Desire
אַוָּהStrong’s H0185avvah (av-vah)
Appears in 7 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Avvah is the Hebrew word usually translated “desire of”, “desire” and “lust of”. It appears in 7 verses of the Old Testament.
“Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart.”
Meaning
- Desire, lust, will (not necessarily evil)
How it's translated
- desire of 4
- desire 1
- in lust of 1
- at desire my 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Deuteronomy 4
- 1 Samuel 1
- Jeremiah 1
- Hosea 1
4 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Deuteronomy 12:20When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.
- Deuteronomy 12:21If the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.
- Deuteronomy 18:6And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose;
- 1 Samuel 23:20Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand.
- Jeremiah 2:24A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.
- Hosea 10:10It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.
Hebrew dictionary
אַוָּה avvah · desire
desire, lust, will (not necessarily evil)
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “desire” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
DESIRE, noun
- An emotion or excitement of the mind, directed to the attainment or possession of an object from which pleasure, sensual, intellectual or spiritual, is expected; a passion excited by the love of an object, or uneasiness at the want of it, and directed to its attainment or possession. desire is a wish to possess some gratification or source of happiness which is supposed to be obtainable.“We endeavored-to see your face with great desire” 1 Thessalonians 2:17“Thou satisfiest the desires of every living thing” Psalms 145:16
- A prayer or request to obtain:“He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him” Psalms 145:19
- The object of desire; that which is desired.“The desire of all nations shall come” Haggai 2:7
- Love; affection.“His desire is toward me” Song of Solomon 7:10
All definitions and other forms of “desire”
- Appetite; lust.“Fulfilling the desires of the flesh” Ephesians 2:3
DESIRE, verb transitive
- To wish for the possession or enjoyment of, with a greater or less degree of earnestness; to covet.“Neither shall any man desire thy land” Exodus 34:24“Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts” 1 Corinthians 14:1
- To express a wish to obtain; to ask; to request; to petition.“Then she said, did I desire a son of my Lord?” 2 Kings 4:28
- To require.
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.