אָרַךְ
to be long
‘to be long’ is one of 2 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
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘trans. prolong’
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- 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).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- 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”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
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).
Every verse where H748 appears in the Book of Proverbs — 3 distinct verses. 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.
Proverbs
- Proverbs 19:11 הֶאֱרִ֣יךְ Hiphil pf 3ms The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger. It is his glory to overlook an offense.
- Proverbs 28:2 יַאֲרִֽיךְ Hiphil impf 3ms In rebellion, a land has many rulers, But order is maintained by a man of understanding and knowledge.
- Proverbs 28:16 יַאֲרִ֥יךְ Hiphil impf 3ms A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment. One who hates ill-gotten gain will have long days.
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, ארך (ʼârak) means “to be long.” First canonically at Genesis 26:8, it enters the text early. It appears 34 verses across 14 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its moderately common vocabulary. The word gravitates to Deuteronomy (32%), then Isaiah and Proverbs. Read the stem: it spans 2 stems, including Qal and Hiphil. Dig into 34-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H748 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 →
- 34
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 34 distinct verses.
- 14 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 14 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,041
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,041 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 34 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Deuteronomy 11 verses 32%
- Isaiah 4 verses 12%
- Proverbs 3 verses 9%
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 34 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 15 verses · 44%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 10 verses · 29%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 9 verses · 26%
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 2 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†: May be prolonged 2×, Thee and that thou mayest prolong 2×, They drew out 2×
- American Standard Version†: Days may be long 2×, Tarried 2×, Were so long 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: You may live long 3×, Extended far enough 2×, Lengthen 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Long 4×, You may prolong 4×, I will lengthen 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H748 across 34† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 26 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 H748 across 32† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 26 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 H748 across 33† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 20 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 H748 across 44† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 22 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
10 senses and sub-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 10 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.
ארך I be long, almost always of time (Assyrian arâku COTGloss, Aramaic אֲרַךְ, ܐܶܪܰܟ )
Qal
