פָּסַח
to skip
‘to skip’ 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 Piel verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘pl.’
Form
- 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).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- 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”).
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”).
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.
Every verse where H6452 appears in the Book of 1 Kings — 2 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.
1 Kings
- 1 Kings 18:21 פֹּסְחִים֮ Qal ptcp.act mp Elijah came near to all the people, and said, "How long will you waver between the two sides? If Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." The people answered him not a word.
- 1 Kings 18:26 וַֽ/יְפַסְּח֔וּ conj + Piel wimpf 3mp They took the bull which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any who answered. They leaped about the altar which was made.
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 פסח centers on the idea of “to skip.” Scripture first uses it in Exodus 12:13. It appears 8 verses across 4 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its uncommon vocabulary. The word gravitates to Exodus (38%), then 2 Samuel and 1 Kings. Across 3 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Qal, Niphal). 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 H6452 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 →
- 8
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 8 distinct verses.
- 4 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 4 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,625
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,625 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 8 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 8 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 5 verses · 63%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 3 verses · 38%
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†: Became lame 1×, Halt 1×, I will pass 1×
- American Standard Version†: Became lame 1×, Go ye limping 1×, I will pass 1×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Became lame 1×, He will pass over it 1×, I will pass 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: And 1×, Be limping 1×, Became lame 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6452 across 7† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H6452 across 7† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H6452 across 7† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6452 across 10† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
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 4 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.
פסח I pass or spring over
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. פ׳ Ex 12:27, וּפ׳ consec. v 23 (J); 1 s. וּפָסַחְתִּ֫י v 13 (P), all c. עַל, of י׳ passing over (sparing) houses of Isr.; Inf. abs. פָּסוֹחַ Is 31:5 a passing over (sc. עַל־יְרוּשָׁלַםִ). e.g. Exodus 12:27
פסח II limp (Thes sub I. פ׳, but dub.
Qal
- Pt. pl. פֹּסְחִים עַל־שְׁתֵּי הַסְּעִפִּים 1 K 18:21 fig. (v. [סְעִפָּה]). e.g. 1 Kings 18:21
Niphal
- Impf. 3 ms. וַיִּפֹּל וַיִּפָּסֵחַ 2 S 4:4 and he fell and was made limping (lame). e.g. 2 Samuel 4:4
Piel
- Impf. 3 mpl. וַיְפַסְּחוּ עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ 1 K 18:26 they went limping (along by the altar), i.e. prob. in their dance, v. Kit PietschmPhön. 220 (Gr ויפסעו [= וַיִּפְשְׂעוּ] stepped). e.g. 1 Kings 18:26
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. pass or spring over;—
II. vb. limp (Thes sub I. פ׳, but dub.; Arabic فَسَخَ is dislocate; according to Gerber73 II. פ׳ is denom. from פִּסֵּחַ [and this sub I. פ׳?]);—
— 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.
פָּסַח
- (b. h.) to leap over; to spare. Ex. R. s. 15 שאני פוֹסֵחַ עליכם ומגין וכ׳ I (the Lord) will pass over and protect you. Pes. X, 5 פֶּסַח על שום שפ׳ המקום וכ׳ the Passover lamb is symbolical of the fact that the Lord passed over the houses &c.
- (denom. of פִּסֵּחַ) to become lame. Y. Ber. I, 3ᶜ bot. ונ׳ ונתרפא and became lame, but was cured; Gen. R. s. 39; a. e.
פסח
- , Targ. Is. XXXIII, 12 מפסחין, v. פְּסַךְ
פִּסֵּחַ
- preced. art.) limping, lame. Sifra Emor ch. II, Par. 3 פ׳ בין חגר וכ׳ ‘lame’ (Lev. XXI, 18), whether lame on both feet or on one. Sifré Deut. 126; a. e.—Pl. פִּסְּחִים, פִּי׳. Pirké d’R. El. ch. XXXVI (ref. to II Sam. V, 6) העורים והפ׳ אלו הצלמים ‘the blind and the lame’ means the idols; Yalk. Gen. 82 (with ref. to Ps. CXV, 5-7). e.g. Leviticus 21:18
פֶּסַח
- preced. wds.) Passover festival; (sub. זבח) Passover sacrifice, Passover meal. Pes. V, 1 (58ᵃ) חל ערב פ׳ וכ׳ (Mish. ed. ערבי פסחים; Y. ed. ערב פסחים) if the eve of Passover occurred on a Friday. Ib. 2 הפ׳ ששחטו וכ׳ if they slaughtered a Passover lamb not as such. Ib. IX, 9 חבורה שאבדה פִסְחָהּ a party that lost its dedicated Passover lamb. Ib. 5, a. fr. פ׳ מצרים, פ׳ דורות, v. דּוֹר. Ib. 3, a. fr. פ׳ ראשון the first Passover, i.e. that celebrated on the fifteenth of Nisan; פ׳ שני the second (vicarious) Passover, on the eve of the fifteenth of Iyar (Num. IX, 10 sq.); a. v. fr.—Pl. פְּסָחִים. Ib. 10 שתי … שנתערבו פִּסְחֵיהֶן two parties whose Passover sacrifices were mixed up. Ib. X, 6 ונאכל שם … ומן הפ׳ וכ׳ that there we may partake of the offerings and the Passover sacrifices &c.; a. fr.—ערבי (ערב) פ׳, v. supra. Ib. 1; a. fr.—P’saḥim, name of a treatise, of the Order of Moëd, of the Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud Babli and Y’rushalmi. e.g. Numbers 9:10
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 8 distinct written forms H6452 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.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| וְ/הַ/פִּסְחִים֙ | Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | 2 Samuel 5:6 | 1 |
| וַ/יִּפָּסֵ֖חַ | Verb, Niphal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 2 Samuel 4:4 | 1 |
| וַֽ/יְפַסְּח֔וּ | Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | 1 Kings 18:26 | 1 |
| וּ/פָסַ֤ח | Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Exodus 12:23 | 1 |
| וּ/פָסַחְתִּ֖י | Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Exodus 12:13 | 1 |
| פָּ֠סַח | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Exodus 12:27 | 1 |
| פָּסֹ֥חַ | Verb, Qal, Infinitive Absolute | Isaiah 31:5 | 1 |
| פֹּסְחִים֮ | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | 1 Kings 18:21 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6452, 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
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. 3 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 8 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 8 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
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.
