פָּעַל
to do
‘to do’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
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: ‘do’
Form
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- 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).
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 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 H6466 appears in the Book of Micah — 1 distinct verse. 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.
Micah
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.
פעל — transliterated pâʻal — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to do.” Older and newer Bibles part ways — “workers” in the King James Version, “doers of” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. It appears 55 verses across 11 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its moderately common vocabulary. More than a third of its appearances fall in Psalms. The lexicon spreads it across several senses; see its full sense range. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6466 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 →
- 55
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 55 distinct verses.
- 11 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 11 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #678
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 678 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 55 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 55 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 41 verses · 75%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 11 verses · 20%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 3 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: Workers 7×, Work 4×, All the workers 3×
- American Standard Version: Workers 9×, All the workers 4×, Work 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Workers 9×, Evildoers 8×, Do 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Doers of 13×, Workers of 9×, Do 5×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6466 across 56 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 32 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 H6466 across 54 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 H6466 across 57 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 29 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 H6466 across 65 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 32 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
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.
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. Dt 32:27 +, פָ֫עַל אֵל Nu 23:23, 2 ms. פָּעַלְתָּ Ex 15:17 +, etc.; Impf. 3 ms. יִפְעַל Jb 22:17 +; 2 ms. תִּפְעָל־ 35:6, etc.; Inf. cstr. לְפָעֳלָם Jb 37:12 (v. infr.); Pt. act. פֹּעֵל ψ 15:2 +, pl. cstr. פֹּעֲלֵי 5:6 +, etc.;— e.g. Deuteronomy 32:27
- 1. do:
- a. of God, c. acc. (abstr.) Nu 23:23; Dt 32:27; Jb 33:29, יְשׁוּעוֹת ψ 74:12; + ל pers. ψ 31:20; 68:29; Is 26:12 Jb 22:17; c. acc. cogn. פֹּעַלִ ψ 44:2 Hb 1:5; acc. om. Is 43:13, cf. 41:4. e.g. Numbers 23:23
- b. of men, c. acc. ψ 11:3 Jb 11:8, + ל pers. (God) 7:20, + ב pers. (God) 35:6; especially of doing evil, שָׁ֑קֶר Ho 7:1, עָוֶל Jb 34:32, עַוְלָה 36:23 ψ 58:3; 119:3, אָוֶן Pr 30:20, especially פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן Ho 6:8; Is 31:2 Jb 31:3; 34:8, 22 ψ 5:6 + 15 times ψ, Pr 10:29; 21:15, פֹּעֲלֵי רָע Mi 2:1; rarely of doing right, c. acc. מִשְׁפָּטוֹ Zp 2:3, צֶדֶק ψ 15:2. e.g. Psalms 11:3
- c. of clouds, c. acc. Jb 37:12 (disregarding—֑). e.g. Job 37:12
- 2. make:
- a. of God, c. acc. concr. object + ל end Pr 16:4, ל of 2nd obj. ψ 7:14; פֹּעֲלִי Jb 36:3 my Maker. e.g. Proverbs 16:4
- b. of man, c. acc. concr. Is 44:12, 15; acc. om. 44:12 ψ 7:16.—Is 1:31 v. פֹּעַל. e.g. Isaiah 44:12
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. do, make (poet. for עָשָׂה) (NH פּוֹעֵל workman, cf. J Aram.; Ph. פעל = BH (often); Arabic فَعَلَ id.; Old Aramaic פעל; Syriac in der. spec. and deriv.);—
— 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.
