קָבַל
to receive
‘to receive’ is one of 6 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
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘receive’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- 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”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“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
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H6901 appears in the Book of Job — 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.
Job
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 קבל centers on the idea of “to receive.” Its earliest occurrence is Exodus 26:5. It turns up in 12 verses across 7 books, an uncommon footprint. The word gravitates to Esther (25%), then Exodus and 1 Chronicles. Across 2 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Piel, Hiphil). 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 H6901 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 →
- 12
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 12 distinct verses.
- 7 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 7 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,910
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,910 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 12 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Esther 3 verses 25%
- Exodus 2 verses 17%
- 1 Chronicles 2 verses 17%
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 12 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 10 verses · 83%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 17%
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: Took 3×, Received 2×
- American Standard Version: Received 2×, Took 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Took 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: And 4×, Accept 2×, Accepted 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6901 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 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 H6901 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 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 H6901 across 12 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 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 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6901 across 19 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
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 5 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.
Piel
- receive, take (late) (Aramaic loan-word (and in Aramaic denom.) Gerber 32, cf. Aramaic (לִ)קְבֵיל in front, ܡܶܢ ܩܒܘܿܠ opposite, Biblical Aramaic לֳקֳבֵל before, Old Aramaic Palm. לקבל over against, Nab. id., in view of; also Sab. לקבל in view of CISiv, No. 79, 11. 2. 4. 5. 8, Assyrian ḳablu, encounter; verbs are: Sab. קבל accept, DHMZMG xxix (1875), 615; xxx (1876), 672; Arabic قِبَلَ be in front, opposite, قَبَلَ accept, admit; Ethiopic ቀበለ:; especially iii. 2, go to meet, accept; NH קָבַל accuse, Pi. = BH; Aramaic קַבֵּל, ܩܰܒܶܠ receive);—Pf. 3 ms. קִבֵּל Est 4:4 + (9:27 Qr קִבְּלוּ); 3 pl. קִבְּלוּ Ezr 8:30; Impf. 3 ms. sf. וַיְקַבְּלֵם 1 Ch 12:19 (v 18 van d. H.); 3 mpl. וַיְקַבְּלוּ 2 Ch 29:16, 22; 1 pl. נְקַבֵּל Jb 2:10(×2) Imv. ms. קַבֵּל Pr 19:20, קַבֶּל־ 1 Ch 21:11;— e.g. Esther 4:4
- 1. take, c. acc. rei 2 Ch 29:22; Ezr 8:30; acc. om. 2 Ch 29:16, + ל reflex. = choose 1 Ch 21:11; receive, c. acc. pers. 12:19 (van d. H. v 18). e.g. 2 Chronicles 29:22
- 2. accept, c. acc. rei Jb 2:10(×2); ק׳ מוּסָר Pr 19:20; acc. om. Est 4:4. e.g. Job 2:10
- 3. accept, assume, an obligation, sq. cl., Est 9:23, sq. inf. v 27 (+ עַל reflex.). e.g. Esther 9:23
Hiphil
- Pt. fpl. מַקְבִּילֹת shew oppositeness, i.e. correspond, one to (אֶל) another Ex 26:5; 36:12 (both P). e.g. Exodus 26:5
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
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.
קָבַל I
- [to seize; to join, meet, correspond.]
