לָקַח

lakach · take

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H3947 · appears 966 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

lakach (לָקַח) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “take”.

Seize, take along, receive. Also "take a wife" (marry).

How to say it

la·kach

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 grasp something in the hand to carry or use it.
To take someone along, or go and fetch something.
To accept what someone gives, such as teaching or correction.
To take away, seize.
"Take a wife": to marry.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Take, in the widest variety of uses (BDB): seize, take along, receive, acquire.

To take something in the hand Genesis 2:21 Genesis 3:22
To take someone to a place Genesis 2:15
“Take a wife”: to marry Genesis 24:4
To be taken by Elohim Genesis 5:24
To receive teaching or correction Proverbs 1:3

How we translate it

“Take” 394 times, “took” 386, “taken” 55; “receive” 16, “get” 16, “bring” 15. This edition keeps “take” also for marriage (“take a wife for my son Isaac”, Genesis 24:4), as the Hebrew says, and for Enoch (“for Elohim took him”, Genesis 5:24); where the sense calls for another verb, it uses “receive” (Proverbs 1:3).

How it is translated

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

take ×394
took ×386
taken ×55
takes ×20
had taken ×19
get ×16
receive ×16
bring ×15
taking ×8
accept ×7
others ×30

Related words

Words that come from it

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

Where it appears

Genesis 2:15
And YHWH Elohim took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.
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 2:22
And YHWH Elohim built the side that he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.
Genesis 2:23
And the man said, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called Woman, because from Man this one was taken.”
Genesis 3:6
And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for gaining insight; and she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return.”
Genesis 3:22
And YHWH Elohim said, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, so that he does not reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever—”
Genesis 3:23
And YHWH Elohim sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Genesis 4:11
And now, cursed are you away from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
Genesis 4:19
And Lamech took for himself two wives; the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the second Zillah.
Genesis 5:24
And Enoch walked with Elohim, and he was not, for Elohim took him.
Genesis 6:2
that the sons of Elohim saw that the daughters of human beings were beautiful; and they took for themselves wives from all whom they chose.
Genesis 6:21
And you, take for yourself of every food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for you and for them for food.”
Genesis 7:2
Of every clean animal you shall take for yourself seven and seven, the male and its female; and of the animals that are not clean, they are two, the male and its female;
Genesis 8:9
But the dove did not find a resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were on the face of all the earth. And he reached out his hand and took her and brought her to himself into the ark.
Genesis 8:20
And Noah built an altar to YHWH, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Genesis 9:23
And Shem and Japheth took the cloak and laid it on the shoulders of both of them, and they walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned backward, and the nakedness of their father they did not see.
Genesis 11:29
Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.
Genesis 11:31
Terah took Abram his son, Lot son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came as far as Haran and settled there.
Genesis 12:5
Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot the son of his brother, all their possessions that they had gathered, and the persons that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. And they came to the land of Canaan.
Genesis 12:15
Pharaoh’s princes saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into the house of Pharaoh.
Genesis 12:19
Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for myself as a wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her and go!”
Genesis 14:11
They took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, and went away.
Genesis 14:12
They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, and his possessions, and went away; for he was living in Sodom.
Genesis 14:21
The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the possessions for yourself.”
Genesis 14:23
that I will not take a thread or even a sandal strap or anything that is yours, so that you will not say, ‘I made Abram rich.’
Genesis 14:24
Nothing for me; only what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre: let them take their share.”
Genesis 15:9
He said to him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
Genesis 15:10
He brought him all these and cut them in two down the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut in two.
Genesis 16:3
So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave woman, at the end of ten years of Abram’s living in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
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 18:4
Let a little water be brought, please, and wash your feet, and rest under the tree.
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 18:7
And to the herd Abraham ran, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the young man, who hurried to prepare it.
Genesis 18:8
He took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
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 19:15
As the dawn came up, the messengers urged Lot, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the iniquity of the city.”
Genesis 20:2
Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
Genesis 20:3
But Elohim came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Look, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married to a husband.”
Genesis 20:14
Then Abimelech took sheep and cattle, and male slaves and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham, and he returned to him Sarah his wife.

And 926 more times.