Both my French and German biblical Hebrew textbooks give chercher and suchen (to look for) as the meaning of לבקש. What I find quite strange is that לחפש, which means chercher according to my modern Hebrew textbook, has almost the same meaning as לבקש in biblical Hebrew: fouiller.
And according to my German textbook, לחפש means exactly the same thing as לבקש in biblical Hebrew: suchen.
Does anyone know if there was a difference between the two verbs in BH? I know there is one in MH, because לבקש now means demander/bitten (to ask for), not chercher/suchen (to look for).