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הֵימָן

Heman

BDB lists 4 entries for ‘Heman’ fuller range ↓

H1968 Strong's Hebrew
Hêymân Transliteration
/hay-mawn'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 17 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.

הימן (Hêymân) is a Hebrew name most often rendered “Heman.” It clusters heavily in 1 Chronicles, which alone accounts for 67% of its uses. With 15 verses in 4 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. Debuting at 1 Kings 4:31, it then recurs through the corpus. The sections below give every occurrence and version rendering.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
Heman
Modern gloss
Heman
Strong's 1890 agrees
Strong's 1890 and current BDB scholarship align on this entry's primary sense — a good signal that the gloss above is unambiguous and stable. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H1968 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 →

15
distinct verses
The word appears in 15 distinct verses.
4 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 4 of 39 Old Testament books.
1 Kings 4:31
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in 1 Kings 4:31.
Psalms 88:1
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Psalms 88:1.
#1,671
by frequency
Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,671 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 15 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 0 · 0%
  • Historical 14 · 93%
  • Wisdom 1 · 7%
  • Prophets 0 · 0%

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 15 distinct verses.

  • Writings (Ketuvim) 14 verses · 93%
  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 1 verse · 7%

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: Heman 17×
  • American Standard Version: Heman 15×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Heman 13×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Heman 16×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H1968 across 17 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Heman” 17×

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H1968 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Heman” 15×

Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

Berean Standard Bible Public Domain

Renders H1968 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Heman” 13×

Plus 2 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 2 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H1968 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Heman” 16×

Senses in BDB

The 4 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.

  1. Heman = "faithful"
  2. a wise man to whom Solomon was compared
  3. son of Joel, grandson of Samuel, and a Levitical singer and author of PS 88
  4. a seer

Word origin

n.pr.m. Heman (faithful, cf. Aramaic מְהֵימָן, ܡܗܰܝܡܰܢ ) a wise man with whom Solomon is compared 1 K 5:11, where app. son of Mahol (Klo sons of the dance); named with 3 others, one being Ethan the Ezrahite; 1 Ch 2:6 a Heman is named with same 3 + 1 other, & all called sons of Zerah of Judah; Heman appears ψ 88:1 also as the Ezrahite (v. sub זרח), cf. Ethan supr.; in other passages Heman is a Levite; specif. Kohathite, son of Joel, called the singer (הַמְשׁוֹרֵר) 1 Ch 6:18 (‖ Asaph v 24, Ethan v 29); Heman, Asaph & Ethan named as the singers (הַמְשֹׁרְרִים) 1 Ch 15:17, 19; cf. Heman & Jeduthun 16:41, 42 (‖ Asaph v 37); Heman, Asaph & Jeduthun 25:6 2 Ch 5:12; 35:15; elsewhere בְּנֵי אָסָף וְהֵימָן וִידוּתוּן 1 Ch 25:1 cf. v 4(×2), 5(×2); בְּנֵי הֵימָן 2 Ch 29:14 (‖ בְּנֵי ידוּתוּן); 1 Ch 25:5 Heman is called חֹזֵה הַמֶּלָךְ בְּדִבְרֵי הָאֱלֹהִים (cf. Asaph 2 Ch 29:30, Jeduthun 2 Ch 35:15).—On question of identity of Heman in these various connections, v. Thes Comm.

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

Derived from אמן (ʼâman) (H539) — to confirm.

Part of speech: Proper Name Masculine


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.

הֵימַן

  • (Af. of אמן; = h. הֶאֱמִין) to credit, trust, confide; to loan on trust; to admit as evidence. Targ. O. Gen. XV, 6. Targ. ib. XLV, 26; a. fr.—B. Kam. 115ᵃ הֵימוּנֵי הֵימְניה he loaned him on trust (without a pawn). Keth. 22ᵇ הֵמְנוּהָ רבנן כבי תרי the Rabbis declared his evidence as legal as if there had been two witnesses. Shebu. 41ᵇ לא לדידיה הֵימְנֵיה he did not trust him by himself (without witnesses). Y. Ber. II, 4ᶜ top לאילין דברישך הֵימְנִית I trusted those (T’fillin) on thy head; a. fr.—Part. pass. מְהֵימַן (= h. נֶאֱמָן) faithful, reliable; credited, admitted as evidence. Targ. Num. XII, 7 (Y. II הֵימַן); a. fr.—Sabb. 10ᵇ דמתרגמינן אלהא מְהֵימְנָא for we translate (Deut. VII, 9) &c. (only the participle being used as a divine attribute, not the abstract noun).—Keth. 27ᵇ מְהֵימְנָא she is admitted &c. Ib. מהימני (corr. acc.). Y. Gitt. V, 47ᵃ [read:] בעי בר נש מיתן כמה ומתקרי׳ מ׳ a man would sacrifice any amount in order to be called trustworthy; Y. B. Kam. IV, 4ᵇ bot. הימן; a. fr.—B. Mets. 86ᵇ לא מהימנא לך (ed. (= מהימן אנא, part. act.) I do not trust thee (Mss. לא הימן ביה he (Abraham) did not rely on him). e.g. Deuteronomy 7:9

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 15 distinct written forms H1968 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
הֵימָ֣ן Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 15:17 2
לְ/הֵימָ֗ן Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 25:5 2
הֵימָ֖ן Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 29:14 1
הֵימָ֡ן Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 25:4 1
הֵימָ֥ן Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 15:19 1
הֵימָ֨ן Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 16:42 1
הֵימָן֙ Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 6:33 1
וְ/הֵימָ֛ן Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 2:6 1
וְ/הֵימָ֣ן Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 25:1 1
וְ/הֵימָ֤ן Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 35:15 1
וְ/הֵימָ֧ן Noun, Proper 1 Kings 4:31 1
וְ/הֵימָֽן Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 25:6 1
לְ/הֵימָ֑ן Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 25:4 1
לְ/הֵימָ֣ן Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 5:12 1
לְ/הֵימָ֥ן Noun, Proper Psalms 88:1 1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H1968, 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. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Bible dictionary

Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Heman). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.

Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897

Faithful. (1.) 1 Kings 4:31; 1 Chr. 2:6, a son of Zerah, noted for his wisdom. (2.) Grandson of Samuel (1 Chr. 6:33; 15:17), to whom the 88th Psalm probably was inscribed. He was one of the "seers" named in 2 Chr. 29:14, 30, and took a leading part in the administration of the sacred services.

Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863

(faithful)

+ Son of Zerah. (1 Chronicles 2:6; 1 Kings 4:31) + Son of Joel and grandson of Samuel the prophet, a Kohathite. He is called "the singer," rather the musician, (1 Chronicles 6:33) and was the first of the three Levites to whom was committed the vocal and instrumental music of the temple service in the reign of David. (1 Chronicles 15:16-22) The 88th Psalm is ascribed to him. (B.C. 1014.)

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869

their trouble; tumult; much; in great number

Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 14 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 15 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).

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