To be able , literally ( can , could ) or morally ( may , might )
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H3201, yākōl, is a Hebrew verb for being able: having sufficient capacity, opportunity, endurance, or permitted scope to do or withstand what a sentence names. It regularly works with an action or result, so the surrounding words supply the content of the ability, such as governing, conquering, carrying, comprehending, seeing, enduring, or restraining speech.
Reader summary
Full entry for יָכֹל (H3201) · Open the biblical lexicon
H3201, yākōl, is a Hebrew verb for being able: having sufficient capacity, opportunity, endurance, or permitted scope to do or withstand what a sentence names. It regularly works with an action or result, so the surrounding words supply the content of the ability, such as governing, conquering, carrying, comprehending, seeing, enduring, or restraining.
The BSB source-word alignment has 194 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (77), could (11), can (9), prevail (6), able (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 13:6. Its strongest book concentrations include Genesis (22), Jeremiah (20), Deuteronomy (16), Exodus (13).
H3201, yākōl, is a Hebrew verb for being able: having sufficient capacity, opportunity, endurance, or permitted scope to do or withstand what a sentence names. It regularly works with an action or result, so the surrounding words supply the content of the ability, such as governing, conquering, carrying, comprehending, seeing, enduring, or restraining speech.
A negative form marks inability, but the passage must identify the constraint. The verb alone does not tell whether a limit is physical, practical, legal, political, emotional, or chosen. Scripture uses this capacity verb to expose both confidence and limitation. Caleb's emphatic declaration concerns Israel's ability to enter the land amid conflict with the fearful spies.
Solomon's question about who can govern turns acknowledged inadequacy into a request for an understanding heart. Deuteronomy can use the verb in a prohibitive construction, showing that context may concern permitted action rather than physical strength. Jeremiah cannot keep the Lord's message contained, while Job confesses that no purpose of God can be thwarted.
Narratives also show people unable to answer, see, endure, or act because circumstances restrict them; those limits should be named rather than moralized. The divine subject and sentence carry Job's claim about sovereignty; the lexeme does not promise limitless capacity to every human speaker. Yākōl helps readers distinguish God's unconquered purpose, real creaturely limits, and capacity granted for a particular calling.
It invites honest dependence without shaming fatigue, disability, grief, or other limits that Scripture permits people to name.
H3201 names ability or inability in relation to a stated action. Legal instructions, narratives, wisdom, prophecy, and prayer locate the constraint or capacity in their own settings, so the verb cannot be reduced to physical strength or unlimited potential.
Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”
Solomon's question locates governing ability inside his request for discernment; confessed insufficiency leads to dependent petition rather than self-protective withdrawal.
Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.
The negated ability construction functions within a covenant prohibition, showing that H3201 can concern permitted scope rather than physical incapacity.
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We must go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly conquer it!”
An infinitive absolute and imperfect form intensify Caleb's assertion of ability; the grammar strengthens the claim while the narrative evaluates the confidence.
“I know that You can do all things and that no plan of Yours can be thwarted.
Job predicates ability of God and joins it to the impossibility of thwarting His purpose; the verse does not transfer unrestricted capacity to believers.
If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.
Jeremiah's inability concerns containing the prophetic message despite deliberate effort, presenting exhausted restraint rather than a generic judgment on weakness.
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. Denotes capability spanning physical power through moral permission; often emphasizes human limitation against divine will or circumstance.
Denotes capability spanning physical power through moral permission; often emphasizes human limitation against divine will or circumstance.
to be able, literally (can, could) or morally (may, might) BDB: be able Usage: be able, any at all (ways), attain, can (away with, (-not)), could, endure, might, overcome, have power, prevail, still, suffer.
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.
יָכֹל 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.
H3201 consistently asks, able to do what, under which conditions, and with what source of help or authority? Solomon's question in 1 Kings 3:9 is not despair; it becomes a prayer for the discernment needed to govern God's people. Deuteronomy 12:17 shows that a form rendered cannot or must not may mark covenant permission rather than a failed physical capacity.
Numbers 13:30 presents Caleb's intensified confidence within a contested report about the land, so grammar and narrative evaluation belong together. Jeremiah 20:9 describes a prophet weary from trying and unable to contain the message entrusted to him. His limit is neither laziness nor a universal promise that every inward impulse must be spoken. Job 42:2 places unthwarted capacity with God and His purpose.
That confession does not make the believer omnipotent or guarantee success for every personal ambition. These passages free churches to honor genuine calling and genuine limitation at once. People may need training, partners, accommodations, rest, medical care, changed expectations, or permission to decline a task. Dependence is not failure, and capacity is not moral superiority.
Faithful leadership asks what God has actually commanded, what resources and limits are present, and how a community can carry burdens together without exploiting those who appear able.
1Kgs.3.9
H3201 is a Hebrew verb commonly completed by another verb or stated result, so its practical sense depends on the action in view. Negation can mark inability, failed endurance, or prohibited scope, and emphatic constructions can strengthen an assertion of capacity.
The Old Testament distinguishes God's unthwarted purpose, capacities granted for callings, covenant limits, and creaturely inability. New Testament gift and body imagery likewise places ability within grace, dependence, and mutual care, but it uses its own vocabulary and does not turn H3201 into a slogan of unlimited Christian achievement.