Bible word study

Koach (Strong’s H3581): Meaning in the Bible

Koach (כֹּחַ) is the Hebrew word numbered H3581 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as vigor, literally (force, in a good or a bad sense) or figuratively (capacity, means, produce); also (from its hardiness) a large lizard. In the King James Bible it is translated ability, able, chameleon, force, fruits.

• Original wordכֹּחַ
• Transliterationkôach
• Pronunciationko'-akh
• Part of speechnoun (masculine) (n-m)
• Strong’s numberH3581
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. or (Daniel 11:6) כּוֹחַ; from an unused root meaning to be firm;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Koach appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Koach (H3581) stands behind 124 English renderings in 119 verses across 28 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Job (20), Daniel (13), Isaiah (12).

How the King James Bible renders Koach, by count

• strength58 of 124 (47 percent)
• power47 of 124 (38 percent)
• might7 of 124 (6 percent)
• force3 of 124 (2 percent)
• ability2 of 124 (2 percent)
• able2 of 124 (2 percent)

Three places to read Koach

• Genesis 4:12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
• 2 Chronicles 22:9 And he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him, (for he was hid in Samaria,) and brought him to Jehu: and when they had slain him, they buried him: Because, said they, he is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart. So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom.
• Proverbs 24:5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

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 Koach 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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