פָּעַל I
- (b. h.) [to split, cmp. פלח,] to work. Y. Sabb. II, end, 8ᵈ; Tanḥ. Emor 7; Lev. R. s. 27 (ref. to Num. XXIII, 23) כל מי שפ׳ עם לא וכ׳ let whosoever worked with God come and take his reward. Lev. R. s. 4 כל מה שיִפְעַל אדם עם נפשו וכ׳ however much man may do for his soul, he has not done his full duty. Gen. R. s. 15 (ref. to Ps. LXXIV, 12) ראו פועלא טבא שהתקין … עמדתי לִפְעוֹל see the good employer, for the Lord has prepared my wages (the garden of Eden), before yet I arose to work; Yalk. ib. 20. Midr. Till. to Ps. XCII בששת … פָּעַלְתִּי את העולם ובשבת נחתי in the six working days I worked and made the world, and on the Sabbath I rested; a. fr.—Esp. to deal. Lam. R. to III, 33 [read:] בשני מקומות פָּעֲלוּ ישראל עם הקב"ה באחד פעלו בפיהם ולא בלבם ובאחד פעלו בלבם ולא בפיהם in two places Israelites dealt with God, in one they dealt with their mouth (professed faith), but not with their heart, and in the other, they dealt with their heart (were loyal at heart), but not with their mouth; בסיני פעלו בפיהם וכ׳ at Sinai they dealt with their mouth but not with their heart (ref. to Ps. LXXVIII, 36); בבבל פעלו בלבם וכ׳ in Babylonia they dealt with their heart, but not with their mouth (ref. to Lam. l. c.); Cant. R. to VII, 8. e.g. Numbers 23:23
פָּעַל II
- laborer, v. פּוֹעַל II.
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 36 distinct written forms H6466 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| פֹּ֣עֲלֵי | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Hosea 6:8 | 8 |
| פֹּ֥עֲלֵי | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Isaiah 31:2 | 6 |
| פָּעַ֥לְתָּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Isaiah 26:12 | 4 |
| לְ/פֹ֣עֲלֵי | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Job 31:3 | 3 |
| יִפְעַל | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Isaiah 44:15 | 2 |
| יִפְעָֽל | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 7:13 | 2 |
| פֹּ֪עֲלֵ֫י | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Psalms 14:4 | 2 |
| אֶפְעַ֖ל | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Isaiah 43:13 | 1 |
| אֶפְעַ֨ל | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Job 7:20 | 1 |
| וַ/יִּפְעָלֵ֨/הוּ֙ | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Isaiah 44:12 | 1 |
| וּ/פָעַל֙ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Isaiah 44:12 | 1 |
| וּ/פֹ֥עֲלֵי | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Micah 2:1 | 1 |
| וּ/פֹעֵ֥ל | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 15:2 | 1 |
| וּ֝/לְ/פֹעֲלִ֗/י | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Construct | Job 36:3 | 1 |
| יִּפְעַ֖ל | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Job 22:17 | 1 |
| מִ/פֹּ֣עֲלֵי | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Psalms 59:2 | 1 |
| פָעֲל֖וּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Hosea 7:1 | 1 |
| פָעֲל֣וּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Psalms 119:3 | 1 |
| פָעַ֣ל | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Isaiah 41:4 | 1 |
| פָעַ֥לְתִּי | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Proverbs 30:20 | 1 |
| פָּ֖עַל | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Numbers 23:23 | 1 |
| פָּ֝עַ֗לְתִּי | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Job 34:32 | 1 |
| פָּ֭עַלְתָּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 31:19 | 1 |
| פָּעַ֖לְתָּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Exodus 15:17 | 1 |
| פָּעַ֣ל | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Proverbs 16:4 | 1 |
| פָּעַ֥ל | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Deuteronomy 32:27 | 1 |
| פָּעָ֑לוּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Zephaniah 2:3 | 1 |
| פָּעָֽל | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 11:3 | 1 |
| פֹּ֤עֲלֵ֫י | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Psalms 53:4 | 1 |
| פֹּֽעֲלֵי | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Psalms 141:4 | 1 |
| פֹּעֲלֵ֣י | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Psalms 125:5 | 1 |
| פֹּעֵ֣ל | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Habakkuk 1:5 | 1 |
| פֹּעֵ֥ל | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 74:12 | 1 |
| תִּפְעָ֑ל | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Job 11:8 | 1 |
| תִּפְעָ֫ל֥וּ/ן | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Psalms 58:2 | 1 |
| תִּפְעָל | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Job 35:6 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6466, 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 49 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 55 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 15:17
- Numbers 23:23
- Deuteronomy 32:27
- Job 7:20
- Psalms 5:5
- Proverbs 10:29
- Isaiah 26:12
- Hosea 6:8
- Micah 2:1
- Habakkuk 1:5
- Zephaniah 2:3
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.
