אֹ֫הֶל
tent
‘tent’ is one of 4 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
- 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 H168 appears in the Book of Malachi — 1 distinct verse. 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.
Malachi
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.
“tent” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun אהל (ʼôhel). Its English rendering has broadened — “tabernacle” classically, “tent of” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 314 verses — common. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 4:20. Its meaning spans more than one sense — see its full sense range. See the sense tree, 314-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H168 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 →
- 314
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 314 distinct verses.
- 26 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 26 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #141
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 141 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 314 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 314 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 192 verses · 61%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 66 verses · 21%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 56 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: Tabernacle 172×, Tent 83×, Tents 44×
- American Standard Version: Tent 229×, Tents 46×, Tabernacle 7×
- Berean Standard Bible: Tent 259×, Tents 46×, Home 8×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Tent of 135×, Tent 134×, Tents 44×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H168 across 345 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 29 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H168 across 341 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 40 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 H168 across 338 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 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 8 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H168 across 348 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 14 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 3 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. tent of nomad Ct 1:5 Je 6:3; 49:29; ישֵׁב א׳ dweller in tents Gn 4:20; 25:27 (J); אָהֳלֵי מִקְנֶה tents of cattle 2 Ch 14:14; of soldier 1 Sa 17:54 cf. Dr, Je 37:10; 1 K 12:16 ישׂראל לְאֹהָלֶיךָ, exclam., to thy tents, Israel!, cf. 1 K 8:66 2 Ch 10:16 2 S 20:1 (but cf. Dr, 1 S 17:54); of pleasure-tent on house-top 2 S 16:22 (= bridal-tent, bridal pavilion, cf. חֻפָּה ψ 19:5 Jo 2:16 v. RSKinship 168). e.g. Song of Solomon 1:5
- 2. dwelling, habitation; ψ 91:10 בְּאֹהֳלֶ֑ךָ home (lit. in thy tent), pl. לְאֹהָלֶֽךָ Ju 19:9; בֵּיתִי א׳ habitation of my house ψ 132:3 cf. Dn 11:45; א׳ דוד habitat. or palace of David where throne erected Is 16:5; א׳ בַת צִיּוֹן h. of daughter of Zion (= Jerusalem) La 2:4; אָהֳלֵי יַעֲקֹב Je 30:18 Mal 2:12 (‖ מִשְׁכָּן); א׳ יְהוּדָה Zc 12:7 (‖ בית דוד); א׳ רְשָׁעִים h. of wicked Jb 8:22, cf. א׳ רֶשַׁע ψ 84:11, א׳ יְשָׁרִים Pr 14:11; א׳ שֹׁחַד Jb 15:34; א׳ צַדִּיקִים ψ 118:15; א׳ אֱדוֹם = Edom itself, ψ 83:7 cf. א׳ קְדָר ψ 120:5 א׳ כוּשָׁן Hb 3:7; cf. Is 54:2 ψ 69:26. e.g. Psalms 91:10
- 3. the sacred tent in worship of God; הָאֹהֶל the tent; א׳ מוֹעֵד tent of meeting of God with his people (tent of congregation or assembly Ges MV al.) According to E Moses so called the tent which he used to pitch without the camp, afar off, into which he used to enter, & where God spake with him face to face, Ex 33:7–11 Nu 12:5, 10 Dt 31:14, 15; J seems to have same conception of an א׳ מ׳ outside the camp, Nu 11:24, 26; D has no allusion to such a tent; P mentions it 131 times as א׳ מ׳; 19 times as הָאֹהֶל (cf. Ez 41:1) & א׳ הָעֵדוּת, tent of the testimony Nu 9:15; 17:22, 23; 18:2 (as containing ark & tables of the testimony) cf. 2 Ch 24:6; this tent sometimes confounded with the מִשְׁכָּן but distinguished in מִשְׁכַּן א׳מ׳ Ex 39:32; 40:2, 6, 29, cf. 1 Ch 6:17; הַמִּשְׁכָּן וְהָאֹהֶל Nu 3:25; אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּן וְאֶת־אָהֳלוֹ Ex 35:11; tent was of three layers of skins, goatskins, ramskins, & tachash skins, each layer of eleven pieces stretched in form of a tent, covring & protecting the מִשְׁכָּן, wh. was in form of parallelopip. (Ex 26). An אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד was at Shilo 1 S 2:22 (om. 