- to receive, accept; to take an obligation upon one’s self; to contract, agree. Zeb. II, 1 כל הזבחים שק׳ דמן זר וכ׳ all sacrifices whose blood was received (in a vessel) by a non-priest &c. Ib. 4 ק׳ והלך וזרק וכ׳ if he received the blood, or carried or sprinkled it with the thought of disposal at an unlawful time. Ib. 3; a. fr.—Ab. I, 1 משה ק׳ וכ׳ Moses received the (traditional) law from Sinai, and handed it over to &c. Ib. 4 קִבְּלוּ מהם (Var. ממנו) received the traditions from them. Ib. 3 לקַבֵּל וכ׳, v. עֶבֶד. Erub. 72ᵇ מְקַבְּלֵי פרס; ib. 73ᵃ מְקַבְּלוֹת, v. פְּרָס. Ab. I, 15 הוי מְקַבֵּל את כל וכ׳ receive every man &c., v. סֵבֶר. Keth. 58ᵃ (a mnemonical formula) ק׳ מסר והלך if he (the betrothed) accepted (was satisfied to marry her in spite of blemishes discovered), or if the father handed his daughter over to the groom’s delegates, or if the father (or his delegates) went along with the groom’s delegates; Kidd. 11ᵃ. Keth. 56ᵇ, a. fr. ק׳ עליו אחריות if he assumed the guaranty. Dem. II, 2, sq. המקבל עליו וכ׳ he that obligates himself &c., v. נֶאֱמָן. Ex. R. s. 3 והם לא קבלו על וכ׳ and did they not receive (punishment) for what they did? Ib. אינו מקבל מוסר does not accept correction. Men. 96ᵇ, a. fr. מקבל טומאה susceptible of levitical uncleanness; a. v. fr.—Esp. to take on lease, to rent a field either on shares (v. אָרִיס) or at a fixed rent (v. חָכִיר). B. Mets. IX, 1. Ib. 9 קִבְּלָהּ הימנו לשבע וכ׳ if he rented it of him for seven years. Ib. 10 קבלה הימנו שבע … בשבע וכ׳ if he rented it for ‘seven years at a rent of seven hundred Zuz’, the Sabbatical year is not included; a. fr.—ק׳ פנים, v. Hif.—ק׳ קיבולת, v. קִיבּוֹלֶת.—Part. pass. מְקוּבָּל a) accepted, acceptable, well-liked, beloved. Ber. V, 5, v. טָרַף. Ib. 17ᵃ ויהא מק׳ על הבריות and that he may be well-liked of men.—b) holding a tradition. Peah II, 6 מק׳ אני מר׳ … שקבל וכ׳ I hold a tradition from R. M. who received it of &c.; Naz. 56ᵇ כך מְקוּבְּלַנִי וכ׳; a. e.
- (with פנים or sub. פנים; interch. with Pi.) to ask for a favorable reception, to visit, pay one’s respects to. Y. Erub. V, beg. 22ᵇ אילולא דייו אלא שהיה מקבל פני רבו שכל המַקְבִּיל פני רבו כאילו מקבל וכ׳ (not דיין; = אילו לא עשה כלום אלא … דייו) had he done nothing (during the thirteen years of his waiting on his master) but greet his teacher, it were sufficient; for he that pays his respects to his teacher is considered as one waiting on the Divine Presence; Y. Snh. XI, 30ᵇ top. Ḥag. 5ᵇ אתם הִקְבַּלְתֶּם … תזכו להַקְבִּיל וכ׳ you have greeted a countenance that is seen but cannot see (a blind man), may you be permitted to greet the Countenance that sees and cannot be seen. Snh. 42ᵃ אילמלא … להַקְבִּיל פני וכ׳ if Israelites were permitted to greet their Father in heaven only once a month &c.; כל המברך … כאילו מקבל וכ׳ saying the blessing over the new moon in its due time, is, as it were, greeting the Divine Presence; Yalk. Ex. 189 מקביל. Y. Ḥag. I, beg. 75ᵈ והִקְבּילוּ ר׳ י׳ בבקיעין and waited upon (visited) R. J. in B’ḳiin; Y. Sot. III, 18ᵈ bot.; Tosef. Sot. VII, 9, והקבילו פני וכ׳; Ḥag. 3ᵃ הלכו להקביל פני וכ׳; a. fr.—Sabb. 152ᵃ, v. infra.
