What does קוּץ (qûṣ) mean in the Bible?
Qîṣ describes awakening, with literal waking, prayerful address and waking from death requiring their separate contexts. Psalm 3:5 says the speaker sleeps and wakes because the LORD sustains him amid enemies.
Hebrew · H6974
קוּץ
Qîṣ describes awakening, with literal waking, prayerful address and waking from death requiring their separate contexts. Psalm 3:5 says the speaker sleeps and wakes because the Lord sustains him amid enemies.
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קוּץH6974
Pronunciationqûṣ
What does קוּץ (qûṣ) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for קוּץ (H6974) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H6974?
The BSB source-word alignment has 22 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include wake up (4), Awake (2), then awakens (2), and rise (1), and when I awake (1).
Where does קוּץ (qûṣ) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Samuel 26:12. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (7), Isaiah (3), Jeremiah (3), Proverbs (2).
What This Word Actually Means
Qîṣ describes awakening, with literal waking, prayerful address and waking from death requiring their separate contexts. Psalm 3:5 says the speaker sleeps and wakes because the Lord sustains him amid enemies. Isaiah 29:8 compares attacking nations to people who dream of food or drink but awaken still hungry or thirsty. These are not automatically resurrection statements simply because the same identity also appears in Daniel's account of those sleeping in the dust.
Psalm 44:23 pleads for the Lord to wake in a lament over affliction, using the sufferer's urgent address rather than supplying a physiological claim that God needs sleep. Daniel 12:2 explicitly describes awakening to everlasting life or to shame and everlasting contempt. Teaching should preserve those stated outcomes without making every waking verb a hidden prediction of them or assigning a present person's final destiny. The licensed citation form differs from the inherited public lemma, so it is recorded as a source observation rather than silently correcting canonical identity.
Passage contextCanonical parallel
How the Bible Uses It
Sustained waking after sleep, an unsatisfied dreamer, a communal plea for divine action and Daniel's awakening from the dust have distinct settings. The verb's presence alone neither makes all waking resurrection nor turns poetic address into a claim about divine bodily needs.
- Ps.3.5
I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me.
The speaker wakes after sleep while crediting the Lord's sustaining care amid enemies. This stated experience is not a promise that every faithful person will avoid insomnia or danger.
- Isa.29.8
As when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then awakens still hungry; as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched. So will it be for all the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion.
Hungry and thirsty dreamers awaken without the satisfaction they imagined. The comparison concerns the attacking nations' unrealized prospect rather than a resurrection sequence.
- Ps.44.23
Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever.
The communal prayer asks the Lord to wake and not reject the people forever. It voices urgency amid suffering rather than an anatomical explanation of divine sleep.
- Dan.12.2
And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.
People sleeping in the earth's dust awaken to differing everlasting outcomes. Those outcomes are explicit in this passage and cannot be mechanically inserted into every ordinary waking use.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itwake up4×1 Samuel 26:12, Jeremiah 51:39, Jeremiah 51:57, Joel 1:5
Awake2×Isaiah 26:19, Habakkuk 2:19
then awakens2×Isaiah 29:8
and rise1×Psalms 35:23
and when I awake1×Psalms 139:18
Arise1×Psalms 44:23
awakened1×2 Kings 4:31
be awakened1×Job 14:12
can I wake up1×Proverbs 23:35
I awoke1×Jeremiah 31:26
I wake again1×Psalms 3:5
It has roused itself1×Ezekiel 7:6
Like [one] waking1×Psalms 73:20
rouse Yourself1×Psalms 59:5
when I awake1×Psalms 17:15
when you awake1×Proverbs 6:22
will awake1×Daniel 12:2
Show sample aligned rows
1 Samuel 26:12מֵקִ֗יץtowake upVerb - Hifil - Participle - masculine singular2 Kings 4:31הֵקִ֖יץtoawakenedVerb - Hifil - Perfect - third person masculine singularJob 14:12יָקִ֑יצוּtobe awakenedVerb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person masculine pluralPsalms 3:5הֱקִיצ֑וֹתִיtoI wake againVerb - Hifil - Perfect - first person common singularPsalms 17:15בְ֝הָקִ֗יץtowhen I awakePreposition-b | Verb - Hifil - Infinitive constructPsalms 35:23וְ֭הָקִיצָהtoand riseConjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Imperative - masculine singular | third person feminine singularPsalms 44:23הָ֝קִ֗יצָהtoAriseVerb - Hifil - Imperative - masculine singular | third person feminine singularPsalms 59:5הָקִ֗יצָהtorouse YourselfVerb - Hifil - Imperative - masculine singular | third person feminine singularPsalms 73:20מֵהָקִ֑יץtoLike [one] wakingPreposition-m | Verb - Hifil - Infinitive constructPsalms 139:18הֱ֝קִיצֹ֗תִיtoand when I awakeVerb - Hifil - Perfect - first person common singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row1 Samuel 26:12
