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חוֹמָה

wall

H2346 Strong's Hebrew
chôwmâh Transliteration
/kho-maw'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 133 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.

“wall” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun חומה (chôwmâh). Its earliest occurrence is Exodus 14:22. It turns up in 123 verses across 21 books, a common footprint. It clusters with חם, חמאה and חמת under a shared root. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
wall
Modern gloss
wall
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 H2346 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 →

123
distinct verses
The word appears in 123 distinct verses.
21 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 21 of 39 Old Testament books.
Exodus 14:22
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Exodus 14:22.
Zechariah 2:5
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Zechariah 2:5.
#339
by frequency
Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 339 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 123 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 7 · 6%
  • Historical 62 · 50%
  • Wisdom 7 · 6%
  • Prophets 47 · 38%

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 123 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 68 verses · 55%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 48 verses · 39%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 7 verses · 6%

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: Wall 71×, Walls 26×, All the wall 2×
  • American Standard Version: Wall 70×, Walls 22×, Between the two walls 3×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Wall 72×, Walls 42×, Two walls 3×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Wall 67×, Wall of 20×, Walls 20×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H2346 across 133 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Wall” 71×
  • “Walls” 26×
  • “All the wall” 2×
  • “Are on the wall” 2×
  • “Between the two walls” 2×
  • “Were a wall” 2×
  • “Without walls” 2×

Plus 26 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 H2346 across 133 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Wall” 70×
  • “Walls” 22×
  • “Between the two walls” 3×
  • “All the wall” 2×
  • “Are on the wall” 2×
  • “Without walls” 2×

Plus 32 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 H2346 across 128 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Wall” 72×
  • “Walls” 42×
  • “Two walls” 3×
  • “Walled” 2×

Plus 9 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 5 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H2346 across 137 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Wall” 67×
  • “Wall of” 20×
  • “Walls” 20×
  • “Walls of” 7×
  • “The” 4×
  • “A” 2×
  • “And” 2×
  • “Two walls” 2×

Plus 13 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.

