Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

אָז

then

‘then’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓

H227 Strong's Hebrew
ʼâz Transliteration
/awz/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 141 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.

אז (ʼâz) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “then.” It first appears in Genesis 4:26. It turns up in 133 verses across 27 books, a common footprint. It is not a single-sense word — see its full sense range. From the same root come אזי. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
beginning
Modern gloss
then
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 H227 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 →

133
distinct verses
The word appears in 133 distinct verses.
27 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 27 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 4:26
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 4:26.
Malachi 3:16
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Malachi 3:16.
#318
by frequency
Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 318 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 133 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 19 · 14%
  • Historical 54 · 41%
  • Wisdom 29 · 22%
  • Prophets 31 · 23%

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 133 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 71 verses · 53%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 43 verses · 32%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 19 verses · 14%

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: Then 5×, Since 2×, Yet 2×
  • American Standard Version: Then 7×, Old 2×, Time past 2×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Then 63×, Time 23×, Long ago 5×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Then 122×, Since 4×, And 2×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H227 across 22 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Then” 5×
  • “Since” 2×
  • “Yet” 2×

Plus 13 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 H227 across 22 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Then” 7×
  • “Old” 2×
  • “Time past” 2×
  • “Yet” 2×

Plus 9 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 H227 across 119 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Then” 63×
  • “Time” 23×
  • “Long ago” 5×
  • “And” 4×
  • “Since” 3×
  • “So” 3×
  • “Likewise” 2×
  • “When” 2×

Plus 14 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 21 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H227 across 138 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Then” 122×
  • “Since” 4×
  • “And” 2×
  • “Time” 2×

Plus 8 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 6 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. strictly temporal:
    • a. of past time:—without a verb Gn 12:6; 13:7 Jos 14:11 2 S 23:14; with a pf. Gn 4:26 Ex 4:26 Jos 10:33 Ju 8:3; 13:21 Je 22:15 אָז טוֹב לוֹ then was it well to him (cf. v 16 Ho 2:9); more usually (especially when = thereupon) with an impf. (v. Dr§ 27) Ex 15:1 Nu 21:17 Jos 8:30: 10:12; 22:1 1 K 3:16; 8:1; 9:11 (v. DrIntr. 192) al. e.g. Genesis 12:6
    • b. of fut. time (usually where some emph. is intended), with impf. Is 35:5, 6; 60:5 Mi 3:4, rather differently Lv 26:41 1 S 20:12; rarely with pf. 2 S 5:24b (will have gone forth) Is 33:23: with an accompanying logical force, implying the fulfilment of a condition, then = if or when this has been done (with the impf.) Gn 24:41 Ex 12:44, 48 Dt 29:19 Jos 1:8 1 S 6:3 Is 58:8, 9 Je 11:15 Hi Ke ψ 19:14; 51:21 Pr 3:23 Jb 11:15; 13:20; 22:26. e.g. Isaiah 35:5
    • c. in poetry אז is sometimes used to throw emphasis on a particular feature of the description Gn 49:4 Ex 15:15 Ju 5:8, 11, 13, 19, 22 Is 33:23; 41:1 Hb 1:11 ψ 2:5; 96:12. e.g. Genesis 49:4
    • d. it points back with emphasis to an inf. with בּ 2 S 5:24a ψ 126:2(×2) Jb 28:27; 33:16; to בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא (anomalously) 1 Ch 16:7. e.g. 2 Samuel 5:24
  • 2. expressing logical sequence strictly: in the apod.:—after אם (rare) for sake of special emphasis Is 58:14 Pr 2:5 Jb 9:31; = in that case, after לוּ or לוּלֵא 2 S 2:27 hadst thou not spoken, כִּי אָז surely then had the people, etc. 19:7 ψ 119:92; after אחלי 2 K 5:3 ψ 119:6; after a suppressed protasis 2 K 13:19 Jb 3:13 יָשַׁנְתִּי יָנוּחַ לִי I had slept, then were there rest for me; Jos 22:31 (strangely) = now, as things are; Ec 2:15 = that being so. (122 times besides מאז and מן־אז. Seldom used except where some special emphasis is desired. ‘Then’ of AV RV more commonly represents וְ, especially in the apodosis.) e.g. Isaiah 58:14

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

adv. (cf. إِذًا, ࠀࠃ: also Biblical Aramaic אֱדַיִן, proposes a subst. = time: see מֵאָז) at that time, then, whether expressing duration, or inception (= thereupon).

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

Origin: a demonstrative adv

Part of speech: Adverb TWOT: 54


Forms in the corpus

The 30 distinct written forms H227 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
אָ֣ז Adverb Deuteronomy 4:41 41
אָ֤ז Adverb Exodus 15:15 16
אָ֖ז Adverb Exodus 12:44 14
אָ֚ז Adverb Exodus 4:26 9
אָ֥ז Adverb Genesis 12:6 9
אָ֛ז Adverb 2 Chronicles 24:17 8
אָ֗ז Adverb 2 Samuel 5:24 6
אָז֩ Adverb 1 Kings 11:7 4
אָ֭ז Adverb Job 9:31 3
מֵ/אָ֔ז Adverb 2 Samuel 15:34 3
מֵ/אָ֣ז Adverb Isaiah 14:8 3
אָ֠ז Adverb Deuteronomy 29:20 2
אָ֡ז Adverb 1 Kings 9:11 2
אָ֧ז Adverb 1 Kings 16:21 2
מֵ/אָ֖ז Adverb Exodus 9:24 2
מֵ/אָ֥ז Adverb Exodus 4:10 2
מֵ/אָֽז Adverb Isaiah 16:13 2
אָ֝֗ז Adverb Psalms 119:92 1
אָ֥֨ז Adverb Psalms 56:9 1
אָז֙ Adverb 1 Samuel 20:12 1
וְ/אָ֖ז Adverb Leviticus 26:41 1
וְ/אָ֗ז Adverb Jeremiah 32:2 1
וְ/אָ֥ז Adverb Joshua 1:8 1
וְ/אָז֙ Adverb Exodus 12:48 1
וּ/מֵ/אָ֞ז Adverb Exodus 5:23 1
מֵ/אָ֑ז Adverb Psalms 93:2 1
מֵ/אָ֛ז Adverb Isaiah 44:8 1
מֵ/אָ֤ז Adverb Ruth 2:7 1
מֵ/אָז֩ Adverb Genesis 39:5 1
מֵ֠/אָז Adverb Joshua 14:10 1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H227, 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

Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 125 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 133 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.