H6213 — עָשָׂה (ʻâsâh)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H6213
Original: עָשָׂה
Transliteration: ʻâsâh (asah)
Pronunciation: aw-saw'
Part of Speech: Verb (primitive root)
Root: עשׂה — primitive root (no prior derivation)
Occurrences: 2,283 unique verses (2,934 tokens) — one of the most frequent verbs in the Hebrew Bible
Books: 39 of 39 OT books (present in every OT book)
First Occurrence: Gen 1:7 — "And God made (ʻâsâh) the firmament, and divided the waters"
Hapax Legomenon: No (extremely high frequency)

Lexicon Definition¶

A primitive root; to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application: accomplish, advance, appoint, apt, be at, become, bear, bestow, bring forth, bruise, be busy, certainly, have the charge of, commit, deal (with), deck, displease, do, (ready) dress(-ed), (put in) execute(-ion), exercise, fashion, feast, (fight-) ing man, finish, fit, fly, follow, fulfill, furnish, gather, get, go about, govern, grant, great, hinder, hold (a feast), indeed, be industrious, journey, keep, labour, maintain, make, be meet, observe, be occupied, offer, officer, pare, bring (come) to pass, perform, practise, prepare, procure, provide, put, requite, sacrifice, serve, set, shew, sin, spend, surely, take, thoroughly, trim, very, vex, be (warr-) ior, work(-man), yield, use.

Asah is the most semantically generic Hebrew verb of action. Its meaning is almost entirely determined by its object and context. Alongside בָּרָא (bara, create ex nihilo) and יָצַר (yatsar, form/shape), asah is one of three foundational "making" verbs of the Hebrew Bible — but where bara reserves agency for God and yatsar emphasizes craftsmanship, asah is the workhorse verb that covers any purposeful activity.

Verb Stem Distribution¶

Stem	Count	%	Typical Meaning
Qal	2,527	96.2%	do, make, perform (active voice)
Niphal	99	3.8%	be done, be made (passive)
Piel	2	<0.1%	press, squeeze (rare specialized sense)
Pual	1	<0.1%	be pressed (rare)

Asah is overwhelmingly a Qal verb. The Niphal functions as a regular passive ("it was done/made"). The two Piel and one Pual forms (e.g., Ezek 23:3, 8) use a homonymous root meaning "to press" (of breasts) and are lexically distinct in most lexicons.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

The KJV renders H6213 with over 300 distinct English phrases. Grouping by semantic root:

Translation Family	Verses	%
do / did / done / doing / doeth / doer	~900	~39%
make / made / maker / maketh / makest	~470	~21%
work / wrought / worker / workmen / worketh	~80	~3.5%
keep / kept (a feast, sabbath, passover)	~45	~2%
offer / offered / offering (sacrifice)	~50	~2%
execute / executed (judgment)	~30	~1.3%
commit / committed (sin, iniquity)	~35	~1.5%
deal / dealt (with someone)	~30	~1.3%
prepare / prepared	~25	~1%
perform / performed / fulfil	~20	~0.9%
shew / shewed (kindness, mercy)	~20	~0.9%
yield / yielding (fruit, seed)	~10	~0.4%
dress / dressed (vineyard, food)	~10	~0.4%
other (practise, procure, bring to pass, fashion, etc.)	remainder	—

Single most frequent: "did" (140v, 6.1%), "do" (126v, 5.5%), "made" (87v, 3.8%), "to do" (104v, 4.6%).

Distribution by Book (per 100 verses)¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Esther	46	27.5
Exodus	270	22.3
2 Kings	126	17.5
Ecclesiastes	37	16.7
2 Chronicles	136	16.5
Malachi	9	16.4
1 Kings	133	16.3
Deuteronomy	148	15.4
Ezekiel	180	14.1
Jonah	6	12.5
Judges	74	12.0
Nehemiah	48	11.8
2 Samuel	74	10.6
1 Samuel	81	10.0
Jeremiah	134	9.8
Genesis	140	9.1
Leviticus	78	9.1
Numbers	108	8.4
Joshua	55	8.4
Zephaniah	4	7.5
Isaiah	87	6.7
Hosea	13	6.6
Amos	9	6.2
Daniel	21	5.9
Psalms	110	4.5
Proverbs	32	3.5
Job	35	3.3

