קוֹל
voice
also: sound, noise fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
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.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
7 verses where H6963 appears in the Absolute state in the Book of 1 Kings. Filtered view — show all forms. 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 1:45 הַ/קּ֖וֹל ptcl def.art + n c ms and Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon; and they are come up from there rejoicing, so that the city rang again. This is the noise that you have heard.
- 1 Kings 8:55 ק֥וֹל n c ms He stood, and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying,
- 1 Kings 18:26 ק֖וֹל n c ms 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.
- 1 Kings 18:27 בְ/קוֹל prep + n c ms It happened at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud; for he is a god: either he is musing, or he is gone aside, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleeps and must be awakened.
- 1 Kings 18:28 בְּ/ק֣וֹל prep + n c ms They cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them.
- 1 Kings 18:29 ק֥וֹל n c ms It was so, when midday was past, that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the [evening] offering; but there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any who regarded.
- 1 Kings 19:13 ק֔וֹל n c ms It was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, there came a voice to him, and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?
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.
At its core, קול (qôwl) means “voice.” Scripture first uses it in Genesis 3:8. Spanning 436 verses in 35 books, it ranks among the common words of the Hebrew Bible. Not a single-sense word: its full sense range also takes in “sound” and “noise”. From the same root come קל and קוליה. Dig into 436-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6963 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 →
- 436
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 436 distinct verses.
- 35 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 35 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #98
- by frequency
- Top 100 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 98 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 436 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Jeremiah 64 verses 15%
- Psalms 54 verses 12%
- Deuteronomy 35 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 436 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 226 verses · 52%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 120 verses · 28%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 90 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 3 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†: Voice 349×, Sound 36×, Noise 33×
- American Standard Version†: Voice 297×, Sound 35×, Noise 30×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Voice 191×, Sound 62×, Voices 22×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Voice 196×, Voice of 107×, Sound of 84×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6963 across 496† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 56 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 10 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H6963 across 498† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 94 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 H6963 across 425† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 51 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 78 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6963 across 503† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 34 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
21 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 21 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.
קול I (sometimes, c. pref. et suff., קֹל)506 n.m. Gn 39
- 1. sound: especially
