Bible word study

Mitzvah (Strong’s H4687): Meaning in the Bible

Mitzvah (מִצְוָה) is the Hebrew word numbered H4687 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as a command, whether human or divine (collectively, the Law). In the King James Bible it is translated (which was) commanded(-ment), law, ordinance, precept..

• Original wordמִצְוָה
• Transliterationmitsvâh
• Pronunciationmits-vaw'
• Part of speechnoun (feminine) (n-f)
• Strong’s numberH4687
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. from H6680;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Mitzvah appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Mitzvah (H4687) stands behind 181 English renderings in 177 verses across 23 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Deuteronomy (43), Psalms (26), 2 Chronicles (19).

How the King James Bible renders Mitzvah, by count

• commandments130 of 181 (72 percent)
• commandment43 of 181 (24 percent)
• precepts3 of 181 (2 percent)
• commanded2 of 181 (1 percent)
• law1 of 181 (1 percent)
• ordinances1 of 181 (1 percent)

Three places to read Mitzvah

• Genesis 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
• Deuteronomy 30:11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.
• Nehemiah 9:29 And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.

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 Mitzvah 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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