Deuteronomy 6:5ESV
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
The first verb is ahav. Jesus calls this the greatest commandment. It is a command, not a description of feeling.
Hebrew word · FaithLabz word study
אהב
ahav
love
Often translated: to loveto be devoted toto choose
What ahav means
Ahav is the Hebrew verb for to love. It is the most common Hebrew word for love in the Old Testament, and like the Greek agapao that the Septuagint often uses to translate it, it is broader than feeling. It describes love as commitment, as choice, as direction of the will toward another. Ahav covers the love between humans and God ('You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart'). It covers love between humans (Jacob ahav'd Rachel; Jonathan ahav'd David). It covers love within a family. It covers the love that pulls toward and the love that prefers, the love that chooses one above others. Hebrew did not need three or four words for love the way Greek did. Ahav held the whole spectrum. The context tells you what kind of love is being described. What is striking is how often ahav is paired with covenant. To ahav someone in the Hebrew Bible is often to be in covenant with them. God ahav'd Israel and bound himself in covenant to her. We are commanded to ahav God with all our heart and to ahav our neighbor as ourselves, both in covenant terms.
Why this word matters
Most of us were taught love is what you feel. Ahav says love is what you choose to do toward someone, particularly when you choose to bind yourself to them. I spent years thinking my love for God depended on whether I felt close to him in a given week. Ahav reframed that. The command was never 'feel close to God.' It was 'ahav the Lord your God with all your heart.' That includes the heart that does not currently feel like cooperating. The Hebrew is honest. It commands the verb, knowing the feeling will come and go. And every time the feeling goes quiet, the command remains: ahav. Direct yourself toward him again.
Etymology
Ahav comes from the root a-h-b, which appears as the verb ahav, the noun ahavah (love), and the participle ohev (one who loves). The Septuagint most often translates ahav with agapao when the love is volitional and committed, and with phileo when the love is closer to fondness or affection.
Key Verses
Where ahav appears in Scripture, and why each verse showcases it.
Leviticus 19:18ESV
You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Ahav again. The horizontal command. The same verb that points to God now points to the rea.
Genesis 22:2ESV
Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.
Ahav between Abraham and Isaac. The most painful test in scripture leans on this verb.
Hosea 11:1ESV
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
God's ahav for Israel. The covenant love that initiates and sustains the whole relationship.
Related Words
Words in the same semantic family.
1 Teaching on ahav
Every video where Adam teaches on this word, in publication order.
Featured In
This word is studied in depth in the following monthly Bible studies.