To shriek ; (by implication) to proclaim (an assembly)
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H6817 is a Hebrew verb for crying out, calling for help, summoning, proclaiming, or assembling people. Genesis 4:10 pictures Abel's blood crying from the ground, showing that silenced violence still comes before God.
Reader summary
Full entry for צָעַק (H6817) · Open the biblical lexicon
H6817 is a Hebrew verb for crying out, calling for help, summoning, proclaiming, or assembling people. Genesis 4:10 pictures Abel's blood crying from the ground, showing that silenced violence still comes before God.
The BSB source-word alignment has 55 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include cried out (11), cry out (5), they cry out (3), I cry out (2), Then they cried out (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 4:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Exodus (10), 2 Kings (8), Judges (6), Isaiah (5).
H6817 is a Hebrew verb for crying out, calling for help, summoning, proclaiming, or assembling people. Genesis 4:10 pictures Abel's blood crying from the ground, showing that silenced violence still comes before God. Psalm 34:17 says the righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them from their troubles. Deuteronomy 22:27 describes a betrothed woman crying out in the field with no one there to rescue her, making the absence of help central to the law's protection of the assaulted woman.
Other occurrences concern oppressed people appealing to God, officials summoning a gathering, alarm in battle, and desperate calls to human rulers. H6817 opens lament, testimony, public alarm, and convening. It corrects readings that equate a survivor's audible cry with the only valid evidence of resistance or treat unanswered distress as proof that God does not hear.
H6817 names an urgent vocal act that may seek rescue, announce danger, protest injustice, or summon a group. The hearer, threat, setting, available help, and social power determine whether the cry functions as lament, evidence, alarm, or convocation.
“What have you done?” replied the Lord. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
Abel's blood cries from the ground, and God confronts Cain over violence concealed by the absence of a living witness.
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears; He delivers them from all their troubles.
The righteous cry and the Lord hears, with deliverance grounded in God's attentive nearness rather than the sufferer's vocal strength.
When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.
The law recognizes the assaulted woman's cry in an isolated field and explicitly notes that no rescuer was present.
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. Urgent vocal cry that escalates from personal distress to public proclamation and assembly-gathering.
Urgent vocal cry that escalates from personal distress to public proclamation and assembly-gathering.
to shriek; (by implication) to proclaim (an assembly) BDB: cry Usage: × at all, call together, cry (out), gather (selves) (together).
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 3 selected witnesses from 55 lexical occurrence verses.
צָעַק 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.
H6817 makes urgent need audible, yet Scripture also shows that truth is not limited to what powerful people choose to hear. Abel cannot testify, but his blood cries before God. The assaulted woman in Deuteronomy 22 is not blamed for the absence of rescue in an isolated place. That text must never be reversed to suggest that silence equals consent. Trauma may produce freezing, dissociation, compliance, fragmented memory, delayed disclosure, or inability to call out.
Consent must be free, informed, specific, and ongoing, and it cannot be inferred from silence, fear, incapacity, coercion, or power imbalance. Psalm 34 offers real hope that God hears, but pastoral application should not promise immediate relief or blame a sufferer when danger continues. Churches should receive reports calmly, address urgent safety, preserve evidence, follow law and policy, offer independent advocacy, and avoid forcing confrontation or public disclosure.
Prayer accompanies protection, justice, medical care, and patient presence; it does not replace them.
Gen.4.10
H6817 is an urgent speech verb used for a cry of distress as well as a summons or proclamation. Some forms focus on calling out to a hearer, while causative settings may involve assembling people; context identifies purpose and audience.
The prophets carry the cry of oppressed people into public judgment, and Jesus repeatedly stops for people who call for mercy. The New Testament summons communities to bear burdens, expose darkness, and seek justice without retaliation.