בָּחַר
bachar · choose
Hebrew word · Strong’s number H977 · appears 169 times in the Bible
What is the Strong number?
Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.What it means
bachar (בָּחַר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “choose”.
Select.
How to say it
ba·char
Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.
Its senses in the Bible
- To take one thing and leave the others, because it is preferred.
- God picks out his people, a place or a king.
- The men picked out of a group, such as the strongest for war.
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)
Word study
To choose, to select. BDB: properly to try, and by implication, to select. From the same root comes בָּחִיר, “chosen”.
- Lot chooses the plain of the Jordan Genesis 13:11
- “The place that YHWH your Elohim chooses” Deuteronomy 12:5
- YHWH chooses his people Deuteronomy 7:6
- YHWH chooses the king 1 Samuel 16:8
- “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve”; “you shall choose life” Joshua 24:15Deuteronomy 30:19
How we translate it
“Chosen” 69 times, “chose” 34, “choose” 30, “chooses” 30… In Deuteronomy the formula of the sanctuary is “the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses”.
How it is translated
The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.
- chosen ×69
- chose ×34
- choose ×30
- chooses ×30
- Choice ×4
- are choosing ×1
- preferred ×1
Related words
Words that come from it
Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.
Where it appears
- Genesis×2
- Exodus×3
- Numbers×3
- Deuteronomy×31
- Joshua×4
- Judges×5
- 1 Samuel×12
- 2 Samuel×9
- 1 Kings×13
- 2 Kings×2
- 1 Chronicles×10
- 2 Chronicles×16
- Nehemiah×2
- Job×7
- Psalms×13
- Proverbs×8
- Song of Songs×1
- Isaiah×20
- Jeremiah×3
- Ezekiel×1
- Haggai×1
- Zechariah×3
- Genesis 6:2
that the sons of Elohim saw that the daughters of human beings were beautiful; and they took for themselves wives from all whom they chose.
- Genesis 13:11
So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward; and they separated, each from his brother.
- Exodus 14:7
He took six hundred chosen chariots and all the chariots of Egypt, with captains over all of them.
- Exodus 17:9
Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us, and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of Elohim in my hand.”
- Exodus 18:25
Moses chose capable men from all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens.
- Numbers 16:5
And he spoke to Korah and to all his community, saying, “In the morning YHWH will make known who is his, and who is holy, and he will bring him near to himself; and the one whom he chooses he will bring near to himself.
- Numbers 16:7
and put fire in them and lay incense on them before YHWH tomorrow, and the man whom YHWH chooses, he shall be the holy one. Enough of you, sons of Levi!”
- Numbers 17:5
And the man whom I choose, his staff shall sprout; and I will silence from upon me the grumblings of the sons of Israel, which they grumble against you.”
- Deuteronomy 4:37
And because he loved your fathers and chose his offspring after him, he brought you out with his presence, by his great power, from Egypt,
- Deuteronomy 7:6
For you are a holy people to YHWH your Elohim; YHWH your Elohim has chosen you to be a people for him, his special treasure, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the ground.
- Deuteronomy 7:7
It was not because you were more numerous than all the peoples that YHWH set his affection on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all the peoples;
- Deuteronomy 10:15
Yet on your fathers YHWH set his affection to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, you, out of all the peoples, as it is this day.
- Deuteronomy 12:5
But you shall seek the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses out of all your tribes to put his name there for his dwelling, and you shall go there.
- Deuteronomy 12:11
Then to the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I am commanding you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all the choicest of your vows that you vow to YHWH.
- Deuteronomy 12:14
but in the place that YHWH chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
- Deuteronomy 12:18
but before YHWH your Elohim you shall eat it in the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male slave and your female slave, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before YHWH your Elohim in every undertaking of your hand.
- Deuteronomy 12:21
If the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses to put his name there is far from you, then you may sacrifice from your herd and from your flock that YHWH has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates with all the desire of your soul.
- Deuteronomy 12:26
Only your holy things that you have and your vows you shall take up and go to the place that YHWH chooses,
- Deuteronomy 14:2
for you are a holy people to YHWH your Elohim, and YHWH has chosen you to be for him a people, his special treasure, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the ground.
- Deuteronomy 14:23
And you shall eat before YHWH your Elohim, in the place that he chooses to make his name dwell there, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to fear YHWH your Elohim all the days.
- Deuteronomy 14:24
But if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, because the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses to put his name there is far from you, when YHWH your Elohim blesses you,
- Deuteronomy 14:25
then you shall turn it into silver, and bind up the silver in your hand, and go to the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses.
- Deuteronomy 15:20
Before YHWH your Elohim you shall eat it year by year in the place that YHWH chooses, you and your household.
- Deuteronomy 16:2
And you shall sacrifice the Passover to YHWH your Elohim, from the flock and the herd, in the place that YHWH chooses to make his name dwell there.
- Deuteronomy 16:6
but at the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses to make his name dwell there, there you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening, at the going down of the sun, at the appointed time of your coming out of Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 16:7
And you shall cook it and eat it in the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.
- Deuteronomy 16:11
And you shall rejoice before YHWH your Elohim, you and your son and your daughter, your male slave and your female slave, and the Levite who is within your gates, and the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow who are among you, in the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses to make his name dwell there.
- Deuteronomy 16:15
Seven days you shall celebrate the feast to YHWH your Elohim in the place that YHWH chooses, for YHWH your Elohim will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful.
- Deuteronomy 16:16
Three times in the year all your males shall appear before YHWH your Elohim in the place that he chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. And none shall appear before YHWH empty-handed;
- Deuteronomy 17:8
If a matter for judgment is too difficult for you, between blood and blood, between case and case, and between blow and blow, matters of dispute within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses.
- Deuteronomy 17:10
And you shall act according to the word that they announce to you from that place that YHWH chooses, and you shall be careful to do according to all that they instruct you.
- Deuteronomy 17:15
you shall surely set over you a king whom YHWH your Elohim chooses. From among your brothers you shall set over you a king; you may not put over you a foreign man, who is not your brother.
- Deuteronomy 18:5
For YHWH your Elohim has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of YHWH, him and his sons, all the days.
- Deuteronomy 18:6
And if the Levite comes from one of your gates, from all Israel, where he resides as an alien, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place that YHWH chooses,
- Deuteronomy 21:5
And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for YHWH your Elohim has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of YHWH, and by their word every dispute and every blow shall be settled.
- Deuteronomy 23:16
With you he shall live, in your midst, in the place that he chooses in one of your gates, where it is good for him; you shall not mistreat him.
- Deuteronomy 26:2
that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground that you bring from your land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you, and you shall put it in the basket and go to the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses to make his name dwell there.
- Deuteronomy 30:19
I call the heavens and the earth to witness against you today: life and death I have set before you, the blessing and the curse. And you shall choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring,
- Deuteronomy 31:11
when all Israel comes to appear before the face of YHWH your Elohim at the place that he chooses, you shall read this instruction before all Israel, in their ears.
- Joshua 8:3
So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand men, mighty warriors, and sent them out by night.
And 129 more times.