koach · strength

What it means

koach (כֹּחַ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “strength”.

Power, vigor; also what the ground can produce. A word with the same letters names a large lizard.

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. Ability to do something: bodily strength or power to command.
2. What one is able, or one's goods.
3. Another word spelled the same: a large lizard, unclean.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Strength, vigor; ability, means; and what the ground produces. Also the name of a reptile. BDB: strength, power; another word written the same way is a small reptile, probably a kind of lizard.

• The ground will not give its strength Genesis 4:12
• “With all my strength I have served” Genesis 31:6
• Samson's strength Judges 16:5Judges 16:6
• “Those who wait for YHWH will renew {their} strength” Isaiah 40:29Isaiah 40:31
• “Not by army and not by power, but by my spirit” Zechariah 4:6
• The large lizard, an unclean animal Leviticus 11:30

How we translate it

“Strength” 91 times, “power” 30, “force” 2, “wealth” 1, “strong arm” 1, “large lizard” 1.

How it is translated

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

• strength ×91
• power ×30
• force ×2
• large lizard ×1
• strong arm ×1
• wealth ×1

Where it appears

• Genesis×3
• Exodus×3
• Leviticus×2
• Numbers×2
• Deuteronomy×4
• Joshua×3
• Judges×8
• 1 Samuel×4
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Kings×2
• 1 Chronicles×4
• 2 Chronicles×8
• Ezra×2
• Nehemiah×2
• Job×21
• Psalms×11
• Proverbs×5
• Ecclesiastes×2
• Isaiah×12
• Jeremiah×5
• Lamentations×2
• Daniel×13
• Hosea×1
• Amos×1
• Micah×1
• Nahum×2
• Habakkuk×1
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 4:12

  When you work the ground, it will no longer give its strength to you; a wanderer and a drifter you will be on the earth.”

• Genesis 31:6

  You know that with all my strength I have served your father.

• Genesis 49:3

  Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength and the first fruit of my vigor, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.

• Exodus 9:16

  But for this purpose I have let you stand, in order to show you my power, and so that my name may be declared in all the earth.

• Exodus 15:6

  Your right hand, YHWH, is majestic in power; your right hand, YHWH, shatters the enemy.

• Exodus 32:11

  But Moses pleaded before YHWH his Elohim and said, “Why, YHWH, does your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?

• Leviticus 11:30

  the gecko, the large lizard, the wall lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.

• Leviticus 26:20

  And your strength will be spent in vain, and your land will not give its yield, and the tree of the land will not give its fruit.

• Numbers 14:13

  But Moses said to YHWH, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your power from among them,

• Numbers 14:17

  And now, please let the power of Adonai be great, just as you have spoken, saying,

• 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 8:17

  and you say in your heart, “My strength and the might of my hand have made for me this wealth.”

• Deuteronomy 8:18

  Remember YHWH your Elohim, for it is he who gives you strength to make wealth, in order to establish his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

• Deuteronomy 9:29

  Yet they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”

• Joshua 14:11

  I am still strong today as on the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and for coming in.

• Joshua 17:17

  And Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, “You are a numerous people, and you have great strength; you shall not have only one lot,

• Judges 6:14

  YHWH turned to him and said, “Go in this strength of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”

• Judges 16:5

  And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see in what his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, so that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will give you, each one, eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

• Judges 16:6

  So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me, please, in what your great strength lies, and with what you could be bound to afflict you.”

• Judges 16:9

  Now the ambush was waiting for her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of tow snaps when it smells fire. So his strength was not known.

• Judges 16:15

  And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? These three times you have deceived me and have not told me in what your great strength lies.”

• Judges 16:17

  So he opened to her all his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come up on my head, for I have been a Nazirite of Elohim from the womb of my mother. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any human being.”

• Judges 16:19

  She made him sleep on her knees, and she called for a man and she shaved the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength left him.

• Judges 16:30

  And Samson said, “Let my soul die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with force, and the house fell on the lords and on all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he put to death at his death were more than those he had put to death in his life.

• 1 Samuel 2:9

  The feet of his faithful ones he guards, but the wicked are silenced in darkness; for not by strength does a man prevail.

• 1 Samuel 28:20

  At once Saul fell full length on the ground and was very afraid because of the words of Samuel; there was also no strength in him, for he had not eaten bread all day and all night.

• 1 Samuel 28:22

  Now then, please listen also yourself to the voice of your servant: let me set before you a morsel of bread; eat, so that there may be in you strength when you go on your way.”

• 1 Samuel 30:4

  David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept until there was no strength in them to weep.

• 1 Kings 19:8

  He got up and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to the mountain of Elohim, Horeb.

• 2 Kings 17:36

  but YHWH, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, him you shall fear, and to him you shall bow down, and to him you shall sacrifice.

• 2 Kings 19:3

  They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of contempt; for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to give birth.

• 1 Chronicles 26:8

  All these were of the sons of Obed-edom; they and their sons and their brothers, capable men with strength for the service: sixty-two of Obed-edom.

• 1 Chronicles 29:2

  With all my strength I have prepared for the house of my Elohim the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and the wood for the things of wood; onyx stones and stones for setting, stones of antimony and of colors, and every precious stone, and marble stones in abundance.

• 1 Chronicles 29:12

  Riches and glory come from before you, and you rule over all; in your hand are strength and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to strengthen all.

• 1 Chronicles 29:14

  For who am I, and who are my people, that we should have strength to offer willingly like this? For from you comes everything, and from your hand we have given to you.

• 2 Chronicles 2:6

  But who will have the strength to build him a house, since the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain him? And who am I that I should build him a house, except to offer up in smoke before him?

• 2 Chronicles 13:20

  Jeroboam did not retain strength again in the days of Abijah; and YHWH struck him, and he died.

• 2 Chronicles 14:11

  Asa cried out to YHWH his Elohim and said, “YHWH, there is none like you to help between the mighty and the one without strength. Help us, YHWH our Elohim, for on you we rely, and in your name we have come against this multitude. YHWH, you are our Elohim; do not let mortal man prevail against you.”

• 2 Chronicles 20:6

  and said, “YHWH, Elohim of our fathers, are you not Elohim in the heavens? And you rule over all the kingdoms of the nations; in your hand are power and might, and there is no one able to stand firm against you.

• 2 Chronicles 20:12

  Our Elohim, will you not judge them? For there is no power in us before this great multitude that is coming against us, and we do not know what to do, but on you are our eyes.”

And 86 more times.