- a. of human voice Jos 6:10; 2 K 7:10; in speech Gn 27:22(×2) 1 S 1:13; 24:17; 26:17(×2); recognized (הִכִּיר) v 17 Je 18:3; יְפֵה ק׳ Ez 33:32 pleasant of voice, cf. Ct 2:14(×2); 8:13; in singing Ex 32:18; 2 S 19:36; Is 52:8, calling Ju 9:7, shouting Ex 32:17; 1 S 4:6(×2) 1 K 1:40; Ezr 3:13; rejoicing Je 7:34(×4) = 16:9; 25:10; 33:11; praise ψ 66:8; 26:7; Jo 2:10; laughter Je 30:19; weeping Gn 21:16; Ju 2:4; 1 S 11:4; Ru 1:9, 14; Ezr 3:13; outcry Gn 39:15, 18; 1 S 4:14; Je 8:19, distress, lament Je 9:18; Ez 27:30; Zc 11:3 ψ 102:6, supplication ψ 28:2, 6; 31:23; 86:6; adv. ק׳ אֶחָד with one voice Ex 24:3; 2 Ch 5:13, ק׳ גָּדוֹל loud voice 2 S 15:23 + (cf. בְּק׳ ג׳ Gn 39:14; 1 S 28:12 +), ק׳ רָם †Dt 27:14; נָשָׂא ק׳ Gn 21:16 + (v. נָשָׂא 1 b (5)), הֵרִים ק׳ 39:15 + (v. רום Hiph.); on ק׳ as independ. nom., sq. subj. + vb. of calling ψ 3:5; 27:7; 142:2 v. Ges§ 144 m. e.g. Joshua 6:10
- b. of י׳ Gn 3:8; 10; Is 6:8; Ex 19:19; 1 K 19:13; Mi 6:9; Ez 10:5 (cf. also 2 b) +; adv. ק׳ גָּדוֹל Dt 5:19; Ez 9:1; ק׳ דְּמָמָה דַקָּה 1 K 19:12. e.g. Genesis 3:8
- c. of seraph Is 6:4. e.g. Isaiah 6:4
- d. of angel Dn 8:16 (ק׳ אָדָם) i.e. in human speech, cf. Bev); ק׳ דְּבָרָיו 10:6, 9(×2). e.g. Daniel 8:16
- e. of animals: bleating of sheep 1 S 15:14; lowing of cattle v 14 Je 9:9, neighing of horses 8:16, roaring of lion Am 3:4 Je 2:15 +, hissing of serpent 46:22 (in sim.), singing of birds Na 2:8; Zp 2:14; ψ 104:12; Ct 2:12; Ec 12:4. e.g. 1 Samuel 15:14
- f. exclamation, at beginning of cl., a sound of …! = hark! Gn 4:10; Is 13:4; 40:3; 52:8; Je 4:15; 10:22; 50:28; Ct 2:8; 5:2 (Ges§ 146 b). e.g. Genesis 4:10
- 2. sound:
- a. of instrument, especially ק׳ (הַ)שֹּׁפָר Ex 9:16; 20:18 (Gi v 15) Am 2:2; 1 K 1:41 +, חֲצֹצְרוֹת וגו׳ 2 Ch 5:13; כִּנּוֹר Ez 26:13; עוּגָב Jb 21:12; of פַּעֲמֹנִים on high priest’s robe Ex 28:35. e.g. Exodus 9:16
- b. thunder-clap or peal (cf. Dr 1 S 12:17), קוֹל י׳ (or קוֹלוֹ) Am 1:2 Is 30:30; 31 Je 10:13 = 51:16, Jo 2:11; 4:16 ψ 18:14 = 2 S 22:14, ψ 29:3–5, 7–9; 46:7 Jb 37:4 (cf. 1 S 7:10 ψ 77:18, 19; 104:7), so especially pl. abs. (v. supr.) †Ex 9:23, 28, 29, 33, 34; 19:16; 20:18 (Gi v 15), 1 S 7:10; 12:17, 18 Jb 28:26 = 38:25. e.g. 1 Samuel 12:17
- c. קוֹל רַגְלֶיהָ 1 K 14:6 cf. 2 K 6:32, and (prob.) Gn 3:8; also ק׳ (הַ)צְּעָדָה 2 S 5:24 = 1 Ch 14:15; of runners 2 K 11:13; 2 Ch 23:12. e.g. 1 Kings 14:6
- d. stamping of hoofs Je 47:3; Ez 26:10 (+ chariots, etc.), cf. 1 K 1:41. e.g. Jeremiah 47:3
- e. of chariots Na 3:2; Jo 2:5; wheels Ez 3:13; whip Na 3:2. e.g. Nahum 3:2
- f. of sea, and great waters Hb 3:10; Ez 1:24; 43:2 ψ 93:3, 4, cf. Je 50:42 (in sim.); ק׳ צִנּוֹרֶיךָ ψ 42:8. e.g. Habakkuk 3:10
- g. earthquake Ez 37:7. e.g. Ezekiel 37:7
- h. a fall Je 49:21; Ez 26:15; 31:16. e.g. Jeremiah 49:21
- i. of a multitude 1 S 4:14; Is 13:4; Ez 23:42. e.g. 1 Samuel 4:14
- j. din of war Ex 32:17; Je 50:22, 46; 51:55; La 2:7. k. of wings Ez 1:24; 3:13; 10:5. l. flame Jo 2:5; crackling of thorns Ec 7:6; rustling of leaves Lv 26:36. m. mill-stones Je 25:10; Ec 12:4. e.g. Exodus 32:17
- 3. of articulate speech, things said:
- a. (1) often of human advice, command, entreaty Gn 3:17; 4:23 Ex 3:18; 4:1, 9 Dt 1:45; 21:18(×2), 20 1 S 2:25; 8:7, 9 2 S 12:18; ק׳ דִּבְרֵיכֶם Dt 1:34; 5:25; even of written words 2 K 10:6; so also ק׳ הָאֹת Ex 4:8(×2) voice (teaching) of the sign. (2) of a report Gn 45:16; Ec 10:20. (3) of a proclamation Ex 36:6 (P); 2 Ch 24:9; 30:5; 36:22 = Ezr 1:1, Ezr 10:7; Ne 8:15. (4) ק׳ אָלָה Lv 5:1 utterance of adjuration. e.g. Genesis 3:17
- b. often (especially Dt Je) of words of י׳ Gn 22:18; 26:5 Ex 5:2; 15:26; 19:5 Dt 8:20; 9:23; 13:5, 19 +, Ju 2:2, 20; 6:10 1 S 12:14, 15; 15:1, 19, 20, 22 Je 3:13, 25; 7:23 +; of מַלְאַךְ י׳ Ex 23:21, 22.—קֹל Je 3:9 v. sub קלל. e.g. Genesis 22:18
קול II [m.] lightness, frivolity (so Vrss Ki Gie
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. (sometimes, c. pref. et suff., קֹל)506 n.m. Gn 39:14 sound, voice;—abs. קוֹל Gn 4:10 + (הַקֹּל 27:22; 45:16); cstr. קוֹל 3:8 + (וְקֹל Ex 19:16, לְקֹל 4:8(×2)); sf. קוֹלִי 1 S 26:17 +, קוֹלְךָ Ju 18:25 +, etc. (קֹלִי Gn 22:18, קֹלֶ֑ךָ Ex 3:18, etc.); pl. (usually of thunder) קֹלֹת Ex 9:23 + 4 times, קוֹלֹת 20:18 (Gi v 15), קֹלוֹת 1 S 2:17 + 5 times;—
I. n.[m.] lightness, frivolity (so Vrss Ki Gie; Gf thinks = קָלוֹן; > = voice);—מִקֹּל זְנוּתָהּ Je 3:9.—קֹל voice, v. קוֹל.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: from an unused root meaning to call aloud
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.
