קָרַץ
to pinch
‘to pinch’ is one of 3 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”).
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
Form
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- 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”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 3 times (60%)
- Verb, Pual, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 1 time (20%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (20%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 5 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H7169 appears — 5 distinct verses across 3 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.
Job 1 verse
Psalms 1 verse
Proverbs 3 verses
- Proverbs 6:13 קֹרֵ֣ץ Qal ptcp.act ms Who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, Who motions with his fingers;
- Proverbs 10:10 קֹ֣רֵֽץ Qal ptcp.act ms One winking with the eye causes sorrow, But a chattering fool will fall.
- Proverbs 16:30 קֹרֵ֥ץ Qal ptcp.act ms One who winks his eyes to plot perversities, One who compresses his lips, is bent on evil.
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.
קרץ (qârats) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to pinch.” It occurs a mere 5 verses across Scripture. Proverbs dominates its distribution — 3 of 5 verses. Scripture first uses it in Job 33:6. Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 2 stems, among them Qal and Pual. 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 H7169 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 →
- 5
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 5 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #3,337
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 3,337 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 5 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 5 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 5 verses · 100%
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: He that winketh 1×, He winketh 1×, Moving 1×
- American Standard Version: He that compresseth 1×, He that winketh 1×, I also am formed 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: Formed 1×, He who purses 1×, He who winks 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: One who winks 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7169 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H7169 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H7169 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H7169 across 7 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 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. This entry also uses Pual (the passive of Piel).
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 2 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
- Impf. 3 mpl. יִקְרְצוּ־עַיִן ψ 35:19 let them not pinch the eye, i.e. wink maliciously, so Pt. act. קֹרֵץ ע׳ Pr 10:10, ק׳ בְּעֵינוֹ 6:13; also ק׳ שְׂפָתָיו 16:30 pinching his lips (i.e. compressing, as NH, or biting, gnawing, cf. Assyrian). e.g. Psalms 35:19
Pual
- Pf. 1 s. מֵחֹמֶר קֹרַצְתִּי Jb 33:6 from clay I was nipped off (cf. Assyrian ṭîṭa iḳtariṣ, he nipped off clay, to form Eabani). e.g. Job 33:6
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. nip, pinch (NH קָרַץ cut dough, compress lips, קֶרֶץ piece of bread; Assyrian ḳarâṣu, nip off, gnaw, Arabic قَرَصَ pinch; Ethiopic ቀረጸ: incise; Syriac ܩܪܺܝܨܳܐ nail [v. also Biblical Aramaic]; cf. Frä35 f.);—
— 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.
קָרַץ
- (b. h.)
- 1. to make an incision; to cut. Yoma III, 4 קְרָצוֹ ומרק וכ׳ he made the ritually required cut, and some one else finished &c., v. מָרַק. Ib. 32ᵇ מאי קרצו … לישנא וכ׳ what is meant by ḳ’ratso?… It has the meaning of slaying (by ref. to Jer. XLVI, 20); Y. ib. III, 40ᶜ top, v. נָכוֹסָא. Tosef. Ukts. II, 8 כיון שקרצו as soon as he has made an incision into it (although he did not cut it apart, v. Ukts. II, 5).—Esp. to cut dough on the baker’s board. Kel. XV, 2 אם … קוֹרֵץ עליו if he prepares it to cut dough on it; Tosef. Kel. B. Mets. V, 4; a. fr.—[Y. Pes. IV, 31ᵇ top מודיי שקורצין, read: שקוצרין.] e.g. Jeremiah 46:20
- 2. to bite, pinch. Nidd. VI, 12 כדי לִקְרוֹץ בצפורן a hair large enough to seize with the nails.
- 3. [to form a groove,] to press the lips close together; to gesticulate with closed lips. Mikv. VIII, 5 קָרְצָה שפתותיה if (in taking a ritual immersion) she pressed her lips together.—Yoma 19ᵇ הקורא … ולא יִקְרוֹץ בשפתותיו reading the Sh’mʿa one must not blink with one’s eyes, nor gesticulate with one’s lips &c. (make motions to his neighbor).
