To test
בָּחַןStrong’s H0974bachan (ba-chan)
Appears in 28 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Bachan is the Hebrew word usually translated “testing”, “test me” and “test them”. It appears in 28 verses of the Old Testament.
“And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”
Meaning
- To examine, try, prove(Qal) · (Niphal) to be tried, proved · (Pual) to make a trial
How it's translated
- testing 2
- test me 2
- and i will test them 2
- tests 2
- you will be tested 1
- so they may be tested 1
- you test him 1
- does it test 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Psalms 9
- Jeremiah 6
- Job 5
- Genesis 2
- Malachi 2
- 1 Chronicles 1
9 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Genesis 42:15Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.
- Genesis 42:16Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies.
- 1 Chronicles 29:17I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee.
- Job 7:18And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?
- Job 12:11Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?
- Job 23:10But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Hebrew dictionary
בָּחַן bachan · to test
1) to examine, try, prove 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to examine, scrutinise 1a2) to test, prove, try (of gold, persons, the heart, man of God) 1b) (Niphal) to be tried, proved 1c) (Pual) to make a trial
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “test” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
TEST, noun
[Latin testa, an earthen pot.]
- In metallurgy, a large cupel, or a vessel in the nature of a cupel, formed of wood ashes and finely powdered brick dust, in which metals are melted for trial and refinement.
- Trial; examination by the cupel; hence, any critical trial and examination.
- Means of trial.
- That with which any thing is compared for proof of its genuineness; a standard.
All definitions and other forms of “test”
- Discriminative characteristic; standard.
- Judgment; distinction.
- In chimistry, a substance employed to detect any unknown constituent of a compound, by causing it to exhibit some known property.
TEST, noun
[Latin testis, a witness, properly one that affirms.]
TEST, verb transitive
To compare with a standard; to try; to prove the truth or genuineness of any thing by experiment or by some fixed principle or standard; as, to test the soundness of a principle; to test the validity of an argument.
- To attest and date; as a writing tested on such a day.
- In metallurgy, to refine gold or silver by means of lead, in a test by the destruction, vitrification or scarification of all extraneous matter.
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.