קוֹל
- v. קהל) voice, call, sound. Ker. 6ᵃ; Pes. 26ᵃ ק׳ מראה וריח וכ׳ the enjoyment of sound, sight or smell does not come under the category of misuse of sacred property (מְעַילָה). Zeb. 88ᵇ יבא דבר שבק׳ ויכפר על ק׳ הרע let that which is accompanied by sound (the high priest’s robe) bring atonement for evil sound (evil talk). Gen. R. s. 17 קוֹלָהּ הולך woman’s voice is penetrating. Pes. 56ᵃ בק׳ רם in a loud voice, opp. בחשאי. Keth. 16ᵃ bot. יש לה ק׳ is spoken about, is known among people; a. v. fr.—בת ק׳, v. בַּת I.—Pl. קוֹלוֹת, constr. קוֹלֵי. Ex. R. s. 5 הקול יוצא ונחלק לשבעים ק׳ וכ׳ the voice (of revelation) went forth and was divided into seventy voices corresponding to seventy languages. Ber. 15ᵇ בקולי ק׳ under loud cries; a. fr.—[קול מזמסיא, v. מַזְיָא.]
קוּל
- to be light, v. קִיל.
קוּל ²
- (preced.; v. קָלַל)
- 1. light matter. — Pl. קוּלִּין, constr. קוּלֵּי. Sabb. 29ᵃ ומק׳ מטלניות שנו כאן and they teach here rules about one of the pettiest kinds of strips. Ib. 39ᵇ חוץ מק׳ מטלניות except the rule concerning the lightest kinds &c.
- 2. lenient practice, opp. חוֹמֶר. Ḥall. IV, 5 נמצא חומרו קוּלּוֹ consequently the stricter opinion (of R. Akiba) implies the eventual lenient ruling. Y. ib. 59ᵈ bot. קולו חומרו the lenient rule implies eventually the stricter rule. Snh. XI, 2 נמצא חומרו קולו his severer offence (in giving a practical decision without authorization to teach) is the cause of his acquittal from responsibility.—Pl. קוּלִּים, קוּלִּין. Y. Snh. XI, 30ᵃ bot. Ḥull. 43ᵇ bot. מקוּלֵּי בית שמאי ומק׳ וכ׳ he that follows the school of Shammai where its rulings are the easier, and again the school of Hillel where its rulings are the easier. Ib. 44ᵃ כקוּלֵּיהֶן, v. חוֹמֶר I. Keth. 110ᵇ מקולי כתובה וכ׳ they taught here one of the lenient practices concerning the wife’s dowry; a. e.—קוּלּוֹת (fr. קוּלָּה) light, minor sins. Y. Snh. X, 28ᵇ top קוּלּוֹתָיו … חומרותיו וכ׳ Ahab’s minor offences were as heavy as Jeroboam’s heaviest sins; (Bab. ib. 102ᵇ קַלּוֹת … כחמורות).
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 174 distinct written forms H6963 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 114 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6963, 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 → 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 411 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 436 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 3:8
- Exodus 3:18
- Leviticus 5:1
- Numbers 7:89
- Deuteronomy 1:34
- Joshua 5:6
- Judges 2:2
- Ruth 1:9
- 1 Samuel 1:13
- 2 Samuel 3:32
- 1 Kings 1:40
- 2 Kings 4:31
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.
