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Hebrew

To speak

דָבַרStrong’s H1696

davar (da-var)

Appears in 1,049 verses of the Old Testament

In short

Davar is the Hebrew word usually translated “spoke”, “speak” and “has spoken”. It appears in 1,049 verses of the Old Testament.

“And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king.”
Daniel 1:19 KJV
Meaning
  1. To speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn, threaten, sing(Qal) to speak · (Niphal) to speak with one another, talk · (Piel) · (Pual) to be spoken · (Hithpael) to speak · (Hiphil) to lead away, put to flight
How it's translated
  • and he spoke 193
  • he spoke 101
  • speak 84
  • to speak 62
  • he has spoken 56
  • he had spoken 54
  • i have spoken 44
  • speaking 42

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

Where it's used most
  • Numbers 111
  • Jeremiah 103
  • Exodus 79
  • Genesis 70
  • 1 Kings 67
  • Leviticus 66

36 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
All 1,049 verses, by book
Ezra 1
8:17
Nehemiah 3
6:129:1313:24
Ecclesiastes 5
1:81:162:153:77:21
Song of Solomon 2
5:68:8
Joel 1
3:8
Obadiah 1
1:18
Jonah 2
3:23:10
Micah 3
4:46:127:3
Habakkuk 1
2:1
Zephaniah 1
3:13
Malachi 2
3:133:16
Hebrew dictionary

דָבַר davar · to speak

: speak/tell/command 1) to speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn, threaten, sing 1a) (Qal) to speak 1b) (Niphal) to speak with one another, talk 1c) (Piel) 1c1) to speak 1c2) to promise 1d) (Pual) to be spoken 1e) (Hithpael) to speak 1f) (Hiphil) to lead away, put to flight

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

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

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

SPEAK, verb intransitive

preterit tense spoke, [spake, nearly, obsolete ] participle passive spoke, spoken. It is easy to see that the root of this word is allied to that of beak peak, pick.]

  1. To utter words or articulate sounds, as human beings; to express thoughts bywords.
  2. To utter a speech, discourse or harangue; to utter thoughts in a public assembly.
  3. To talk; to express opinions; to dispute.
  4. To discourse; to make mention of.
All definitions and other forms of “speak”
  1. To give sound.

SPEAK, verb transitive

  1. To utter with the mouth; to pronounce; to utter articulately; as human beings. Job 2:10Matthew 8:8
  2. To declare; to proclaim; to celebrate.
  3. To talk or converse in; to utter or pronounce, as in conversation.
  4. To address; to accost.
  5. To exhibit; to make known.
  6. To express silently or by signs.
  7. To communicate; as, to speak peace to the soul.

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.