אָדָם
man
‘man’ is one of 5 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
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
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H120 appears in the Book of Ecclesiastes — 43 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.
Ecclesiastes
- Ecclesiastes 1:3 לָֽ/אָדָ֑ם prep det + n c ms What does man gain from all his labor in which he labors under the sun?
- Ecclesiastes 1:13 הָ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
- Ecclesiastes 2:3 הָ/אָדָם֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.
- Ecclesiastes 2:8 הָ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms I also gathered silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got myself men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men--musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
- Ecclesiastes 2:12 הָ/אָדָ֗ם ptcl def.art + n c ms I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly: for what can the king's successor do? Just that which has been done long ago.
- Ecclesiastes 2:18 לָ/אָדָ֖ם prep det + n c ms I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
- Ecclesiastes 2:21 אָדָ֗ם וּ/לְ/אָדָ֞ם n c ms conj + prep + n c ms For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, with knowledge, and with skillfulness; yet he shall leave it for his portion to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
- Ecclesiastes 2:22 לָֽ/אָדָם֙ prep det + n c ms For what has a man of all his labor, and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun?
- Ecclesiastes 2:24 בָּ/אָדָם֙ prep det + n c ms There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.
- Ecclesiastes 2:26 לְ/אָדָם֙ prep + n c ms For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Ecclesiastes 3:10 הָ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms I have seen the burden which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
- Ecclesiastes 3:11 הָ/אָדָ֗ם ptcl def.art + n c ms He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can't find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.
- Ecclesiastes 3:13 הָ/אָדָם֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God.
- Ecclesiastes 3:18 הָ/אָדָ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms I said in my heart, "As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are like animals.
- Ecclesiastes 3:19 הָ/אָדָ֜ם הָ/אָדָ֤ם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals: for all is vanity.
- Ecclesiastes 3:21 הָ/אָדָ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes downward to the earth?"
- Ecclesiastes 3:22 הָ/אָדָם֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms Therefore I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?
- Ecclesiastes 5:19 הָ/אָדָ֡ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor--this is the gift of God.
- Ecclesiastes 6:1 הָ/אָדָֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on men:
- Ecclesiastes 6:7 הָ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
- Ecclesiastes 6:10 אָדָ֑ם n c ms Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.
- Ecclesiastes 6:11 לָ/אָדָֽם prep det + n c ms For there are many words that create vanity. What does that profit man?
- Ecclesiastes 6:12 לָֽ/אָדָ֜ם לָֽ/אָדָ֔ם prep det + n c ms prep det + n c ms For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?
- Ecclesiastes 7:2 הָ/אָדָ֑ם ptcl def.art + n c ms It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.
- Ecclesiastes 7:14 הָֽ/אָדָ֛ם ptcl def.art + n c ms In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; yes, God has made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything after him.
- Ecclesiastes 7:20 אָדָ֔ם n c ms Surely there is not a righteous man on earth, who does good and doesn't sin.
- Ecclesiastes 7:28 אָדָ֞ם n c ms which my soul still seeks; but I have not found: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.
- Ecclesiastes 7:29 הָ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Behold, this only have I found: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes.
- Ecclesiastes 8:1 אָדָם֙ n c ms Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
- Ecclesiastes 8:6 הָ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy on him.
- Ecclesiastes 8:8 אָדָ֞ם n c ms There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.
- Ecclesiastes 8:9 הָ/אָדָ֛ם בְּ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms prep + n c ms All this have I seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.
- Ecclesiastes 8:11 הָ/אָדָ֛ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
- Ecclesiastes 8:15 לָֽ/אָדָם֙ prep det + n c ms Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that will accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
- Ecclesiastes 8:17 הָ/אָדָ֗ם הָ/אָדָ֛ם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms then I saw all the work of God, that man can't find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he won't find it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won't be able to find it.
- Ecclesiastes 9:1 הָֽ/אָדָ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn't know it; all is before them.
- Ecclesiastes 9:3 הָ֠/אָדָם ptcl def.art + n c ms This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
- Ecclesiastes 9:12 הָ/אָדָ֜ם הָֽ/אָדָ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms For man also doesn't know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.
- Ecclesiastes 9:15 וְ/אָדָם֙ conj + n c ms Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
- Ecclesiastes 10:14 הָ/אָדָם֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn't know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him?
- Ecclesiastes 11:8 הָ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yes, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; But let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many. All that comes is vanity.
