H398 — אָכַל (ʼâkal)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H398
Original: אָכַל
Transliteration: ʼâkal
Pronunciation: aw-kal'
Part of Speech: Verb (primitive root)
Root: Primitive root (nominal cognates: H400 אֹכֶל ʼôkel "food"; H402 אׇכְלָה ʼoklâh "food"; H399 אֲכַל ʼăkal Aramaic)
Occurrences: 703 unique verses (947 tokens, 915 parsed forms) across 38 books
First Occurrence: Gen 2:16 — "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat (אָכֹל תֹּאכֵל)"
Hapax Legomenon: No — one of the most common verbs in the Hebrew Bible

Lexicon Definition¶

A primitive root; to eat (literally or figuratively):— at all, burn up, consume, devour(-er, up), dine, eat(-er, up), feed (with), food, freely, in...wise(-deed, plenty), (lay) meat, quite.

Verb Stem Distribution¶

Tallied from 915 parsed forms via hebrew_parser.py:

Stem	Count	%	Typical Meaning
Qal	740	80.9%	eat, consume (active)
Niphal	45	4.9%	be eaten (passive, esp. clean/unclean food laws)
Hiphil	20	2.2%	cause to eat, feed
Pual	4	0.4%	be devoured / consumed (intensive passive)
Peal (Aramaic)	7	0.8%	Aramaic sections (Daniel)
Other/Pasq	1	0.1%	—

Qal Form Distribution (740 Qal forms)¶

Form	Count	Note
Imperfect	298	Most common — "shall eat," prohibitions ("thou shalt not eat"), hortative ("let us eat")
Perfect	173	Completed eating; also weqatal (waw-consecutive perfect) carrying imperatival/future force in covenant speech
InfCon	75	"to eat," complementing verbs of permission/command
Wayyiqtol	83	Narrative "and he did eat"
Participle	64	"eater, one who devours" (often of fire, sword, nations)
Imperative	30	Direct commands: "eat!" (Gen 27:25; Ex 12:8; 1Sa 9:24; Ezk 2:8; Son 5:1)
InfAbs	17	Emphatic doubling: `ʼâkôl toʼkêl` "thou shalt surely eat" (Gen 2:16)

Weqatal imperatival force (key pattern for covenant-feast commands): In Deuteronomy's centralization code, H398 repeatedly appears as a Qal Perfect 2ms/2mp prefixed with waw-conjunction (weqatal), functioning as a commanded future that continues a preceding imperative or imperfect-of-command. The parser labels these as "Perf" but the syntactic context converts them to imperatival force — "you shall eat," "you will eat" as covenant obligation:

Deut 12:7 — וַאֲכַלְתֶּם שָׁם — "and there ye shall eat before the LORD your God" (weqatal continuing 12:5–6 imperatives)
Deut 12:18 — תֹּאכְלֶנּוּ (Impf 2ms) — "thou shalt eat it before the LORD"
Deut 14:23 — וְאָכַלְתָּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה — "and thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God"
Deut 14:26 — וְאָכַלְתָּ שָּׁם לִפְנֵי יְהוָה — "and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice"
Deut 27:7 — וְאָכַלְתָּ שָׁם וְשָׂמַחְתָּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה — "and thou shalt eat there, and rejoice before the LORD"

These weqatal forms sit in chained strings with other commanded acts — slaughter, bring, rejoice, bless — all functioning as covenant cultic imperatives. H398 is thus a principal verb of commanded covenant-feast participation, not merely a descriptive future.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Aggregated from 703 unique verses (many phrases share root glosses):

Category	Representative KJV Phrases	Approx. Verses
Literal eating (active)	eat, to eat, did eat, shall eat, ye shall eat, thou shalt eat	~420
Devour / consume (hostile)	devour, devoured, devoureth, shall devour, the devourer	~95
Fire consuming	and it shall devour, hath devoured, consume, consumed, burnt up	~55
Be eaten (Niphal)	be eaten, shall be eaten, it is eaten, may be eaten	~40
Feed / give to eat (Hiphil)	feed, I fed thee, and feed him, I will feed, they that did feed	~25
Dine / at meat / meal	dine, at meat, eating	~10
Idiomatic / figurative	quite, freely, in plenty, at all	~10

From search_strongs.py --lookup (~280 distinct KJV surface phrases collapsed to 7 sense groups).

