זִמָּה
wickedness
also: plan, device, evil plan, mischievous purpose 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
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H2154 appears in the Book of Jeremiah — 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.
Jeremiah
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.
“wickedness” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb זמה (zimmâh). Where the King James Version says “lewdness,” newer translations reach for “indecency” (Berean Standard Bible); the renderings breakdown has the detail. It appears 27 verses across 9 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its moderately common vocabulary. More than a third of its appearances fall in Ezekiel. Beyond “wickedness” it also covers “plan”, “device”, and “evil plan” — see its full sense range. See the sense tree, 27-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2154 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 →
- 27
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 27 distinct verses.
- 9 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 9 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,160
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,160 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 27 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 27 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 17 verses · 63%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 7 verses · 26%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 3 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).
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†: Lewdness 8×, Is wickedness 2×, Lewd 2×
- American Standard Version†: Lewdness 7×, Is wickedness 2×, Lewd 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Indecency 6×, Lewd 3×, Depravity 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Shameful behavior 4×, Depravity 2×, Is depravity 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2154 across 29† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 17 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 H2154 across 28† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 15 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 H2154 across 29† 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2154 across 29† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 19 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
8 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 8 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.
זמה I plan, device, wickedness
- 1. plan, purpose Jb 17:11; elsewhere always e.g. Job 17:11
- 2. in bad sense:
- a. evil device Is 32:7 (c. יעץ, sq. לְחַבֵּל); זִמַּת אִוֶּלֶת Pr 24:9; cf. ψ 26:10 (‖ שֹׁחַד), 119:150. e.g. Isaiah 32:7
- b. wickedness in act עשׂה ז׳ Ho 6:9 (where murder in context), Pr 10:23; 21:27 cf. Now. Especially e.g. Hosea 6:9
- c. of unchastity: incest Lv 18:17; 20:14(×2), licentiousness 19:29 (all H), Ju 20:6 (‖ נְבָלָה), adultery Jb 31:11; freq. (mostly Ez) metaph. of idolatry of people under fig. of harlotry and adultery Je 13:27 (זִמַּת זְנוּתֵךְ), Ez 16:27 (דַּרְכֵּךְ זִמָּה), v 43, 58 (both ‖ תּוֹעֵבָה), 22:9 (c. עשׂה), v 11 (טִמֵּא בְּזִמָּה, ‖ תועבה), 23:21, 27 (‖ זְנוּתֵךְ), v 29 (עֶרְוַת זְנוּנַיִךְ וְזִמָּתֵךְ וְתַזְנוּתָ֑יִךְ), v 35 (‖ תַּזְנוּתָ֑יִךְ), v 44 (אִשּׁוֹת הַזּ׳, Co לעשׂות ז׳), v 48(×2), 49 (‖ חֲטָאֵי גִלּוּלֵיכֶן), 24:13. [In Ez 16:27, 43; 24:13 del. Co, chiefly on intern. grounds.] e.g. Leviticus 18:17
זמה II m. of several Levites (Gershonites)
- 1. 1 Ch 6:5. e.g. 1 Chronicles 6:5
- 2. 1 Ch 6:27. e.g. 1 Chronicles 6:27
- 3. 2 Ch 29:12. e.g. 2 Chronicles 29:12
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. n.f. plan, device, wickedness—abs. ז׳ Lv 18:17 + 17 times; cstr. זִמַּת Pr 24:9 + 2 times; sf. זִמָּתֵךְ Ez 16:58 + 3 times; זִמַּתְכֶ֫נָֿה Ez 23:48, 49; pl. זִמּוֹת Is 32:7, sf. זִמֹּתַי Jb 17:11;—
II. n.pr.m. of several Levites (Gershonites)—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from זמם (zâmam) (H2161) — to devise.
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.
זִימָּה
- 1. [filth (cmp. זוֹהֲמָא),] obscenity, libidiousness, carnality. Sabb. 152ᵃ שטוף בזי׳ excessive in carnal gratification. Snh. 106ᵃ אלהיהם של אלו שונא ז׳ הוא their (the Israelites’) God hates libidiousness. B. Kam. 16ᵇ (play on זנים, II Chr. XVI, 14) כל המריח … לידי ז׳ whoever smells them becomes lusty. Ab. II, 7 מרבה זמה increases unchastity; a. fr.—Ab. Zar. 17ᵇ (ref. to מזמה, Prov. II, 11, v. next w.) מדבר זי׳ וכ׳ she (the Torah) will guard thee from improper conduct. e.g. 2 Chronicles 16:14
- 2. (homilet.; cmp. זָמַם I, דּוּמָה, דְּמַאי &c.) suspicion, parental uncertainty. Sifra K’dosh., Par. 3, ch. VII ממלא … ממזרים שנ׳ ז׳ זֹה מ̇ה ה̇וא he fills the world with bastards, as it says (Lev. XIX, 29) the land will be full of zimmah, ‘what is this person?’; Yeb. 37ᵇ הכי קאמר זו מה היא R. El. b. Jacob means by zimmah doubts as to paternity. e.g. Leviticus 19:29
זִימָּה ²
- thought, plan, counsel; (in an evil sense) cunning, evil plan. Ab. Zar. 17ᵇ (ref. to מזמה, Prov. II, 11, and reading מִזִּ׳) מאי מזי׳ וכ׳ what do you understand by mizzimmah? Do you mean the Law in which the word zimmah is used in the sense of counsel (in Lev. XVIII, 17) since it is translated (in Targ. O.) ‘counsel of the wicked’ &c.?—Then it ought to read zimmah (divine counsel shall guard thee).—(Ans.) ה"ק מדבר ז׳ וכ׳, v. preced. (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 2).—Deut. R. s. 2 (ref. to Ez. XXII, 11) מאי בזי׳ במחשבה what does this b’zimmah mean? With reasoning. e.g. Proverbs 2:11
זִמָּה
- , v. זִימָּה
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 18 distinct written forms H2154 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2154, 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 6 — not the complete family. 2 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 26 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 27 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
- Leviticus 18:17
- Judges 20:6
- Job 17:11
- Psalms 26:10
- Proverbs 10:23
- Isaiah 32:7
- Jeremiah 13:27
- Ezekiel 16:27
- Hosea 6:9
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.