- Pf. אָֽרְכוּ Gn 26:8; Impf. יַאַרְכוּ Ez 12:22; 3 fpl. וַתֶּאֱרַכְנָה Ez 31:5 (del. B Co)—be long, subj. הַיָּמִים (i.e. a long time passed Gn 26:8 (J); cf. Assyrian urriku ûmî, days grew long, Creation Tableta v. COT Gn 1:1); of delayed fulfilment of prophecy Ez 12:22; subj. פֹּארֹת Ez 31:5 (but cf. supr.) e.g. Genesis 26:8
Hiphil
- Pf. הֶאֱרִיךְ Pr 19:11; וְהַאֲרַכְתָּ֫ Dt 22:7, etc.; Impf. יַאֲרִיךְ Dt 17:20 +; יַאֲרִיכוּ Dt 25:15; יַאֲרִכוּן Ex 20:12 cf. Dt 5:16; 6:2; תַּאֲרִיכֻן Dt 4:26; 30:18, etc.; Imv. fs. הַאֲרִיכִי Is 54:2: Inf. cstr. הַאֲרִיךְ Nu 9:19, 22; Pt. מַאֲרִיךְ Ec 7:15; 8:12;— e.g. Proverbs 19:11
- 1. trans. prolong, (a) obj. יָמִים (i.e. live long) Dt 4:26, 40; 5:30; 11:9; 17:20; 22:7; 30:18; 32:47 Jos 24:31 = Ju 2:7 (c. אַחֲרֵי = survive), Pr 28:16; Is 53:10; Ec 8:13; also (late) without ימים Ec 7:15; 8:12; (b) id. 1 K 3:14 י׳ subj. וְהַאֲרַכְתִּי אֶת־יָמֶיךָ I will prolong thy days; (c) postpone anger Is 48:9 cf. Pr 19:11 (i.e. shew oneself slow to anger); v. also Jb 6:11 אַאֲרִיךְ נַפְשִׁי i.e. be patient; (d) lit. (but in fig.) make long furrows (c. ל) ψ 129:3; tentcords Is 54:2; tongue 57:4 (stretch out in mockery). e.g. Deuteronomy 4:26
- 2. intrans. grow long, continue long (i.e. display length or continuance), subj. יָמִים Ex 20:12 = Dt 5:16; 6:2; 25:15; tarry long Nu 9:19, 22 (subj. הֶעָנָן), last (continue) long, subj. כֵּן Pr 28:2; be long (lit.) of staves of ark 1 K 8:8; 2 Ch 5:9. e.g. Exodus 20:12
ארך II
- 1. fire, of conflagration, e.g. in briers, endangering or destroying crops תֵּצֵא אֵשׁ וּמָֽצְאָה קֹצִים Ex 22:5 cf. 3:2 הַסְּנֶה בֹּעֵר בָּאֵשׁ (both E); more often of deliberate destruction by fire, especially שָׂרַף בָּאֵשׁ (בָּ c. qam. preton.) obj. golden calf Ex 32:20 (J), other idols Dt 7:5, 25, Asherim 12:3, chariots Jos 11:6, 9 2 K 23:11, house Ju 12:1; 14:15, tower 9:52, city-gates Ne 1:3; 2:3, 13, 17, city Jos 6:24 Ju 18:27 cf. Is 1:7 +; also שִׁלַּח אֵשׁ בְּ Am 1:4, 7, 10 +; שִׁלַּח אֶת־הָעִיר בָּאֵשׁ †Ju 1:8; 20:48 cf. 2 K 8:12; הִצִּית אֶת־הָעִיר בָּאֵשׁ Jos 8:8, 19 הצ׳ אֵשׁ ב׳ Je 17:27 +; cf. Ju 9:49 2 S 14:30, 31 (of field, cf. Ex 22:5 supr.). e.g. Exodus 22:5
- 2. of supernatural fire, attending theophany Ex 3:2; 19:18 (both JE) Dt 4:11, 12, 15, 33, 36 +; specif. עַמּוּד (הָ)אֵשׁ Ex 13:21, 22; 14:24 (all JE) Ne 9:12, 19 cf. Dt 1:33 (v. מַרְאֵה־אֵשׁ Nu 9:15, 16 P); of destructive fire from י׳ Nu 11:1, 2, 3 (J) 26:10 (P) Lv 10:2 (P); cf. א׳ אֹכֶלֶת in sim. of Yahweh’s glory Ex 24:17 (E) Dt 4:24; 9:3; v. also 1 K 18:24, 38 2 K 1:10(×2), 12(×2), 14 Jb 1:16 (perhaps lightning intended), cf. further of lightning Ex 9:23, 24 (JE) ψ 18:13, 14; 148:8 etc. e.g. Exodus 3:2
- 3. fire for cooking, roasting, parching, etc. צְלִי אֵשׁ roasted at a fire Ex 12:8, 9 (P) cf. Lv 2:14 2 Ch 35:13 Is 44:16, 19; of tinder for lighting fire Gn 22:6, 7 (E); of fire for melting (gold for the idolatrous calf) Ex 32:24; for refining Je 6:29, where read with Qr מֵאֵשׁ תַּם עֹפָֽרֶת; cf. Mal 3:2 (sim. of purifying work of messenger of cov’t). e.g. Exodus 12:8
- 4. especially of altar-fire Lv 1:7(×2); 6:2, 3, 5, 16 +; in offering incense Lv 10:1, also אֵשׁ זָרָה strange fire, i.e. an incense not commanded, offered presumptuously 10:1 Nu 3:4; 26:61; fire from י׳ consuming sacrifice (cf. 2 Lv 9:24 2 Ch 7:1, 3; of fire in child-sacrifice (usually (לְ) הֶעֱבִיר בֵּן בָּאֵשׁ) 2 K 16:3; 21:6 cf. 17:17; 23:10 2 Ch 33:6; also שׂרף בָּא׳ 2 K 17:31, בער בָּא׳ 2 Ch 28:3. e.g. Leviticus 1:7
- 5. fig. of Yahweh’s anger ψ 89:47 (sim.) cf. Na 1:6 La 2:4 אֵשׁ־עֶבְרָתִי Ez 21:36; 22:31; 38:19, אֵשׁ־קִנְאָתִי Ez 36:5; v. also Is 66:15 ψ 79:5 etc.; of word of י׳ Je 23:29; fig.of outbursting emotion ψ 39:4; of flagrant wickedness Is 9:17, etc. e.g. Psalms 89:47
