פָּרַץ
to break through
‘to break through’ is one of 4 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”).
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- 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”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- 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
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H6555 appears in the Book of Job — 3 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.
Job
- Job 1:10 פָּרַ֥ץ Qal pf 3ms Haven't you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
- Job 16:14 יִפְרְצֵ֣/נִי Qal impf 3ms + sfx pers 1cs He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs on me like a giant.
- Job 28:4 פָּ֤רַץ Qal pf 3ms He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
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.
“to break through” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb פרץ (pârats). Carrying more than one sense, it rewards its full sense range. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 48 verses — moderately common. First canonically at Genesis 28:14, it enters the text early. It shares a root with מפרץ, פריץ and פרץ. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6555 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 →
- 48
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 48 distinct verses.
- 15 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 15 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #739
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 739 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 48 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Chronicles 7 verses 15%
- 1 Chronicles 5 verses 10%
- Genesis 4 verses 8%
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 48 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 27 verses · 56%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 14 verses · 29%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 7 verses · 15%
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: Brake down 3×, Break down 2×, Had made 2×
- American Standard Version: Brake down 3×, Forth 2×, Hath broken 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Broke down 2×, Had burst forth 2×, Has burst out 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Broke through 3×, Broke out 2×, But 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6555 across 49 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 38 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 H6555 across 50 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 37 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 H6555 across 49 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 41 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 H6555 across 56 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 41 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
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.
- 1. break or burst out, from womb Gn 38:29 (J; c. acc. cogn.); from enclosure Mi 2:13. e.g. Genesis 38:29
- 2. break through, down (from without), c. acc. גָּדֵר Is 5:5 ψ 80:13; 89:41; Ec 10:8; חוֹמָה Ne 3:35; 2 Ch 26:6, cf. pt. pass. Ne 2:13; 2 Ch 32:5; c. בְּחוֹמָה = make a breach in 2 K 14:13 = 2 Ch 25:23; עִיר פְּרוּצָה Pr 25:28; abs., opp. בָּנָה Ec 3:3; הַפֹּרֵץ Mi 2:13; הַפְּרוּצִים Ne 4:1 the part broken down. e.g. Isaiah 5:5
- 3. break into, c. acc. בֵּית י׳ 2 Ch 24:7. e.g. 2 Chronicles 24:7
- 4. break open, a mining shaft Jb 28:4. e.g. Job 28:4
- 5. break up, break in pieces, c. acc. מַעֲשֶׂיךָ 2 Ch 20:37 (‖ וַיִּשָּֽׁבְרוּ אֳנִיּוֹת). e.g. 2 Chronicles 20:37
- 6. break out (violently) upon, of י׳ in sudden judgment, c. acc. pers. 2 S 5:20 = 1 Ch 14:11, ψ 60:3; c. ב pers. Ex 19:22, 24 (J), 1 Ch 15:13, so of plague ψ 106:29; of י׳, c. acc. cogn. פֶּרֶץ + ב pers. 2 S 6:8 = 1 Ch 13:11; c. acc. cogn. + sf. Jb 16:14. e.g. 2 Samuel 5:20
- 7. use violence, abs. Ho 4:2. e.g. Hosea 4:2
