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אֲדָמָה

ground

‘ground’ is one of 8 main senses fuller range ↓

H127 Strong's Hebrew
ʼădâmâh Transliteration
/ad-aw-maw'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 225 appearances

Compare with another word →

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.

At its core, אדמה (ʼădâmâh) means “ground.” Its English rendering has broadened — “land” classically, “ground” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. Spanning 211 verses in 28 books, it ranks among the common words of the Hebrew Bible. It first appears in Genesis 1:25. Not a single-sense word: explore its full sense range. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
country
Modern gloss
ground
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H127 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 →

211
distinct verses
The word appears in 211 distinct verses.
28 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 28 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 1:25
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 1:25.
Malachi 3:11
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Malachi 3:11.
#210
by frequency
Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 210 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 211 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 88 · 42%
  • Historical 33 · 16%
  • Wisdom 10 · 5%
  • Prophets 80 · 38%

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 211 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 99 verses · 47%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 88 verses · 42%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 24 verses · 11%

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: Land 88×, Earth 52×, Ground 41×
  • American Standard Version: Land 68×, Ground 58×, Earth 32×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Land 106×, Ground 38×, Earth 34×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Ground 91×, Land 90×, Earth 18×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H127 across 222 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Land” 88×
  • “Earth” 52×
  • “Ground” 41×
  • “Own land” 11×
  • “Against the land” 4×
  • “Lands” 3×
  • “Off the land” 2×
  • “You into the land” 2×

Plus 19 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 3 further occurrences.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H127 across 221 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Land” 68×
  • “Ground” 58×
  • “Earth” 32×
  • “Own land” 8×
  • “Against the land” 4×
  • “Concerning the land” 3×
  • “Clay ground” 2×
  • “Face of the earth” 2×
  • “Face of the ground” 2×
  • “Lands” 2×
  • “Only the land” 2×

Plus 38 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 H127 across 220 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Land” 106×
  • “Ground” 38×
  • “Earth” 34×
  • “Own land” 14×
  • “Soil” 12×
  • “Dust” 3×
  • “Homeland” 3×

Plus 10 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 H127 across 230 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Ground” 91×
  • “Land” 90×
  • “Earth” 18×
  • “Land of” 5×
  • “Soil” 5×
  • “The” 4×
  • “And” 3×
  • “Dirt” 3×
  • “Farm land of” 2×
  • “Lands” 2×
  • “Own land” 2×

