nagan (to play) · Rightly

Meaning

To play or strike strings, play a stringed instrument(Qal) · (Piel)

How it's translated

to play 5
playing an instrument 2
playing 1
and he will play 1
and he played 1
a musician 1
when played 1
the musician 1

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

Where it's used most

1 Samuel 6
Psalms 2
Isaiah 2
2 Kings 1
Ezekiel 1

5 books in all.

Related words

Explore in Scripture

1 Samuel 16:17And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me.
1 Samuel 16:18Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him.
1 Samuel 16:23And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.
1 Samuel 18:10And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul’s hand.
1 Samuel 19:9And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand.
2 Kings 3:15But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him.

All 12 verses, by book

1 Samuel 6: 16:16 16:17 16:18 16:23 18:10 19:9
2 Kings 1: 3:15
Psalms 2: 33:3 68:25
Isaiah 2: 23:16 38:20
Ezekiel 1: 33:32

Hebrew dictionary

נָגַן nagan · to play

1) to play or strike strings, play a stringed instrument 1a) (Qal) 1a1) player (participle) 1b) (Piel) 1b1) to play 1b1a) player, minstrel (participle)

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

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

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

PLAY, verb intransitive

To use any exercise for pleasure or recreation; to do something not as a task or for profit, but for amusement; as, to play at cricket.“The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play” Exodus 32:6
To sport; to frolick; to frisk.
To toy; to act with levity.
To trifle; to act wantonly and thoughtlessly.

All definitions and other forms of “play”

To do something fanciful; to give a fanciful turn to; as, to play upon words.
To make sport, or practice sarcastic merriment.
To mock; to practice illusion.
To contend in a game; as, to play at cards or dice; to play for diversion; to play for money.
To practice a trick or deception.
To perform on an instrument of music; as, to play on a flute, a violin or a harpsichord.
To move, or to move with alternate dilatation and contraction.
To operate; to act.
To move irregularly; to wanton.
To act a part on the stage; to personate a character.
To represent a standing character.
To act in any particular character; as, to play the fool; to play the woman; to play the man.
To move in any manner; to move one way and another; as any part of a machine.

PLAY, verb transitive

To put in action or motion; as, to play cannon or a fire-engine.

To use an instrument of music; as, to play the flute or the organ.
To act a sportive part or character.
To act or perform by representing a character; as, to play a comedy; to play the part of king Lear.
To act; to perform; as, to play our parts well on the stage of life.
To perform in contest for amusement or for a prize; as, to play a game at whist.
To give a fanciful turn to.

PLAY, noun

Any exercise or series of actions intended for pleasure, amusement or diversion, as at cricket or quoit, or at blind man's buff.

Amusement; sport; frolic; gambols.
Game; gaming; practice of contending for victory, for amusement or for a prize, as at dice, cards or billiards.
Practice in any contest; as sword-play.
Action; use; employment; office.
Practice; action; manner of acting in contest or negotiation; as fair play; foul play
A dramatic composition; a comedy or tragedy; a composition in which characters are represented by dialogue and action.
Representation or exhibition of a comedy or tragedy; as, to be at the play He attends every play
Performance on an instrument of music.
Motion; movement, regular or irregular; as the play of a wheel or piston.
State of agitation or discussion.
Room for motion.
Liberty of acting; room for enlargement or display; scope; as, to give full play to mirth.

Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.