עָרָה
to uncover
‘to uncover’ 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 Piel verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘make naked’
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘lay bare Is 3’
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”). Here: ‘of Hiph. 2’
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- 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”).
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”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms 11 distinct
- Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 3 times (20%)
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (13%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 times (13%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (7%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (7%)
- Verb, Hithpael, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (7%)
- Verb, Hithpael, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (7%)
- Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (7%)
+3 more forms (3 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 15 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H6168 appears — 14 distinct verses across 8 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
Leviticus 2 verses
- Leviticus 20:18 הֶֽעֱרָ֔ה Hiphil pf 3ms "'If a man lies with a woman having her monthly period, and uncovers her nakedness; he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
- Leviticus 20:19 הֶעֱרָ֖ה Hiphil pf 3ms "'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, nor of your father's sister; for he has made naked his close relative: they shall bear their iniquity.
2 Chronicles 1 verse
Psalms 3 verses
- Psalms 37:35 וּ֝/מִתְעָרֶ֗ה conj + Hithpael ptcp.act ms I have seen the wicked in great power, Spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.
- Psalms 137:7 עָ֤רוּ עָ֑רוּ Piel impv 2mp Piel impv 2mp Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom, The day of Jerusalem; Who said, "Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!"
- Psalms 141:8 תְּעַ֥ר Piel juss 2ms For my eyes are on you, Yahweh, the Lord. In you, I take refuge. Don't leave my soul destitute.
Isaiah 4 verses
- Isaiah 3:17 יְעָרֶֽה Piel impf 3ms Therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion, And Yahweh will make their scalps bald."
- Isaiah 22:6 עֵרָ֖ה Piel pf 3ms Elam bore the quiver, with chariots of men [and] horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.
- Isaiah 32:15 יֵ֨עָרֶ֥ה Niphal impf 3ms until the Spirit be poured on us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest.
- Isaiah 53:12 הֶעֱרָ֤ה Hiphil pf 3ms Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors: yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Lamentations 1 verse
Habakkuk 1 verse
Zephaniah 1 verse
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 ערה centers on the idea of “to uncover.” Read the stem: it spans 4 stems, including Piel and Hiphil. Spanning 14 verses in 8 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Hebrew Bible. Isaiah dominates its distribution — 4 of 14 verses. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 24:20. 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 H6168 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 →
- 14
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 14 distinct verses.
- 8 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 8 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,836
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,836 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 14 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 14 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 6 verses · 43%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 5 verses · 36%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 3 verses · 21%
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†: Emptied 2×, Rase 2×
- American Standard Version†: Emptied 2×, He hath made naked 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Bare 1×, Destroy it 1×, Emptied 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Lay bare 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6168 across 16† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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 H6168 across 16† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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 H6168 across 15† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6168 across 16† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 14 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
10 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).
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 10 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.
ערה I be naked, bare (Arabic عَرِىَ be naked
Piel
- Pf. 3 ms. עֵרָה Is 22:6 Zp 2:14; Impf. 3 ms. יְעָרֶה Is 3:17; 3 fs. וַתְּעַר Gn 24:20; 2 ms. juss. תְּעַר ψ 141:8; 3 mpl. וִיעָרוּ 2 Ch 24:11; Imv. mpl. עָ֫רוּ ψ 137:7(×2); Inf. abs. עָרוֹת Hb 3:13 (Ges§ 75 n);— e.g. Isaiah 22:6
- 1. lay bare Is 3:17; 22:6; Zp 2:14 (indef. subj.); of laying foundations bare, i.e. tearing down walls, etc. Hb 3:13 (yet on text v. Now), abs. עָ֫רוּ עָ֑רוּ ψ 137:7(×2). e.g. Isaiah 3:17
- 2. lay bare by removing contents, empty, water-jar Gn 24:20 (J; + אֶל loc.), chest 2 Ch 24:11. e.g. Genesis 24:20
- 3. pour out, אַל־תְּעַר נַפְשָׁי ψ 141:8 (i.e. slay). e.g. Psalms 141:8
Hiphil
- Pf. 3 ms. הֶעֱרָה:
- 1. make naked, of sexual offences Lv 20:18, 19 (both ‖ גִּלָּה). e.g. Leviticus 20:18
- 2. pour out, הֶע׳ לַמָּוֶת נַפְשׁוֹ Is 53:12 (fig. for slay, cf. Pi. 3). e.g. Isaiah 53:12
Niphal
- pass. of Hiph. 2: 3 ms. יֵעָרֶה עָלֵינוּ רוּחַ Is 32:15 (fig.) until there be poured upon us a spirit from on high. e.g. Isaiah 32:15
Hithpael
- 1. Impf. 2 fs. תִּתְעָרִ֑י La 4:21 thou shalt make thyself naked (of Edom under fig. of drunken woman). e.g. Lamentations 4:21
- 2. Pt. מִתְעָרֶה ψ 37:35 usually pouring himself, i.e. spreading himself out like a tree (Bae doubts; Du מִתְעַלֶּה lifting himself up, cf. 𝔊). e.g. Psalms 37:35
ערה II bare place
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. be naked, bare (Arabic عَرِىَ be naked; Ph. ערה [Pi.] lay bare (cf. Bloch Lzb); Assyrian ûru, nakedness, also desert waste (cf. [עָרָה] infr.) JägerBAS ii. 282 and reff.; NH עֶרְוָה = BH, 𝔗 עִירְיְתָא; Syriac ܥܪܳܝܽܘܬܳܐ in Lexx);—
II. n.f. bare place;—pl. עָרוֹת Is 19:7 (si vera interpr.; > 𝔊 ἄχ(ε)ι, Ki Saad reeds).
— 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.
עָרָה
- , v. ערי
ערי
- to uncover. Gen. R. s. 83, end שהוא עתיד לַעֲרוֹת וכ׳ ‘Rashi’ he will uncover treasures &c., v. עָרַם I.—Denom. עֶרְוָה, עֶרְיָה.
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 15 distinct written forms H6168 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 H6168, 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
- מער maʻar H4626 nakedness
- מערה maʻăreh H4629 bare place
- ערה ʻârâh H6169 bare place
- ערוה ʻervâh H6172 nakedness
- תער taʻar H8593 razor
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 13 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 14 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 24:20
- Leviticus 20:18
- 2 Chronicles 24:11
- Psalms 137:7
- Isaiah 3:17
- Lamentations 4:21
- Habakkuk 3:13
- Zephaniah 2:14
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.
