דָבַר

davar · speak

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H1696 · appears 1142 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

davar (דָבַר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “speak”.

Talk, say; also promise or command.

How to say it

da·var

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 speak, say something; above all God to his people.
To speak with one another, talk together.
To promise, say what will be done.
To bring peoples under one's rule.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Speak. BDB gives it as “speak” and, rarely, in a destructive sense, “subdue”. From the same root is דָּבָר, “word”.

To speak; above all, God speaking to his people Exodus 20:1 Genesis 8:15
“Face to face”, “mouth to mouth”: to speak directly Exodus 33:11 Numbers 12:8
“Speak to the heart”: to speak tenderly Genesis 34:3 Hosea 2:14

How we translate it

“Spoke” 378 times, “speak” 321, “have spoken” 88, “speaking” 75, “has spoken” 69. It is often followed by אָמַר in the form “saying”, which introduces the exact words: “And Elohim spoke to Noah, saying” (Genesis 8:15). The expression “speak to the heart” is kept literally.

How it is translated

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

spoke ×378
speak ×321
have spoken ×88
speaking ×75
has spoken ×69
had spoken ×49
speaks ×39
spoken ×24
said ×17
say ×17
others ×65

Related words

Words that come from it

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

Where it appears

Genesis 8:15
And Elohim spoke to Noah, saying,
Genesis 12:4
So Abram went, just as YHWH had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he went out from Haran.
Genesis 16:13
So she called the name of YHWH, who was speaking to her, “You are El Roi,” for she said, “Have I really seen here after the one who sees me?”
Genesis 17:3
Abram fell on his face, and Elohim spoke with him, saying,
Genesis 17:22
When he finished speaking with him, Elohim went up from Abraham.
Genesis 17:23
Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house and all those bought with his silver, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on that very day, as Elohim had told him.
Genesis 18:5
And I will bring a morsel of bread, and refresh your hearts; after that you may go on, since that is why you have come by your servant.” They said, “Do so, as you have said.”
Genesis 18:19
For I have known him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of YHWH by doing righteousness and justice, so that YHWH may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him.”
Genesis 18:27
Abraham answered and said, “Look, I have ventured to speak to Adonai, though I am dust and ashes.
Genesis 18:29
He spoke to him yet again and said, “Perhaps forty will be found there.” He said, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.”
Genesis 18:30
Then he said, “Please let Adonai not be angry, and I will speak: perhaps thirty will be found there.” He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
Genesis 18:31
He said, “Look, I have ventured to speak to Adonai: perhaps twenty will be found there.” He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”
Genesis 18:32
He said, “Please let Adonai not be angry, and I will speak only this once: perhaps ten will be found there.” He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”
Genesis 18:33
YHWH went his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
Genesis 19:14
So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place, for YHWH is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to be joking in the eyes of his sons-in-law.
Genesis 19:21
He said to him, “Look, I grant you this request also, not to overturn the city of which you have spoken.
Genesis 20:8
So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their ears; and the men were very afraid.
Genesis 21:1
YHWH attended to Sarah as he had said, and YHWH did for Sarah as he had spoken.
Genesis 21:2
Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which Elohim had spoken to him.
Genesis 23:3
Then Abraham rose from beside his dead and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying,
Genesis 23:8
He spoke with them, saying, “If it is your will that I bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and intercede for me with Ephron son of Zohar,
Genesis 23:13
and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If only you would hear me! I give the silver for the field; take it from me, and let me bury my dead there.”
Genesis 23:16
Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current among the merchants.
Genesis 24:7
YHWH, the Elohim of the heavens, who took me from the house of my father and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.
Genesis 24:15
It happened, before he had finished speaking, that, look, Rebekah was coming out, who was born to Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her jar on her shoulder.
Genesis 24:30
When he saw the ring and the bracelets on the hands of his sister, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, “Thus the man spoke to me,” he went to the man; and look, he was standing by the camels at the spring.
Genesis 24:33
Then food was set before him to eat, but he said, “I will not eat until I have told my errand.” He said, “Speak.”
Genesis 24:45
Before I had finished speaking in my heart, look, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’
Genesis 24:50
Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The matter has come from YHWH; we cannot speak to you bad or good.
Genesis 24:51
Look, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your lord’s son, as YHWH has spoken.”
Genesis 27:5
Now Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it.
Genesis 27:6
Rebekah said to Jacob her son, “Look, I heard your father speaking to Esau your brother, saying,
Genesis 27:19
Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”
Genesis 28:15
Look, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not abandon you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
Genesis 29:9
While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with the sheep that belonged to her father, for she was a shepherdess.
Genesis 31:24
But Elohim came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to speak with Jacob either good or bad.”
Genesis 31:29
It is in the power of my hand to do you harm; but the Elohim of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to speak with Jacob either good or bad.’
Genesis 32:19
He commanded also the second, also the third, and also all who were going after the herds, saying, “According to this word you shall speak to Esau when you find him.
Genesis 34:3
But his soul clung to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke to the heart of the young woman.
Genesis 34:6
Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.

And 1102 more times.