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses	Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Nahum	5	10.6	Micah	3	2.9
Amos	14	9.6	Jeremiah	38	2.8
Joel	7	9.6	Lamentations	4	2.6
Leviticus	81	9.4	Haggai	1	2.6
Deuteronomy	71	7.4	Judges	14	2.3
Hosea	14	7.1	Nehemiah	9	2.2
Ecclesiastes	14	6.3	Numbers	24	1.9
Obadiah	1	4.8	Job	19	1.8
Ezekiel	53	4.2	Malachi	1	1.8
1 Kings	33	4.0	Proverbs	15	1.6
Isaiah	49	3.8	Ezra	4	1.4
Zephaniah	2	3.8	Daniel	5	1.4
Exodus	44	3.6	Psalms	27	1.1
Habakkuk	2	3.6	2 Chronicles	7	0.9
Genesis	54	3.5	Esther	1	0.6
2 Kings	24	3.3	Joshua	3	0.5
Zechariah	7	3.3	1 Chronicles	2	0.2
2 Samuel	22	3.2	Song of Songs	2	—
1 Samuel	24	3.0	Ruth	3	—

Pattern: Heaviest density in Minor Prophets of judgment (Nah, Amo, Joe, Hos, Obadiah, Zep, Hab) where the verb carries "devour" force (fire, locust, sword consuming nations). Second cluster in Torah legal material — Leviticus (9.4 per 100) and Deuteronomy (7.4 per 100) — where the verb structures clean/unclean food law and covenant-feast commands. Narrative books show moderate density. Relatively sparse in Psalms and Chronicles.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Ordinary Eating — Physical Nourishment¶

The baseline sense: consuming food for sustenance, often in mundane narrative settings.

Gen 3:6 — "she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat (וַתֹּאכַל)"
Gen 27:25 — "And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat (וְאֹכְלָה) of my son's venison"
1Sa 1:7 — "therefore she wept, and did not eat (וְלֹא תֹאכַל)"
Dan 1:12 — "let them give us pulse to eat (וְנֹאכְלָה), and water to drink"

2. Commanded Covenant-Feast Eating — Cultic Participation¶

H398 is the principal verb of the sanctuary meal: eating before YHWH as an act of covenant participation. Dominantly Deuteronomic; strongly weqatal/imperfect of command (see Verb Stem Distribution above).

Deut 12:7 — "And there ye shall eat (וַאֲכַלְתֶּם) before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice"
Deut 12:18 — "thou must eat (תֹּאכְלֶנּוּ) them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose"
Deut 14:23 — "And thou shalt eat (וְאָכַלְתָּ) before the LORD thy God ... the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil"
Deut 14:26 — "and thou shalt eat (וְאָכַלְתָּ) there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household"
Deut 27:7 — "and thou shalt eat (וְאָכַלְתָּ) there, and rejoice before the LORD thy God"
Exo 12:8 — "And they shall eat (וְאָכְלוּ) the flesh in that night, roast with fire" (Passover)
Lev 6:16 — "the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat (יֹאכֵלוּ)... in the holy place"
Lev 10:12–13 — priestly eating of the meat-offering as "most holy"

3. Food-Law Eating — Clean and Unclean¶

Dense in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14; typically Qal Imperfect with לֹא ("ye shall not eat") or Niphal ("shall not be eaten").

Lev 3:17 — "that ye eat (תֹאכֵלוּ) neither fat nor blood" (perpetual statute)
Lev 11:2 — "These are the beasts which ye shall eat (תֹּאכֵלוּ)"
Lev 11:4 — "ye shall not eat (לֹא תֹאכְלוּ) of them that chew the cud"
Deut 14:3 — "Thou shalt not eat (לֹא תֹאכַל) any abominable thing"
Gen 2:17 — "thou shalt not eat (לֹא תֹאכַל) of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die"

4. Fire Devouring — Judgment Imagery¶

Fire as agent; extremely frequent in prophetic oracles. Often paired with H784 ʼêsh (fire).

Deut 4:24 — "For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire (אֵשׁ אֹכְלָה)"
Lev 10:2 — "And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured (וַתֹּאכַל) them"
2Ki 1:10 — "let fire come down from heaven, and consume (וְתֹאכַל) thee and thy fifty"
Amos 1:4, 7, 10, 12, 14; 2:2, 5 — "I will send a fire ... which shall devour (וְאָכְלָה) the palaces"
Joel 1:19 — "the fire hath devoured (אָכְלָה) the pastures of the wilderness"
Zep 1:18; 3:8 — "all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of his jealousy"

5. Sword / Enemy Devouring — Military Destruction¶

The sword, enemies, locusts, beasts personified as "eating" Israel or the nations.

