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Hebrew

To love

אָהֵבStrong’s H0157

ahav (a-hav)

Appears in 197 verses of the Old Testament

In short

Ahav is the Hebrew word usually translated “loving”, “love” and “loves”. It appears in 197 verses of the Old Testament.

“And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;”
Daniel 9:4 KJV
Meaning
  1. To love(Qal) · (Niphal) · (Piel)
  2. To like
How it's translated
  • loving 16
  • i love 15
  • to love 11
  • loves 11
  • and he loved 9
  • he loves 9
  • he loved 8
  • love 8

Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.

Where it's used most
  • Psalms 39
  • Proverbs 23
  • Deuteronomy 21
  • Genesis 13
  • Hosea 13
  • Jeremiah 10

28 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
All 197 verses, by book
Exodus 2
20:621:5
Leviticus 2
19:1819:34
Joshua 2
22:523:11
Ruth 1
4:15
2 Chronicles 5
9:811:2119:220:726:10
Nehemiah 2
1:513:26
Job 1
19:19
Ecclesiastes 3
3:85:109:9
Song of Solomon 7
1:31:41:73:13:23:33:4
Lamentations 2
1:21:19
Daniel 1
9:4
Amos 2
4:55:15
Micah 2
3:26:8
Zechariah 3
8:178:1913:6
Malachi 2
1:22:11
Hebrew dictionary

אָהֵב ahav · to love

: lover 1) to love 1a) (Qal) 1a1) human love for another, includes family, and sexual 1a2) human appetite for objects such as food, drink, sleep, wisdom 1a3) human love for or to God 1a4) act of being a friend 1a4a) lover (participle) 1a4b) friend (participle) 1a5) God's love toward man 1a5a) to individual men 1a5b) to people Israel 1a5c) to righteousness 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) lovely (participle) 1b2) loveable (participle) 1c) (Piel) 1c1) friends 1c2) lovers (fig. of adulterers) 2) to like Also means: a.hav (אָהֵב ": friend" H0157H)

From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

How the English word “love” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.

LOVE, verb transitive

luv. [Latin libeo, lubeo. See Lief. The sense is probably to be prompt, free, willing, from leaning, advancing, or drawing forward.]

  1. In a general sense to be pleased with; to regard with affection, on account of some qualities which excite pleasing sensations or desire of gratification.“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” Matthew 19:19
  2. To have benevolence or good will for. John 3:16
All definitions and other forms of “love”

    LOVE, noun

    1. An affection of the mind excited by beauty and worth of any kind, or by the qualities of an object which communicate pleasure, sensual or intellectual.
    2. Courtship; chiefly in the phrase, to make love that is, to court; to woo; to solicit union in marriage.
    3. Patriotism; the attachment one has to his native land; as the love of country.
    4. Benevolence; good will.“God is love” 1 John 4:8
    5. The object beloved.
    6. A word of endearment.
    7. Picturesque representation of love
    8. Lewdness.
    9. A thin silk stuff. obsolete

    Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.

    Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.