To cleave ; generally, to rend , break , rip or open
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
H1234 is a Hebrew verb for splitting, breaking open, cleaving, breaching, bursting forth, or tearing apart. Exodus 14:16 commands Moses to stretch out his hand so the sea will divide and Israel can cross on dry ground, making an opening a means of deliverance from enslavement and pursuit.
Reader summary
Full entry for בָּקַע (H1234) · Open the biblical lexicon
H1234 is a Hebrew verb for splitting, breaking open, cleaving, breaching, bursting forth, or tearing apart. Exodus 14:16 commands Moses to stretch out his hand so the sea will divide and Israel can cross on dry ground, making an opening a means of deliverance from enslavement and pursuit.
The BSB source-word alignment has 51 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include He split (4), was breached (3), and divide it (2), broke (2), split open (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 7:11. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (8), 2 Kings (5), Ezekiel (5), Psalms (4).
H1234 is a Hebrew verb for splitting, breaking open, cleaving, breaching, bursting forth, or tearing apart. Exodus 14:16 commands Moses to stretch out his hand so the sea will divide and Israel can cross on dry ground, making an opening a means of deliverance from enslavement and pursuit. Jeremiah 39:2 says Jerusalem's defenses were breached during Babylon's siege, an opening that marks catastrophic defeat rather than rescue.
Amos 1:13 condemns the Ammonites for ripping open pregnant women in Gilead to enlarge territory, naming expansionist violence without softening its horror. Other uses describe fountains bursting, earth splitting, walls failing, armies breaking through, wood divided, and animals mauling. H1234 opens deliverance, creation, judgment, siege, atrocity, and physical rupture.
It corrects the slogan that every breakthrough is blessing and the opposite assumption that every rupture is evidence of personal sin.
H1234 describes force that separates what was joined or closed. Seas, ground, walls, cities, clouds, wood, bodies, and military lines may split or be broken through. The affected object, agent, and result distinguish rescue, ordinary work, natural release, judgment, and violence.
And as for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.
God commands the sea to be divided so Israel can pass through on dry ground away from Pharaoh.
And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city was breached.
Jerusalem's wall is breached after prolonged siege, signaling the city's defeat under covenant judgment.
This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their territory.
The prophet condemns territorial expansion carried out through horrifying violence against pregnant women in Gilead.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Violent or forceful opening: splitting asunder by external force or internal pressure, often sudden.
Violent or forceful opening: splitting asunder by external force or internal pressure, often sudden.
to cleave; generally, to rend, break, rip or open BDB: cleave Usage: make a breach, break forth (into, out, in pieces, through, up), be ready to burst, cleave (asunder), cut out, divide, hatch, rend (asunder), rip up, tear, win.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
בָּקַע is a primitive root - no further derivation.
H1234 refuses a sentimental theology of openings. At the sea, division creates a path for enslaved people escaping an armed empire. The same narrative also treats Pharaoh's pursuit and destruction with covenant seriousness that should not be casually mapped onto modern opponents. At Jerusalem, a breach signals that defenses have failed after years of prophetic warning.
Amos uses the verb for an atrocity committed to enlarge territory, placing bodily violence and imperial ambition under God's judgment. The vocabulary therefore cannot guarantee that what breaks open is good. Congregations often describe departures, scandals, disasters, or sudden change as breakthroughs before listening to people who were harmed. H1234 calls for slower discernment.
What barrier opened? Who gained freedom? Whose body or home was violated? What truth became visible? What repair is now required? God can open a way of deliverance and expose false security, but violent actors remain accountable for what they tear apart. Lament, safeguarding, and material care belong beside hope whenever rupture has human cost.
Exod.14.16
H1234 is a verb of cleaving or forced opening and appears across active, passive, and causative settings. It can describe splitting material, breaching defenses, bursting water, breaking through troops, hatching, or tearing bodies.
The New Testament presents Jesus' death and resurrection as decisive saving events and speaks of opened access to God, while also condemning violence and honoring bodily vulnerability. Exodus imagery informs salvation without turning present rivals into Pharaoh by private declaration.