Midvash

הָיָהhâyâh

fall out, come to pass, become, be

Pronunciation: haw-yaw · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H1961

Meanings

Qal: construct, shine, glitter (Genesis 3:1; Genesis 4:14; Genesis 1:2)

I.

1.

a. Fall out, happen (1 Samuel 4:16; 2 Samuel 1:4; Exodus 32:1)

b. occur, take place, come about, come to pass (1 Samuel 4:17; 2 Samuel 17:9; 2 Samuel 18:6)

2. come about, come to pass

a. and it came to pass, id. (Genesis 12:14; Genesis 19:17; Esther 3:4)

b. and it shall come to pass, came to pass (Deuteronomy 21:16; Deuteronomy 25:19; Hosea 2:18)

II. Come into being, become

1.

a. arise, appear, come (Exodus 12:80; Ezekiel 1:25; Ezekiel 37:7)

b. followed by preposition (Genesis 37:27; 1 Samuel 5:9; 1 Samuel 7:13)

2. become

a. it was she that became the mother of all living, and Abel became a shepherd of flocks, while Cain became a tiller of ground (Genesis 3:20; Genesis 4:2; 2 Samuel 8:14)

b. let us see what his dream will become (Genesis 38:7; Exodus 36:13; Genesis 37:20)

c. and ye shall become like gods (Genesis 3:5; Genesis 3:22; Numbers 11:1)

d. and let her become wife to the son of thy lord, be instituted, estanblished (Genesis 24:51; 1 Samuel 16:21; 1 Kings 11:25)

e. and the man became a living soul, and it became four heads (Genesis 2:7; Genesis 2:10; Genesis 48:19)

f. and the bricks became, stone for them (Genesis 11:3; Genesis 20:12; Genesis 24:67)

g. and he became over them prince. (1 Samuel 22:2)

h. become the property of, come into the possession of, and he came to have flocks and herds (Genesis 12:15; Genesis 26:14; Genesis 30:43)

III. (often with subordinate idea of becoming)

1. exist, be in existence (1 Samuel 1:28; Genesis 5:5; Job 3:16)

2. abide, remain, continue, (with word of place or time) (Exodus 24:18; Exodus 34:28; Judges 17:4)

3. with word of locality (Genesis 4:8; Genesis 13:3; Genesis 34:10)

4. as copula, joining subject & predicate

b. amount to, come to (Genesis 1:2; Genesis 9:18; Genesis 25:3)

c. it is not good that the man be alone (Genesis 2:18; Genesis 18:11)

d. (a) be with, accompany, be on the side of (Genesis 26:3; Genesis 31:3; Genesis 39:10)

5. periphrastic conjugation

b. and it shall be to burn, and the sun was about to set (Isaiah 5:5; Genesis 15:12; Joshua 2:5)

Niph`al

1. either be done, be brought about, or occur, come to pass (Exodus 11:6; Deuteronomy 4:32; Judges 19:30)

2. be done, finished, gone (Daniel 2:1; Daniel 6:19; Daniel 8:27)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 3,561 times in the Bible.

  • Genesis 1:2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
  • Genesis 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
  • Genesis 1:5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
  • Genesis 1:6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.”
  • Genesis 1:7 And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens.
  • Genesis 1:8 God called the space “sky.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.
See every passage

Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).