קְרָב
battle
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
- 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
- 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).
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 8 times (89%)
- Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, 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 H7128 appears — 9 distinct verses across 5 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.
2 Samuel 1 verse
Job 1 verse
Psalms 5 verses
- Psalms 55:18 מִ/קֲּרָב prep + n c ms He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, Although there are many who oppose me.
- Psalms 55:21 וּֽ/קֲרָב conj + n c ms His mouth was smooth as butter, But his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords.
- Psalms 68:30 קְרָב֥וֹת n c mp Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds, The multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples. Being humbled, may it bring bars of silver. Scatter the nations that delight in war.
- Psalms 78:9 קְרָֽב n c ms The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.
- Psalms 144:1 לַ/קְרָ֑ב prep det + n c ms Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, Who teaches my hands to war, And my fingers to battle:
Ecclesiastes 1 verse
Zechariah 1 verse
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.
“battle” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun קרב (qᵉrâb). It clusters heavily in Psalms, which alone accounts for 56% of its uses. With 9 verses in 5 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. First canonically at 2 Samuel 17:11, it enters the text early. It clusters with קרב, קרב and קרב under a shared root. 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 H7128 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.
- 5 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 5 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.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 7 verses · 78%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 2 verses · 22%
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: Battle 5×, War 4×
- American Standard Version: Battle 5×, War 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: War 5×, Battle 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Battle 6×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7128 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H7128 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H7128 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H7128 across 10 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 1 sense BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- battle, war
Word origin
n.[m.] battle, war (hostile approach; Aramaism = ܩܪܰܒ, קְרָב, cf. LagBN 175);—abs. ק׳ Zc 14:3 +; pl. קְרָבוֹת ψ 68:31;—‖ מִלְחָמָה Jb 38:23 ψ 144:1; יוֹם ק׳ Zc 14:3 ψ 78:9; כְּלֵי ק׳ Ec 9:18; his heart was war ψ 55:22 (v 19 v. √ Qal 1 a); pl. ψ 68:31 peoples that delight in battles.—2 S 17:11 read בְּקִרְבָּם 𝔊 𝔖 𝔙 Th Dr and most.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from קרב (qârab) (H7126) — to approach.
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.
קָרֵב
- (b. h.)
- 1. to join, come near, be near; to be offered as קָרְבָּן. Zeb. VIII, 2 יִקְרַב לשם מי שהוא let it be offered in behalf of him to whom it may belong. Ib. 5 אם ק׳ … יִקְרְבוּ וכ׳ if one of the heads has been offered, let all of them be offered. Ib. 67ᵇ; Ḳinnim III, 3 חטאת קְרֵיבָה למעלה וכ׳ the sin-offering may have been offered on top and the burnt-offering beneath it. Men. VI, 1 הקומץ ק׳ … קְרֵבִים לעצמן the handful (of the priests’ meal-offering) is offered separately and the remainder separately; Y. Sot. III, 19ᵇ top קְרֵיבִין. Sifré Num. 29 קבע זמן לקריבים … למקריבים a time is fixed for the things to be offered (Lev. XXII, 27), and a time for those who offer (Num. VI, 10); a. fr. e.g. Leviticus 22:27
- 2. to come before court; to sue, complain. Gen. R. s. 96 (ref. to ויקרבו, Gen. XLVII, 29) כאדם … ק׳ על וכ׳ as one says, that man has brought suit against his neighbor, v. קָבַל II; Yalk. ib. 156 קבל (corr. acc.). e.g. Genesis 47:29
- 1. same, same, to come near. Ex. R. s. 20, beg. לא קי׳ אצל וכ׳ he had not come near Sarah.—Esp. to approach; to pray, intercede, mediate, conciliate. Y. Ber. IV, 8ᵇ top זה שעובר … בא וקָרֵב עשה קרבנינו וכ׳ we do not say to him who is to pass before the ark (v. תֵּיבָה), ‘come and pray’, but, ‘come, draw near’, (which means) ‘do our offerings’, ‘satisfy our needs’ &c.