Pattern: Highest densities occur in narrative-legal books (Exodus at 22.3/100v reflects tabernacle-construction formulae; Esther at 27.5/100v reflects court decrees "made"/"done"). Deuteronomistic History (Kings, Chronicles) shows heavy density because asah is the key verb for the royal evaluation formulae ("he did that which was right/evil in the sight of the LORD"). Ecclesiastes is dense because Qoheleth's vocabulary pivots on "what is done under the sun." Lowest density in wisdom (Prov, Job) and poetic (Psalms) sections, which prefer more specific verbs.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Divine Creative Action¶

Asah denotes God's creative and fashioning work — distinct from bara (create) but frequently paralleled with it. - Gen 1:7 — "And God made the firmament" - Gen 1:16 — "And God made two great lights" - Gen 1:26 — "Let us make man in our image" - Gen 1:31 — "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" - Gen 2:2 — "God ended his work which he had made"

2. Human Craftsmanship and Construction¶

Building, fabricating, fashioning artifacts — dominant in tabernacle/temple texts. - Gen 6:14-16 — "Make thee an ark of gopher wood… thus shalt thou make it" - Ex 25:8 — "Let them make me a sanctuary" - Ex 25:10 — "they shall make an ark of shittim wood" - 1 Kgs 7:23 — "he made a molten sea" (Solomon's temple)

3. Keeping/Observing Ritual — "Make" a Feast or Offering¶

Asah carries the sense of "perform" or "keep" a covenant observance. - Ex 12:48 — "will keep the passover to the LORD" - Num 9:3 — "ye shall keep it in his appointed season" - Deu 16:10 — "thou shalt keep the feast of weeks" - Lev 23:12 — "ye shall offer that day… a he lamb"

4. Moral/Ethical Action (Doing Good or Evil)¶

The most theologically loaded usage — what one "does" defines covenant loyalty. - Gen 18:19 — "that they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment" - Gen 18:25 — "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" - Deu 6:18 — "thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD" - Pro 2:14 — "who rejoice to do evil" - Eccl 3:12 — "to do good in his life"

5. Royal Evaluation Formula ("did right/evil in the sight of the LORD")¶

A stereotyped idiom dominating Kings and Chronicles. - 1 Kgs 11:6 — "Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD" - 1 Kgs 15:11 — "Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD" - 2 Kgs 12:2 — "Jehoash did that which was right" - 2 Kgs 21:2 — "Manasseh did that which was evil"

6. Covenant Action — God Acts on Behalf of His People¶

Asah names God's covenantal deeds and kindnesses. - Gen 21:1 — "The LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken" - Deu 10:21 — "he is thy praise… who hath done for thee these great and terrible things" - 2 Sam 7:23 — "the great things… which thou hast done for your land" - Psa 98:1 — "he hath done marvellous things"

7. Agricultural/Productive Action — "Yielding," "Dressing," "Bringing Forth"¶

Asah extends to the productive work of the land and its fruits. - Gen 1:11-12 — "the fruit tree yielding fruit" (asah governs the plant's activity) - Gen 2:15 — "to dress it and to keep it" (Eden) - Lev 25:21 — "it shall bring forth fruit for three years" - Isa 5:2 — "it should bring forth grapes" (vineyard parable) - Isa 37:30 — "ye shall sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof"

8. Passive — "It Shall Be Done / Made" (Niphal)¶

The Niphal stem expresses result, decree, or completion. - Gen 29:26 — "It must not be so done in our country" - Lev 4:2 — "commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done" - Est 6:9 — "thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
אֲשֶׁר (ʼasher)	H834	944x (41%)	"which [he] did/made" — relative clauses reporting action
יְהוָה (YHWH)	H3068	755x (33%)	"the LORD did/made" — divine agency
כֹּל (kol)	H3605	697x (31%)	"all that was done" — totalizing statements
לֹא (lo)	H3808	526x (23%)	"did not do" — negated obedience/action
אָמַר (amar)	H559	491x (22%)	"said… do thus" — command-performance pairing
אֱלֹהִים (elohim)	H430	335x (15%)	"God made" — divine creative action
יוֹם (yom)	H3117	291x (13%)	"in the day that… was made" — temporal frame
דָּבָר (dabar)	H1697	233x (10%)	"do the word/thing" — word-deed linkage
בַּיִת (bayith)	H1004	221x (10%)	"make/built the house [of the LORD]" — temple texts
נָתַן (nathan)	H5414	195x (9%)	"give and do" — paired action verbs

