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Hebrew

To take

לָקַחStrong’s H3947

laqach (la-qach)

Appears in 909 verses of the Old Testament

In short

Laqach is the Hebrew word usually translated “took” and “take”. It appears in 909 verses of the Old Testament.

“Take of them of the captivity, even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah, which are come from Babylon, and come thou the same day, and go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah;”
Zechariah 6:10 KJV
Meaning
  1. To take, get, fetch, lay hold of, seize, receive, acquire, buy, bring, marry, take a wife, snatch, take away(Qal) · (Niphal)
How it's translated
  • and he took 195
  • take 92
  • and they took 49
  • and you will take 46
  • you will take 35
  • he took 30
  • and she took 29
  • and he will take 28

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

Where it's used most
  • Genesis 134
  • Exodus 76
  • 1 Samuel 76
  • Numbers 65
  • 2 Kings 64
  • Jeremiah 61

32 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
All 909 verses, by book
Ezra 1
2:61
Joel 1
3:5
Jonah 1
4:3
Micah 2
1:112:9
Zephaniah 2
3:23:7
Haggai 1
2:23
Malachi 1
2:13
Hebrew dictionary

לָקַח laqach · to take

: take 1) to take, get, fetch, lay hold of, seize, receive, acquire, buy, bring, marry, take a wife, snatch, take away 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to take, take in the hand 1a2) to take and carry along 1a3) to take from, take out of, take, carry away, take away 1a4) to take to or for a person, procure, get, take possession of, select, choose, take in marriage, receive, accept 1a5) to take up or upon, put upon 1a6) to fetch 1a7) to take, lead, conduct 1a8) to take, capture, seize 1a9) to take, carry off 1a10) to take (vengeance) 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to be captured 1b2) to be taken away, be removed …

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

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

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

TAKE, verb transitive

preterit tense took; participle passive taken. [Latin doceo. This word seems to be allied to think, for we say, I think a thing to be so, or I take

