To fasten upon; hence, to seize , be strong (figuratively, courageous , causatively strengthen , cure , help , repair , fortify ), obstinate ; to bind , restrain , conquer
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The Hebrew verb חָזַק (ḥāzaq) can describe being strong, growing firm, taking courage, strengthening another, taking hold, prevailing, or hardening. English readers often meet it in the command “Be strong and courageous,” but the verb’s range is wider than motivational courage.
Reader summary
Full entry for חָזַק (H2388) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb חָזַק (ḥāzaq) can describe being strong, growing firm, taking courage, strengthening another, taking hold, prevailing, or hardening. English readers often meet it in the command “Be strong and courageous,” but the verb’s range is wider than motivational courage.
The BSB source-word alignment has 291 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Be strong (25), made repairs (22), repaired (9), to repair (6), hardened (5).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 19:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Nehemiah (42), 2 Chronicles (39), Isaiah (21), 2 Samuel (18).
This entry includes 2 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
The Hebrew verb חָזַק (ḥāzaq) can describe being strong, growing firm, taking courage, strengthening another, taking hold, prevailing, or hardening. English readers often meet it in the command “Be strong and courageous,” but the verb’s range is wider than motivational courage. Different stems and constructions may describe a person becoming strong, someone strengthening weak hands, a group setting its hands to work, or a heart being made firm in resistance.
The commissioning passages ground strength outside the individual. Deuteronomy 31:6 commands Israel to be strong because the Lord goes with them and will not leave them. Joshua 1:7 joins courage to careful obedience, and verse 9 joins it to God’s presence. Haggai 2:4 repeats the command to leaders and people, adds “Work,” and grounds it in the Lord’s presence. Biblical courage in these settings is active dependence shaped by God’s word, task, and promise, not confidence detached from obedience.
Other passages show strength being received, shared, or directed. Isaiah 35:3 commands the strengthening of limp hands, placing responsibility on others to support the weak. Ezra takes courage because the hand of the Lord is upon him. Nehemiah’s hearers set their hands to the good work of rebuilding. Second Chronicles 15:8 describes Asa taking courage and removing idols after hearing the prophetic word. These settings resist the claim that strength is merely a private personality trait.
Exodus 4:21 uses ḥāzaq for the Lord hardening Pharaoh’s heart. The wider plague narrative also speaks of Pharaoh’s conduct and uses more than one Hebrew verb for hardening. This companion must not resolve the complex relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility through a root gloss or one isolated verse. The lexical point is narrower: firmness can be directed toward obedient courage or resistant refusal, and the passage decides the moral direction. Pastoral teaching should therefore avoid worshiping force, equating masculinity with domination, shaming weakness, or treating every strong leader as trustworthy. Scripture commends strength that receives God’s word, serves a faithful task, strengthens weak people, and remains accountable.
Ḥāzaq spans strength, courage, strengthening, collective resolve, taking hold, and hardening. Commissioning texts ground courage in God’s presence and obedience, support texts direct strength toward the weak, and the Pharaoh narrative exposes firmness used in resistance.
The Lord instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
God announces a hardening action before Moses returns, introducing a theme that the plague narrative develops through multiple statements and verbs.
Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The communal command receives its stated basis in the Lord’s accompanying presence and unfailing commitment to His people.
Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.
Joshua’s courage is explicitly directed toward careful Torah observance rather than reduced to confidence for military action.
Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
The command addresses fear and discouragement by naming the Lord’s presence, not by praising Joshua’s independent capacity.
When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He then restored the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple.
Asa’s courage follows the prophetic word and takes form in reform and restoration within the Chronicler’s account.
And who has shown me favor before the king, his counselors, and all his powerful officials. And because the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, I took courage and gathered the leaders of Israel to return with me.
Ezra links received courage to God’s favorable hand and then gathers leaders for the return rather than acting alone.
I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me, and what the king had said to me. “Let us start rebuilding,” they replied, and they set their hands to this good work.
The people strengthen their hands for rebuilding after hearing both divine providence and the king’s authorization.
Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees!
The imperative assigns a community the work of strengthening people whose embodied weakness is acknowledged rather than condemned.
But now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. And be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work! For I am with you, declares the Lord of Hosts.
Repeated commands reach governor, priest, and people, join courage to work, and ground the task in the Lord’s presence.
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. Physical grasping that extends metaphorically to moral/spiritual strength, courage, and God's covenantal grip on His people.
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 290 lexical occurrence verses.
חָזַק is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The repeated verb underscores that restoration involves strengthening what was weakened. Spiritually, God strengthens His covenant people through shared obedience.Nehemiah 3:1-32
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Ḥāzaq makes strength morally directional. Joshua is called to courage so that he will obey God’s instruction; Haggai’s hearers are strengthened for rebuilding because the Lord is with them; Isaiah commands people to strengthen limp hands; Pharaoh’s heart is hardened against the command to release Israel. Strength is therefore not automatically virtuous, and weakness is not automatically sinful.
Faithful strength receives its ground from God, serves the task He gives, supports people who are faint, and remains accountable to His word. Resistant strength protects control and refuses truth. Churches should not celebrate force, charisma, endurance, or masculine performance without asking whom that power serves. Sometimes the most biblical use of strength is to lend support, receive help, confess fear, persist in obedience, or loosen a controlling grip.
Josh.1.7
Qal forms often describe being or becoming strong, Piel forms can strengthen or harden, and reflexive forms may describe taking courage. Other contexts involve taking hold or prevailing. Stem, object, complement, and narrative direction prevent one gloss from controlling the whole range.
The New Testament calls believers to be strengthened in the Lord, support the weak, stand firm, and resist hardness of heart. These canonical parallels continue strength under divine power and obedient love, but they do not make one Greek verb an exact substitute for every use of ḥāzaq.