- Ecclesiastes 12:5 הָ/אָדָם֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms Yes, they shall be afraid of heights, And terrors will be in the way; And the almond tree shall blossom, And the grasshopper shall be a burden, And desire shall fail; Because man goes to his everlasting home, And the mourners go about the streets:
- Ecclesiastes 12:13 הָ/אָדָֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
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 אדם centers on the idea of “man.” Its meaning spans more than one sense — see its full sense range. Spanning 526 verses in 33 books, it ranks among the most common words of the Hebrew Bible. Ezekiel dominates its distribution — 130 of 526 verses. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 1:26. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H120 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 →
- 526
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 526 distinct verses.
- 33 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 33 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #91
- by frequency
- Top 100 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 91 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 526 occurrences in the concordance →
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 526 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 238 verses · 45%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 193 verses · 37%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 95 verses · 18%
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: Man 297×, Men 73×, Man's 13×
- American Standard Version: Man 235×, Men 85×, Son of man 49×
- Berean Standard Bible: Man 280×, Men 70×, Mankind 20×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Man 364×, Humanity 35×, Mankind 30×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H120 across 545 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 73 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 7 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H120 across 545 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 79 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 H120 across 508 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 46 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 39 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H120 across 544 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 31 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
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 4 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. a man (= Ger. Mensch) = human being Gn 2:5, 7(×2), 8, 15, 16, 18 +, 16:12 (27 textual J) Lv 5:4 (‖ נֶפֶשׁ) 13:2, 9 (19 textual P) Ne 2:10 Is 13:12 (‖ אֱנוֹשׁ); הָאָ׳ הַגָּדוֹל Jos 14:15 (E); אָ׳ בְּלִיַּעַל Pr 6:12 (‖ אִישׁ אָוֶן cf. 1 S 25:25 & v. בליעל); = any one Lv 1:2 Nu 9:6, 7 Jb 20:29; 27:13 Pr 15:20; 21:16, 20; 24:30 Ec 7:20 + oft. WisdLt, Je 2:6; 4:25 Ne 2:12, cf. נֶפֶשׁ א׳ Nu 19:11, 13 +; seld. man opp. woman Gn 2:22(×2), 23, 25; 3:8, 12, 17, 20, 21 Ec 7:28. e.g. Genesis 2:5
- 2. coll. man, mankind Gn 1:26; 9:5, 6(×3) + (P 28 textual) 6:1, 5, 6, 7 (JE 24 textual) Dt 4:32 (D 6 textual) (on 2 S 7:19 cf. 1 Ch 17:17 v. DrSm); distinctly = men + women Gn 1:27; 5:1 Nu 5:6; given as name Gn 5:2; but = warriors Is 22:6 רֶכֶב א׳ (‖ פּרשׁים); ‖ beasts (41 textual) בְּהֵמָה Gn 6:7; 7:23 (J?) Ex 8:13, 14; 9:9, 10 (P) 9:19, 22, 25; 12:12; 13:2, 13, 15 (all J) +; late proph. Je 21:6; 31:27; 50:3; 51:62 Ez 14:13, 17, 19, 21; 25:13; 29:8, 11; 32:13 (del. Co) 36:11 Jon 3:8 Zp 1:3 Hg 1:11 Zc 2:8; 8:10; ‖ בָּקָר Ez 4:15; ‖ צֹאן, חֲמֹרִים, ב׳ Nu 31:28; ‖ id. + מִכָּל־הַבְּהֵמָה v 30 