Hebrew word · H7082

קָסַס

yekoses

to strip

Appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. Lexicons suggest 'strip off', 'cut off' or 'pluck clean', partly from the context of fruit and partly from possible relatives in other Semitic languages. Some link it to qāṣaṣ, 'to cut off'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 08, 2026

What it means

(Poel) to strip off, cut off

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 Ezekiel 17:9

Range of meaning: Appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. Lexicons suggest 'strip off', 'cut off' or 'pluck clean', partly from the context of fruit and partly from possible relatives in other Semitic languages. Some link it to qāṣaṣ, 'to cut off'.
Against the English: KJV and WEB have 'cut off', BSB 'stripped of'. All of these are reasonable guesses from context. None is certain.
Used elsewhere in the period: It is not found elsewhere in biblical Hebrew. The Septuagint seems to have read or understood the line as the fruit 'rotting', which shows that ancient translators were also unsure.

Where it appears

Ezekiel · 1

Ezekiel 17:9 יְקוֹסֵ֣ס will it strip off?

So you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Will it flourish? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it shrivels? All its foliage will wither! It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by its roots.

Here: 'He will strip off.' This verb appears only here in the Bible, so its exact meaning is worked out from context: stripping or cutting fruit off the vine.

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