To cleave
פָּלַחStrong’s H6398palach (pa-lach)
Appears in 5 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Palach is the Hebrew word usually translated “sliced”, “splits open” and “cleave open”. It appears in 5 verses of the Old Testament.
“And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not.”
Meaning
- To cleave, slice(Qal) to cleave, plow · (Piel)
How it's translated
- and he sliced 1
- he splits open 1
- they cleave open 1
- plows 1
- it will pierce 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Job 2
- 2 Kings 1
- Psalms 1
- Proverbs 1
4 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Job 16:13His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
- Job 39:3They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.
- Psalms 141:7Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.
- Proverbs 7:23Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
Hebrew dictionary
פָּלַח palach · to cleave
1) to cleave, slice 1a) (Qal) to cleave, plow 1b) (Piel) 1b1) to cleave open or through 1b2) to cause to cleave open 1b3) to slice, pierce
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “cleave” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
CLEAVE, verb intransitive
- To stick; to adhere; to hold to.“My bones cleave to my skin” Psalms 102:5“Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth” Psalms 137:6“CLEAVE to that which is good” Romans 12:9
- To unite aptly; to fit; to sit well on.
- To unite or be united closely in interest or affection; to adhere with strong attachment.“A man shall leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife. Math. 19” Genesis 2:24
All definitions and other forms of “cleave”
CLEAVE, verb transitive
- To part or divide by force; to split or rive; to open or serve the cohering parts of a body, by cutting or by the application of force; as, to cleave wood; to cleave a rock; to cleave the flood.
- To part or open naturally.“Every beast that cleaveth the cleft into two claws” Deuteronomy 14:6
CLEAVE, verb intransitive
To part; to open; to crack; to separate, as parts of cohering bodies; as, the ground cleaves by frost.
- “The mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof” Zechariah 14:4
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.