- (with פנים, or ל־) to be placed opposite, be admitted to the presence of, (a polite expression for:) to be visited. Sabb. 152ᵃ מפני מה לא הוּקְבַּלְנוּ פניך … שהוּקְבְּלוּ אבותי לאבותיך early eds. (Ms. M. לא הוקבלו, incorr.; later eds. הִקְבַּלְנוּ … שהִקְבִּילוּ Hif.; v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note) why were we not permitted to see you on the festive day, as my ancestors used to receive thy ancestors?
- 1. to be received, accepted. Sifra Vayikra, N’dab., ch. IV, Par. 4 הדם הדם שנ׳ בכלי ‘they shall sprinkle the blood’ (Lev. I, 5), the blood which has been received in a vessel. Zeb. 34ᵇ, sq.; a. e.—Pesik. R. s. 44 ספק מִתְקַבֵּל ספק אינו מתקבל it is doubtful, will he or will he not be favorably received. Ab. d’R. N. ch. IV תפלתו מִתְקַבֶּלֶת ברצון his prayer was accepted with favor; a. fr. e.g. Leviticus 1:5
- 2. to make one’s self the recipient of, to receive, accept. Keth. V, 1 הִתְקַבַּלְתִּי ממך וכ׳ I have received at thy hands (on account) one hundred &c. Gitt. VI, 1 הִתְקַבֵּל גט זה וכ׳ make thyself the receiver of this letter of divorce in behalf of my wife. Ib. התקבל לי גטי accept my letter of divorce in my behalf; a. fr.
קְבַל
- 1. (with אפי) to visit. Targ. Ps. XLI, 7. Ib. XLV, 10.
- 2. ק׳ למימרא to listen, obey, v. infra.
- to receive, take, accept. Targ. Ex. XXIII, 8. Targ. II Sam. XIV, 14 (h. text ישא נפש!). Targ. Ps. XXIV, 5. Targ. Is. XII, 3. Targ. Lev. XX, 17; a. fr.—Targ. Ps. LXII, 11 ed. Lag. (ed. תהבלו = חבל׳ seize), v. הֲבַל.—Esp. ק׳ למימרא to accept, consent, listen to, obey. Targ. Gen. III, 17 (Y. ed. Vien. קְבֵלַת Pe.). Ib. XVI, 2. Targ. Deut. XXVI, 17; a. fr.—B. Mets. 117ᵃ קַבִּילִי עלאי I took upon myself (consented to, was prepared for), v. עֲלִיָּה. Y. Ḥag. II, 77ᵈ מרתא דביתא דקַבַּלְתָּן the mistress of the house who received us (whose guests we were). Sabb. 17ᵃ גזור וקַבְּלוּ מינייהו they decreed the prohibition, and the people accepted it of them. Bekh. 38ᵃ בר קַבּוּלֶי טומאה susceptible of levitical uncleanness; a. fr.
- 1. to be received, accepted. Targ. Num. XV, 7; 10; 13. Targ. II Chr. XXX, 27; a. fr.
- 2. (v. preced.Hithpa.) to be made the recipient of, to have assigned to. Targ. O. Deut. XXXIII, 21 ויתקבל בקדמיתא דיליה ed. Berl. (oth. ed. ואתק׳) to him (to God) shall be (has been) assigned a share in the foremost part of it (of the land; h. text וירא ראשית לו).