  1. In a general sense, to get hold or gain possession of a thing in almost any manner, either by receiving it when offered, or by using exertion to obtain it. take differs from seize, as it does not always imply haste, force or violence.
  2. To receive what is offered.“Then I took the cup at the Lord's hand” Jeremiah 25:17
  3. To lay hold of; to get into one's power for keeping.“No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge” Deuteronomy 24:6
  4. To receive with a certain affection of mind.
All definitions and other forms of “take”
  1. To catch by surprise or artifice; to circumvent.
  2. To seize; to make prisoner.“This man was taken of the Jews” Acts 23:27
  3. To captivate with pleasure; to engage the affections; to delight.“Neither let her take thee with her eyelids” Proverbs 6:25
  4. To get into one's power by engines or nets; to entrap; to ensnare; as, to take foxes with traps; to take fishes with nets, or with hook and line.
  5. To understand in a particular sense; to receive as meaning.
  6. To exact and receive.“TAKE no usury of him or increase” Leviticus 25:36
  7. To employ; to occupy.
  8. To agree to; to close in with; to comply with.
  9. To form and adopt; as, to take a resolution.
  10. To catch; to embrace; to seize; as, to take one by the hand; to take in the arms.
  11. To admit; to receive as an impression; to suffer; as, to take a form or shape.
  12. To obtain by active exertion; as, to take revenge or satisfaction for an injury.
  13. To receive; to receive into the mind.“They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus” Acts 4:13
  14. To swallow, as meat or drink; as, to take food; to take a glass of wine.
  15. To swallow, as medicine; as, to take pills; to take stimulants.
  16. To choose; to elect. take which you please.
  17. To copy.
  18. To fasten on; to seize.“Wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he foameth--” Mark 9:18
  19. To accept; not to refuse.“Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer” Numbers 35:31
  20. To adopt.“I will take you to me for a people” Exodus 6:7
  21. To admit.“Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore” 1 Timothy 5:9
  22. To receive, as any temper or disposition of mind; as, to take shame to one's self; to take delight; to take pride or pleasure.
  23. To endure; to bear without resentment; or to submit to without attempting to obtain satisfaction.
  24. To draw; to deduce.
  25. To assume; as, I take the liberty to say.
  26. To allow; to admit; to receive as true, or not disputed; as, to take a thing for granted.
  27. To suppose; to receive in thought; to entertain in opinion; to understand.
  28. To seize; to invade; as, to be taken with a fever.
  29. To have recourse to; as, the sparrow takes a bush; the cat takes a tree. [In this sense, we usually say, the bird takes to a bush, the squirrel takes to a tree.]
  30. To receive into the mind.
  31. To hire; to rent; to obtain possession on lease; as, to take a house or farm for a year.
  32. To admit in copulation.
  33. To draw; to copy; to paint a likeness; as a likeness taken by Reynolds.
  34. To conquer and cause to surrender; to gain possession of by force or capitulation; as, to take an army, a city or a ship.
  35. To be discovered or detected.
  36. To require or be necessary.
  37. To remove; as, to take away the consciousness of pleasure.“Doth God take care for oxen?” 1 Corinthians 9:9
  38. To be cautious or vigilant.
  39. To swallow; as, to take down a potion.
  40. To pull down; to pull to pieces; as, to take down a house or a scaffold.
  41. To write; as, to take down a man's words at the time he utters them.“I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee” 1 Samuel 17:46
  42. To deduct; to subtract; as, to take one number from another.
  43. To detract; to derogate.
  44. To encompass or embrace; to comprise; to comprehend.
  45. To draw into a smaller compass; to contract; to brail or furl; as, to take in sail.
  46. To cheat; to circumvent; to gull. [Not elegant.]
  47. To admit; to receive; as, a vessel will take in more water.
  48. To win by conquest. [Not in use.]
  49. To receive into the mind or understanding.
  50. To show by some act that observation is made; to make remark upon.
  51. To cut off; as, to take off the head or a limb.
  52. To destroy; as, to take off life.
  53. To remove; to invalidate; as, to take off the force of an argument.
  54. To withdraw; to call or draw away.
  55. To swallow; as, to take off a glass of wine.
  56. To purchase; to take from in trade.
  57. To copy.
  58. To imitate; to mimic.
  59. To find place for; as more scholars than preferments can take off.
  60. To draw out; to remove; to clear or cleanse from; as, to take out a stain or spot from cloth; to take out an unpleasant taste from wine.
  61. To have effect; to prevail.
  62. To be established; as principles.
  63. To buy or borrow; as, to take up goods to a large amount; to take up money at the bank.
  64. To begin; as, to take up a lamentation. Ezekiel 19:1
  65. In surgery, to fasten with a ligature.
  66. To engross; to employ; to engage the attention; as, to take up the time.
  67. To have final recourse to.
  68. To seize; to catch; to arrest; as, to take up a thief; to take up vagabonds.
  69. To admit.
  70. To answer by reproof; to reprimand.
  71. To begin where another left off.
  72. To occupy; to fill; as, to take up a great deal of room.
  73. To assume; to carry on or manage for another; as, to take up the quarrels of our neighbors.
  74. To comprise; to include.
  75. To adopt; to assume; as, to take up current opinions.
  76. To collect; to exact a tax.
  77. To pay and receive; as, to take up a note at the bank.
  78. To appropriate to; to admit to be imputed to; as, to take upon one's self a punishment.

TAKE, verb intransitive

To move or direct the course; to resort to, or to attach one's self; to betake one's self. The fox being hard pressed took to the hedge. My friend has left his music and taken to books.

  1. To please; to gain reception.
  2. To have the intended or natural effect.
  3. To catch; to fix, or be fixed.
  4. To resemble; as, the son takes after his father.“The lord of the land took us for spies” Genesis 42:30
  5. To claim, as a character.
  6. To resort to; to betake to.
  7. To reform. [Not in use.]
  8. To lodge; to dwell. [Not in use.]

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.