לָ֭חֲמוּ
𐤋𐤇𐤌𐤅
lâcham
they eat
To engage in battle or wage war; to fight in armed conflict, either as an individual or a group. In rarer contexts, the verb can connote struggle, contend, or engage in conflict of a non-military nature. The sense of 'feed on' or 'devour' is not attested in Biblical Hebrew for this root, and likely arises from confusion with similar roots.
Proverbs 4:17 · Word #2
Lexicon H3898
| Lemma | לָחַם |
| Lemma (Paleo) | 𐤋𐤇𐤌 |
| Transliteration | lâcham |
| Strong's | H3898 |
| Definition | To engage in battle or wage war; to fight in armed conflict, either as an individual or a group. In rarer contexts, the verb can connote struggle, contend, or engage in conflict of a non-military nature. The sense of 'feed on' or 'devour' is not attested in Biblical Hebrew for this root, and likely arises from confusion with similar roots. |
Morphology HVqp3cp
All morphology codes
| Part of Speech | V — Verb — An action or state |
| Binyan | q — Qal — Simple active |
| Conjugation | p — Perfect — Completed action |
| Person | 3 — 3rd person — Third person ("he/she/they") |
| Gender | c — Common — Common (both genders) |
| Number | p — Plural — Plural |
Common Translation
| Phrase | they eat |
SIBI-P1 Translation H3898-07
they waged war
| Morphological Notes | Qal stem, perfect conjugation, 3rd person common plural. |
| Rendering Rationale | The Qal perfect 3rd person common plural denotes a completed action performed by 'they.' "They waged war" directly reflects the root’s primary sense of engaging in armed conflict and preserves the plural verbal morphology. |
View full lexicon entry for H3898 →
SILEX v2
SIBI-P2 (Context-Aware)
they eat
| Same as P1 | No — adjusted for context |
| Rationale | P1 'they waged war' is incorrect here; context and parallelism require the non-attested but idiomatic sense 'they eat' (as in 'eat the bread of wickedness'). |
| P1 Flag | wrong root meaning; should be 'eat' not 'waged war' |