- 6. in various combinations, לַפִּיד אֵשׁ Gn 15:17 (J) a torch of fire (cf. Di); לַבַּת־אֵשׁ Ex 3:2 flame of fire, לַהַב אֵשׁ Jo 2:5, לַפִּידֵי אֵשׁ (in sim.) Dn 10:6 cf. Zc 12:6, לַהֲבוֹת אֵשׁ ψ 29:7 לַהֲבֵי אֵשׁ Is 66:15 cf. א׳ לֶהָבוֹת ψ 105:32, נֹגַהּ א׳ לֶהָבָה Is 4:5 cf. Ho 7:6; שְׂבִיב אִשּׁוֹ spark of his fire Jb 18:5 cf. כִּידוֹדֵי אֵשׁ 41:11; תַּנּוּר אֵשׁ ψ 21:10 oven of fire, כִּיּוֹר אֵשׁ Zc 12:6; אוֹר אֵשׁ light of fire ψ 78:14; אֵשׁ לֹהֵט flaming fire ψ 104:4; לְשׁוֹן אֵשׁ Is 5:24 tongue of fire, גַּחֲלֵי אֵשׁ Ez 1:13 coals of fire, so 10:2, cf. רִשְׁפֵּי אֵשׁ Ct 8:6; on אַבְנֵי אֵשׁ Ez 28:14, 16 v. אֶבֶן; אֵשׁ דַּת Dt 33:2, lit. fire of a law, or fire was a law, but דָּת law is Pers. & late; read perhaps אֵשׁ [לַףִּ]דֹת cf. Ex 20:18 or אֵשׁ [יֹקֶ]דֶת cf. Is 65:5. e.g. Genesis 15:17
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. vb. be long, almost always of time (Assyrian arâku COTGloss, Aramaic אֲרַךְ, ܐܶܪܰܟ )—
I. n.f. Ex 9:23 (m. Je 48:45; ψ 104·4; f. & m. Je 20:9; Jb 20:26) אֵשׁ ‘m.’ is dub.: Nu 16:18 read עָלֶיהָ for 2nd עֲלֵיהֶם (𝔊B); Je 20:9 v. Ges§ 132 d; 48:45 read (many MSS., Nu 21:28) יצאה; ψ 104:4 read perhaps (Ol) לֹהֵֽטָה׃ or (Kenn) וָלָֽהַט׃; Jb 20:26 v. Ges§ 145 u (or 121 b): cf. AlbrZAW xvi (1896), 63. fire (Assyrian išatu COTGloss, Syriac ܐܶܫܳܬܳܐ, እሳት deriv. from ii. אנשׁ,أَنَسَ, sociable, friendly element (MV Wetzst in De Psalmen, ed. 4, p. 888 LagBN 68 cf. انيسة, مانوسة), improb. especially in view of Assyrian; daghesh prob. secondary; cf. also Sta§ 189 b)—א׳ abs. Ex 9:24 +; cstr. Lv 6:2 + (seld.); †sf. אִשּׁוֹ Dt 4:36 Jb 18:5; אֶשְׁכֶם Is 50:11; אִשָּׁם Is 66:24;—
— 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.
ארך
- (√אר, cmp. ארג) to join, weave; whence to arrange, plan; v. ערך.—V. אֲרִיךְ II, אֲרוּכָה &c.
אָרֵךְ
- , cmp. Schr. KAT p. 497 ארג; cmp. also גדל to plait,to be tall) to be [pointed, stretched,] long, tall.
- 1. to prolong, be long in doing. Ber. I, 4 אמרו להַאֲרִיךְ they commended a lengthy benediction. Ib. 34ᵃ; cmp. אַרְכָן. Yoma 35ᵇ הֶאֱ׳ בתפלתו staid long in prayer.—הא׳ ימים to live long. Meg. 27ᵇ; a. fr.—Ber. 8ᵇ, a. fr. מַאֲרִיכִין ימיו his life will be prolonged.—פנים, הא׳ רוח to be long-suffering, forbearing. Y. Shebu. IV, beg. 35ᵇ; a. fr.—Y. Taan. II, 65ᵇ bot. when collecting debts (punishing) מאריך וגובה he is slow in collecting (punishes in long intervals, gives extension).
- 2. to be long, last long. Num. R. s. 20, end הא׳ הברזל the point of the spear grew longer, v. infra; a. fr.
- 3. [to lengthen the carrying pole,] to make heavy. Nidd. 16ᵇ כמה הֶאֱרַכְתָּ עלינו how heavy thou hast made our burden (through restrictive laws)!
- to be prolonged, grow longer. Sifré Num. 131; Yalk. ib. 771; (Num. R. l. c. האריך).
אֲרַךְ
- , v. אֲרִיךְ I
אֶרֶךְ
- (b. h.) only with אַף, אֲפַּיִם long-suffering, forbearing. Y. Taan. II, 65ᵇ; a. fr.; v. אַף.
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 30 distinct written forms H748 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 H748, 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
- ארוכה ʼărûwkâh H724 healing
- ארך ʼărak H749 proper
- ארך ʼârêk H750 patient
- ארך ʼârôk H752 long
- ארך ʼôrek H753 length
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 7 — 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 34 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 34 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 26:8
- Exodus 20:12
- Numbers 9:19
- Deuteronomy 4:26
- Joshua 24:31
- Judges 2:7
- 1 Kings 3:14
- 2 Chronicles 5:9
- Job 6:11
- Psalms 129:3
- Proverbs 19:11
- Ecclesiastes 7:15
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.
