זָמַם
to devise
‘to devise’ 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
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘consider’
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H2161 appears in the Book of Jeremiah — 2 distinct verses. 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
- Jeremiah 4:28 זַמֹּ֔תִי Qal pf 1cs For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.
- Jeremiah 51:12 זָמַ֣ם Qal pf 3ms Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Yahweh has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
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, זמם (zâmam) means “to devise.” Not a single-sense word: explore its full sense range. It turns up in 13 verses across 7 books, an uncommon footprint. It first appears in Genesis 11:6. It clusters with זמה, זמם and מזמה under a shared root. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2161 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 →
- 13
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 13 distinct verses.
- 7 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 7 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,001
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,001 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 13 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 13 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 6 verses · 46%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 5 verses · 38%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 15%
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: Against me they devised 1×, Hath both devised 1×, Have i thought 1×
- American Standard Version: Against me 1×, Findest nothing 1×, Hath both purposed 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: I have resolved 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: They plan 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2161 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2161 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H2161 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 11 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 H2161 across 12 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 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 5 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.
Qal
- Pf. זָמַם Dt 19:19 + 2 times; זָמָ֑ם La 2:17; זָֽמְמָה Pr 31:16; זַמּ֫וֹתָ Pr 30:32; זַמֹּ֫תִי Je 4:28 but also זָמַ֫מְתִּי Zc 8:14, 15; זַמֹּתִי ψ 17:3 either belongs here with irreg. accent (v. De), or is Inf. after anal. of ל״ה e.g. חַנּוֹת cf. 77:10 (Hi Ri); Checrit. n. reads זִמָּתִי; זָמָ֑מוּ ψ 31:14; Impf. יָֽזְמוּ Gn 11:6 (Ges§ 67, R. 11); on poss. Inf. זמֹּתִ֫י ψ 17:3 v. supr.; Pt. זֹמֵם ψ 37:12;— e.g. Deuteronomy 19:19
- 1. consider, fix thought upon, c. acc. of concrete obj. שָׂדֶה Pr 31:16. e.g. Proverbs 31:16
- 2. purpose, devise:
- a. especially of Yahweh’s purpose in punishment Je 4:28 (abs.), 51:12 sq. עשׂה + acc. (‖ מְזִמָּה), La 2:17 (sq. אשׁר) Zc 1:6 (c. כאשׁר sq. inf.), 8:14 (id.); of blessing only כֵּן שַׁבְתִּי זָמַמְתִּי לְהֵיטִיב Zc 8:15 (opp. v 14). e.g. Jeremiah 4:28
- b. of evil purpose of wicked men אשׁר יז׳ לעשׂות Gn 11:6 Dt 19:19 (c. כאשׁר + inf.), ψ 31:14 (sq. inf.); abs. Pr 30:32 (‖ נבל), ψ 17:3 have I (i.e. if I have) devised evil (so De); the txt of Pr 30:32 is questioned by Frankenberg Toy al.; v. on II. נבל, 614b infr. sq. לְ pers. (= against) ψ 37:12. e.g. Genesis 11:6
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
vb. consider, purpose, devise (Aramaic זְמַם in der. conjj.; cf. Arabic زَمَّ speak, talk (rare); Aramaic ܙܰܡ is sonuit, resonavit, the n. ܙܡܳܡܳܐ is tinnitus, strepitus)—only
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
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.
זָמַם I
- to mumble; to meditate, plan (mostly in an evil sense, cmp. דִּבָּה).—Part. זוֹמֵם planning evil, esp. (with ref. to Deut. XIX, 19) a) giving false testimony, amenable to the law of retaliation; b) rebutting witness. Tosef. Macc. I, 1 עד ז׳ a witness convicted of false testimony; a. fr.—Fem. זוֹמֶמֶת (sub. עדות). Macc. I, 9 נמצאת אחת מהן ז׳ if one evidence (of one set of witnesses) has been disproved; a. e.—Pl. זוֹמְמִין, זוֹמְמִים. Ib. 4 אין אלו ז׳ they do not come under the law of retaliation. Ib. נעשים ז׳ are declared amenable to the law &c.; a. fr.—Tosef. ib. I, 10 זוֹמְמֵיהֶן those witnesses on whose evidence they had been declared guilty of false testimony. Y. ib. I, beg. 31ᵃ זוֹמְמָיו those who witnessed falsely against him. Tosef. Snh. VIII, 2 העדים וזוממיהן וזוֹמְמֵי זוממיהן the original witnesses and their refuters, and the refuters of their refuters; a. fr. e.g. Deuteronomy 19:19
- to make a person a זוֹמֵם, to refute witnesses by testifying to an alibi, to rebut. Macc. I, 5 if other witnesses came again והֵזֵימּוּם and rebutted them. Keth. 20ᵃ, v. כָּחַשׁ; a. fr. Macc. I, 4 (5ᵃ) שיזימו Bab. ed., read שיזומו, v. infra.
- to be refuted, to be declared liable to the law of retaliation. Snh. 10ᵃ פלוני … והוּזַמּוּ if witnesses declared, This man did &c., and were declared guilty &c. Macc. 3ᵃ הוּזַמְּנוּ וכ׳ we have been convicted &c. before that certain court, and made to pay. Ib. I, 4 עד שיִזּוֹמּוּ את עצמן (Ar. בעצמן, Bab. ed. שיזימו corr. acc.) unless an alibi is established against their own persons (not an alibi of any of the alleged actors in the case). Ib. 5ᵇ עד שיזומו שניהם unless both of them are refuted; a. fr.
