תָּעָה
to go astray
‘to go astray’ 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”). Here: ‘physically’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘physically’
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”). Here: ‘be made to wander about’
Form
- 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).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H8582 appears in the Book of Psalms — 6 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.
Psalms
- Psalms 58:3 תָּע֥וּ Qal pf 3cp The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
- Psalms 95:10 תֹּעֵ֣י Qal ptcp.act mp cs Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, And said, "It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways."
- Psalms 107:4 תָּע֣וּ Qal pf 3cp They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in.
- Psalms 107:40 וַ֝/יַּתְעֵ֗/ם conj + Hiphil wimpf 3ms + sfx pers 3mp He pours contempt on princes, And causes them to wander in a trackless waste.
- Psalms 119:110 תָעִֽיתִי Qal pf 1cs The wicked have laid a snare for me, Yet I haven't gone astray from your precepts.
- Psalms 119:176 תָּעִ֗יתִי Qal pf 1cs I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I don't forget your commandments.
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.
תעה — transliterated tâʻâh — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to go astray.” Where the King James Version says “err,” newer translations reach for “astray” (Berean Standard Bible); the renderings breakdown has the detail. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 45 verses — moderately common. More than a quarter of its appearances fall in Isaiah. Different stems carry different senses — BDB groups them under 3 stems, among them Qal and Niphal. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H8582 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 →
- 45
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 45 distinct verses.
- 13 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 13 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #723
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 723 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 45 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 45 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 25 verses · 56%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 16 verses · 36%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 4 verses · 9%
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: Err 5×, Went astray 4×, Causeth them to wander 2×
- American Standard Version: Went astray 4×, Causeth them to wander 2×, Err 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Astray 5×, Go astray 4×, Stray 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Astray 4×, Go astray 3×, Wander 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H8582 across 51 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 38 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 H8582 across 51 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 41 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 H8582 across 49 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H8582 across 63 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 39 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.
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. ת׳ Is 21:4; 1 s. תָּעִ֫יתִי ψ 119:110, 176, etc.; Impf. 3 fs. תֵּתַע Gn 21:14 Pr 7:25; 3 mpl. יִתְעוּ Is 35:8 +; Inf. cstr. תְּעוֹת Ez 44:10 +; Pt. תֹּעֶה Gn 37:15 +, etc.;— e.g. Isaiah 21:4
- 1. physically, wander about, abs. Ex 23:4 (E) Is 35:8; 53:6; Jb 38:41 ψ 119:176;;c.; ב loc. Gn 21:14; 37:15 (JE), Pr 7:25 ψ 107:4;;c.; ל loc. Is 47:15; acc. loc. 16:8. e.g. Exodus 23:4
- 2. of intoxication,;c.; בְּ of wine Is 28:7; מן of wine v 7; fig. of perplexity, subj. לבב 21:4. e.g. Isaiah 28:7
- 3. ethically, abs. Ez 44:10; 48:11(×3) ψ 58:4 prob. Pr 14:22 (cf. חוטא v 21, but Bu Toy go astray to ruin); תֹּעֵי רוח Is 29:24, תֹּעֵי לבב ψ 95:10; c. מן 119:110; Pr 21:16, מֵאַחֲרַי Ez 14:11, מֵעָלַי Ez 44:10, 15. e.g. Ezekiel 44:10
Niphal
- 1. be made to wander about, as a drunkard: Inf. cstr. הִתָּעוֹת Is 19:14. e.g. Isaiah 19:14
- 2. ethically: Pf. 3 ms. נִתְעָה be led astray Jb 15:31 (c. בשׁוא). e.g. Job 15:31
Hiphil
- Pf. 3 ms. הִתְעָה Ho 4:12 (We הִתְעָם); Impf. וַיֶּ֫תַע 2 Ch 33:9; sf. וַיַּתְעֵם Jb 12:24 +; Pt. מַתְעֶה Is 30:28 +;— e.g. Hosea 4:12
- 1. physically: cause to wander about: abs. Is 30:28 (of bridle, in fig.), Pr 10:17; Je 50:6 (acc. of people as sheep); acc. pers. Pr 12:26; c. מן loc. Gn 20:13 (E), ב loc. Jb 12:24 = ψ 107:40. e.g. Isaiah 30:28
- 2. of intoxication, Is 19:13, 14; Jb 12:25. e.g. Isaiah 19:13
- 3. mentally and morally: cause to err, mislead: abs. Is 3:12; 9:15; Ho 4:12; c. acc. pers. Am 2:4; Mi 3:5; 2 K 21:9 = 2 Ch 33:9; Je 23:13, 32; c. ב obj. Je 42:20 (so Gf; Ke al. (so Pr 10:17) intr. err at cost of; 𝔊 Ew Du Co הֲרֵעֹתֶם); c. מן of י׳ Is 63:17. e.g. Isaiah 3:12
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. err (‖ form of טָעָה, q.v.; Aramaic (sometimes) תְּעָא, תְּעִי id.; NH = BH (rare));—
— 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.
תָּעָה
- , v. תעי
תעי
- v. טָעָה) [to move to and fro,] to be lost, go astray; to err. B. Kam. 81ᵇ הרואה חבירו תּוֹעֶה וכ׳, v. פָּסַג. Ib. וכן הוא שתעה וכ׳ (not שתועה) and so also he who has himself lost his way may &c.; Tosef. B. Mets. II, 28 ת׳ (a. טעה). Gen. R. s. 65 (play on כמ̇ת̇ע̇ת̇ע, Gen. XXVII, 12) כמ̇ת̇ כת̇וע̇ה וכע̇ובד וכ׳ as one dead, as one going astray, and as one worshipping idols; Yalk. ib. 115 כתועה וכעובד וכ׳. Ned. 51ᵃ (play on ת̇ו̇ע̇ב̇ה̇) תו̇ע̇ה אתה ב̇ה̇ thou (who committest it) losest thy senses through it; a. e. e.g. Genesis 27:12
- to lead astray. Snh. 55ᵃ מה אילנות … המַתְעֶה את חבירו מדרך וכ׳ if in the case of trees (that have been worshipped) … the Law says, destroy, burn, and exterminate: how much more does this apply to a man who leads his neighbor from the way of life to the way of death!; Yalk. Lev. 624 וּמַתְעֵהוּ מדרך וכ׳ (differ. in Sifra K’dosh. Par. 4, ch. X). Lam. R. introd. (R. Joḥ. 1) ונביאי … שהִתְעוּ אותי וכ׳ the false prophets …, who led me astray from the way of life &c.; 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 47 distinct written forms H8582 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 H8582, 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 41 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 45 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 20:13
- Exodus 23:4
- 2 Kings 21:9
- 2 Chronicles 33:9
- Job 12:24
- Psalms 58:3
- Proverbs 7:25
- Isaiah 3:12
- Jeremiah 23:13
- Ezekiel 14:11
- Hosea 4:12
- Amos 2:4
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.