  • 1. usually term for wall of city Dt 28:52; Jos 2:15; 6:5, 20 (all JE), 1 S 31:10, 12; 2 S 11:20, 21(×2) 2 K 18:26, 27 = Is 36:11, 12, Am 1:7, 10, 14; Is 2:15; 22:10, 11; 25:12; Na 2:6; 3:8; Ez 26:9 +, Je 1:15 +, Jo 2:7, 9; בֵּין הַחֹמֹתַיִם (of Jerus.) i.e. between the two walls of the Ophel and the SW. hill respectively, of a reservoir Is 22:11, a gate 2 K 25:4 = Je 34:4 = 52:7; symbol of Isr.; Am 7:7; 2 Ch 8:5; 14:6; 25:23; 26:6(×3) ψ 51:20; Ne 1:3 + 31 times in Ne; חוֹמַת אֲנָךְ Am 7:7 (lit. wall of a plummet) is of doubtful meaning: a wall built plumb, or by means of a plumb-line? We thinks unintelligible; עִיר חוֹמָה = walled city, Lv 25:29, עִיר אשׁר לֹא ה׳ v 30 (לֹא = לוֹ), opp. הַחֲצֵרִים אשׁר אין להם ח׳ v 31 (all H); more elaborately עָרִים בְּצֻרֹת ח׳ גְבֹהָה דְּלָתַיִם וּבְרִ֑יחַ Dt 3:5, cf. 2 Ch 8:5; ע׳ גְּדֹלוֹת חוֹמָה וּבְרִיחַ נְחֹשֶׁת 1 K 4:13; ח׳ בְצוּרָה Is 2:15; ח׳ sg. of wall of Jerus. 1 K 3:1 + often; contempt. חוֹמַת אַבְנֵיהֶם Ne 3:35; less often pl. Ne 2:13 +; of specific portions of wall ח׳ הָעֹפֶל 2 Ch 27:3; Ne 3:27; ח׳ בְּרֵכַת הַשֶּׁלַה Ne 3:15; הַח׳ הָֽרְחָבָה 3:8; 12:38; also (generally) of Babylon Je 51:58.—Men build, בנה, the ח׳ 1 K 9:15 +, especially (of rebuilding), Ne 2:17 +; fortify it בִּצֵּר Is 22:10; it is joined together קשׁר Ne 3:38; is repaired עָֽלְתָה אֲרוּכָה לְח׳ Ne 4:1; it falls נפל Jos 6:5, 20; 1 K 20:30; Ez 38:20; the enemy makes it fall הִפִּיל 2 S 20:15 (preceded by מַשְׁחִית si vera l., v. Dr); destroys it הִשְׁחִית La 2:8; שִׁחֵת Ez 26:4; makes a breach in it פָּרַץ בּ׳ 2 K 14:13 = 2 Ch 25:23, cf. פרץ c. acc. 2 Ch 26:6; Ne 3:35, and וַיִּבֶן אֶת־בל־הח׳ הַפְּרוּצָה 2 Ch 32:5; also (in sim.) עִיר פְּרוּצָה ואין ח׳ Pr 25:28; and Pu. pt. מְפֹרָ֑צֶת Ne 1:3; one breaks it down נָתַץ 2 K 25:10; 2 Ch 36:19; Je 39:8; 52:14; tears it down הָרַס Ez 26:12, cf. pass. Je 50:15; Amos predicts that י׳ will send fire into wall (of Gaza, etc.): וְשִׁלַּחְתִּי אֵשׁ בְּח׳ Am 1:7, 10; or kindle fire in וְהִצַּתִּי אֵשׁ בְּח׳ v 14, so Je 49:27. e.g. Deuteronomy 28:52
  • 2. wall of a building:
  • 3. fig. of waters of Red Sea Ex 14:22, 29 (P), cf. Na 3:8; of David’s men as protectors of Nabal’s shepherds 1 S 25:16; of prophet as object of assault חוֹמַת נְחשֶׁת Je 1:18; ח׳ נחשׁת בְּצוּרָה Je 15:20; of strong, virtuous woman Ct 8:9, 10; of salvation, יְשׁוּעָה, as defence Is 26:1 (‖ חֵל); of י׳ himself ח׳ אֵשׁ Zc 2:9; a dangerous polit. scheme is called breach in ח׳ נִשְׂגָּבָה Is 30:13; ח׳ נִשְׂגָּבָה in sim. of wealth Pr 18:11 (‖ קִרְיַת עֻזּוֹ); a reckless man is עִיר פְּרוּצָה אֵין ח׳ Pr 25:28. e.g. Exodus 14:22

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

n.f. wall (as protection; cstr. חמת MI21.21)—abs. ח׳ Lv 25:29 + 59 times (incl. לְהַחוֹמָה Ne 12:38); חֹמָה Ex 14:29 + 8 times; cstr. חוֹמַת Jos 6:5 + 28 times; sf. חוֹמָתָהּ Na 2:6; 3:8; pl. abs. חוֹמוֹת 2 Ch 8:5; Is 26:1; חֹמוֹת Ct 5:7; cstr. חוֹמוֹת ψ 51:20; חוֹמֹת 2 K 25:10 + 9 times; sf. חוֹמֹתַי Is 56:5; חֹמֹתֶיךָ Dt 28:52; Is 25:12; חוֹמוֹתַיִךְ Ez 26:10, 12; 27:11(×2); חוֹמֹתַיִךְ Is 49:16 + 2 times; חֹמֹתַיִךְ Is 60:10; חֹמוֹתָ֑יִךְ Ez 26:9; חוֹמוֹתֶיהָ Je 50:15; חוֹמֹתֶיהָ ψ 55:11; Je 1:15; du. חוֹמֹתַיִם Is 22:11; חֹמֹתַיִם 2 K 25:4 = Je 52:7; חֹמֹתָ֑ים Je 39:4 (v. Ol§ 113 a Ges§ 87 s);—

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

Origin: act. participle of an unused root apparently meaning to join

Part of speech: Noun Feminine TWOT: 674c


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.

