Vigor , literally (force, in a good or a bad sense) or figuratively (capacity, means, produce); also (from its hardiness) a large lizard
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H3581, kōaḥ, is a Hebrew noun for strength, power, ability, or effective capacity. It can describe the force of a body, the means to produce wealth, the ability to endure a journey, the power to act, or the capacity that has reached its limit.
Reader summary
Full entry for כֹּחַ (H3581) · Open the biblical lexicon
H3581, kōaḥ, is a Hebrew noun for strength, power, ability, or effective capacity. It can describe the force of a body, the means to produce wealth, the ability to endure a journey, the power to act, or the capacity that has reached its limit.
The BSB source-word alignment has 126 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include power (12), strength (12), . . . (8), my strength (8), the strength (6).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 4:12. Its strongest book concentrations include Job (21), Daniel (13), Isaiah (12), Psalms (11).
H3581, kōaḥ, is a Hebrew noun for strength, power, ability, or effective capacity. It can describe the force of a body, the means to produce wealth, the ability to endure a journey, the power to act, or the capacity that has reached its limit. Deuteronomy says God gives Israel power to gain wealth. Elijah walks in the strength supplied by food. Job asks what strength remains for continued hope. The word is concrete enough to include muscles, meals, resources, and stamina, yet broad enough to name moral or Spirit-enabled capacity.
Scripture refuses both self-sufficiency and contempt for weakness. Hannah sings that no one prevails by his own strength. Isaiah announces that God gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak. Job is not rebuked in chapter 6 merely for naming his exhausted capacity; his lament exposes how shallow counsel can burden a sufferer further. Bodily limits, sleep, food, grief, illness, disability, and trauma are not proof of spiritual failure. God's strengthening may arrive through ordinary provision, faithful companionship, renewed hope, or direct enablement.
Power also carries responsibility. Micah is filled with power by the Spirit of the Lord, together with justice and courage, to confront covenant wrongdoing. Zechariah denies that rebuilding rests ultimately on might or power, placing confidence in God's Spirit. Neither passage authorizes unchecked prophetic intensity. Spirit-enabled strength remains aligned with truth, justice, courage, and God's commission. H3581 helps ministry name capacity honestly: receive it as gift, use it for faithful service, respect its creaturely limits, strengthen the weary without blaming them, and refuse every theology that treats force, productivity, or charismatic confidence as proof of God's approval.
H3581 describes God-given productive ability, bodily strength supplied through food, exhausted human capacity, strength joined to peace, power for the faint, Spirit-enabled courage, and power unable to replace the Spirit.
But remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers even to this day.
Productive capacity is real, but Israel must remember its giver and covenant setting. The verse resists self-made pride without turning material wealth into a universal promise of faithfulness.
So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
Elijah's renewed capacity comes through food and drink before the long journey. Divine care honors bodily need rather than opposing spiritual vocation to material provision.
What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What is my future, that I should be patient?
Job names the collapse of his capacity under suffering. His question deserves attentive presence, not a demand that exhausted people display strength to validate their faith.
The Lord gives His people strength; the Lord blesses His people with peace.
The psalm's storm imagery ends with strength and peace given to God's people. Divine power creates secure blessing rather than modeling intimidation for human leaders.
He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak.
God directs strength toward those who have none, within a passage that distinguishes the Creator's inexhaustible power from creaturely weariness. Weakness becomes a place of received help, not shame.
As for me, however, I am filled with power by the Spirit of the Lord, with justice and courage, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
Micah's prophetic power is joined explicitly to justice, courage, a defined message, and contrast with corrupt prophets. Spiritual power serves truthful covenant accountability rather than personal dominance.
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.
Human capacity cannot occupy the Spirit's place as the source of God's work. The word redirects confidence while still calling Zerubbabel to carry his real responsibility.
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. Power encompassing both physical strength and productive capacity—force made manifest in action, resources, or ability.
Power encompassing both physical strength and productive capacity—force made manifest in action, resources, or ability.
vigor, literally (force, in a good or a bad sense) or figuratively (capacity, means, produce); also (from its hardiness) a large lizard BDB: chameleon Usage: ability, able, chameleon, force, fruits, might, power(-ful), strength, substance, wealth.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 127 lexical occurrence verses.
Highlights God as the source of sustaining power.Isaiah 40:12-31
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H3581 treats power as effective capacity, and Scripture repeatedly asks where that capacity comes from and what it serves. Israel can produce wealth only with ability God gives, which makes prosperity a trust rather than evidence of self-creation. Elijah receives strength through food after fear and exhaustion, dignifying material care. Job names the absence of strength without pretending hope is easy.
The Psalms join strength to peace, and Isaiah directs divine power toward the faint and weak. Micah's Spirit-given power comes with justice, courage, and a bounded prophetic task. Zechariah finally denies that human power can replace the Spirit as the source of God's work. These passages neither glorify helplessness nor worship productivity. They teach communities to build capacity, provide rest and nourishment, tell the truth about limits, and use power in service of justice and peace.
Leaders should not demand output from exhausted people, interpret disability as spiritual deficiency, or make forceful delivery the test of anointing. Strength is a gift to steward, weakness is not a moral stain, and the God whose power does not faint can meet creatures precisely where their own kōaḥ ends.
Isa.40.29
H3581 is a masculine noun that can denote physical vigor, productive power, means, ability, or capacity for a task. English context may require strength, power, ability, or the effect of being strengthened. It differs from H2428, which more often names force, resources, army, wealth, valor, or capable standing. The governed BSB table has 126 tokens, one fewer than the selected artifact count, so direct-witness claims remain tied to the current 121-verse boundary.
The Old Testament locates creaturely capacity under God's gift and directs divine strength toward the weak. The New Testament continues that movement as believers are strengthened through the Spirit in the inner person, learn that Christ's power rests amid weakness, and serve with strength God supplies. These connections do not make ordinary bodily provision less spiritual. Jesus sleeps, eats, receives care, and honors embodied creatures, while apostolic ministry holds dependence and disciplined labor together.