נָפַל

nafal · fall

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H5307 · appears 434 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

nafal (נָפַל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “fall”.

Also fall upon (attack), lie down, desert to someone. In the causative form, "make fall", throw down, cast (lots).

How to say it

na·fal

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 fall to the ground, or for a city to fall.
To die in battle, killed by the enemy.
To fall facedown, or embrace someone.
To fall upon someone, or desert to the enemy.
To make fall; throw lots.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Fall. BDB notes that it is used in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative. In the causative form, “cause to fall”, “cast”.

To fall dead in battle 1 Samuel 4:10 2 Samuel 1:19
To fall on one's face: to bow low Genesis 17:3
To fall on someone's neck to embrace him Genesis 33:4
The face that “fell” Genesis 4:5
To go over to the enemy 2 Kings 25:11
To cause a sleep to fall; to cast lots Genesis 2:21 Jonah 1:7

How we translate it

“Fell” 118 times, “fall” 79, “will fall” 73, “fallen” 66, “cast” 12. The translation keeps “fall” in the images of the Hebrew (“fell on his face”, “fell on his neck”, “his face fell”); נָפַל אֶל is translated “go over to” (the enemy), and the causative form “cast” lots or “cause” a sleep “to fall”.

How it is translated

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

fell ×118
fall ×79
will fall ×73
fallen ×66
falls ×28
cast ×12
they cast ×5
bring down ×4
had gone over ×4
I lay prostrate ×3
others ×42

Related words

Words that come from it

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

Where it appears

Genesis 2:21
And YHWH Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his sides and closed up the flesh in its place.
Genesis 4:5
but Cain and his offering he did not regard. And Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
Genesis 4:6
And YHWH said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?
Genesis 14:10
Now the Valley of Siddim was pit after pit of bitumen; and as they fled, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell there, and those who were left fled to the mountains.
Genesis 15:12
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and look, a terror, a great darkness, was falling on him.
Genesis 17:3
Abram fell on his face, and Elohim spoke with him, saying,
Genesis 17:17
Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a son be born to one who is a hundred years old? And Sarah, will she, at ninety years, give birth?”
Genesis 24:64
Rebekah lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac, and she got down from the camel.
Genesis 25:18
They lived from Havilah to Shur, which is facing Egypt as you go toward Assyria. He settled facing all his brothers.
Genesis 33:4
But Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept.
Genesis 43:18
The men were afraid because they were brought into the house of Joseph, and they said, “Because of the matter of the silver that was returned in our bags the first time we are being brought in, so that he may assail us, fall upon us, and take us as slaves, and our donkeys.”
Genesis 44:14
Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there; and they fell before him to the ground.
Genesis 45:14
He fell on the neck of Benjamin his brother and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.
Genesis 46:29
Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. He appeared to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a long time.
Genesis 49:17
Dan will be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that its rider falls backward.
Genesis 50:1
Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him.
Genesis 50:18
His brothers also went and fell down before him and said, “Here we are as your slaves.”
Exodus 15:16
Terror and dread fell upon them; by the greatness of your arm they were as still as a stone, until your people, YHWH, passed by, until the people whom you acquired passed by.
Exodus 19:21
YHWH said to Moses, “Go down, warn the people, lest they break through to YHWH to look, and many of them fall.
Exodus 21:18
When men quarrel and a man strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but is confined to bed,
Exodus 21:27
And if he knocks out the tooth of his male slave or the tooth of his female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth.
Exodus 21:33
When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
Exodus 32:28
And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell of the people on that day about three thousand men.
Leviticus 9:24
Fire came out from before YHWH and consumed on the altar the burnt offering and the fat portions; and all the people saw it, and they shouted for joy and fell on their faces.
Leviticus 11:32
And anything on which any of them falls when they are dead will be unclean, whether any article of wood or garment or skin or sack, any article with which work is done; it shall be put into water, and it will be unclean until the evening; then it will be clean.
Leviticus 11:33
And any earthen vessel into which any of them falls, whatever is in it will be unclean, and it you shall break.
Leviticus 11:35
And anything on which any of their carcasses falls will be unclean; an oven or a stove shall be broken down; they are unclean, and they shall be unclean for you.
Leviticus 11:37
And if any of their carcasses falls on any seed for sowing that is to be sown, it is clean.
Leviticus 11:38
But if water is put on the seed and any of their carcasses falls on it, it shall be unclean for you.
Leviticus 26:7
And you will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.
Leviticus 26:8
And five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.
Leviticus 26:36
And as for those who are left of you, I will bring faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one flees from the sword, and fall when no one is pursuing.
Numbers 5:21
then the priest shall make the woman swear the oath of imprecation, and the priest shall say to the woman, ‘May YHWH make you an imprecation and an oath among your people, when YHWH makes your thigh sag and your belly swell;
Numbers 5:22
may this water that brings a curse go into your bowels to make the belly swell and the thigh sag.’ And the woman shall say, ‘Amen, amen.’
Numbers 5:27
When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be that if she has made herself unclean and been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings a curse shall enter into her to become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh sag, and the woman shall become an imprecation among her people.
Numbers 6:12
And he shall separate to YHWH the days of his consecration and bring a male lamb a year old as a guilt offering; but the former days shall fall away, because his consecration was made unclean.
Numbers 14:3
And why is YHWH bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”
Numbers 14:5
Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the community of the sons of Israel.
Numbers 14:29
In this wilderness your corpses shall fall, and all of you who were counted in all your number, from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me,
Numbers 14:32
But as for you, your corpses shall fall in this wilderness.

And 394 more times.