קוּץ
to abhor
‘to abhor’ is one of 5 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Qal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
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: ‘feel a loathing at’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
- 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”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
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).
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (22%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Plural 1 time (11%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 1 time (11%)
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (11%)
- Verb, Qal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (11%)
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 1 time (11%)
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (11%)
- Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (11%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 9 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H6973 appears — 9 distinct verses across 7 books. 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.
Genesis 1 verse
Exodus 1 verse
Leviticus 1 verse
Numbers 2 verses
- Numbers 21:5 קָ֔צָה Qal pf 3fs The people spoke against God, and against Moses, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loathes this light bread.
- Numbers 22:3 וַ/יָּ֣קָץ conj + Qal wimpf 3ms Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were many: and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.
1 Kings 1 verse
Proverbs 1 verse
Isaiah 2 verses
- Isaiah 7:6 וּ/נְקִיצֶ֔/נָּה conj + Hiphil impf 1cp + sfx pers 3fs "Let's go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let's divide it among ourselves, and set up a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel."
- Isaiah 7:16 קָ֔ץ Qal ptcp.act ms For before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.
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 abhor” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb קוץ (qûwts). First canonically at Genesis 27:46, it enters the text early. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 9 verses — uncommon. Read the stem: it spans 2 stems, including Qal and Hiphil. It shares a root with קוץ, קוץ and קוץ. See the sense tree, 9-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6973 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 →
- 9
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 9 distinct verses.
- 7 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 7 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,481
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,481 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 9 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 9 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 5 verses · 56%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 3 verses · 33%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 1 verse · 11%
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: All these things and therefore i abhorred 1×, Be weary 1×, Did and he abhorred 1×
- American Standard Version: Be weary 1×, Did 1×, I am weary 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: Detest 1×, Dread 1×, Dreaded 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Abhor 1×, And 1×, Are dreading 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6973 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H6973 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H6973 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6973 across 11 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.
Qal
- Pf. 3 fs. קָ֫צָה Nu 21:5; 1 s. קַ֫צְתִּי Gn 27:46; Impf. 3 ms. וַיָּ֫קָץ Nu 22:3; 1 K 11:25 (but v. infr.); 2 ms. juss. תָּקֹץ Pr 3:11; 1 s. וָאָקֻץ Lv 20:23; 3 mpl. וַיָּקֻצוּ Ex 1:12; Pt. קָץ Is 7:16;— e.g. Numbers 21:5
- 1. feel a loathing at, abhor, c. ב rei Nu 21:5 (JE), Gn 27:46 (P), Pr 3:11 (‖ מָאַס); c. ב pers. Lv 20:23 (H; subj. י׳); so 1 K 11:25, but Kit (after 𝔖, cf. 𝔊) proposes וַיָּ֫צֶק (√ צוק Hiph. distress). e.g. Numbers 21:5
- 2. feel a sickening dread, c. מִפְּנֵי pers. Ex 1:12 (J), Nu 22:3 (E), Is 7:16. e.g. Exodus 1:12
Hiphil
- Impf. 1 pl. sf. נְקִיצֶנָּה Is 7:6 (sf. of Judah) let us cause her sickening dread, but weak, read נְצִיקֶנָּה (√ צוק) Thes Che Du Gr Marti.—Other Hiph. forms v. קיץ. e.g. Isaiah 7:6
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. feel a loathing, abhorrence, sickening dread (‖ √ of קוט; 𝔗 קוּץ id.; for connex. of meanings cf. Aramaic קְנַט loathe, ܩܢܰܛ fear);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from קוץ (qûwts) (H6972) — to summer.
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.
קָוַץ
- (cmp. כְּוֵץ)
- 1. to shrink, be dried up. Ḥull. 43ᵇ שחותכו וקווֵֹץ Ar., v. כְּוֵץ.—Part. pass. קָווּץ. Succ. 32ᵃ top ק׳ (לולב) a Lulab which is shrunk (Rashi: thorn-like, v. קוֹץ).—V. קָווּץ.—Denom. קוֹץ, קַיִץ.
- 2. to curl. Denom. קִיוֵּוץ, קְווּצּוֹת.
- (denom. of קוֹץ) to clear of thorns, weed. M. Kat. 6ᵃ יוצאין לקַוֵּוץ וכ׳ they go out to clear the roads (for the Passover pilgrims). Tosef. Shebi. III, 7 מְקַוְּצִין וכ׳ Var. ed. Zuck. (ed. Zuck. מְקַוְּסִין; oth. ed. מקומין, corr. acc.) you may remove the stones, thorns &c.
- to be cleared. Shebi. IV, 2 שדה שנִתְקַוְּצה (Y. ed. שנִתְקַוְּו׳) a field that has been cleared; Bekh. 34ᵇ; M. Kat. 13ᵇ; Gitt. 44ᵇ
קְוַץ
- Succ. 23ᵇ קַוְוצָא Ar. (ed. כוו׳), v. כְּוֵץ
- to curl. —Part. pass. מְקַוַּוץ dishevelled, unkempt. Lev. R. s. 5 שעריה מק׳ (not מקצץ) with unkempt hair, opp. סריק, v. סְרַק II.