- same. Ib. הקורא … ומְקָרֵץ וכ׳ of him who reads the Shmʿa and blinks with his eyes and gesticulates with his lips and points with his fingers, the Scriptures say, ‘not me didst thou call &c.’ (Is. XLIII, 22); Yalk. Is. 318) וקוֹרֵץ. e.g. Isaiah 43:22
- to be nipped off. Peah VII, 4 אם נִקְרֶצֶת עם וכ׳ if it (the isolated bunch on the knee of a vine) can be nipped off as a cluster, it belongs to the owner (Ms. M. נקצרת, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note); Sifra K’dosh., Par. 1, ch. III (Var. נקצרת); Yalk. Lev. 605 נקצרת; Y. Peah VII, 20ᵃ bot. אני אומר את הנִקְרָצוֹת עם האשכולות (not עם) I mean those which have been nipped off in clusters; a. e.
קְרַץ I
- , to bite, pinch, sting. Erub. 65ᵃ אי קְרַצְתָּן כינה וכ׳ I could not study, if a vermin were to bite me.
קְרַץ II
- (denom. of קְרִיץ, קְרִיצְתָּא) to get up early, to do a thing early. Y. Ter. XI, end, 48ᵇ ע"י כן הוה שהר … הוה ק׳ through that (burning lamp) he was wakeful, and through that he arose early; Y. Sabb. II, 4ᵈ top. Y. Ab. Zar. V, 44ᵈ נִקְרוֹץ וכ׳, v. סְדַר. Ib. וק׳ ונפק ליה he got up early and went off. Lev. R. s. 25 אי קַרְצַת לא חשכת if thou hadst worked early (while young), thou wouldst not have to work late (in old age). Ib. קַרְצִית וחשכית (not קריצת) I did work early, and do work late. Lev. R. s. 32 ק׳ נוגש וכ׳ Ar. (ed. קדם), v. נָגַשׂ. Lam. R. to III, 7 לא הוה בר נש קָרֵיץ לתאיניא וכ׳ (not לתאינה) and none came in the morning to gather the figs earlier than they; Y. Maas. Sh. V, 56ᵃ top. Y. Kidd. III, 64ᵃ ק׳ זבונה וכ׳ the trader got up early &c., v. קְרַן; a. fr.
קֶרֶץ
- (קָרַץ) division, partition. Kel. VIII, 6 השאור … והק׳ וכ׳ the leaven and the reptile in it (in the vessel with two compartments), and the squeezed-in partition between them; [Hai Gaon: a piece of dough, v. מִקְרֶצֶת].—Pl. קְרָצִים, קְרָצִין. Tosef. B. Mets. IX, 19 פשתן עד שיעשנו ק׳ ed. Zuck. (oth. ed. קורצין) he that rents (on shares) a field on which to raise flax, must attend to it until he has made it into divisions (piles ready for division into shares).
קְרַץ III
- (קְרַץ I) biting, cutting, destruction; only in אכל ק׳ (mostly pl. קַרְצִין, קוּרְ׳) (v. אֲכַל I) to inform against. [Targ. Is. LVIII, 1 אכלי ק׳ Ar., read with ed. Koh. only אכלי, quoted to prove the meaning of אכל = קרא, v. כְּלֵי II.] Targ. Prov. XI, 13 קֻרְצָא ed. Wil. (Ms. קורצין). Ib. XX, 19. Targ. Lev. XIII, 16 (O. ed. Berl. קִירְצִין); a. fr.—Lam. R. to IV, 2 קַרְצְהוֹן, v. אֲכַל I; Gitt. 56ᵃ קורצא; a. fr.—Ab. d’R. N. ch. XVI (in Hebr. dict.) אוכילו קורצא אצל וכ׳ (?).
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 5 distinct written forms H7169 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| יִקְרְצוּ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Psalms 35:19 | 1 |
| קֹ֣רֵֽץ | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 10:10 | 1 |
| קֹרֵ֣ץ | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 6:13 | 1 |
| קֹרֵ֥ץ | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Proverbs 16:30 | 1 |
| קֹרַ֥צְתִּי | Verb, Pual, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Job 33:6 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7169, 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 3 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 5 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.