- 2. to bring near; to befriend, attract, invite. B. Kam. 24ᵃ ק׳ נגיחותיו if the ox did his gorings in near intervals (of less than three days). Eduy. VIII, 7 אין אליהו … לרחק ולְקָרֵב … המְקוֹרָבִין בזרוע וכ׳ Elijah shall come not to decide between clean and unclean, nor to expel (declare genealogically degraded) and to receive (reinstate), but to expel those who have been received by force, and to reinstate those who have been expelled by force. Ib. משפחת … וקֵרְבָהּ בן וכ׳ there was a family … which Ben-Zion expelled by force, and another which they received by force (Bab. ed. וקֵרְבוּהָ בני וב׳; v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 40); Tosef. ib. III, 4; Kidd. 71ᵃ. Eduy. l. c. לא לרחק ולא לקרב וכ׳ neither to expel nor to reinstate, but to make peace &c. Sabb. 31ᵃ קֵירְבָנוּ תחת וכ׳, v. עִנְוְתָנוּת. Ib. שקֵרַבְתַּנִי וכ׳ Ms. M. (ed. שהקרבתני) thou hast brought us near &c. Tanḥ. Tsav 8 (ref. to Ps. LXV, 5) אשרי מי שבחרו … קֵרְבוֹ blessed he whom the Lord has chosen, although he did not bring him near; Num. R. s. 3 הקריבו. Ib. ק׳ את עצמו he brought himself near (to God, through his own deeds); ib. יתרו קרבו הקב"ה the Lord brought Jethro near (caused him to be converted); Yalk. Ex. 379; a. fr.—Sifré Num. 94 (expl. לזרא, Num. XI, 20, cmp. זָר) שתהיו מרחיקים … מְקָרְבִים אותו you will keep it at a distance (loathe it) more than you have been inviting (wishing for) it; Lev. R. s. 48.—Part. pass. מְקוֹרָב; pl. מְקוֹרָבִין, v. supra. e.g. Psalms 65:5
- 1. to bring near, receive. Y. Dem. II, 23ᵃ top מַקְרִיבִין לכנפים, v. כָּנָף. Num. R. l. c.; Sabb. l. c., v. supra; a. fr.
- 2. to offer, sacrifice. Men. XIII, 10 יַקְרִיבֶנָּה במקדש he must offer it in the Temple (of Jerusalem), ואם הִקְרִיבָהּ וכ׳ but if he offered it in the Temple of Ḥonyo (in Egypt). Zeb. 67ᵇ ותַקְרִיבֶנָּה למעלה and let her offer it on top, (v. supra Kal); Kinn. III, 6 ויַקְרִיבֶנָּה וכ׳ Mish. (Bab. ed. ויקרבנה, corr. acc.) and he (the priest) must offer it &c. Ber. 6ᵇ כאילו ה׳ תודה as if he had offered a thank-offering. Ib. 17ᵃ as long as the Temple stood אדם חוטא ומַקְרִיב וכ׳ a man sinned and brought a sacrifice; ואין מקריבין וכ׳ yet only its fat and its blood were offered; כאילו הִקְרַבְתִּיו לפניך וכ׳ as if I had offered it (my fat and blood) on the altar before thee; a. v. fr.
- to be offered. Y. Meg. I, 70ᶜ top ונִקְרְבוּ מהן וכ׳ and from their contributions was taken the wood for sacrifices; (Y. Taan. IV, 68ᵇ; Y. Shek. IV, beg. 47ᵈ וקרבו).
- 1. to be brought near, be received. Num. R. s. 3 יש נבחר ונדחה ונ׳ וכ׳ some are chosen and repelled (disgraced) and received again &c. Sifra Tsav, Milluïm ידע משה שנ׳ אהרן Moses learned that Aaron was received again (in grace); Yalk. Lev. 515; a. fr.