- 8. break over [limits], increase, וַיִּפְרֹץ לָרֹב Gn 30:30 (J), 1 Ch 4:38; + ה loc. Gn 28:14 (J); abs. 30:43 (J), Ex 1:12 (J; + רָבָה), Ho 4:10 Is 54:3, פָּרַץ בָּאָרֶץ Jb 1:10. e.g. Genesis 30:30
- 9. burst open, intrans., of wine-vats Pr 3:10 (c. acc. mat. תִּירוֹשׁ). e.g. Proverbs 3:10
- 10. spread, i.e. become known, of הַדָּבָר 2 Ch 31:5.—1 Ch 13:2 is prob. corrupt, v. Kau, who (after SS) conj. נֶחֱרָצָה; פ׳ in 2 Ch 11:23 is appar. distribute (c. מִן partit.), but dubious.—1 S 28:23; 2 S 13:25; 27; 2 K 5:23 v. פצר.Niph. Pt. אֵין חָזוֹן נִפְרָ֑ץ 1 S 3:1 no vision spread abroad (i.e. general, or frequent, cf. Qal 10; ‖ דְּבַר י׳ הָיָה יָקָר), but text dubious.Pu. Pt. f. מְפרָ֑צֶת Ne 1:3 broken down.Hithp. Pt. pl. הַמִּתְפָּֽרְצִים 1 S 25:10 slaves who break away, each from (מִפְּנֵי) his master. e.g. 2 Chronicles 31:5
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. פָּרַץ vb. break through (NH id.; J.Aram. פְּרַץ id.; perhaps Assyrian parâṣu (v. DlHWB); Arabic فَرَصَ cut, slit, also hit);—Qal Pf. 3 ms. פָּרַץ 2 S 5:20 +; 2 ms. sf. פְּרַצְתָּנוּ ψ 60:3, etc.; Impf. 3 ms. יִפְרֹץ Ex 1:12; 19:22, יִפְרָץ־ v 24, וַיִּפְרֹץ Gn 30:30 +, etc.; Inf. abs. פָּרֹץ Is 5:5; cstr. פְּרֹץ 2 Ch 31:5, פְּרוֹץ Ec 3:3; Pt. act. פֹּרֵץ Mi 2:13; Ec 10:8; pass. fs. פְּרוּצָה 2 Ch 32:5; Pr 25:28; mpl. פְּרֻצִים Ne 4:1, + הֵם פְּרוּצִים 2:13 Qr (> Kt המפרוצים);—break through:
— 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.
פָּרַץ
- (b. h.)
- 1. to break through, make a breach, invade. Pes. 56ᵃ פּוֹרְצִין פרצות וכ׳ made breaches in the fences of their gardens &c.; (Tosef. ib. II (III), 21 פותחין גינותיהם וכ׳); Men. 71ᵃ. Ber. 63ᵃ כבר גדרת … יכול לִפְרוֹץ having once fenced in, thou canst not tear down, i.e. having once approved, you cannot now find fault. Y. Snh. I, 19ᶜ top, v. פּוּץ. Gen. R. s. 85 (ref. to Gen. XXXVIII, 29) כל הפּוֹרְצִים ממך וכ׳ all conquerors shall rise from thee (Judah). Yalk. Mic. 551 פָּרַצְתִּי גדרו של עולם מפני יעקב I broke down the fence of the world (reversed the natural order of things) for the sake of Jacob (making his cattle extremely fecund); ולע"ל אני פורץ אותו לבניו and in the days to come I shall do so to his children. B. Kam. 60ᵇ מלך פּוֹרֵץ … דרך the king may break through fences to pave a way for his army. Koh. R. to IX, 11 (ref. to Job I, 10) פ׳ גדרו של עולם וכ׳ his cattle reversed the order of things &c. Y. Ab. Zar. II, 41ᵃ top לא פָרַצְתָּ גדירן וכ׳ thou hast not torn down the fence of the scholars (not transgressed their law); Gen. R. s. 79, v. גָּדֵיר. Lev. R. s. 26, v. גֶּדֶר I; a. fr.—Part. pass. פָּרוּץ; f. פְּרוּצָה; pl. פְּרוּצִים, פְּרוּצִין; פְּרוּצוֹת. Kil. IV, 4 העומד מרובה על הפ׳ the unimpaired portion of the fence is larger than the ruined part, v. עָמַד II. Y. Sabb. X, 12ᶜ top קופה פ׳ a bin which has been broken into (some of the contents of which has been taken); a. fr.—[Peah VII, 1 בצד הפרוצה Y. ed., v. פִּרְצָה.] e.g. Genesis 38:29
- 2. (sub. גדר) to be lawless, unrestrained, dissolute. Y. Keth. I, 25ᵃ bot. שלא יִפְרְצוּ … בזימה in order that the daughters of Israel be not made heedless of chaste conduct (v. infra); a. e.—Part. pass. as ab. dissolute, bold. Ib. מפני פ׳ אחד because there might be one dissolute man (who may go to the expense of marriage for the sake of his gratification, with the intention of charging his bride with faithlessness afterwards). Cant. R. to IV, 12 לא נמצא בהן אחד פ׳ בעיוה not one of them was of immoral conduct; Lev. R. s. 32 פְּרוּץ ערוה. Gitt. 46ᵃ שלא יהו בנות … פ׳ וכ׳ that the daughters of Israel may not be loose in moral conduct or in vows (v. supra). Gen. R. s. 70 (ref. to Gen. XXIX, 21) אפי׳ אדם פ׳ אינו וכ׳ even the most shameless man would not use such language. Sot. 7ᵃ אבל פ׳ but if they are known to be of dissolute habits, opp. כשרין. Keth. 2ᵇ, sq. משום פ׳ on account of loose women, opp. צנועות; a. fr. e.g. Genesis 29:21
- 3. to spread, increase. Sabb. 13ᵃ; Tosef. ib. I, 14 עד היכן פָּרְצָה טהרה וכ׳ how far the observance of levitical cleanness has spread in Israel!; a. e.