𝔊; v. Dr) cf. ψ 78:60, called א׳ יוֹסֵף v 67. The Mosaic א׳ מ׳ was later at Gibeon 2 Ch 1:3, 6, 13; courses of ministry arranged for service at א׳ מ׳ 1 Ch 6:17; 23:32 cf. 1 Ch 9:19 (הָא׳), v 21, 23 (בֵּית הָא׳); David erected an אֹהֶל for ark on Mt. Zion 2 S 6:17 1 Ch 15:1; 16:1; 2 Ch 1:4; Joab fled for refuge to א׳ יהוה 1 K 2:28–30; sacred oil brought from הָא׳ 1 K 1:39; the א׳ מוֹעֵד was taken up into temple 1 K 8:4 = 2 Ch 5:5; י׳ had not previously dwelt in a בַּיִת, but had gone מֵאֹהֶל אֶל־אֹהֶל from tent to tent, from one to another, 1 Ch 17:5, cf. 2 S 7:6; א׳ יהוה (‖ בַּיִת & הַר קֹדֶשׁ) is refuge & dwelling-place of righteous, ψ 15:1; 27:5, 6; 61:5 (cf. ψ 90:1). e.g. Exodus 33:7
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 13:3 tent (cf. Assyrian âlu, supr., Arabic أَهْلٌ, fellow-dwellers, family, Sab. אהל DHMZMG 1883, 341 al., also in n.pr. Sab. & Ph. v. אהליאב)—abs. א׳ Gn 4:20 +; cstr. id. Ex 28:43 +; אֹ֫הֱלָה (ה loc.) Gn 18:6 +; sf. אָהֳלִי Jb 29:4 +; אָֽהָלְךָ ψ 61:5; אָֽהֳלֹה Gn 9:21 + 3 times (v. DrSm xxxv); pl. אֹהָלִים Gn 13:5 + (Ges§ 23.3); בָֽאֳהָלִים Ju 8:11 +; cstr. אָהֳלֵי Nu 16:26 +; sf. אֹהָלַי Je 4:20; אֹהָלֶיךָ Nu 24:5 +; אָהֳלֵיכֶם Jos 22:8 +, etc.—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from אהל (ʼâhal) (H166) — to shine.
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.
אָהַל
- (b. h.), Pi. אִיהֵל (deriv. of אֹהֶל) to spread tent-like, to cover, shade, bend over &c., usu. with refer. to levitical uncleanness arising from being under the same shelter with, or forming a shelter over, a corpse &c. Meïlah 17ᵃ אי׳ על מקצתו if he bent over a portion (of the blood). Sabb. 17ᵃ אי׳ צדו אחת וכ׳ he caused one side of his body to overshadow the grave.—[More freq.]
- same. Ohol. III, 1; 3 sq. הא׳ על המת he formed a tent, i.e. spread himself, or bent, over a corpse. Ib. הבית מַאֲחִיל עליו the house forms a cover over part of it. Y. Sot. IX, 23ᶜ top; a. fr.
אֹהֶל
- tent, shelter. Succ. 21ᵇ א׳ עראי a temporary dwelling. א׳ קבע a permanent dwelling.—Naz. 55ᵃ א׳ זרוק a movable cover, e.g. a person carried in a vehicle over a grave, v. foreg.—B. Bath. 27ᵇ, a. fr. א׳ הטומאה something spread over an unclean object, e.g. a tree shading a corpse; v. foreg. Naz. VII, 2, v. אָהִיל.—Pl. אוֹהֳלִים, (אָהֳולִין) אוֹהֳלִין. Y. Sabb. XX, beg. 17ᶜ נטע א׳ to spread sheets over poles &c. (Tosef. ib. XII (XIII), 14, a. e. עשה א׳). Y. Erub. I, 19ᵈ א׳ בשיירה tents in a caravan, א׳ שבמחנה in a camp. Tosef. Kil. V, 25 אהולין ed. Zuck.
אֳהָל
- (Syr. אחלא P. Sm. 125; הל, חל, v. הלל, חלל, cmp. מוהל, מוחל)
- 1. an alcalic plant, used as soap. Sabb. 90ᵃ; Nidd. 62ᵃ (counted among plants subject to the laws of the Sabbath year).
- 2. a mineral substance of the same use (in connection with נתר; v. however Maim. to Nidd. IX, 6). Nidd. l. c. והתניא הבורית והאהל; (Sabb. l. c. first time חול ed., Ms. M. אָהֵיל; sec. time אהלא ed., Ms. M. אהיל). M. Kat. 17ᵇ; a, e. [The biblical אהלים a. אהלות have no connection of meaning with our w.]
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 129 distinct written forms H168 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; 69 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H168, 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
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 6 — 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 293 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 314 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 4:20
- Exodus 16:16
- Leviticus 1:1
- Numbers 1:1
- Deuteronomy 1:27
- Joshua 3:14
- Judges 4:11
- 1 Samuel 2:22
- 2 Samuel 6:17
- 1 Kings 1:39
- 2 Kings 7:7
- 1 Chronicles 4:41
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.