2Sa 2:26 — "Shall the sword devour (הֲלָנֶצַח תֹּאכַל חֶרֶב) for ever?"
Isa 1:20 — "ye shall be devoured (תֵּאָכְלוּ) with the sword"
Jer 2:30 — "your own sword hath devoured (אָכְלָה) your prophets"
Joel 1:4 — "that which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten (אָכַל)"
Hos 7:7 — "they are all hot as an oven, and have devoured (וְאָכְלוּ) their judges"

6. Figurative / Metabolic — Eating Words, Sin, Fruit of Deeds¶

The object of eating is abstract: sin, words, fruit of one's way, violence.

Ezk 2:8 — "eat (אֱכוֹל) that I give thee"
Ezk 3:1–3 — "eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel ... and I did eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness"
Hos 4:8 — "They eat up (יֹאכֵלוּ) the sin of my people"
Prov 1:31 — "shall they eat (וְיֹאכְלוּ) of the fruit of their own way"
Prov 13:2 — "A man shall eat good (יֹאכַל טוֹב) by the fruit of his mouth"
Isa 3:10 — "they shall eat the fruit of their doings"

7. Idiomatic Emphasis — Infinitive Absolute Doubling¶

The Qal InfAbs paired with a finite form yields emphatic "surely eat" / "freely eat."

Gen 2:16 — "thou mayest freely eat" (אָכֹל תֹּאכֵל — literally "eating, thou shalt eat")
Gen 2:17 — "thou shalt surely die" pattern inverted on 3:3 "lest ye die" — but the H398 form in 2:16 is the paradigm infinitive absolute of permission
Gen 31:15 — "quite devoured (אָכוֹל) also our money"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occ	Typical Pattern
לֹא (lôʼ)	H3808	213x (30%)	"shall not eat" — food-law prohibitions, sworn oaths of abstinence
אֲשֶׁר (ʼăsher)	H834	169x (24%)	relative: "which ye shall eat / which may be eaten"
כֹּל (kôl)	H3605	161x (23%)	"every (creature/tree)" — universal statements of permission/prohibition
אָמַר (ʼâmar)	H559	152x (22%)	speech framing: commands and reported invitations to eat
יְהֹוָה (Yᵉhôvâh)	H3068	150x (21%)	eating commanded/prohibited/observed by YHWH; "before YHWH" covenant meal
עַל (ʻal)	H5921	109x (16%)	"upon" — eating upon altar, upon the blood
לֶחֶם (lechem)	H3899	101x (14%)	"eat bread" — standard idiom for having a meal
יוֹם (yôwm)	H3117	94x (13%)	temporal: "in the day" of eating, days of feasting/fasting
שָׁתָה (shâthâh)	H8354	92x (13%)	eat-and-drink pair — standard merism for full participation in meal/feast
אֵשׁ (ʼêsh)	H784	90x (13%)	"fire devours" — Category 4 judgment imagery
אֶרֶץ (ʼerets)	H776	80x (11%)	eating "the land" (produce of), or enemy devouring the land
בֵּן (bên)	H1121	78x (11%)	"sons eat" — household/priestly consumption, or "devour her children"
נָתַן (nâthan)	H5414	76x (11%)	give + eat: "I gave you to eat" / "gave them to eat"
בּוֹא (bôwʼ)	H935	73x (10%)	come + eat: approach sanctuary or table
אֱלֹהִים (ʼĕlôhîym)	H430	72x (10%)	eating in God's presence / at God's command
בַּיִת (bayith)	H1004	63x (9%)	"house" — eating in the house of YHWH, or devouring houses
בָּשָׂר (bâsâr)	H1320	62x (9%)	"eat flesh" — sacrificial, Passover, peace-offering contexts
פָּנִים (pânîym)	H6440	61x (9%)	"before (the face of) YHWH" — covenant-feast formula
עָשָׂה (ʻâsâh)	H6213	60x (9%)	do + eat: covenant obligation compound

Signature pair: H398 + H8354 (ʼâkal + shâthâh) "eat and drink" is the standard idiom for full feast-participation (Deut 12:7, 14:26; Exo 24:11; Ecc 2:24; 3:13; 8:15; Isa 22:13; Luke 12:19 in NT quotation). H398 + H6440 (lipnê YHWH) "eat before YHWH" is the Deuteronomic covenant-meal marker.

