Bible word study

Katheph (Strong’s H3802): Meaning in the Bible

Katheph (כָּתֵף) is the Hebrew word numbered H3802 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as the shoulder (proper, i.e. upper end of the arm; as being the spot where the garments hang); figuratively, side-piece or lateral projection of anything. In the King James Bible it is translated arm, corner, shoulder(-piece), side, undersetter..

• Original wordכָּתֵף
• Transliterationkâthêph
• Pronunciationkaw-thafe'
• Part of speechnoun (feminine) (n-f)
• Strong’s numberH3802
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. from an unused root meaning to clothe;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Katheph appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Katheph (H3802) stands behind 67 English renderings in 58 verses across 15 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Ezekiel (19), Exodus (13), Joshua (8).

How the King James Bible renders Katheph, by count

• side30 of 67 (45 percent)
• shoulders13 of 67 (19 percent)
• shoulder9 of 67 (13 percent)
• shoulderpieces4 of 67 (6 percent)
• sides4 of 67 (6 percent)
• undersetters4 of 67 (6 percent)

Three places to read Katheph

• Exodus 27:14 The hangings of one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits: their pillars three, and their sockets three.
• Joshua 18:13 And the border went over from thence toward Luz, to the side of Luz, which is Bethel, southward; and the border descended to Atarothadar, near the hill that lieth on the south side of the nether Bethhoron.
• Isaiah 46:7 They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.

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 Katheph 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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