- 2. to be offered, sacrificed. Y. Taan. l. c. שלא יהא קרבן מִתְקָרֵב וכ׳ that none but their contributions should be offered first. Pirké d’R. El. ch. XXXI אותו האיל … ובא להִתְקָרֵב וכ׳ that ram … ran and came to offer himself as a sacrifice in place of Isaac &c.; Yalk. Gen. 101; a. e.
- 3. to claim relationship. Deut. R. s. 2 אם קרובו עני … פלוני מתקרב לי if a man’s relative is poor, he makes himself the main person and him subordinate, saying, this man claims relationship to me; Y. Ber. IX, 13ᵇ (in mutilated text) ההן פלן מתקרב לן.
קְרֵב
- 1. to be near, come near, touch. Targ. Num. XXVII, 1. Targ. Ex. XXXVI, 2. Targ. I Kings II, 1; a. fr.—Pesik. Zakhor, p. 24ᵇ קריב לגביה, v. בָּלַם II. Eduy. VIII, 4 דיִקְרַב במיתא he who touches a corpse; a. e.
- 2. to intercede, protect. Y. Dem. I, 22ᵃ בני קרתי קוֹרְבִין לי (not קרתיה) fellow-citizens, protect me!; בני דודי קורבין לי (not דידי) children of my friend (the Lord), protect you me!; Y. Taan. III, 66ᶜ top בני דילי וכ׳ (corr. acc.).
- 3. to complain, sue. Y. B. Bath. IX, beg. 16ᵈ אתון בנוי קַרְבוּן וכ׳ his sons came and complained before R. E. Ib. אתת וקְרֵיבָה וכ׳ she came and complained &c.
- 4. to bring near; to offer, v. infra.
- 1. to bring near; to offer. Targ. Gen. XLVIII, 9, sq. Ib. 13 (Y. ed. Vien. קְריב; h. text ויַּגֵּשׁ). Targ. Is. LVIII, 3 (h. text תִּנְגּשׁוֹּ!). Targ. O. Lev. I, 2 יְקָרֵיב (Y. יִקְרַב). Ib. 3 (Y. יַקְרִיב Af.). Ib. 14 (Y. also יַקְרִיב); a. fr.—Gitt. 56ᵃ סבור רבנן לקָרוּבֵיה the rabbis were of the opinion that it should be offered. Y. Ber. IX, 13ᵈ top הוה … אתי למִיקָרְבָה וכ׳ (or למִיקְרְבָה) when a man came to offer, to the idol, an ox &c. Y. Snh. X, 29ᵇ מְקָרְבָא לגיחזי to bring Gehazi near (befriend him again). Num. R. s. 3 אלהכון מאן הוא בעי מְקָרֵיב does your God bring near him (grace) whomever he chooses to? B. Bath. 168ᵃ אפי׳ צורבא … לְקָרוּבֵיה even in the case of a young scholar whom it may be supposed his intended father-in-law likes to bring into his family; a. fr.—Part. pass. מְקָרַב; f. מְקָרְבָא, מְקָרְבָה; pl. מְקָרְבִין; מְקָרְבָן near, friendly. Sabb. 104ᵃ מ"ט שקר ק׳ מיליה אמת וכ׳ why are the letters of שקר (falsehood) near together (in the order of the alphabet), and those of אמת (truth) far apart? Snh. 29ᵃ מק׳ דעתיה he is friendly, v. רְחַק.—3) to intercede, lead in prayer. Midr. Till. to Ps. XIX חזיוה לחזנא דקָרֵיב וכ׳ they noticed that the officer of the synagogue led in prayer and said &c.
- to bring near; to offer. Targ. Mal. II, 12; a. fr.—Gitt. l. c. אי מַקְרְבִין ליה (or מְקָרְבִין Pa.), v. קָרְבַּן. Ḥag. 8ᵇ האי דלא אַקְרְבִינְהוּ וכ׳ the reason why they did not offer them was &c.; a. fr.—Yeb. 39ᵇ איקרבת ית וכ׳ (read: אַקְרִיבַת) she brought before us (the court) such and such a person &c.