Plus 5 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


7 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 7 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. ground (as tilled, yielding sustenance) Gn 2:5, 9; 3:17, 23; 4:2, 3, 12; 5:29; 8:21; 19:25; 47:23 Ex 34:26 (all J); Ex 23:19 (E) Dt 7:13; 11:17; 26:2, 10, 15; 28:4, 11, 18, 33, 42, 51; 30:9; 2 S 9:10 Is 1:7; 28:24; 30:23(×2), 24 Je 7:20; 14:4; 25:33 Hg 1:11 Mal 3:11 ψ 83:11; 105:35 Pr 12:11 28:19 1 Ch 27:26 Ne 10:36, 38 cf. fig. Jb 5:6 (‖ עפר); personif. 31:38 Jo 1:10; also אִישׁ הָא׳ Gn 9:20 (J) tiller, husbandman; meton. אֹהֵב א׳ 2 Ch 26:10 i.e. lover of husbandry (or do these point to earlier meaning tillage? cf. DlPr 105) אִישׁ עֹבֵד א׳ Zc 13:5. e.g. Genesis 2:5
  • 2. piece of ground, landed property Gn 47:18, 19(×3), 20, 22(×2), 23, 26 (all J) ψ 49:12 (pl.) e.g. Genesis 47:18
  • 3. earth as material substance; of wh. man is made Gn 2:7 (עָפָר מִן־הָא׳); so animals v 19 (מִן־הָא׳); altar Ex 20:24; earthen vessels חַרְשֵׂי א׳ Is 45:9, on head, sign of woe 1 S 4:12 2 S 1:2; 15:32; of contrition Ne 9:1 (cf. אֵפֶר, עָפָר); מַעֲבֵה הָא׳ 1 K 7:46 cf. 2 Ch 4:17 (firmness of earth, firm earth, clay-ground, for casting-moulds; or clay-moulds (Be)? or is this n.pr.? Klo proposes בַּמְּעָרָה הָאֲדֻמָּה in the red cave); mule-loads of 2 K 5:17; in it lie the dead מִיְּשֵׁנֵי אַדְמַת־עָפָר Dn 12:2 cf. Gn 3:19, 23 ψ 146:4. e.g. Genesis 2:7
  • 4. ground as earth’s visible surface; רֶמֶס הָא׳ Gn 1:25; 6:20 (both P) Ho 2:20 cf. Gn 7:8; 9:2 (J?) Lv 20:25 (P) Dt 4:18 Ez 38:20; also Gn 4:10 (J) Is 24:21 Am 3:5 Zp 1:2, 3; as wet with dew 2 S 17:12; rain 1 K 17:14; 18:1; cf. personif. פָּֽצְתָה הָא׳ אֶת־פִּיהָ Nu 16:30 (P) (‖ ארץ v 32), vid. v 31 Gn 4:11; of partic. place, spot א׳ קֹדֶשׁ Ex 3:5 especially as abode of man Ex 10:6 Dt 4:10, 40; 12:1 1 S 20:31 2 S 14:7; oft.פְּנֵי הָא׳ Gn 2:6; 4:14; 6:1, 7; 7:4, 23; 8:8, 13 Ex 32:12; 33:16 Nu 12:3 Dt 6:15; 7:6 (all J, D) 1 S 20:15 + 9 textual e.g. Genesis 1:25
  • 5. land, territory, country (= ארץ Gn 47:19 (J) Lv 20:24 (J?—‖ ארץ) cstr. bef. n.pr. א׳ מִצְרַיִם Gn 47:20, 26; א׳ יְהוּדָה Is 19:17; א׳ יִשְׂרָאֵל Ez 11:17 + 16 textual Ez; espe. of land as promised or given by י׳ to his people = Canaan Gn 28:15 Ex 20:12 Nu 11:12; 32:11 (all J?) Dt 5:16 + 16 textual Dt, Jos; 1 K 8:34, 40 +, Je 16:15; 24:10; 25:5; 35:15 Ez 28:25 2 Ch 6:25, 31; 7:20; 33:8; cf. also Dt 12:19; 21:23; 29:27 2 K 17:23 Is 6:11; 7:16; 14:1 +, Ez 34:13, 27 +, Ne 9:25 (א׳ שְׁמֵנָה),—in all c. 41 textual + Jo 2:21 (personif.); א׳ הַקֹּדֶשׁ Zc 2:16 (cf. sub 4 supr. hence also as Yahweh’s land Dt 32:43 Is 14:2 Zc 9:16 2 Ch 7:20. e.g. Genesis 47:19
  • 6. whole earth, inhabited earth (seld.; cf. also פְּנֵי הָא׳ sub 4 supr.) Gn 12:3; 28:14 (both J cf. אֶרֶץ 18:18; 22:18; 26:4) Dt 14:2 Am 3:2 Is 24:21. e.g. Genesis 12:3
  • 7. n.pr.loc. city in Naphtali (as built cf. אָדָם 4? = ed-Dâme?) W. of L. Gennes. Jos 19:36 v. Di. e.g. Joshua 19:36

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.f. ground, land (as tilled, Ger. bebaut? DlPr 105, but Fleisch. (MerxArchiv I, 236 f) comp. Ar. أَدَمَة skin, as smoothly covering & close-fitting; √דם cf. Ar. دَمَّ smear (spread over surface); cf. also NöZMG 1886, 737)—א׳ Gn 1:25 +; cstr. אַדְמַת Gn 47:20 +; sf. אַדְמָתִי Jb 31:38 + 2 textual etc.; pl. אֲדָמוֹת ψ 49:12—

— 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.

Part of speech: Noun Feminine TWOT: 25b


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.

