Bible word study

Gadal (Strong’s H1431): Meaning in the Bible

Gadal (גָּדַל) is the Hebrew word numbered H1431 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as to be (causatively make) large (in various senses, as in body, mind, estate or honor, also in pride). In the King James Bible it is translated advance, boast, bring up, exceed, excellent.

• Original wordגָּדַל
• Transliterationgâdal
• Pronunciationgaw-dal'
• Part of speechverb (v)
• Strong’s numberH1431
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. a primitive root; properly, to twist (compare H1434), i.e.

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Gadal appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Gadal (H1431) stands behind 118 English renderings in 111 verses across 31 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Genesis (16), Psalms (16), Isaiah (9).

How the King James Bible renders Gadal, by count

• great26 of 118 (22 percent)
• magnified17 of 118 (14 percent)
• magnify15 of 118 (13 percent)
• up15 of 118 (13 percent)
• grew7 of 118 (6 percent)
• greater5 of 118 (4 percent)

Three places to read Gadal

• Genesis 12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
• 1 Chronicles 22:5 And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.
• Isaiah 23:4 Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Gadal in the original Hebrew lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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