Hebrew word · H6901

קָבַל

kabel-

to receive

“To receive, take, accept”: to take what is offered or handed over. It is used for receiving gifts, people, instruction, obligations or a choice. It implies actively taking hold, not merely putting up with something.

Appears 13 times in 12 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to take, receive, be before

1a) (Piel)

1a1) to take, choose, receive

1a2) to accept

1a3) to accept, assume

1b) (Hiphil)

1b1) to show oppositeness

1b2) to correspond, receive one to the other

Aramaic equivalent: qe.val (קַבֵּל "to receive" H6902)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Job 2:10

Range of meaning

“To receive, take, accept”: to take what is offered or handed over. It is used for receiving gifts, people, instruction, obligations or a choice. It implies actively taking hold, not merely putting up with something.

Against the English

“Receive” (KJV, WEB, ESV) keeps the picture of taking from a giver's hand. “Accept” (BSB, NIV, NASB) is accurate but can sound like inner emotional resignation (“acceptance”). The Hebrew picture is more concrete: what God hands out, we take.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word is rare in classical Hebrew and becomes common in late biblical books and in Aramaic. Examples: 1 Chr 12:18 (David received them); 1 Chr 21:11 (“take [your choice]”); 2 Chr 29:16, 22; Ezra 8:30; Esth 4:4; 9:23, 27 (the Jews “took upon themselves” Purim); Prov 19:20 (“receive instruction”). In Biblical Aramaic, Dan 2:6 and 6:1. In later Hebrew it is the standard word for receiving tradition (“Moses received [qibbēl] Torah from Sinai,” Mishnah Avot 1:1). Because it is a late word, the scholar Avi Hurvitz (HTR 1974) cited it as evidence that the prose frame of Job was written down late, after the Exile, despite its old-fashioned patriarchal setting.

From the study of Proverbs 19:20

Range of meaning

'To receive, accept, take' something that is offered or handed over. It is rare in Biblical Hebrew and appears mostly in late books (Chronicles, Ezra, Esther, Job 2:10). It is common in Aramaic and later Hebrew.

Against the English

'Accept' or 'receive' (all major versions) is accurate. The emphasis is on taking in what is offered instead of rejecting it.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 2:10: 'Shall we receive good from God and not receive evil?' There, too, it means accepting something unwelcome. In later Jewish Hebrew it became the technical word for receiving a tradition: Mishnah Avot 1:1 says 'Moses received (qibbel) Torah from Sinai,' and the noun from it is qabbalah, 'tradition.'

Where it appears

Exodus · 2

  1. Exodus 26:5 מַקְבִּילֹת֙ [will be] opposite

    Make fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the second set, so that the loops line up opposite one another.

  2. Exodus 36:12 מַקְבִּילֹת֙ [were] opposite

    He made fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the second set, so that the loops lined up opposite one another.

1 Chronicles · 2

  1. 1 Chronicles 12:18 וַיְקַבְּלֵ֣ם and he received them

    Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, the chief of the Thirty, and he said: “We are yours, O David! We are with you, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers, for your God helps you.” So David received them and made them leaders of his troops.

    Here: David accepts them, formally taking them into his company. The word belongs to late Hebrew and Aramaic, and fits the Chronicler's own era.

  2. 1 Chronicles 21:11 קַבֶּל־ take

    So Gad went and said to David, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You must choose

2 Chronicles · 2

  1. 2 Chronicles 29:16 וַֽיְקַבְּלוּ֙ and they received [it]

    So the priests went inside the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and they brought out to the courtyard all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the LORD. Then the Levites took these things and carried them out to the Kidron Valley.

  2. 2 Chronicles 29:22 וַיְקַבְּל֤וּ and they took

    So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and splattered it on the altar. They slaughtered the rams and splattered the blood on the altar. And they slaughtered the lambs and splattered the blood on the altar.

Ezra · 1

  1. Ezra 8:30 וְקִבְּלוּ֙ and they received

    So the priests and Levites took charge of the silver and gold and sacred articles that had been weighed out to be taken to the house of our God in Jerusalem.

Esther · 3

  1. Esther 4:4 קִבֵּֽל׃ he accepted [them]

    When Esther’s maidens and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, the queen was overcome with distress. She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.

  2. Esther 9:23 וְקִבֵּל֙ and he accepted

    So the Jews agreed to continue the custom they had started, as Mordecai had written to them.

  3. Esther 9:27 וְקִבְּל֣וּ and they accepted

    the Jews bound themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should not fail to celebrate these two days at the appointed time each and every year, according to their regulation.

Job · 2

  1. Job 2:10 נְקַבֵּל֙ נְקַבֵּ֑ל will we accept?

    “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

    Here: “We take what is handed to us.” The “we” is significant: Job puts his wife and himself together as people who receive from God.

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 19:20 וְקַבֵּ֣ל and accept

    Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days.

    Here: 'And take hold of / accept.' The word means taking something offered to you. With correction as its object, it means not pushing the correction away but taking it in. It is a rare word in the Hebrew Bible and mostly late.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.