Word Family / Cognates¶

H399 אֲכַל (ʼăkal) — Aramaic cognate; same meaning "to eat, devour"; used in Daniel (e.g., Dan 7:5 "devour much flesh")
H400 אֹכֶל (ʼôkel) — masc. noun "food, eating, meal-time" (44x)
H402 אׇכְלָה (ʼoklâh) — fem. noun "food, fuel, devouring" (18x)
H3978 מַאֲכָל (maʼăkâl) — noun "food, eatable thing" (30x)
H4361 מַאֲכֹלֶת (maʼăkôleth) — noun "devouring, fuel" (2x)

Synonyms¶

H2963 טָרַף (ṭâraph) — "tear, prey upon, devour"; overlaps with H398 in hostile-consumption contexts, but with a more violent predator/prey nuance.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared KJV Translation	Key Difference
לָחַם (lâcham)	H3898	"eat, devour" (3x overlap)	lâcham = to feed/wage war; cognate of leḥem (bread); rare sense "eat" (Prov 4:17; 9:5); primary meaning is "to do battle"
בָּרָה (bârâh)	H1262	"to eat" (1x overlap)	bârâh = to select food, eat mourners' bread (2Sa 3:35); specialized, not the general "eat"
טְעַם (ṭᵉʻam) Aram.	H2939	"to eat / taste" (2x overlap)	Aramaic "taste, partake"; used of Belshazzar's feast (Dan 5:2) and Nebuchadnezzar's grass-eating punishment (Dan 4:25, 33)
כָּלָה (kâlâh)	H3615	"consume, devour" (2x overlap)	kâlâh = bring to an end, complete, finish; overlaps with H398 in destruction contexts but is about completion/termination, not ingestion
בָּלָה (bâlâh)	H1086	"consume" (1x overlap)	bâlâh = wear out, decay; "consume" in sense of aging/erosion, not devouring
חִנָּם (chinnâm)	H2600	"freely" (1x overlap)	chinnâm = gratis, without cause; H398 "freely" (ʼâkôl toʼkêl) is infinitival emphasis, not cost
אׇכְלָה (ʼoklâh)	H402	"devour, food" (derivative)	fem. noun derivative; sometimes used where the verb might be expected (e.g., "be devoured" Ezk 15:4)

Easily-confused summary: The most frequently-overlapping Hebrew competitor is H3898 lâcham, which shares the same consonantal look with "bread" (H3899 leḥem) — context disambiguates "feed/battle" from "eat bread." In Aramaic sections (Daniel), H2939 ṭᵉʻam substitutes.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H398.

UBS Semantic Domains¶

Code	Domain Label	Notes
002001001025	Ingest	Core literal field for eating/consuming food.
002002002006	Non-Exist	Secondary extension when H398 means "consume/devour to destruction."
002001001019	Dead	Related judgment extension where fire, sword, or beasts "devour" life away.

search_relationships.py surfaced several broader secondary domains for figurative uses; the three above are the clearest fits for H398's semantic range.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
ἐσθίω (esthíō)	G2068	486	4.96	Primary equivalent — general verb "to eat" (NT inherits this)
κατεσθίω (katesthíō)	G2719	117	4.94	"Eat down / devour" — for judgment contexts (fire, sword, beasts)
πίνω (pínō)	G4095	97	3.91	"Drink" — appears as co-collocate (eat-and-drink pair) in LXX translations
κρέας (kréas)	G2907	46	4.40	"Flesh (meat)" — eaten; noun paired with the verb in sacrificial contexts
ἄρτος (ártos)	G740	96	3.69	"Bread" — "eat bread" idiom
πῦρ (pŷr)	G4442	89	2.92	"Fire" — "fire devours"
ἄζυμος (ázymos)	G106	21	4.03	"Unleavened" — Passover contexts (eat unleavened)
ψωμίζω (psōmízō)	G5595	13	4.64	"Feed with morsels" — for Hiphil "cause to eat"
βρῶσις (brōsis)	G1035	16	3.86	"Eating, food" (nominalization)

LXX pattern: The Greek translators overwhelmingly use ἐσθίω for neutral "eating" and switch to κατεσθίω for the hostile "devour" sense (fire, sword, judgment). This two-verb split preserves H398's semantic range into the Greek NT, where both verbs retain these same polarities (e.g., Luke 22:15 ἐσθίω of Passover; Rev 20:9 κατεσθίω of judgment fire).