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חׇכְמָה

wisdom

‘wisdom’ is one of 6 main senses fuller range ↓

H2451 Strong's Hebrew
chokmâh Transliteration
/khok-maw'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 149 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.

חכמה (chokmâh) is a Hebrew noun most often rendered “wisdom.” It is not a single-sense word — see its full sense range. With 141 verses in 14 books, it is a common word in the Hebrew Bible. It concentrates in Proverbs, which alone accounts for 27% of its uses. Debuting at Exodus 28:3, it then recurs through the corpus. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
skilful
Modern gloss
wisdom
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 H2451 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 →

141
distinct verses
The word appears in 141 distinct verses.
14 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 14 of 39 Old Testament books.
Exodus 28:3
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Exodus 28:3.
Daniel 1:20
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Daniel 1:20.
#301
by frequency
Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 301 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 141 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 10 · 7%
  • Historical 26 · 18%
  • Wisdom 87 · 62%
  • Prophets 18 · 13%

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 141 distinct verses.

  • Writings (Ketuvim) 100 verses · 71%
  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 31 verses · 22%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 10 verses · 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).

  • King James Version: Wisdom 117×, Is wisdom 6×, I wisdom 2×
  • American Standard Version: Wisdom 103×, Is wisdom 5×, 's wisdom 3×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Wisdom 123×, Skill 10×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Wisdom 115×, Wisdom of 10×, Is wisdom 6×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H2451 across 149 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Wisdom” 117×
  • “Is wisdom” 6×
  • “I wisdom” 2×
  • “Wisely” 2×

Plus 22 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 H2451 across 153 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Wisdom” 103×
  • “Is wisdom” 5×
  • “'s wisdom” 3×
  • “Understanding” 3×
  • “All the wisdom” 2×
  • “Hear thy wisdom” 2×
  • “Me” 2×

Plus 33 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 H2451 across 149 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Wisdom” 123×
  • “Skill” 10×

Plus 16 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 4 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H2451 across 151 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Wisdom” 115×
  • “Wisdom of” 10×
  • “Is wisdom” 6×
  • “Skill” 6×

Plus 14 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.

  • 1. skill in war Is 10:13; in technical work Ex 28:3; 31:3, 6; 35:26, 31, 35; 36:1, 2 (P), cf. 1 K 7:14, 1 Ch 28:21; of sailors ψ 107:27. e.g. Isaiah 10:13
  • 2. wisdom, in administration Dt 34:9 Is 29:14 Je 49:7(×2) 2 S 14:20; of prince of Tyre Ez 28:4, 5, 7, 12, 17; Sol.’s wisdom included this with other forms of cleverness and shrewdness 1 K 2:6; 3:28; 5:9, 10, 14(×2), 26; 10:4, 6, 7, 8, 23, 24 = 2 Ch 9:3, 5, 6, 7, 22, 23, 1 K 11:41 2 Ch 1:10, 11, 12; the Messiah is to have רוּחַ חָכְמָה וּבִינָה Is 11:2. e.g. Deuteronomy 34:9
  • 3. shrewdness, wisdom, 2 S 20:22 1 K 5:10(×2) Je 9:23; withheld by God from the ostrich Jb 39:17; of magicians and prophets Is 47:10 Dn 1:4, 17, 20. e.g. 2 Samuel 20:22
  • 4. wisdom, prudence in religious affairs Dt 4:6 ψ 37:30; 51:8; 90:12 Pr 10:31 Is 33:6 Je 8:9. e.g. Deuteronomy 4:6
  • 5. wisdom, ethical and religious:
    • a. of God, as a divine attribute or energy; his wisdom is in the skies Jb 38:36; by it he numbers the clouds Jb 38:37; founded the earth Pr 3:19; and made all things Je 10:12 = 51:15, ψ 104:24; it is with him Jb 12:13; not to be found by the most persevering human search Jb 28:12, 20; he alone knows it Jb 28:23; gives it Pr 2:6; and shews its secrets Jb 11:6. e.g. Job 38:36
    • b. the divine wisdom is personified: she was begotten before all things to be the architect and counsellor of God in the creation (Pr 8:22–31); she builds a palace and spreads a feast for those who will receive her instruction 9:1 (cf. v2–5); she teaches in public places 1:20; 8:1, 5, 11, 12 (v. context); gives her pupils the divine spirit 1:23; by her discipline simple become wise, rulers rule wisely, and those seeking her are richly rewarded 8:14 (cf. v1–21). e.g. Proverbs 8:22
    • c. of man: to get wisdom is principal thing Pr 4:7(×2); its fundamental principle is to fear God ψ 111:10 Pr 15:33 Jb 28:28 (‖ סוּר מֵרַע בִּינָה); and know י׳, the All Holy Pr 9:10; 30:3; it is of inestimable worth Jb 28:18 Pr 8:11; 16:16; 17:16; 23:23; 24:7; beyond the reach of scorners Pr 14:6; God giveth it to the good Ec 2:26; men are to incline the ear Pr 2:2; attend unto wisdom Pr 5:1; seek Ec 7:25; know Pr 24:14 Ec 1:17; 8:16; behold Ec 2:12; 9:13; get her Pr 4:5, 7; treat her as sister Pr 7:4; happy the man who finds her Pr 3:13; he who has wisdom is אִישׁ תְּבוּנָה Pr 10:23; נָבוֹן Pr 10:13; 14:33; מֵבִין Pr 17:24; cf. also ψ 49:4 Jb 4:21; 12:2, 12; 13:5; 15:8; 26:3; 32:7, 13; 33:33 Pr 1:2, 7; 2:10; 4:11; 11:2; 13:10; 14:1, 8; 18:4; 21:30; 24:3; 28:26; 29:3, 15; 31:26 Ec 1:13, 16(×2), 18; 2:3, 9, 13, 21; 7:10, 11, 12(×2), 19, 23; 8:1; 9:10, 15, 16(×2), 18; 10:1, 10;—on Solomon’s wisdom v. supr. e.g. Proverbs 4:7

