Properly, to impinge , i.e. cling or adhere ; figuratively, to catch by pursuit
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H1692 is a Hebrew verb for clinging, adhering, holding fast, staying close, pursuing, or overtaking. Deuteronomy 10:20 commands Israel to fear and serve the Lord and hold fast to Him, making attachment a covenant response to the God who loves and rescues.
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Full entry for דָּבַק (H1692) · Open the biblical lexicon
H1692 is a Hebrew verb for clinging, adhering, holding fast, staying close, pursuing, or overtaking. Deuteronomy 10:20 commands Israel to fear and serve the Lord and hold fast to Him, making attachment a covenant response to the God who loves and rescues.
The BSB source-word alignment has 54 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include cling (6), clings (3), and hold fast (2), and overtook (2), clung (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 2:24. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (8), Deuteronomy (7), Job (6), Genesis (4).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
H1692 is a Hebrew verb for clinging, adhering, holding fast, staying close, pursuing, or overtaking. Deuteronomy 10:20 commands Israel to fear and serve the Lord and hold fast to Him, making attachment a covenant response to the God who loves and rescues. Ruth 1:14 says Ruth clung to Naomi after Orpah's farewell, an embodied commitment later expressed through shared journey, work, and care.
Genesis 31:23 uses the same verb when Laban pursues and overtakes Jacob, showing that close attachment imagery can also describe threatening pursuit. Other uses concern marriage, loyalty to sin, a tongue stuck in thirst, disease clinging, armies pursuing, and inheritance retained. H1692 opens covenant fidelity, kinship, marriage, embodied adhesion, habit, and danger.
It corrects romantic use of clinging language that ignores consent, boundaries, stalking, trauma attachment, or the possibility of clinging to destructive patterns.
H1692 describes close adhesion or pursuit. People may hold fast to God, spouse, family, king, sin, or inherited land; physical things may stick; pursuers may overtake. The object and relational setting determine faithfulness or harm.
You are to fear the Lord your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.
Israel is commanded to fear, serve, and hold fast to the Lord within the covenant formed by His gracious election and rescue.
Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
Ruth clings to Naomi and freely continues with her into an uncertain future of grief, migration, work, and shared belonging.
So he took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.
Laban pursues Jacob for seven days and overtakes him, demonstrating the verb's forceful pursuit sense rather than loyal attachment.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. Intimate adhesion ranging from physical clinging to relentless pursuit; covenantal loyalty when applied to God-relationship.
Intimate adhesion ranging from physical clinging to relentless pursuit; covenantal loyalty when applied to God-relationship.
properly, to impinge, i.e. cling or adhere; figuratively, to catch by pursuit BDB: cling Usage: abide fast, cleave (fast together), follow close (hard after), be joined (together), keep (fast), overtake, pursue hard, stick, take.
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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 54 lexical occurrence verses.
דָּבַק is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H1692 asks not only whether a person clings, but to whom and how. Israel's holding fast is directed to the Lord who delivered the people and commands covenant love and justice. Ruth's loyalty to Naomi is chosen amid grief and becomes practical solidarity, not possession. The verb can also name Solomon clinging to relationships that redirect worship, rulers clinging to sin, and a pursuer overtaking someone who fled.
Closeness therefore is not self-authenticating. Churches can mistake intense dependence on a leader, spouse, ministry, or group for holiness. Healthy covenant bonds honor truth, consent, differentiated responsibility, and protection. Marriage language must never erase bodily autonomy or make leaving danger unfaithful. A person escaping stalking, coercion, or abuse is not rejecting biblical attachment.
Holding fast to God may require releasing destructive habits, unsafe access, and identities imposed by controlling communities. Loyal love stays near in suffering without claiming ownership of another person.
Deut.10.20
H1692 is a verb of sticking or close contact and extends figuratively to loyalty, relational union, persistent adherence, pursuit, and overtaking. Subjects and objects are decisive because the same verb can describe covenant fidelity, bodily adhesion, sin, or attack.
Jesus cites Genesis 2 in teaching about marriage, and the apostles speak of union with the Lord while also commanding freedom from domination and care for vulnerable people. New-covenant loyalty remains centered on Christ rather than dependence on a human intermediary.