בְּכוֹר
firstborn
‘firstborn’ is one of 4 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H1060 appears in the Book of Genesis — 15 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Genesis
- Genesis 10:15 בְּכֹר֖/וֹ n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn), Heth,
- Genesis 22:21 בְּכֹר֖/וֹ n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram,
- Genesis 25:13 בְּכֹ֤ר n c ms cs These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to the order of their birth: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
- Genesis 27:19 בְּכֹרֶ֔/ךָ n c ms cs + sfx pers 2ms Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please arise, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me."
- Genesis 27:32 בְכֹֽרְ/ךָ֖ n c ms cs + sfx pers 2ms Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?" He said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."
- Genesis 35:23 בְּכ֥וֹר n c ms cs The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
- Genesis 36:15 בְּכ֣וֹר n c ms cs These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz,
- Genesis 38:6 בְּכוֹר֑/וֹ n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
- Genesis 38:7 בְּכ֣וֹר n c ms cs Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of Yahweh. Yahweh killed him.
- Genesis 41:51 הַ/בְּכ֖וֹר ptcl def.art + n c ms Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, "For," he said, "God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house."
- Genesis 43:33 הַ/בְּכֹר֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms They sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth, and the men marveled one with another.
- Genesis 46:8 בְּכֹ֥ר n c ms cs These are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn.
- Genesis 48:14 הַ/בְּכֽוֹר ptcl def.art + n c ms Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
- Genesis 48:18 הַ/בְּכֹ֔ר ptcl def.art + n c ms Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head."
- Genesis 49:3 בְּכֹ֣רִ/י n c ms cs + sfx pers 1cs "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
The Hebrew noun בכור centers on the idea of “firstborn.” Its meaning spans more than one sense — see its full sense range. Spanning 96 verses in 20 books, it ranks among the moderately common words of the Hebrew Bible. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 10:15. Related forms include בכר, בכור and בכירה. Dig into 96-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H1060 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 96
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 96 distinct verses.
- 20 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 20 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #369
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 369 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 96 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 1 Chronicles 23 verses 24%
- Numbers 18 verses 19%
- Genesis 15 verses 16%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 96 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 51 verses · 53%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 33 verses · 34%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 12 verses · 13%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Firstborn 60×, All the firstborn 20×, Eldest 4×
- American Standard Version: First-born 56×, All the first-born 17×, 's first-born 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Firstborn 89×, Was the firstborn 5×, Firstborn son 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Firstborn 70×, Firstborn of 36×, Was the firstborn 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H1060 across 116 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 18 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H1060 across 116 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 20 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H1060 across 117 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 5 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H1060 across 121 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
10 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 10 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. men and women:
- a. individuals Gn 25:13 (P) 43:33; 48:18 (E) +. e.g. Genesis 25:13
- b. coll. Nu 3:46, 50; 8:16; 18:15. e.g. Numbers 3:46
- c. pl. Ne 10:37 ψ 135:8; 136:10. e.g. Nehemiah 10:37
- d. כל בכור Ex 11:5; 12:12, 29; 13:2, 13, 15(×2); 22:28; 34:2 Nu 3:12(×3), 13, 40, 42, 43, 45; 8:17(×2), 18; 33:4 ψ 78:51; 105:36. e.g. Exodus 11:5
- 2. animals:
- a. individuals Lv 27:26; Nu 18:17; Dt 15:19(×2); 33:17. e.g. Leviticus 27:26
- b. coll. בכור בהמה Ex 11:5; 12:29; 13:15; Nu 3:41; 18:15; כל הבכור Dt 15:19. e.g. Exodus 11:5
- c. pl. בכרות Gn 4:4; Dt 12:6, 17; 14:23; Ne 10:37. e.g. Genesis 4:4
- 3. figurative, n. of relation בכור מות first-born of death Jb 18:13 (deadly disease); בְּכוֹרֵי דַלִּים first-born of the poor (the poorest) Is 14:30; Israel is the first-born of Yahweh among the nations Ex 4:22 cf. Je 31:9; and the seed of David among dynasties ψ 89:28. e.g. Job 18:13
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
n.m. first-born—Gn 35:23 + 78 times; בְּכֹר Gn 25:13 + 14 times; sf. בְּכֹרִי Gn 49:3 + 14 times; בְּכוֹרוֹ Gn 38:6 + 3 times; pl. cstr. בְּכוֹרֵי Ne 10:37 + 2 times; בְּכוֹרֵיהֶם ψ 136:10; also בְּכֹרוֹת Gn 4:4; Ne 10:37; בְּכֹרֹת Dt 12:6, 17; 14:23;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from בכר (bâkar) (H1069) — to be firstborn.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
בְּכוֹר
- first-born (opp. פשוט, a plain, unprivileged son); also of animals. B. Bath. 126ᵃ ב׳ ופשוט; a. fr.—Y. Pes. X, beg. 37ᵇ הוה ב׳ והוה אכיל was a first-born and yet did not fast (on the eve of Passover).—Yeb. 16ᵃ; Y. ib. I, 3ᵃ bot. ב׳ שטן (play on קטן) the first in obstinate dispute.—Gen. R. s. 91 (ref. to Gen. XLII, 37) הרי זה ב׳ שוטה וכ׳ is this a foolish first-born son! are thy children not my children? [ב׳ שוטה a first-born son by his mother, v. בּוּכְרָא I.]—Bekh. VIII, 1, a. fr. ב׳ לנחלה a first-born with the privileges of a double share of inheritance (Deut. XXI, 15 sq.), ב׳ לכהן one who must be redeemed from the priest (Ex. XIII, 2). Ib. IV, 4 ראה את הב׳ examined the first-born animal (and declared it defective); a. fr.—Pl. בְּכוֹרִים, בְּכוֹרוֹת. Ex. R. s. 18 בְּכוֹרֵי מצרים the first-born of Egyptian cattle; ib. מכת בכורות the plague of the first-born in Egypt; Num. R. s. 4; a. fr.—Bekh. IV, 5 he who receives payment להיות רואה ב׳ for examining first-born animals (as to bodily defects, v. supra); a. fr.—[Y. Shek. III, beg. 47ᵇ הבכו׳, read הבַּכִּירוֹת.] Ch. בּוּכְרָא. e.g. Genesis 42:37
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 59 distinct written forms H1060 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1060, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Derived from this word
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. 2 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 92 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 96 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 10:15
- Exodus 4:22
- Leviticus 27:26
- Numbers 1:20
- Deuteronomy 15:19
- Joshua 6:26
- Judges 8:20
- 1 Samuel 8:2
- 2 Samuel 3:2
- 1 Kings 16:34
- 2 Kings 3:27
- 1 Chronicles 1:13
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
