katav · write

What it means

katav (כָּתַב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “write”.

Also write down, record.

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 put words in writing, in a book or tablet, so that they last.
2. To enter someone's name in a record.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Write. BDB: to write, inscribe, register, decree.

• To write in a book Exodus 17:14Exodus 24:4
• Tablets written with the finger of Elohim Exodus 31:18
• Writing the words on the gates Deuteronomy 6:9
• A document of divorce Deuteronomy 24:1
• “Are they not written…?”: the records of the kings 1 Kings 11:41
• Writing the instruction on the heart Jeremiah 31:33

Historical and cultural background

Deuteronomy 24:1 mentions divorce in writing: the husband “writes for her a document of divorce and puts {it} in her hand and sends her away from his house”.

How we translate it

“Written” 138 times, “write” 41, “wrote” 35. It is translated “write” consistently; also in Joshua 18:8, where the task is to put the land into writing (“to write the land”).

How it is translated

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

• written ×138
• write ×41
• wrote ×35
• writing ×3
• writes ×2
• him ×1
• recorded them ×1
• script ×1
• were among those registered ×1
• who is recorded ×1
• others ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Exodus×11
• Numbers×5
• Deuteronomy×22
• Joshua×13
• Judges×1
• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Samuel×3
• 1 Kings×16
• 2 Kings×30
• 1 Chronicles×5
• 2 Chronicles×27
• Ezra×6
• Nehemiah×10
• Esther×18
• Job×3
• Psalms×6
• Proverbs×3
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×8
• Jeremiah×21
• Ezekiel×8
• Daniel×3
• Hosea×2
• Habakkuk×1
• Malachi×1

• Exodus 17:14

  YHWH said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book, and put it in the hearing of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”

• Exodus 24:4

  Moses wrote all the words of YHWH. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve standing stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.

• Exodus 24:12

  YHWH said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the instruction and the commandment that I have written to teach them.”

• Exodus 31:18

  And he gave to Moses, when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of Elohim.

• Exodus 32:15

  And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets written on both their sides; on one side and on the other they were written.

• Exodus 32:32

  But now, if you will forgive their sin… and if not, blot me out, please, from your book that you have written.”

• Exodus 34:1

  And YHWH said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

• Exodus 34:27

  And YHWH said to Moses, “Write for yourself these words, for according to these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

• Exodus 34:28

  And he was there with YHWH forty days and forty nights; bread he did not eat, and water he did not drink. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.

• Exodus 39:30

  And they made the plate of the holy diadem of pure gold, and wrote on it an inscription with the engravings of a seal: “Holiness to YHWH.”

• Numbers 5:23

  And the priest shall write these imprecations in a scroll and wipe them off into the water of bitterness.

• Numbers 11:26

  But two men had remained in the camp; the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the second Medad; and the spirit rested on them —and they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent— and they prophesied in the camp.

• Numbers 17:2

  “Speak to the sons of Israel and take from them a staff for each father’s house, from all their chiefs by their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs. Each man’s name you shall write on his staff,

• Numbers 17:3

  and the name of Aaron you shall write on the staff of Levi, for there shall be one staff for the head of their fathers’ house.

• Numbers 33:2

  Moses wrote down their departures by their stages at the command of YHWH; and these are their stages by their departures.

• Deuteronomy 4:13

  He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to carry out, the ten words, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.

• Deuteronomy 5:22

  These words YHWH spoke to all your assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick cloud, with a loud voice, and he did not add more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

• Deuteronomy 6:9

  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

• Deuteronomy 9:10

  YHWH gave me the two tablets of stone, written with the finger of Elohim; and on them was written according to all the words that YHWH had spoken with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.

• Deuteronomy 10:2

  And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.”

• Deuteronomy 10:4

  And he wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten words that YHWH had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and YHWH gave them to me.

• Deuteronomy 11:20

  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

• Deuteronomy 17:18

  And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this instruction in a book, from the one that is before the priests, the Levites.

• Deuteronomy 24:1

  When a man takes a woman and becomes her husband, and it happens, if she does not find favor in his eyes because he has found in her a nakedness of something, and he writes for her a document of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her away from his house,

• Deuteronomy 24:3

  and the latter man hates her and writes for her a document of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her away from his house, or if the latter man who took her to himself as a wife dies,

• Deuteronomy 27:3

  And you shall write on them all the words of this instruction when you cross, so that you may enter into the land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as YHWH, the Elohim of your fathers, has spoken to you.

• Deuteronomy 27:8

  And you shall write on the stones all the words of this instruction very plainly.”

• Deuteronomy 28:58

  If you do not take care to do all the words of this instruction that are written in this book, to fear this glorious and awesome name, YHWH your Elohim,

• Deuteronomy 28:61

  Also every sickness and every blow that is not written in the book of this instruction, YHWH will bring them up on you until you are destroyed.

• Deuteronomy 29:20

  YHWH will not be willing to forgive him, for then the anger of YHWH and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and every oath of imprecation written in this book will settle on him, and YHWH will blot out his name from under the heavens.

• Deuteronomy 29:21

  And YHWH will single him out for evil from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the oaths of imprecation of the covenant written in this book of the instruction.

• Deuteronomy 29:27

  So the anger of YHWH burned against that land, to bring on it all the curse written in this book.

• Deuteronomy 30:10

  if you listen to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this book of the instruction, if you return to YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul.

• Deuteronomy 31:9

  And Moses wrote this instruction and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of YHWH, and to all the elders of Israel.

• Deuteronomy 31:19

  And now, write for yourselves this song, and teach it to the sons of Israel; put it in their mouths, so that this song may be for me a witness against the sons of Israel.

• Deuteronomy 31:22

  And Moses wrote this song on that day and taught it to the sons of Israel.

• Deuteronomy 31:24

  And it happened, when Moses had finished writing the words of this instruction in a book to the end,

• Joshua 1:8

  This book of the instruction shall not depart from your mouth, and you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosper, and then you will act wisely.

• Joshua 8:31

  just as Moses the servant of YHWH had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the instruction of Moses: an altar of whole stones, on which no iron had been lifted. And they offered up on it burnt offerings to YHWH, and sacrificed peace offerings.

• Joshua 8:32

  And he wrote there, on the stones, a copy of the instruction of Moses, which he had written before the sons of Israel.

And 185 more times.