cf. Jon 3:7; ‖ חַיָּה Gn 9:5 (P) cf. Ez 1:5, 8, 10, 26, & descript. of כְּרוּבִים Ez 10:8, 14, 21 cf. 41:19; ‖ trees Dt 20:19 (rd. הֶאָדָם v. Di); opp. God 1 S 15:29; 16:7(×2) Is 31:3 Ez 28:2, 9 1 Ch 21:13; 29:1 2 Ch 6:18 Mal 3:8 cf. Ex 33:20 Dt 5:21; so בֶּן־א׳ Nu 23:19 (‖ אישׁ Ez 2:1, 3, 6, 8 (87 textual Ez, alw. addressed to proph.); בְּנֵי הָא׳ 1 S 26:19; made in God’s image Gn 1:26, 27; 9:6 cf. Ec 7:29; as feeble, earthly, mortal Nu 16:29(×2) Ps 82:7; 144:3, 4 Jb 5:7; 14:1, 10 cf. 25:6 (בֶּן־א׳) Ec 12:5; as sinful 1 K 8:46 2 Ch 6:36 Je 10:14 cf. Nu 5:6 Jb 31:33 Ho 6:7; of men in general, other men (opp. to particular ones) Ju 16:17 (cf. אַחַד הָא׳ v 7, 11) 18:7, 28 ψ 73:5 Je 32:20 +; ‖ אִישׁ Is 2:9, 11, 17; 5:15 cf. Ez 23:42 (del. Co Vrss); בְּנֵי א׳ 2 S 7:14 (‖ אֲנָשִׁים) Pr 8:4 (‖ אִישִׁים); ψ 49:3; 62:10 (both ‖ בְּנֵי אִישׁ) = men of low opp. men of high degree—so oft. Ph. and = vassal Sab. DHMZMG 1875, 680 cf. 686; נֶפֶשׁ א׳ coll. Nu 31:35, 40, 46 1 Ch 5:21 Ez 27:13. e.g. Genesis 1:26
- 3. n.pr.m. Adam, first man (without art. cf. שָׂטָן 1 Ch 21:1 over ag. הַשּׂ׳ Jb 1:6 etc.) Gn 4:25 (J) 5:1, 3, 4, 5 (P) 1 Ch 1:1. (Gn 2:20; 3:17, 21 rd. לָא׳ v. Di) e.g. 1 Chronicles 21:1
- 4. n.pr.loc. city in Jordan valley (as built? Jos 3:16. e.g. Joshua 3:16
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. Gn 1:27 man, mankind (Ph. אדם, Sab. id., CISiv. 1, 1. 4 al.; cf. As. admu, young (of bird) DlW, but NöZMG 1886, 722 identif. with Ar. أَذَامٌ coll. creatures)—Sg. abs. exc. cstr. Pr 6:12 cf. Thes; (בְּנֵי (הָ)א׳ oft. = pl. of א׳ Gn 11:5 + 39 textual, cf. בְּנוֹת הָא׳ Gn 6:2, 4)—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from אדם (ʼâdam) (H119) — to be red.
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.
אֲדַם
- , v. הֲדַם. [v. Rabb. D. S. to Ab. Zar. 38ᵇ, Bets. 24ᵇ, note.]
אָדַם
- , v. דמם) [to be viscous, thick, dark] to be red, grow red.
- to redden, make red. Y. Sabb. VII, 10ᶜ top המְאַדֵּם אודם he who produces a red spot (congestion of blood, on a Sabbath).
- 1. (b. h.) (b. h.) to be, grow red. Num. R. s. 9 (p. 231ᵇ ed. Amst.) מַאֲדֶמֶת (היתה) if she was red-faced. Ḥull. 53ᵇ; a. fr.
- 2. to cause to blush, put to shame (usu. הלבין). Num. R. s. 4 (p. 218ᵈ ed. Amst.) (play on עובד אדום).—Part. מַאֲדִים the planet Mars. Sabb. 156ᵃ.—Part. Hof. מְאָדָּם, מְאוּדָּם. Y. Sabb. VII, 10ᶜ top מְאָדָּמִים dyed red.
אָדָם
- m. (b. h.) man, pr. n. m. Adam, frequ. א׳ הראשון (abbr. אה"ר). Gen. R. s. 17; a. fr.—ספרו של, ספרא דאה"ר אה"ר the (allegorical) book of Adam containing all generations and their leaders from beginning to resurrection, i.e. destinies of humanity. Ex. R. s. 40 beg. B. Mets. 85ᵇ bot.
אֲדָם
- (= דָּם, דְּמָא) blood. Targ. I Chron. XXII, 7; a. e.—Y. Maas. Sh. V, 56ᵈ top מגבלא אַדְמֵיה to mix its (the bird’s) blood. Git. 47ᵃ; v. חוּל II. Pl. אַדְמִין. Targ. I Chr. l. c.; a. e.
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 107 distinct written forms H120 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 47 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H120, 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
- אדם ʼâdôm H122 red
- אדם ʼôdem H124 ruby
- אדמדם ʼădamdâm H125 reddish
- אדמה ʼădâmâh H127 ground
- אדמני ʼadmônîy H132 red
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. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 498 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 526 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 1:26
- Exodus 4:11
- Leviticus 1:2
- Numbers 3:13
- Deuteronomy 4:28
- Joshua 11:14
- Judges 16:7
- 1 Samuel 15:29
- 2 Samuel 7:14
- 1 Kings 8:38
- 2 Kings 7:10
- 1 Chronicles 5:21
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.
