Hebrew word · Strong's H1696

דָבַר

dâbar · daw-bar' · verb · “to speak”

In a sentence

Dabar (verb) means to speak — closely related to the noun for “word.” God speaks creation, covenant, prophets, and finally his Son.

Dabar as a verb means to speak. The same root gives us the noun for “word.” Hebrew thinking holds them together: speaking and what is spoken are one event.

When God speaks (medabber), things happen — worlds arise, prophets are sent, covenants are made. Hebrews opens by saying he “has spoken (elalēsen) to us by his Son” — the final dabar.

Strong's reference

Definition: perhaps properly, to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue

KJV usage: answer, appoint, bid, command, commune, declare, destroy, give, name, promise, pronounce, rehearse, say, speak, be spokesman, subdue, talk, teach, tell, think, use (entreaties), utter, [idiom] well, [idiom] work.

Reference gloss from Strong's Concordance (1890, public domain).

Key verses BSB · Public Domain (CC0)

Genesis 18:19 “For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, in order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has promised.”” Jeremiah 1:7 “But the LORD told me: “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ For to everyone I send you, you must go, and all that I command you, you must speak.” Hebrews 1:1 “On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets.”

Original BibleDawn word study. Original-language data and the public-domain Strong's (1890) gloss are referenced; see sources.