- to rebut. Part. מְזַמֵּם, pl. מְזַמְּמִין, contr. מְזַמִּים. Y. ib. I, 31ᵇ top.—Part. pass. מְזוּמָּם one accused by false witnesses. Snh. VI, 2 אם היה יודע שהוא מ׳ if he knew that he was innocent.
- 1. to be refuted &c., v. Hof. Y. Macc. I, beg. 31ᵃ נִזְדַּמְּמוּ = נִיזוֹמּוּ.
- 2. to be mumbled. Gen. R. s. 81, beg. (ref. to זמות, Prov. XXX, 32) אם נִזְדַּמְּמוּ אחריך דברים וכ׳ (Yalk. Prov. 964 נִזְמְמוּ Nif.) if thou hast been slandered, put thy hand to thy mouth; v. זָמַם II.—Denom. זְמָם I. e.g. Proverbs 30:32
זָמַם II
- (cmp. צמם) to tie up, to muzzle (b. h. חָסַם). Ber. 63ᵇ (ref. to זמות, Prov. XXX, 32, v. preced. w.) אם ז׳ וכ׳ if he muzzles his mouth (is ashamed to ask his teacher), he will have to put his hand to the mouth (when he in turn is asked). Ter. IX, 3 לא זוֹמֵם he does not muzzle his animal (complies with the law, Deut. XXV, 4); a. e.—Part. pass. זָמוּם, f. זְמוּמָה; pl. זְמוּמִים, זְמוּמוֹת muzzled, prevented from grazing. Gen. R. s. 41. Pesik. R. s. 3. Gen. R. s. 59, end; a. e.—Denom. זְמָם II. e.g. Proverbs 30:32
זְמַם
- , tomuzzle. Targ. Y. II, Gen. XIII, 7.
- same. Targ. Y. Deut. XXV, 4.
זָמַם III
- to be filthy, v. זוּם.
*זְמַם III
- , Ithpe. אִתְזְמֵים (cmp. דמם) to be confounded. Targ. Is. XXIX, 9 אִתְזְמִימוּ (ed. Wil. אִדְזַמִימוּ fr. דמם; absent in ed. Lag.; h. text השתעשעו, rendered by אשתגישו a. our w., of which one is a gloss). [For אדז׳ cmp. הִדַּקִּי s. v. דְּקַק.]
זְמָם I
- (זָמַם I) false testimony. Macc. 2ᵇ בגניבתו ולא בזְמָמוֹ ‘one is sold for theft’ (Ex. XXII, 2), but not for false testimony (which might eventually have caused the sale of the alleged thief); Y. Sot. III, end, 19ᵇ; Tosef. Macc. I, 1 בזְמֵימוֹ. e.g. Exodus 22:2
זְמָם II
- (זָמַם II) muzzle (v. זְמוּם). Gen. R. s. 81 (play on זמות, Prov. XXX, 32, v. זָמַם I) אם חשבת … נוח לך ליתן ז׳ וכ׳ if thou hast planned to do a good deed …, it would have been better for thee to put a muzzle on thy mouth. Gen. R. s. 75 (ref. to זממו, Ps. CXL, 9) עשה לו ז׳ וכ׳ put a bit to Esaw (Rome); … ומהו ז׳ וכ׳ and what is the bit (to check Rome’s power) &c.?; Meg. 6ᵃ bot. זְמָמוֹ אל תפק וכ׳ ‘do not loosen his bit’ (Ps. l. c.), that means Germania &c.—Pl. זְמָמִים, v. זְמוּם. e.g. Proverbs 30:32
זְמַם ²
- , also the camel’s ring or staff through the nose and the basket fastened thereto. Targ. Is. XXXVII, 29. Targ. Ps. XXXII, 9; a. fr.—Sabb. 107ᵃ, v. אִיכּוּ. Ib. 111ᵇ, sq. קיטרא דקטרי בז׳ the loop which is made to fasten the camel’s basket to the ring; קיטרא דז׳ גופיה the (permanent) knot in the bit itself; v. אִיסְטְרִידָא.
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 13 distinct written forms H2161 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| זַ֝מּ֗וֹתָ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Proverbs 30:32 | 1 |
| זַ֝מֹּתִ֗י | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Psalms 17:3 | 1 |
| זַמֹּ֔תִי | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Jeremiah 4:28 | 1 |
| זָמְמָ֣ה | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Proverbs 31:16 | 1 |
| זָמַ֖ם | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Deuteronomy 19:19 | 1 |
| זָמַ֜ם | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Zechariah 1:6 | 1 |
| זָמַ֣ם | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Jeremiah 51:12 | 1 |
| זָמַ֨מְתִּי֙ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Zechariah 8:15 | 1 |
| זָמַמְ֜תִּי | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Zechariah 8:14 | 1 |
| זָמָ֗ם | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Lamentations 2:17 | 1 |
| זָמָֽמוּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Psalms 31:13 | 1 |
| זֹמֵ֣ם | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 37:12 | 1 |
| יָזְמ֖וּ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Genesis 11:6 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2161, 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.
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 5 — 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.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 12 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 13 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 11:6
- Deuteronomy 19:19
- Psalms 17:3
- Proverbs 30:32
- Jeremiah 4:28
- Lamentations 2:17
- Zechariah 1:6
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.
