To blossom or flourish can describe a plant's visible growth, while a passage may give that growth an expressly stated symbolic or comparative role. Aaron's staff blossoms and bears almonds in the account of the staffs placed before the Lord.
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Reader summary
Full entry for פָּרַח (H6524) · Open the biblical lexicon
To blossom or flourish can describe a plant's visible growth, while a passage may give that growth an expressly stated symbolic or comparative role. Aaron's staff blossoms and bears almonds in the account of the staffs placed before the Lord.
The BSB source-word alignment has 36 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (3), that has broken out (3), will flourish (3), and blossom (2), flourish (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 40:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (8), Isaiah (6), Ezekiel (4), Psalms (4).
To blossom or flourish can describe a plant's visible growth, while a passage may give that growth an expressly stated symbolic or comparative role. Aaron's staff blossoms and bears almonds in the account of the staffs placed before the Lord. Psalm 92 compares the righteous with flourishing palms and cedars while also describing evildoers' temporary flourishing.
Habakkuk voices rejoicing in the Lord even when the fig tree does not bud and the crops fail. Blossoming therefore does not make every success evidence of righteousness or every absence of visible growth proof of failed faith. Follow what grows, what the passage says the growth signifies and what the surrounding contrast permits readers to conclude. A sign assigned to Aaron's staff must not give a contemporary leader immunity from scrutiny, and a suffering person's lack of visible prosperity must not become a spiritual accusation.
Aaron's blossoming staff, the psalm's contrasted flourishing and Habakkuk's failed fig crop receive different stated roles. Growth can be a particular sign or comparison, while faithful rejoicing can remain when the expected crop does not appear.
The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, put forth buds, blossomed, and produced almonds.
Aaron's staff representing Levi buds, blossoms and produces almonds among the staffs placed before the Lord; the next instructions identify its particular sign function rather than a general success test.
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
The righteous flourish in palm-and-cedar comparisons and are pictured planted in God's house, while the earlier contrast says evildoers also flourish temporarily before destruction.
Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls,
The fig tree's failure to bud joins other losses of crops and livestock, yet the following confession rejoices in the Lord as salvation and strength rather than pretending the losses did not occur.
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. Movement from botanical emergence (budding/blooming) to expansive spread, with flying as the characteristic mode of rapid dispersal
Movement from botanical emergence (budding/blooming) to expansive spread, with flying as the characteristic mode of rapid dispersal
to break forth as a bud, i.e. bloom; generally, to spread; specifically, to fly (as extending the wings); figuratively, to flourish BDB: bud Usage: × abroad, × abundantly, blossom, break forth (out), bud, flourish, make fly, grow, spread, spring (up).
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 2 selected witnesses from 36 lexical occurrence verses.
פָּרַח 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.
Psalm 92 describes both evildoers and the righteous as flourishing, but it does not assign them the same outcome. The earlier grass-like success of the wicked is temporary, while the righteous are compared with palms and cedars planted in the Lord's house. Reading only the visible growth would erase the psalm's actual distinction. Habakkuk further prevents prosperity from becoming the only language of faith by rejoicing in the Lord when fig, vine, field and livestock supplies fail.
Aaron's blossoming staff belongs to yet another setting, a specifically assigned sign among the tribal staffs. Teaching must therefore follow each passage's stated purpose rather than turn blossoming into a general approval signal. It can attend to the beauty of growth and the grief of its absence without inventing a verdict about every successful organization, struggling household or leader who claims a sign.
Hab.3.17
The licensed Hebrew range includes budding, blossoming, spreading and flourishing, with broader applications beyond plants. This study selects the directly witnessed plant and staff settings rather than pretending to exhaust every spread or disease use. The separate sprouting verb remains a distinct entry with its own evidence.
Mark 4:26-29 compares the kingdom of God with seed growing beyond the sower's full explanation and moving toward harvest. That Greek account gives a separately stated growth picture; it does not merge the Hebrew blossom verb, Aaron's staff and Habakkuk's failed crop into one timetable or a promise that every visible project must flourish.