to steal
ga.nav denotes taking what belongs to another, including goods, persons, and, in figurative clauses, hearts or words.
The predominant use concerns taking property or valuables that belong to another, whether in direct prohibitions, accusations, or descriptions of stolen goods. The same verb also occurs for taking or carrying off people, for gaining people's hearts or taking words, and for a whirlwind's sudden removal of someone.
Senses in use
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Taking another's property or goods · dominant
Qal forms occur in direct prohibitions against the act in Exodus 20:15 and Leviticus 19:11. In Genesis 31:19 the APB renders Rachel's taking of her father's teraphim as having “stole the teraphim,” while Genesis 44:8 places the action in the question of taking “silver or gold from your lord's house.”
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Taking or carrying off a person · common
Active participles identify a person who takes and sells another person in Exodus 21:16 and Deuteronomy 24:7. In Genesis 40:15 the APB renders Joseph's account with the repeated wording “I was stolen, yes stolen,” and in 2 Kings 11:2 Joash is taken away and hidden from those about to kill him.
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Taking hearts or words · occasional
The Piel sequential imperfect in 2 Samuel 15:6 occurs in the clause where Absalom gains “the heart of the men of Israel.” The Piel active participle in Jeremiah 23:30 describes prophets who “steal my words, each man from his neighbor.”
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Sudden removal by a whirlwind · rare
In Job 21:18 the Qal perfect is used in a comparison in which a whirlwind takes chaff, and Job 27:20 applies the same wording to a whirlwind taking a person away at night. These clauses portray removal rather than an ordinary human theft.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the cited verses, the APB commonly uses “steal” or “stolen,” including “stole the teraphim” and “steals a man.” It also renders the figurative and wind clauses with “stole the heart,” “steal my words,” and “steals him away”; these are translation renderings rather than word-by-word alignment.