- 1. to approach, come near. Targ. Y. Deut. XX, 3; O. ib. ed. Berl. (oth. ed. קריבין). Ib. XXV, 9; a. fr.—Keth. 56ᵃ משום אִיקָּרוּבֵי דעתא הוא והא אִיקָּרְבָא דעתא (when a man promises his bride an additional jointure,) it is in order that an attachment be formed; well, now, the attachment has been formed (and we have a right to assume that he wanted his bride to get that addition, even if he should die before the wedding).
- 2. to claim relationship, v. preced.
קֶרֶב
- preced.)
- 1. inside, intestine.—Du. קְרָבַיִם, קְרָבַיִים; constr. קִרְבֵּי, קִירְ׳. Num. R. s. 7 (ref. to Num. XIV, 11 בקרבו) אטר אעשה עמו … בקרבו כמה … עשיתי בקִרְבֵּיהֶן וכ׳ it does not read, ‘which I do with them’, but ‘which I do within them’:… how many signs and wonders have I done in their intestines (that the manna was entirely resorbed in their bowels) &c. (with ref. to קֶרֶב Lev. VIII, 21). Tam. IV, 2. Ḥull. 16ᵇ קירבי דגים entrails of fish. Y. Sabb. II, 4ᵈ ק׳ דגים כל זמן וכ׳ the fat of fish entrails (used as oil) has no bad odor as long as it burns. B. Mets. 60ᵇ, v. נָפַח; a. fr.—Ned. 54ᵇ ק׳ לאו בשר וכ׳ entrails are no meat and he who eats them is no man; Y. ib. VII, beg. 40ᵇ קרבייא (ch. form). Ber. 10ᵃ; a. fr. e.g. Numbers 14:11
- 2. innermost; בְּקֶרֶב within. Pesik. R. s. 13 בְּקִרְבַּנוּ, v. רָחַשׁ; a. e.
קָרֵב ²
- m., v. קָרֵיב
קְרָב
- preced. wds.) hostile contact, attack, war. Y. Sot. VIII, 21ᶜ top רומי לק׳ the Roman (Latin) language is adapted for military affairs; Y. Meg. I, 71ᵇ bot.; Esth. R. to I, 22. Sabb. 59ᵃ בשעה שבורח מן הק׳ וכ׳ when he flees from the battle, he puts it on &c.; a. e.
קְרָב ²
- Targ. II Sam. XXI, 15. Targ. Ps. XXVII, 3. Ib. XXXV, 1; a. fr.—Ib. קְרַבְתִּי, v. קְרָבוּ.—Tosef. Sot. XIII, 5, v. נְגַח; Y. ib. IX, 24ᵇ; Bab. ib. 33ᵃ. Lev. R. s. 22 דעבד ק׳ עם וכ׳ who wages war with a king &c. Gitt. 56ᵃ ניפוק … ק׳ בהדייהו let us go out and offer them (the Romans) battle; a. fr.—Pl. קְרָבִין, קְרָבַיָּא. Targ. Num. XXI, 14. Targ. I Chr. XXVIII, 3; 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 8 distinct written forms H7128 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.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| קְרָֽב | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 78:9 | 2 |
| בַּ/קְרָֽב | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 2 Samuel 17:11 | 1 |
| וּֽ/קֲרָב | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 55:21 | 1 |
| לַ/קְרָ֑ב | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 144:1 | 1 |
| מִ/קֲּרָב | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 55:18 | 1 |
| קְ֝רָ֗ב | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Job 38:23 | 1 |
| קְרָ֑ב | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ecclesiastes 9:18 | 1 |
| קְרָב֥וֹת | Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Psalms 68:30 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7128, 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
- קרב qᵉrêb H7127 to approach
- קרב qereb H7130 midst
- קרב qârêb H7131 near
- קרבה qᵉrâbâh H7132 approach
- קרבן qorbân H7133 offering
- קרוב qârôwb H7138 near
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 9 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 7 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.
