Grow With Me
Grow With Me

צָוָה

tsava · command

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H6680 · appears 494 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

tsava (צָוָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “command”.

Give an order; give charge to someone.

How to say it

tsa·va

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 give an order: "as YHWH had commanded".
  2. To charge someone with something.
  3. To give final instructions before dying.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Command, give an order. BDB defines it as “constitute, enjoin”. From the same root is מִצְוָה, “commandment”.

How we translate it

“Commanded” 250 times, “had commanded” 115, “command” 58, “am commanding you” 26. When Moses hands the charge on to Joshua, it is translated “gave him orders” (Numbers 27:23), and in Deuteronomy 31:14 “commission”, which is what the verb does there. The formula “as YHWH had commanded” is kept the same throughout the text so that it can be recognized.

How it is translated

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

  • commanded ×250
  • had commanded ×115
  • command ×58
  • am commanding you ×26
  • am commanding ×13
  • commands ×9
  • gave orders ×7
  • Give orders ×3
  • gave him orders ×3
  • I gave them orders ×1
  • others ×9

Related words

Words that come from it

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

Where it appears

  • Genesis 2:16

    And YHWH Elohim commanded the man, saying, “From every tree of the garden you may freely eat;

  • Genesis 3:11

    And he said, “Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

  • Genesis 3:17

    And to Adam he said, “Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; with toil you will eat from it all the days of your life.

  • Genesis 6:22

    And Noah did so; according to all that Elohim commanded him, so he did.

  • Genesis 7:5

    And Noah did according to all that YHWH had commanded him.

  • Genesis 7:9

    two and two they came to Noah into the ark, male and female, as Elohim had commanded Noah.

  • Genesis 7:16

    And those that came, male and female of all flesh, came as Elohim had commanded him; and YHWH shut the door behind him.

  • Genesis 12:20

    Pharaoh gave orders to men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

  • 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 21:4

    Abraham circumcised Isaac his son when he was eight days old, as Elohim had commanded him.

  • Genesis 26:11

    So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”

  • Genesis 27:8

    So now, my son, listen to my voice in what I command you.

  • Genesis 28:1

    Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

  • Genesis 28:6

    Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take for himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he commanded him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”

  • Genesis 32:4

    He commanded them, saying, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: ‘Thus says your servant Jacob: With Laban I have resided as an alien and stayed until now.

  • Genesis 32:17

    He commanded the first, saying, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you, and where are you going, and whose are these ahead of you?’

  • 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 42:25

    Joseph gave orders to fill their containers with grain, and to return their silver, each into his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. And so it was done for them.

  • Genesis 44:1

    He commanded the one over his house, saying, “Fill the bags of the men with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his bag.

  • Genesis 45:19

    And you are commanded: ‘Do this: take for yourselves from the land of Egypt carts for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

  • Genesis 47:11

    Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

  • Genesis 49:29

    He commanded them and said to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

  • Genesis 49:33

    When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

  • Genesis 50:2

    Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.

  • Genesis 50:12

    His sons did for him just as he had commanded them;

  • Genesis 50:16

    So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave orders before his death, saying,

  • Exodus 1:22

    Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall throw into the Nile, but every daughter you shall let live.”

  • Exodus 4:28

    Moses told Aaron all the words of YHWH with which he had sent him and all the signs that he had commanded him to do.

  • Exodus 5:6

    That same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their supervisors, saying,

  • Exodus 6:13

    Then YHWH spoke to Moses and to Aaron and gave them a charge concerning the sons of Israel and concerning Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

  • Exodus 7:2

    You shall speak all that I command you, and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land.

  • Exodus 7:6

    Moses and Aaron did so; as YHWH commanded them, so they did.

  • Exodus 7:10

    So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did so, as YHWH had commanded; Aaron threw his staff before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

  • Exodus 7:20

    Moses and Aaron did so, as YHWH had commanded. He raised the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned into blood.

  • Exodus 12:28

    Then the sons of Israel went and did; as YHWH had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

  • Exodus 12:50

    All the sons of Israel did so; as YHWH had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

  • Exodus 16:16

    This is the thing that YHWH has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one according to what he can eat, an omer per head, according to the number of your persons; each one for those in his tent you shall take.’ ”

  • Exodus 16:24

    So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had commanded, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it.

  • Exodus 16:32

    Moses said, “This is the thing that YHWH has commanded: ‘A full omer of it is to be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’ ”

  • Exodus 16:34

    As YHWH commanded Moses, Aaron set it before the testimony, to be kept.

And 454 more times.