- 1. to be broken through, torn down. Tosef. Kil. III, 3 מחיצת הכרם שנִפְרְצָה if the partition of a vineyard has come down; גדרה ונ׳ if he repaired it, and it came down again. Erub. IX, 2 חצר גדולה שנפרצה לקטנה if the partition between a large court and a smaller one has been broken into. Yalk. Ez. 352 a good shepherd שנ׳ גדר צאנו the fold of whose flock was broken into; (Ruth R. introd. שנפלה). גדר Tanḥ. Bal. 13 ראה שישראל נִפְרָצִים שם he (Balak) saw that the Israelites would be broken into (sustain a great loss) there; Num. R. s. 20 שיש פרצים (corr. acc.). Ab. d’R. N. ch. V ונִפְרְצוּ וכ׳, v. פִּרְצָה; a. fr.
- 2. to be unrestrained, dissolute. Tanḥ. Vayera 9 לפי שנפרצו מעשיהם בזנות because their doings were unrestrained in matters of sexual morality; a. e.
- 3. to be spread, increased. Gen. R. s. 73 (ref. to Gen. XXX, 43) נִפְרְצָה לו פרצה מעין וכ׳ an (abnormal) increase of wealth was granted to him similar to that expected in the days to come (v. Yalk. Mic. l. c.); Yalk. Gen. 130; Yalk. Koh. 989; a. e. e.g. Genesis 30:43
- 4. to be broken off, severed. Succ. III, 1 נפרצו עליו if its leaves are severed (and only kept together by a band), v. פָּרַד.
- (denom. of פָּרִיץ) to be defiant. Tosef. Macc. V (IV), 13 אפי׳ עומד ומַפְרִיץ וכ׳ even if he stands up defiantly (saying, he did not mind more lashes), you dare not add &c.
- to become dissolute, be unrestrained, licentious. Y. Sabb. III, 6ᵃ bot. שלא תִתְפָּרֵץ that she may not assume immoral habits; ib. שלא יִתְפָּרְצוּ that people may not be unrestrained; Y. Bets. II, 61ᶜ
פְּרַץ
- 1. to break through, open &c. Targ. II Kings XIV, 13. Targ. II Esth. III, 8; a. e.—[Targ. Prov. XXV, 28 תריצה Var. ed. Lag., corrected by Bxt. פריצה, read תריעא.]
- 2. to be reckless, sport. Taan. 24ᵇ הוו קא פַרְצֵי בריפתא were recklessly sporting with bread (throwing pieces of bread to one another).
פֶּרֶץ
- m. (b. h.), v. פִּרְצָה
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 45 distinct written forms H6555 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 H6555, 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 43 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 48 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 28:14
- Exodus 1:12
- 1 Samuel 3:1
- 2 Samuel 5:20
- 2 Kings 5:23
- 1 Chronicles 4:38
- 2 Chronicles 11:23
- Job 1:10
- Psalms 60:1
- Proverbs 3:10
- Ecclesiastes 3:3
- Isaiah 5:5
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.