חוֹמָה

  • חָמָה to surround, protect, v. Ges. H. Dict. s. v. חמה) wall, esp. fortification Yeb. 62ᵇ (ref. to Jer. XXXI, 21) בלא ח׳ lives without (moral) protection. Meg. 5ᵇ שימה חוֹמָתָהּ whose lake is her fortification. Ib. I, 1 מוקפין ח׳ fortified all around; a. fr.—Pl. חוֹמוֹת. Cant. R. to V, 7 חוֹמוֹתֶיהָ של וכ׳ the walls of; a. e. e.g. Jeremiah 31:21

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 88 distinct written forms H2346 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
חוֹמַ֣ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Amos 7:7 9
הַ֣/חוֹמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Samuel 18:24 7
הַ/חוֹמָֽה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Samuel 11:20 6
בְּ/חוֹמַ֣ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Amos 1:7 4
הַ/חוֹמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 20:30 4
חוֹמַ֥ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 Kings 3:1 4
הַֽ/חוֹמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Chronicles 32:18 3
חוֹמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 38:11 3
חוֹמָ֣ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Chronicles 14:7 3
חוֹמ֥וֹת Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Isaiah 26:1 2
הַ/חֹמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Kings 6:26 2
הַ/חוֹמָ֥ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Nehemiah 3:8 2
הַ֣/חֹמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Kings 3:27 2
חֹמ֥וֹת Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Jeremiah 39:8 2
חֹמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 14:22 2
חוֹמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Joel 2:7 2
חוֹמָ֖ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 38:20 2
חוֹמָ֥ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 3:5 2
חוֹמוֹתַ֨יִ/ךְ֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Ezekiel 27:11 2
לַ/חוֹמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Nehemiah 12:31 2
בְּ/ח֣וֹמַת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Amos 1:10 1
בְּ/חֹֽמוֹתָ֑יִ/ךְ Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Ezekiel 26:9 1
בְּ/חוֹמַ֖ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 Samuel 31:10 1
בְּ/חוֹמַ֨ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 2 Kings 14:13 1
בְּ/חוֹמָ֣ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 30:13 1
בְּ/חוֹמֹ֤ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Nehemiah 2:13 1
בַּ/חוֹמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Nehemiah 2:15 1
בַּ/חוֹמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Nehemiah 3:13 1
בַּ/חוֹמָ֛ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Nehemiah 4:17 1
בַּ/חוֹמָֽה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Nehemiah 4:10 1
בַּֽ/חוֹמָה֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Joel 2:9 1
הַ/חֹ֣מֹתַ֔יִם Noun, Common, Feminine, Dual, Absolute Isaiah 22:11 1
הַ/חֹמָֽה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Kings 18:26 1
הַ/חֹמֹתַ֗יִם Noun, Common, Feminine, Dual, Absolute 2 Kings 25:4 1
הַ/חֹמֹתַ֨יִם֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Dual, Absolute Jeremiah 52:7 1
הַ/חֹמֹתָ֑יִם Noun, Common, Feminine, Dual, Absolute Jeremiah 39:4 1
הַ/חֹמֽוֹת Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Song of Solomon 5:7 1
הַ/חוֹמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Nehemiah 6:6 1
הַ/חוֹמָ֖ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Nehemiah 4:6 1
הַ/חוֹמָ֣ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Chronicles 32:5 1
הַ/חוֹמָ֤ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Nehemiah 5:16 1
הַ/חוֹמָ֨ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Chronicles 32:5 1
הַֽ/חוֹמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Samuel 11:21 1
הַֽ/חוֹמָ֜ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Joshua 6:20 1
הַֽ/חוֹמָה֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Samuel 11:21 1
וְ/חוֹמַ֤ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Nehemiah 1:3 1
וְ/חוֹמָ֖ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Lamentations 2:8 1
וּ/בְ/חֽוֹמֹתַ/י֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Isaiah 56:5 1
וּ/בְ/חוֹמַ֥ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 2 Chronicles 27:3 1
וּ/בַֽ/חוֹמָ֖ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Joshua 2:15 1
וּ/כְ/חוֹמָ֥ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 18:11 1
וּ/לְ/חֹמ֥וֹת Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Jeremiah 1:18 1
וּ/לְ/חוֹמַ֣ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Nehemiah 2:8 1
ח֣וֹמַת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 2 Chronicles 26:6 1
ח֤וֹמָה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 42:20 1
ח֥וֹמַת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Zechariah 2:5 1
חֹ֠מוֹת Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Jeremiah 51:58 1
חֹמ֣וֹת Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Ezekiel 26:4 1
חֹמָ֗ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Leviticus 25:30 1
חֹמָה֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Leviticus 25:31 1

The 60 most common forms are shown; 28 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2346, 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 87 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 123 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.

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