אֲדָמָה

  • , cmp. foreg.; thick and moist) [earth], clay. Gen. R. s. 14 the potter takes sand (עפר) which is male (masc. gender) and clay (אדמה) which is female (fem. gender).—Sabb. VIII, 5 א׳ כחותם וכ׳ as much clay as is required for a seal on bag-knots. [For the meaning of the phonetic equivalents of our w. in other Semit. tongues, v. Ges. H. Dict. s. v.]

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 81 distinct written forms H127 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.

Form Parsing Example Uses
הָ֣/אֲדָמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Amos 3:5 18
הָ/אֲדָמָֽה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 6:15 16
הָ/אֲדָמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Amos 3:2 13
אַדְמַ֥ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 11:17 11
הָ/אֲדָמָ֖ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 8:21 10
הָ/אֲדָמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 26:10 8
אַדְמַ֣ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 12:19 7
אַדְמָתֽ/וֹ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Amos 7:11 7
הָֽ/אֲדָמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 5:16 7
הָֽ/אֲדָמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 7:13 7
אַדְמָתָ֔/ם Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 29:28 5
וַ/אֲדָמָ֖ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Daniel 11:39 5
אֲדָמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Kings 5:17 4
אַדְמַ֤ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 25:3 4
אַדְמָתָ֑/ם Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Amos 9:15 4
אַדְמָתָֽ/ם Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 37:21 4
הָֽ/אֲדָמָֽה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 2:5 4
אֲדָמָֽה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 4:2 3
אַדְמָ֣תְ/ךָ֔ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 21:23 3
אַדְמָתֶ֑/ךָ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 28:11 3
הָ/אֲדָמָ֗ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 26:2 3
הָ/אֲדָמָ֤ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Joshua 23:13 3
הָ/אֲדָמָה֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 9:7 3
הָֽ/אֲדָמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 32:12 3
הָֽ/אֲדָמָה֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 3:17 3
הָֽ/אֲדָמָֽה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 7:4 3
אַ֭דְמָת/וֹ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Proverbs 12:11 2
אַדְמַת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Daniel 12:2 2
אַדְמַתְ/כֶֽם Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 36:24 2
אַדְמָת/וֹ֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 2 Kings 17:23 2
אַדְמָתְ/ךָ֖ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 28:4 2
אַדְמָתֵ֖/נוּ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Genesis 47:19 2
הָֽ/אֲדָמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 6:1 2
הָֽ/אֲדָמָ֛ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 4:3 2
וְ/הָ/אֲדָמָ֖ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 47:19 2
אֲדָמָ֖ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Chronicles 26:10 1
אֲדָמָ֤ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Amos 7:17 1
אֲדָמָה֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Zechariah 13:5 1
אֲדָמָה֮ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 20:24 1
אֲדָמֽוֹת Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Psalms 49:11 1
אַ֠דְמָתֶ/ךָ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 7:13 1
אַדְמַ֖ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 25:6 1
אַדְמַ֨ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Isaiah 19:17 1
אַדְמַתְ/כֶ֑ם Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 37:14 1
אַדְמַתְ/כֶ֔ם Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Jeremiah 27:10 1
אַדְמַתְ/כֶ֖ם Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Genesis 47:23 1
אַדְמַתְ/כֶ֗ם Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Isaiah 1:7 1
אַדְמָֽתְ/ךָ֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 28:33 1
אַדְמָת֖/וֹ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 32:43 1
אַדְמָתְ/ךָ֮ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 28:51 1
אַדְמָתִ/י֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 2 Chronicles 7:20 1
אַדְמָתִ֔/י Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Jonah 4:2 1
אַדְמָתִ֣/י Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Job 31:38 1
אַדְמָתֵ֔/נוּ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Genesis 47:19 1
אַדְמָתֵ֗/נוּ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Nehemiah 10:35 1
אַדְמָתֶֽ/ךָ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 12:19 1
אַדְמָתָ/ם֒ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Leviticus 20:24 1
אַדְמָתָ/ם֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Amos 9:15 1
אַדְמָתָ֖/הּ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Amos 5:2 1
אַדְמָתָ֖/ם Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 34:27 1

The 60 most common forms are shown; 21 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H127, 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

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 10 — not the complete family. 3 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 203 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 211 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

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.

Reading settings

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Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

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Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

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