; cmp. כָּנָף,] bird, fowl. B. Kam. 92ᵇ (quoted fr. כתובים) כל ע׳ למינו ישכון ובן אדם לדומה לו (not ובני; Tosaf. ע׳ כנף) every bird nests according to (with) its kind, and man with one like himself; Yalk. Gen. 116; Yalk. Jud. 67. Ḥull. 27ᵇ, a. fr. אין שחיטה לע׳ מן התורה the ritual slaughtering of birds is not indicated in the Torah. Sabb. 130ᵃ, a. e. במקומו … בשר ע׳ בחלב in the native town of R. J. the Galilean they ate poultry prepared with milk; a. v. fr.—Pl. עוֹפוֹת. Ḥull. l. c. Gen. R. s. 67, v. סִכְסֵךְ I; a. fr.
עוֹף ²
- Targ. Y. Lev. V, 10. Targ. Gen. I, 20; a. fr.—Pl. עוֹפִין, עוֹפַיָּא, עוֹפָן. Targ. Ps. L, 11 Ms. (ed. sing.). Ib. XXIII, 5 ed. Lag. Targ. Y. Gen. XXV, 27.
עִיף II
- to bend, double. Targ. Ex. XXVI, 9 ותְעוּף Ms. I (Ms. II ותְעִיף; O. ed. Berl. a. Y. ותֵיעוֹף; oth. ed. ותָעֵיף Af.).—Part. pass. (עֵיף) עִיף. Ib. XXVIII, 16; XXXIX, 9 (Y. ed. Vien. עֵיף).—Ber. 56ᵃ, v. חָסָא I. Ḥull. 51ᵇ עִיף מֵיעַף Ar. (Alf. עָיֵיף מיעף; ed. עוף ומעופף) if the cloak is well folded.
- to double, fold. Keth. 67ᵇ עַיְּיפִינְהוּ וכ׳ he doubled them (his gifts) and sent them to him. Sabb. 134ᵃ ולְעַיֵּיף ליה לעילאי (not ועייף; Rashi ולעַפְפֵיה; Ms. Rashi וליכייפיה, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 10) let him bend the border upward. Erub. 96ᵇ אדעתא … עייפינהו he doubled them with the intention of making borders to a cloak. Men. 42ᵃ; a. e.
- same, v. supra.
- , v. עֲפַף
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 28 distinct written forms H5774 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 H5774, 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
- מועף mûwʻâph H4155 darkness
- מעוף mâʻûwph H4588 gloom
- עוף ʻôwph H5775 bird
- עיפה ʻêyphâh H5890 darkness
- עפעף ʻaphʻaph H6079 eyelid
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 6 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 29 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 29 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 1:20
- Deuteronomy 4:17
- Judges 4:21
- 1 Samuel 14:28
- 2 Samuel 21:15
- Job 5:7
- Psalms 18:10
- Proverbs 23:5
- Isaiah 6:2
- Ezekiel 32:10
- Hosea 9:11
- Nahum 3:16
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.
