To bow
כָּרַעStrong’s H3766kara (ka-ra)
Appears in 32 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Kara is the Hebrew word usually translated “bowed down”, “have bowed down” and “kneeling”. It appears in 32 verses of the Old Testament.
“Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?”
Meaning
- To bend, kneel, bow, bow down, sink down to one's knees, kneel down to rest (of animals), kneel in reverence(Qal) · (Hiphil) to cause to bow
How it's translated
- he bowed down 3
- they bowed down 2
- they have bowed down 2
- kneeling 2
- they will bow down 2
- he bows down 1
- it crouched 1
- he will bow down 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Psalms 7
- Isaiah 5
- Judges 4
- Job 3
- 1 Kings 2
- 2 Kings 2
13 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Numbers 24:9He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee.
- Judges 5:27At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
- Judges 7:5So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.
- Judges 7:6And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.
- Judges 11:35And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.
- 1 Samuel 4:19And his daughter in law, Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father in law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her.
Hebrew dictionary
כָּרַע kara · to bow
1) to bend, kneel, bow, bow down, sink down to one's knees, kneel down to rest (of animals), kneel in reverence 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to bow 1a2) to bow down, crouch 1a3) to bow down over 1a4) to tilt, lean 1b) (Hiphil) to cause to bow
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “bow” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
BOW, verb transitive
- To bend; to inflect; as, to bow vines.
- To bend the body in token of respect or civility; as, to bow the head.
- To bend or incline towards, in condescension.
- To depress; to crush; to subdue.
All definitions and other forms of “bow”
BOW, verb intransitive
To bend; to curve; to be inflected; to bend, in token of reverence, respect or civility; often with down.
- To stoop; to fall upon the knees.
- To sink under pressure.
BOW, noun
An inclination of the head, or a bending of the body, in token of reverence, respect, civility, or submission.
BOW, noun
[See bow to bend.]
An instrument of war, and hunting, made of wood, or other elastic matter, with a string fastened to each end. The bow being bent by drawing the string, and suddenly returning to its natural state by its elastic force, throws an arrow to a great distance, and with force sufficient to kill an animal. It is of two kinds, the long-bow, and the cross-bow, arbalest or arbalest. The use of the bow is called archery.
- Any thing bent, or in form of a curve; the rainbow; the doubling of a string in a knot; the part of a yoke which embraces the neck; etc.
- A small machine, formed with a stick and hairs, which being drawn over the strings of an instrument of music, causes it to sound.
- A beam of wood or brass, with three long screws that direct a lathe of wood or steel to any arch; used in forming drafts of ships, and projections of the sphere, or wherever it is necessary to draw large arches.
- An instrument for taking the sun's altitude at sea, consisting of a large arch of ninety degrees graduated, a shank or staff, a side-vane, a sight-vane, and a horizon-vane; now disused.
- An instrument in use among smiths for turning a drill; with turners, for turning wood; with hatters, for breaking fur and wool.
- Bows of a saddle, are the two pieces of wood laid archwise to receive the upper part of a horse's back, to give the saddle its due form, and to keep it tight.
- bow of a ship, is the rounding part of her side forward, beginning where the planks arch inwards, and terminating where they close, at the stem or prow.
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.