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אוֹ

or

‘or’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓

H176 Strong's Hebrew
ʼôw Transliteration
/o/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 321 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.

“or” is the headline sense of the Hebrew word או (ʼôw). First canonically at Genesis 24:49, it enters the text early. It appears 218 verses across 21 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its common vocabulary. More than a third of its appearances fall in Leviticus. Its meaning spans more than one sense — see its full sense range. See the sense tree, 218-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
also
Modern gloss
or
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 H176 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 →

218
distinct verses
The word appears in 218 distinct verses.
21 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 21 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 24:49
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 24:49.
Malachi 2:17
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Malachi 2:17.
#154
by frequency
Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 154 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 218 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 157 · 72%
  • Historical 27 · 12%
  • Wisdom 21 · 10%
  • Prophets 13 · 6%

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 218 distinct verses.

  • Torah (Pentateuch) 157 verses · 72%
  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 39 verses · 18%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 22 verses · 10%

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).

BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.

  • King James Version: Or 9×, And 2×, Either 2×
  • American Standard Version: Or 13×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Or 240×, If 5×, Whether 5×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Or 306×, Whether 4×, If 3×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H176 across 20 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Or” 9×
  • “And” 2×
  • “Either” 2×

Plus 7 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 H176 across 21 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Or” 13×

Plus 8 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 H176 across 265 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Or” 240×
  • “If” 5×
  • “Whether” 5×
  • “And” 4×
  • “You or” 3×
  • “Either” 2×

Plus 6 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 56 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H176 across 321 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Or” 306×
  • “Whether” 4×
  • “If” 3×
  • “Or if” 3×

Plus 5 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.

או I (أَوْ, ܐܰܘ, አው ), conj. or (whether aut or vel).

  • 1. Gn 24:49; 31:43 Ex 4:11 Ct 2:9 Lv 13:24 Nu 5:30 + often (especially in laws); sometimes implying a preference, nearly = or rather Gn 24:55 יָמִים אוֹ עָשׂוֹר a few days or ten Ju 18:19 1 S 29:3. Prefixed to the first as well as to the second alternative (rare) either (whether) … or Lv 5:1; 13:48, 51; = or, if not Ez 21:15 (si vera l.) Ke Mal 2:17 Jb 16:3; 22:11. e.g. Genesis 24:49
  • 2. introducing a sentence, especially a particular case under a general principle, or = or if Ex 21:31 אוֹ־בֵן יִגַּח וג׳ or if he gore a son, etc. v 36 Lv 4:23, 28 (v. Di) 5:21, 22; 25:49b; Nu 5:14 2 S 18:13 or if I had dealt falsely against his life, then, etc., Ez 14:17, 19 or if I send, etc. e.g. Exodus 21:31
  • 3. if perchance, 1 S 20:10 if perchance thy father answer thee with something hard, Lv 26:41. e.g. 1 Samuel 20:10
  • 4. once, with the juss. (as in Arabic with the subjunct. v. Dr§ 175 = except: Is 27:5 I would burn them together, אוֹ יַחֲזֵק בְּמָעֻזִּי or else let him take hold (= except he take hold) of my strong-hold, etc.—אַו Pr 31:4 v. sub [אָוָה] on p. 16. e.g. Isaiah 27:5

או II cstr. אוֹ, Kt Pr 31

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

I. (أَوْ, ܐܰܘ, አው ), conj. or (whether aut or vel).

I. n.m. cstr. אוֹ, Kt Pr 31:4 desire, so Thes MV; but אֵי q.v.

— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.

Derived from אוה (ʼavvâh) (H185) — desire.

TWOT: 36


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.

או־

  • 1. prefix, esp. for verbal nouns, e.g. 1) prefix, esp. for verbal nouns, e.g. אודיצותא fr. דיץ.
  • 2. או, אוו = εὐ-αὐ, v. אב

אוֹ I

  • , v. Ges. H. Dict. s. v.) or; או … או either … or. Shebu. 27ᵃ או … לחלק the word אוֹ in the Bible text is necessary as a disjunctif, (one or the other), contrad. from ו־ which is conjunctive (one and the other). Men. 91ᵃ; או לדרשא the word אוֹ intimates something not explicitly stated in the text; a. fr.—Pl. אוֹאִין Shebu. 33ᵇ.—אוֹיִין, אוֹיִים, const. אוֹיֵי the word אוֹ in the biblical passages. Y. ibid. IV, 35ᶜᵈ

אוֹ

  • Targ. Ex. XXI, 20; a. e. Targ. Prov. VI, 28 Ms. (ed. אי).—Ber. 2ᵇ, v. דילמא; a. v. fr.

אוֹ II

  • (ὁ) the. Y. R. Hash. I, 57ᵃ bot. (in a Greek sentence), v. אגרפוס.

אוּ

  • (contr. of אֲהוּ, אֲהִי v. הוּ, הִי)he, that, this (only in Y. Dial). [Y. Ber. II, 5ᵇ top או מקשי, read הוה מ׳; ed. Amst. בעי.] Y. B. Bath. III, 14ᵇ I was jesting באו גברא with that man. Y. Snh. XI, beg. 30ᵃ באו ד(א)מר with him who says—Fem. אִי.—Y. Erub. III, 21ᵇ bot. אי אידא אי אידא it is all the same; v. אִידָא II.

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 16 distinct written forms H176 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
א֣וֹ Conjunction Amos 3:12 77
א֥וֹ Conjunction Deuteronomy 4:16 59
אוֹ Conjunction Deuteronomy 17:2 45
אֽוֹ Conjunction Deuteronomy 13:6 43
א֖וֹ Conjunction Deuteronomy 4:32 28
א֤וֹ Conjunction Deuteronomy 14:21 22
א֚וֹ Conjunction Deuteronomy 15:12 18
א֛וֹ Conjunction Deuteronomy 13:3 11
א֧וֹ Conjunction Deuteronomy 13:6 5
א֠וֹ Conjunction Exodus 21:33 3
א֨וֹ Conjunction Judges 21:22 3
אוֹ֩ Conjunction Deuteronomy 17:5 3
א֕וֹ Conjunction Leviticus 5:2 1
א֡וֹ Conjunction Numbers 35:18 1
או Conjunction Proverbs 31:4 1
אוֹ֮ Conjunction Leviticus 5:11 1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H176, 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 → 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 217 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 218 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

Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

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

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.