קוּץ I
- v. preced.) to shrink; to feel aversion, loathe, fear &c. Yalk. Deut. 863 אל תָּקוּצוּ בדברי וכ׳ be not wearied of studying the words of the Law, but let the last day be like the first. Sifra K’dosh., Par. 4, ch. XI (ref. to ואקץ, Lev. XX, 23) כאדם שהוא קָץ ממזונו like a man that is sick of his food (and vomits; Yalks. Lev. 626 קָמֵט במזונו). Meg. 28ᵃ קַצְתָּ בחיי art thou wearied of my long life?; a. e. e.g. Leviticus 20:23
קוּץ
- Targ. Jud. IX, 38. Targ. Hos. IV, 6. Targ. Lam. II, 1 (h. text יעיב); a. fr.
קוּץ II
- to summer (v. Is. XVIII, 6). e.g. Isaiah 18:6
- 1. to cause to summer. Gen. R. s. 34 (play on קַיִץ, Gen. VIII, 22) מְקַיֵּיץ אני עליהם את העוף I shall make the birds feed on them in the summer (with ref. to וקץ, Is. l. c.).—2) (v. קַיִץ) to supply the altar during the dull season. Y. Yoma V, beg. 42ᵇ מְקַיְּיצִים בה וכ׳ they supply the altar with it, i.e. use it for sacrifices when the altar is otherwise unemployed; Y. Shek. I, 48ᵃ bot.; Shebu. 12ᵃ מְקַיְּצִין בהן וכ׳. Ib. אין מקיצין בגופן וכ׳ we do not use them bodily as sacrifices, but what we buy with their value. Ib.ᵇ אין מקיצין בעולת העוף you must not buy birds for burnt offerings out of the funds designated for public free-will offerings. Tosef. Men. X, 8 (expl. קַיִץ המזבח) לוקחין … ומקיצין וכ׳ they buy therewith burnt offerings to supply the altar &c. e.g. Genesis 8:22
קוּץ III
- to cut, v. קָצַץ.
קוּץ ²
- Targ. O. a. Y. I Num. XIII, 23 (Y. II קטעו). Targ. O. ib. 24 (Y. קציצו); a. fr.—Part. קָיִץ, קָיִיץ. Targ. Jer. X, 3.—B. Mets. 107ᵇ נֵיקוּץ מר cut the forest, sir (to allow a tow-path along the river). Ib. קָיִיצְנָא, v. infra; a. e. [Ib. קוצו עילאי וכ׳, v. infra].—Trnsf. (cmp. פָּסַק) to determine, agree, appropriate. Targ. Y. Num. V, 15 דקָיִץ עלה וכ׳ (not דקַיִץ) for which he makes an appropriation in her behalf out of her property.—B. Mets. 67ᵃ לא קָץ ליה he did not explicitly allow him the usufruct of the mortgaged property (מַשְׁכַּנְתָּא), v. קִיצוּתָא.—Part. pass. קִיץ q. v. e.g. Numbers 13:23
- same. [Targ. Y. Num. l. c., v. supra.]—B. Mets. 107ᵇ נִיקַיְּיצוּ עילאי … והדר ניקוץ אנא Rashi (ed. קוצו, incorr.; Ms. M. ניקצו … וקציינא, fr. קְצֵי) let the owners of the upper and those of the lower parts of the forest cut (a path), and then I shall do likewise. Ib. אי קיְּיצוּ קָיִיצְנָא וכ׳ had they cut (their part), I should cut, but as they have not, why should I? Ib. 108ᵃ מאן קַיְּיצֵיה להאי לִיקּוֹץ ענפיה Ms. H. (ed. מַאן קַצְיֵיה תִּקּוֹץ וכ׳) who ordered the cutting of this (my forest)? may his branch (offspring) be cut off; a. e.
- (fr. קְצַץ) to be cut off, v. supra.—V. קְצַץ, קְצִי.
קוּץ IV
- , Hif. הֵקִיץ to awake, v. קִיץ.