קָבַל II
- (cmp. חבל) to feel oppressed; to cry; (cmp. צָוַח) to complain, bring charges. Yad. IV, 6 קוֹבְלִין אנו עליכם we cry out against you (we say, ‘woe unto you’). Ib. 8 קוֹבֵל אני עליכם I accuse you. Gen. R. s. 96 (ref. to ויקרבו, Gen. XLVII, 29, v. קָרַב) אמר [לו] הקב"ה היום קובל עליך לומר בי הוא יקום (not כי) the Lord said to him, the day brings suit against thee (summons thee before court) saying, with me (on this day) he shall stand (before the throne of justice); Tanḥ. Vayḥi 2; Yalk. Kings 168. Deut. R. s. 9 (ref. to Deut. XXXI, 14 הן קרבו) היום קבל לפני הקב"ה וכ׳ (some ed. קובל) the day cried out before the Lord saying, O Lord, I will not move, I will not set, and Moses shall live; Yalk. ib. 941 כאדם שאומר פלוני קובל … כך היום קובל וכ׳ (not קיבל) as one says, that man is bringing charges against thee …, so (the Lord said,) the day is summoning thee, but the sun said, I will not move &c. Y. Peah I, 15ᶜ אמו של … וקָבְלָה עליו לרבותינו וכ׳ R. Yishmael’s mother … came and complained of him before our teachers, saying &c.; Y. Kidd. I, 61ᵇ; a. e. e.g. Genesis 47:29
- same. Ab. d’R. N. ch. XVI הִקְבִּילָה וכ׳ she complained to her mistress.
קְבַל ²
- , to cry out, complain, lament. Targ. Esth. IV, 1 (h. text זעק). Targ. Ps. LXXVII, 2 (ed. Lag. a. oth. קַבֵּילִית Pa.; h. text צעק). Targ. O. Ex. XXII, 22 (Y. צוח); a. fr.—Snh. 31ᵇ עוקבן … ק׳ קדמנא ʿU. the Babylonian brought suit before us. Kidd. 59ᵃ אזיל … קַבְלֵיה לר׳ זירא R. G. came and complained against him to R. Z.; אזל ר׳ ז׳ וקבליה וכ׳ R. Z. went and laid the suit before &c. Y. Kidd. I, 61ᶜ top; Y. Peah I, 15ᵈ ק׳ לי על בריה וכ׳ he brought complaint before me against his son (asking) that he should support him; Pesik. R. s. 23-24; a. e.
- same. Targ. Job XXXV, 9 (Bxt. מַקְבְּלִין Af.; h. text יזעיקו); v. supra.
קְבַל III
- (cmp. preced.) [to be thick,] to be misty, dark. Targ. Mic. III, 6. Targ. Is. XIII, 10; a. e.—Part. קָבֵיל, קָבֵל, קְבִילָא. Targ. Ps. CXXXIX, 11 (not קַ׳, קֳ׳; h. text אוֹר!). Targ. Y. Lev. XIV, 57 יומא ק׳ a cloudy day, opp. נהירא; a. e.—V. next art.
- to darken. Targ. Am. V, 8. Ib. VIII, 9.
קַבָּל
- m. h., v. קַבּלָן
קַבָּל ²
- (preced. art.) foggy, dark; trnsf. obscure. Targ. Y. I Gen. XV, 12 בבל קַבְּלָא Babylonia the foggy (v. חֲשׁוֹכָא II).—Snh. 14ᵃ; 92ᵃ לעולם הוי ק׳ וקיים remain always obscure (without office) and live.
קְבל IV
- (preced.)
- 1. darkness, fog. Targ. O. Gen. XV, 12. Ib. 17 (ed. Amst. קַבְלָה). Targ. O. Ex. X, 21 קֵבַל ליליא ed. Berl. (oth. ed. קְבֵיל, קְבַל). Ib. 22 חשוך ק׳; Y. חשוך דקביל. Targ. O. Deut. XXVIII, 29 קַבְ׳ (ed. Amst. קַבְּ׳); Y. קִיבְ׳. Targ. Job III, 3 (some ed. קְבָ׳); a. fr.—Pl. קִבְלַיָּא, קִי׳. Targ. Ps. LXXIII, 18 (h. text חלקות).
- 2. vapor, vanity. Targ. Job VI, 26 ולקִבְ׳ (ed. Lag. ולקִיבְ׳; h. text ולרוח).—V. קַבָּלָא.
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 13 distinct written forms H6901 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 H6901, 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 12 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 12 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.
