To grasp
תָּמַךְStrong’s H8551tamakh (ta-makh)
Appears in 20 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Tamakh is the Hebrew word usually translated “take hold of”, “holder of” and “grasped”. It appears in 20 verses of the Old Testament.
“And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.”
Meaning
- To grasp, hold, support, attain, lay hold of, hold fast(Qal) · (Niphal) to be seized, be held
How it's translated
- they take hold of 2
- and a holder of 2
- and he grasped 1
- they supported 1
- holding 1
- they have held firm 1
- you have supported 1
- it supports 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Proverbs 8
- Psalms 4
- Isaiah 3
- Amos 2
- Genesis 1
- Exodus 1
7 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Exodus 17:12But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
- Job 36:17But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on thee.
- Psalms 16:5The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.
- Psalms 17:5Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.
- Psalms 41:12And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.
- Psalms 63:8My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
Hebrew dictionary
תָּמַךְ tamakh · to grasp
1) to grasp, hold, support, attain, lay hold of, hold fast 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to grasp, lay hold of, attain 1a2) to hold up, support 1a3) to hold, keep 1a4) to take hold of each other 1b) (Niphal) to be seized, be held
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “grasp” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
GR'ASP, verb transitive
To seize and hold by clasping or embracing with the fingers or arms. We say, to grasp with the hand, or with the arms.
- To catch; to seize; to lay hold of; to take possession of.
All definitions and other forms of “grasp”
GR'ASP, verb intransitive
To catch or seize; to gripe.
- To struggle; to strive. [Not in use.]
- To encroach.
GR'ASP, noun
The gripe or seizure of the hand. This seems to be its proper sense; but it denotes also a seizure by embrace, or infolding in the arms.
- Possession; hold.
- Reach of the arms; and figuratively, the power of seizing.
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.