קוֹץ I
- 1. thorn. R. Hash. 17ᵃ bot. (ref. to Mic. VII, 18) אליה וק׳ בה וכ׳ a fat tail with a thorn in it (a consolation implying an evil prediction), ‘to the remnant of his inheritance’ (pardon will be granted), but not to his entire inheritance. Gen. R. s. 20 [read:] ק׳ זה קינרס by ‘thorn’ (Gen. III, 18) artichoke is meant. Midr. Till. to Ps. CXXXVI ישב לו ק׳ וכ׳ a thorn got into the foot of one of them (which prevented him from travelling); a. fr.—Y. Sabb. IX, 11ᵈ עין כוס עין קוץ if an idolatrous place is called ʿEn K’os (well of the cup) call it (cacophemistically) ʿEn Ḳots (well of the thorn); Y. Ab. Zar. III, 43ᵃ bot.—Pl. קוֹצִים, קוֹצִין. Gen. R. s. 45, v. נָכַשׁ; Y. Maasr. III, 50ᵈ bot., v. כּוֹס II. Ex. R. s. 1 (ref. to ויקצו, Ex. I, 12) שהיו דומין … כק׳ the Israelites were like thorns in their eyes; Yalk. ib. 162 שהם בעיניהם כק׳ they (the Egyptians) were in their own eyes like thorns (dwarfed and dry plants). Num. R. s. 20 (ref. to ויקץ, Num. XXII, 3) שהיו … כק׳ בפניהם they looked upon themselves as if they were thorns compared with them (the Israelites). Kidd. 75ᵇ (play on מקצותם, II Kings XVII, 32) מן הק׳ שבעם from the thorns (the basest) of the people, opp. הבחירים; Y. Ab. Zar. I, beg. 39ᵃ. B. Mets. 83ᵃ ק׳ … מן הכרם (in serving the Roman government as an executioner) I only destroy the thorns out of the vineyard; יבא … את קוֹצָיו let the owner of the vineyard (God) come and destroy his thorns; Y. Maasr. III, 50ᵈ bot.; (Pesik. B’shall., p. 92ᵃ כוסים וכ׳), v. כָּסח; a. fr.—Cant. R. to V, 11, v. infra.—Midr. Till. to Ps. XIV בתי ק׳ (cacophem.) idolatrous temples (v. supra); Yalk. Ps. 662.—2) (also קוֹצָה f.) prick, stroke on letters, apex. Tanḥ. B’resh. 1; Men. 29ᵇ לדרוש על כל ק׳ וק׳ וכ׳ to teach mounds of rules on every tip (of letters in the Torah). Ib.ᵃ קוֹצוֹ של יו"ד Ms. M. a. Rashi (ed. קוצה) the prick on the top of the letter Yod (Rashi: the foot of Yod); ib. 34ᵃ. Ex. R. s. 6, beg. שלמה … וקוצה ממך וכ׳ Solomon and a thousand like him shall pass away, but not a tittle of thee (the Torah) will I allow to be expunged; a. e.—Pl. as ab. Lev. R. s. 19 (ref. to קוצותיו, Cant. V, 11) אלו קוֹצֵי האותיות this means the strokes of the letters. Ib. אפי׳ דברים … שהן ק׳ וכ׳ even things which you consider to be merely strokes (ornamentations of letters), in the Torah they are mounds upon mounds (v. supra); Cant. R. to V, 11 בתורה הן קוצי ק׳ in the Torah these strokes are thorns of thorns (intimating thorny problems). e.g. Micah 7:18
קוֹץ II
- (קָצַץ) piece.—Pl. קוּצִּים, קוּצִּין. Y. Meg. III, 74ᵇ bot. (ref. to Mish. ib. III, 7, ‘you must not interrupt the reading of the curses’, with play on תָּקֹץ, Prov. III, 11) אל תַּעֲשֶׂהָ ק׳ ק׳ do not make it (the rebuke) appear cut up in pieces; Deut. R. s. 4; Treat. Sof’rim XII, 1. e.g. Proverbs 3:11
קִיץ
- , Hif. הֵקִיץ (b. h.) [to stir,]
- 1. (neut. verb.) to wake up. Gen. R. s. 21 (ref. to Ps. XVII, 15) לכשיָקִיץ אותו וכ׳ when he whom thou hast created in thine image shall wake up (arise from the dead); Yalk. Ps. 671 לכשיָקוּץ; a. e. e.g. Psalms 17:15
- 2. to awaken. Num. R. s. 10 היו מתיראים לַהֲקִיצוֹ they were afraid to wake him (Solomon) up; והלכה היא והֱקִיצַתּוֹ וכ׳ but she (Bethsheba) went and waked him up and rebuked him. Yalk. Ps. l. c. (ref. to Ps. l. c.) אלו … שמְקִיצִין שינה וכ׳ that means the scholars that chase the sleep from their eyes &c.; B. Bath. 10ᵃ Ms. M. (ed. שמנדדין); a. e.
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 9 distinct written forms H6973 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| וַ/יָּ֣קָץ | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Numbers 22:3 | 1 |
| וַ/יָּ֨קָץ֙ | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 1 Kings 11:25 | 1 |
| וַ/יָּקֻ֕צוּ | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Exodus 1:12 | 1 |
| וָ/אָקֻ֖ץ | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Leviticus 20:23 | 1 |
| וּ/נְקִיצֶ֔/נָּה | Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Plural | Isaiah 7:6 | 1 |
| קַ֣צְתִּי | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Genesis 27:46 | 1 |
| קָ֔ץ | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 7:16 | 1 |
| קָ֔צָה | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Numbers 21:5 | 1 |
| תָּ֝קֹ֗ץ | Verb, Qal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Proverbs 3:11 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6973, 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.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- קוץ qûwts H6974 to awake
- קוץ qôwts H6975 thorn
- קוצה qᵉvutstsâh H6977 lock
- קיץ qayits H7019 summer
- קיצון qîytsôwn H7020 outermost
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 8 — not the complete family. 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 9 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 9 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.
