bakash · seek

What it means

bakash (בָּקַשׁ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “seek”.

Look for; also require, demand an account.

How to say it

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

1. To go after someone or something in order to find it.
2. To try to get something.
3. To turn to YHWH to find him: to come to him and long for his presence.
4. To hold someone answerable.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Seek. BDB notes that it is used of any search, especially in worship or prayer, and from there to strive after something.

• To look for someone or something lost Genesis 37:161 Samuel 10:2
• To strive for something: “he sought to kill Moses” Exodus 2:15Exodus 4:19
• To seek YHWH, to seek his face Deuteronomy 4:29Psalms 27:8
• To “require” someone's blood 2 Samuel 4:11

How we translate it

“Seek” 111 times, “sought” 46, “seeking” 22, “seeks” 20. בִּקֵּשׁ נֶפֶשׁ is translated “seeking your life”; בִּקֵּשׁ דָּם מִיַּד, “require his blood from your hand”.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• seek ×111
• sought ×46
• seeking ×22
• seeks ×20
• searched ×4
• I will require ×3
• look for ×3
• asked ×2
• petition ×2
• require ×2
• others ×10

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×5
• Exodus×5
• Leviticus×1
• Numbers×2
• Deuteronomy×2
• Joshua×2
• Judges×4
• Ruth×1
• 1 Samuel×26
• 2 Samuel×11
• 1 Kings×10
• 2 Kings×3
• 1 Chronicles×5
• 2 Chronicles×8
• Ezra×4
• Nehemiah×6
• Esther×9
• Job×1
• Psalms×27
• Proverbs×14
• Ecclesiastes×7
• Song of Songs×6
• Isaiah×7
• Jeremiah×23
• Lamentations×2
• Ezekiel×10
• Daniel×4
• Hosea×5
• Amos×1
• Nahum×2
• Zephaniah×4
• Zechariah×5
• Malachi×3

• Genesis 31:39

  What was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it; from my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

• Genesis 37:15

  A man found him, and look, he was wandering in the field; and the man asked him, saying, “What are you seeking?”

• Genesis 37:16

  He said, “I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are pasturing the flock.”

• Genesis 43:9

  I will be surety for him; from my hand you may require him. If I do not bring him to you and set him before you, then I will have sinned against you for all time.

• Genesis 43:30

  Joseph hurried out, for his inner parts were stirred for his brother, and he sought a place to weep; he went into the inner room and wept there.

• Exodus 2:15

  When Pharaoh heard of this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian; and he sat down by the well.

• Exodus 4:19

  YHWH said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.”

• Exodus 4:24

  On the way, at the lodging place, YHWH met him and sought to put him to death.

• Exodus 10:11

  Not so! Go, you men, and serve YHWH, for that is what you are asking for.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.

• Exodus 33:7

  And Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought YHWH would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

• Leviticus 19:31

  Do not turn to those who call up the dead or to spiritists; do not seek them out to become unclean by them. I am YHWH your Elohim.

• Numbers 16:10

  and that he has brought near you and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you? And would you seek the priesthood also?

• Numbers 35:23

  or with any stone by which one may die, without seeing him, he let it fall on him and he died, while he was not his enemy and was not seeking his harm,

• Deuteronomy 4:29

  But from there you will seek YHWH your Elohim, and you will find him, if you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul.

• Deuteronomy 13:10

  You shall stone him with stones so that he dies, because he sought to drag you away from YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves.

• Joshua 2:22

  They went and came to the hill country and stayed there three days until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers searched along all the way but did not find them.

• Joshua 22:23

  If it was to build ourselves an altar to turn back from following YHWH, or if to offer on it burnt offering and grain offering, or if to make on it sacrifices of peace offerings, may YHWH himself call us to account.

• Judges 4:22

  And look, Barak was pursuing Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” He went in with her, and there was Sisera, fallen dead, with the peg in his temple.

• Judges 6:29

  They said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” They inquired and searched, and they said, “Gideon son of Joash has done this thing.”

• Judges 14:4

  His father and his mother did not know that it was from YHWH, for he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.

• Judges 18:1

  In those days there was no king in Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking for itself an inheritance to live in, for until that day land had not fallen to it as an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.

• Ruth 3:1

  Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek for you a place of rest, where it may be well with you?

• 1 Samuel 9:3

  Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost, and Kish said to Saul his son, “Take one of the young men with you, please, and get up, go, look for the donkeys.”

• 1 Samuel 10:2

  When you go from me today, you will find two men by the tomb of Rachel in the territory of Benjamin, at Zelzah, and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys that you went to look for have been found, and look, your father has given up the matter of the donkeys and is worried about you, saying, “What shall I do about my son?”’

• 1 Samuel 10:14

  And Saul’s uncle said to him and to his young man, “Where did you go?” And he said, “To look for the donkeys; and when we saw that they were nowhere to be found, we went to Samuel.”

• 1 Samuel 10:21

  And he brought near the tribe of Benjamin by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken; and Saul son of Kish was taken. But when they looked for him, he was not found.

• 1 Samuel 13:14

  But now your kingdom will not stand firm. YHWH has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and YHWH has commanded him to be leader over his people, because you have not kept what YHWH commanded you.”

• 1 Samuel 14:4

  Between the passes by which Jonathan sought to cross over to the post of the Philistines, there was a tooth of rock on one side and a tooth of rock on the other side; the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.

• 1 Samuel 16:16

  Please let our lord speak: your servants are before you; they will seek a man who knows how to play the lyre; and it will be, when the evil spirit of Elohim is upon you, that he will play with his hand, and it will be well with you.”

• 1 Samuel 19:2

  Jonathan told David, saying, “Saul my father is seeking to put you to death. Now therefore, be on your guard, please, in the morning, and stay in a hidden place and hide yourself.

• 1 Samuel 19:10

  Saul sought to strike with the spear David and the wall, but he slipped away from before Saul, and he drove the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.

• 1 Samuel 20:1

  David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my iniquity, and what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”

• 1 Samuel 20:16

  Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David: “May YHWH call them to account at the hand of the enemies of David.”

• 1 Samuel 22:23

  Stay with me; do not be afraid, for whoever seeks my life seeks your life; for you are under guard with me.”

• 1 Samuel 23:10

  David said, “YHWH, Elohim of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the town because of me.

• 1 Samuel 23:14

  David stayed in the wilderness, in the strongholds; he stayed in the mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him all the days, but Elohim did not give him into his hand.

• 1 Samuel 23:15

  David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life, while David was in the wilderness of Ziph, at Horesh.

• 1 Samuel 23:25

  Saul and his men went to seek him. They told David, and he went down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard it, he pursued after David into the wilderness of Maon.

• 1 Samuel 24:2

  Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.

• 1 Samuel 24:9

  David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of people who say, ‘Look, David seeks your harm’?

And 185 more times.