Aligned rows22
Books represented11
1 Samuel12 Kings1Job1Psalms7Proverbs2Isaiah3Jeremiah3Ezekiel1Daniel1Joel1Habakkuk1
Source forms
יָקִ֑יצוּ4xyā·qî·ṣūJob 14:12, Jeremiah 51:39, Jeremiah 51:57, Daniel 12:2
אָקִ֑יץ1x’ā·qîṣProverbs 23:35
בְ֝הָקִ֗יץ1xḇə·hā·qîṣPsalms 17:15
הֵקִ֖יץ1xhê·qîṣ2 Kings 4:31
הֵקִ֣יץ1xhê·qîṣEzekiel 7:6
הָ֝קִ֗יצָה1xhā·qî·ṣāhPsalms 44:23
הָקִ֗יצָה1xhā·qî·ṣāhPsalms 59:5
הָקִ֔יצָה1xhā·qî·ṣāhHabakkuk 2:19
Parsing patterns
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - third person masculine plural4xJob 14:12, Jeremiah 51:39, Jeremiah 51:57, Daniel 12:2
Verb - Hifil - Imperative - masculine singular | third person feminine singular3xPsalms 44:23, Psalms 59:5, Habakkuk 2:19
Verb - Hifil - Perfect - first person common singular3xPsalms 3:5, Psalms 139:18, Jeremiah 31:26
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive perfect - third person masculine singular2xIsaiah 29:8
Verb - Hifil - Imperative - masculine plural2xIsaiah 26:19, Joel 1:5
Verb - Hifil - Perfect - third person masculine singular2x2 Kings 4:31, Ezekiel 7:6
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine singular1xProverbs 6:22
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Imperative - masculine singular | third person feminine singular1xPsalms 35:23
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Allow urgent prayer about divine action without shaming distress or forcing a confident emotional response.
- Explain explicit life and judgment passages with care while avoiding verdicts about individuals absent a named-human interpretive review.
Avoid claiming...
- Qîṣ does not mean every waking event predicts resurrection or that God literally requires bodily sleep.
- The verb does not authorize a final-destiny verdict about a present person or a silent canonical identity correction.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Awakening from sleep to vigilant awareness; used of God rousing to action in judgment or salvation
Source Gloss
to awake (literally or figuratively)
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Awakening from sleep to vigilant awareness; used of God rousing to action in judgment or salvation
to awake (literally or figuratively) BDB: awake Usage: arise, (be) (a-) wake, watch.
Grammatical Forms
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.
Form groups1Aligned forms13
Hiphilcausative active — the subject causes someone else to perform the action13×
ImperfectDan 12:2 · Jer 51:39 · Jer 51:57 · Job 14:12 · Prov 23:355×
PerfectJer 31:26 · Ps 3:6 · Ps 139:18 · 2Kgs 4:31 · Ezek 7:65×
Sequential imperfectIsa 26:19 · Joel 1:52×
Participle active1Sam 26:121×
Word Origins
קוּץ is built from this root:
יָקַץH3364
For the Preacher and Teacher
The waking person in Psalm 3 credits divine sustenance within danger, whereas Isaiah's dreamer remains unsatisfied after imagining food or water. Both uses concern waking, but their purposes differ. Reading the verb alone as a hidden resurrection signal would replace the actual experience and comparison each passage describes. Psalm 44 adds the communal voice of distressed people urgently seeking action from the Lord.
Daniel 12 gives a distinct setting in which sleep in the dust is followed by awakening to stated everlasting outcomes. Those statements deserve their own explanation rather than being generalized into every occurrence or used to name a contemporary individual's destiny. John 5:25-29 supplies a Christian comparison of the Son's voice, life and judgment, with the grave setting made explicit. The licensed qîṣ citation is also kept as source-bound evidence alongside the inherited identity. Teaching can distinguish the texts' own claims without converting transliteration variation, poetic address or ordinary waking into an unreviewed theological decision.
Anchor passage
Dan.12.2
Doctrinal connections
- Psalm 3:1-8 places sustained waking within danger, prayer and the acknowledgment that salvation belongs to the Lord.
- Isaiah 29:7-8 compares attacking nations with dreamers who awaken hungry or thirsty despite imagined satisfaction.
- Psalm 44:20-26 joins the urgent plea to wake with communal affliction and appeal to divine loving devotion.
- Daniel 12:1-3 explicitly joins distress, deliverance and awakening to differing everlasting outcomes.
- John 5:25-27 describes the Son's voice, life and authority to execute judgment.
- John 5:28-29 names people in graves coming out to resurrection of life or judgment.
The licensed citation qîṣ and the inherited public lemma differ in form, which this study records without canonical correction. Awakening's significance follows subject and setting; literal sleep, poetic address and explicit dust-of-death imagery must not become one automatic sense.
From Old to New Testament
John 5:25-29 describes hearing the Son's voice, life and judgment, including an explicit grave setting. It supplies a Christian comparison with Daniel's stated awakening outcomes. It does not make every qîṣ use a resurrection prophecy or give this private study authority to assign a present person's final destiny.
Passage contextCanonical parallel