to search
cha.qar denotes examining closely, whether investigating people and matters, exploring a place, or probing what cannot be fully determined.
The verb most often marks close investigation of a person, a case, words, conduct, or a matter. It also appears in missions to explore a city or land, and in statements that something is searched or explored to its limits—or cannot be so determined.
Senses in use
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Examining people, conduct, or a matter · dominant
The Qal forms describe probing a person or matter: in Jeremiah 17:10 the active participle occurs in the clause where the LORD searches the heart and tests the mind, while Psalm 139:1 addresses God as having searched the speaker. In Job 29:16 the first-person imperfect concerns the cause of an unknown stranger, and Proverbs 25:2 places the infinitive with a king's examination of a matter.
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Exploring a location for information · common
In the Ammonite rulers' question, the Qal infinitive is part of the stated purpose of David's servants: in 2 Samuel 10:3 the APB renders the clause "in order to search out the city," alongside spying and overthrowing it. Judges 18:2 likewise uses Qal infinitive forms in sending men to explore the land.
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Probing limits or something beyond determination · occasional
The term can concern reaching the extent of something: in Job 28:3 the active participle occurs where someone searches out every limit, and Job 28:27 says that wisdom was searched out after being seen and established. Niphal forms describe what cannot be fully determined or explored: the APB says the bronze's weight "could not be determined" in 1 Kings 7:47 and that the forest "cannot be searched out" in Jeremiah 46:23.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the cited verses, the APB commonly uses "search," "search out," and "explore," and it sometimes presents the result as something that "could not be determined." Because the APB is a whole-verse translation, those renderings show the clauses' presentation rather than fixed English equivalents.