Word Family / Cognates¶

H4639 מַעֲשֶׂה (maʻaseh) — "deed, work, act" (noun from this root; 235 OT occurrences)
H4566 מַעֲבָד (maʻabad) — "work, labor" (rare cognate noun)
H6213 עָשָׂה — the primitive root itself

Synonyms¶

עָמֵל (H6001)
נשׂא (H3451)
פרח (H6524)
צמח (H6779)
שׁלח (H7971)
שׁרשׁ (H8327)
יצר (H3334)

Antonyms¶

No antonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for H6213.

Competing "Make/Do" Verbs¶

Word	Strong's	Distinction
בָּרָא (bara)	H1254	Create ex nihilo; exclusively divine subject
יָצַר (yatsar)	H3335	Form, shape, mold (potter imagery)
בָּנָה (banah)	H1129	Build, construct (architecture)
פָּעַל (paʻal)	H6466	Do, work (poetic; focuses on result as "deed")
עָבַד (ʻabad)	H5647	Work, serve, till (labor; service to superior)
כָּרַת (karath)	H3772	Cut; idiomatically "make [a covenant]"

Easily Confused Words (by KJV overlap)¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
פָּעַל (paʻal)	H6466	"do," "work"	paʻal is poetic/literary; stresses accomplished deed
עָבַד (ʻabad)	H5647	"do," "to do," "work"	ʻabad = serve/labor with effort; asah is neutral
כָּרַת (karath)	H3772	"made" (covenant)	karath = "cut" a covenant; asah = general "make"
נָתַן (nathan)	H5414	"make" (king), "did"	nathan = give/set; idiomatic overlap only
יָרַשׁ (yarash)	H3423	"did" (rare)	yarash = dispossess/inherit; not an action verb
שׂוּם (sum)	H7760	"made," "made he"	sum = put, set, place; positional, not productive
בָּנָה (banah)	H1129	"made" (structures)	banah = build (structures); asah is broader

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

These broad overlap domains were returned by search_relationships.py for H6213:

[002002002005] Exist
[002003003011] Engage
[002003003009] Divination
[002002003003] Happen
[002003002004] Care
[002001002012] Great
[002003002022] Serve
[002003002018] Possess
[002001002021] Ready
[002002002008] Role
[002001001056] Stage
[002004002013] Think
[002003001009] Hold

Several are unusually broad or noisy, which fits H6213's highly generic verb profile and the relationship tool's domain-overlap model.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
ποιέω (poieo)	G4160	2,022	3.15	Primary — dominates ~88% of LXX renderings
ἔργον (ergon)	G2041	150	1.99	Noun counterpart when asah appears in participle/infinitive construct ("the work that is done")
πονηρός (poneros)	G4190	101	1.89	"Evil" — from idiomatic "do evil" (asah ra) → "πονηρόν ποιέω" or nominalized
οὕτω (houtos)	G3779	181	1.64	"Thus [he did]" — formulaic adverb
ἀρεστός (arestos)	G701	14	2.91	"Pleasing/right" — from "do what is right in the eyes of the LORD"
κρίμα (krima)	G2917	68	1.83	"Judgment" — from idiom "execute judgment" (asah mishpat)
ἐντέλλομαι (entellomai)	G1781	107	1.60	"Command" — because commands-then-performed is a frequent syntax
βύσσος (byssos)	G1040	20	2.42	"Fine linen" — from tabernacle-making passages

The LXX-to-NT bridge is overwhelmingly to G4160 ποιέω. This is one of the strongest Hebrew-to-Greek lexical alignments in the Bible.