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Hebrew

To write

כָּתַבStrong’s H3789

katav (ka-tav)

Appears in 212 verses of the Old Testament

In short

Katav is the Hebrew word usually translated “written”, “according to is written” and “wrote”. It appears in 212 verses of the Old Testament.

“Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.”
Daniel 9:11 KJV
Meaning
  1. To write, record, enrol(Qal) · (Niphal) · (Piel) to continue writing
How it's translated
  • written 79
  • according to is written 16
  • and he wrote 15
  • write 5
  • he wrote 5
  • and write 5
  • and he will write 4
  • and he wrote down 4

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

Where it's used most
  • 2 Kings 30
  • 2 Chronicles 27
  • Deuteronomy 22
  • Jeremiah 20
  • 1 Kings 16
  • Esther 14

25 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
All 212 verses, by book
Judges 1
8:14
1 Samuel 1
10:25
2 Samuel 3
1:1811:1411:15
1 Chronicles 5
4:419:116:4024:629:29
Proverbs 3
3:37:322:20
Ecclesiastes 1
12:10
Daniel 3
9:119:1312:1
Hosea 1
8:12
Habakkuk 1
2:2
Malachi 1
3:16
Hebrew dictionary

כָּתַב katav · to write

1) to write, record, enrol 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to write, inscribe, engrave, write in, write on 1a2) to write down, describe in writing 1a3) to register, enrol, record 1a4) to decree 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to be written 1b2) to be written down, be recorded, be enrolled 1c) (Piel) to continue writing Aramaic equivalent: ke.tav (כְּתַב "to write" H3790)

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

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

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

WRITE, verb transitive

preterit tense wrote.; participle passive writ, written. [Latin]

  1. To form by a pen on paper or other material, or by a graver on wood or stone; as, to write the characters called letters; to write figures.
  2. To express by forming letters and words on paper or stone; as, to write a deed; to write a bill of divorcement.
  3. To engrave. [See the preceding definition.]
  4. To impress durable. write useful truths on the heart.
All definitions and other forms of “write”
  1. To compose or produce, as an author.
  2. To copy; to transcribe.
  3. To communicate by letter.

WRITE, verb intransitive

  1. To perform the act of forming characters, letters or figures, as representatives of sounds or ideas.
  2. To be employed as a clerk or an amanuensis.
  3. To play the author; as, he thinks, he speaks, he writes, he sings.
  4. To recite or relate in books.
  5. To send letters.
  6. To call ones self; to be entitled; to use the style of.
  7. To compose; to frame or combine ideas and express them in words.

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.