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. wisdom, ח׳ Ex 28:3 + 106 times; cstr. חָכְמַת Ex 35:35 + 15 times; sf. חָכְמָתִי Ec 2:9, etc. + 25 times sf.; pl. abst. חָכְמוֹת ψ 49:4 Pr 1:20; 9:1; 24:7 (GK§ 861); חַכְמוֹת Pr 14:1 (incorrectly pointed as adj. cstr. f.; read חָכְמוֹת De);—

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

Derived from חכם (châkam) (H2449) — to be wise.

Part of speech: Noun Feminine TWOT: 647a


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.

חֲכָמָה

  • 1. fem. of חָכָם. Y. Shek. V, 48ᵈ top הרי זו ח׳ that is a wise court; Snh. 17ᵇ שלישית ח׳ a Sanhedrin containing three orators is a wise one.
  • 2. female physician, midwife. R. Hash. II, 5; Erub. 45ᵃ ח׳ הבאה לילד a midwife called for assisting at birth. Sabb. XVIII, 3 וקורין לה ח׳ וכ׳ and we must call for her a midwife from another place (on the Sabbath); a. fr.

חָכְמָה

  • wisdom, learning, art. Ber. 17ᵃ תכלית ח׳ וכ׳ the perfection of wisdom is repentance and good deeds. Ib. 33ᵃ ברכת ח׳ the benediction of wisdom (the fourth of the Prayer of Benedictions). Gen. R. s. 17 חָכְמָתוֹ מרובה וכ׳ his (Adam’s) wisdom is greater than yours. R. Hash. 29ᵇ שהיא ח׳ ואינה מלאכה it is an art and not a labor; a. v. fr.—לשון ח׳ enigmatical speech. Erub. 53ᵇ.—חָכְמַת יונית, v. יְוָנִי.

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 69 distinct written forms H2451 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
חָכְמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 28:3 19
חָכְמָ֖ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 1:18 10
חָכְמָֽה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 10:10 9
חָ֭כְמָה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 4:5 8
חָכְמַ֣ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Daniel 1:20 8
חָכְמָ֣ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Chronicles 1:11 7
חָכְמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 34:9 5
חָכְמָ֥ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 1:16 5
חָכְמָתֶֽ/ךָ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 Kings 10:6 4
בְּ/חָכְמָת֑/וֹ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ecclesiastes 9:15 3
הַֽ/חָכְמָ֖ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 7:12 3
חָכְמָ֗ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Daniel 1:4 3
בְּ/חָכְמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 35:26 2
בְּ/חָכְמָ֛ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 31:3 2
בְּ/חָכְמָ֥ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 2:21 2
בַּֽ/חָכְמָה֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 2:3 2
וְֽ֭/הַ/חָכְמָה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Job 28:12 2
חָכְמָ֤ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 36:1 2
חָכְמָה֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 5:12 2
חָכְמָת֔/וֹ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 Kings 10:24 2
בְ/חָכְמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 31:26 1
בְ/חָכְמָֽה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Job 4:21 1
בַֽ/חָכְמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 7:23 1
בְּ/חָכְמָ֣ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 104:24 1
בְּ/חָכְמָֽתְ/ךָ֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 28:4 1
בְּ/חָכְמָת֔/וֹ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Jeremiah 9:23 1
בְּ/חָכְמָתָ֗/הּ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 2 Samuel 20:22 1
בְּ֝/חָכְמָ֗ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 28:26 1
בְּ֭/חָכְמָה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 24:3 1
בַּֽ/חָכְמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 1:13 1
הַ/חָכְמָ֤ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 7:14 1
הַֽ/חָכְמָ֥ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Chronicles 1:12 1
וְ/חָכְמַ֤ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ecclesiastes 9:16 1
וְ/חָכְמַֽת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Jeremiah 8:9 1
וְ/חָכְמָ֑ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Daniel 1:17 1
וְ/חָכְמָ֔ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 9:10 1
וְ/חָכְמָֽה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Chronicles 9:22 1
וְ/חָכְמָת֑/וֹ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 Kings 11:41 1
וְ֝/חָכְמָ֗ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 10:23 1
וּ/בְ/חָכְמָתִ֖/י Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Isaiah 10:13 1
וּ/לְ/חָכְמָֽה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 10:23 1
חָ֝כְמָ֗ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Job 28:18 1
חָ֝כְמָתָ֗/ם Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Psalms 107:27 1
חָכְמַ֤ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ecclesiastes 8:1 1
חָכְמַ֥ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 Kings 4:30 1
חָכְמַ֧ת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 Kings 3:28 1
חָכְמַת Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Exodus 35:35 1
חָכְמַתְ/כֶם֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 4:6 1
חָכְמָ֧ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 4:29 1
חָכְמָ֨ה Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 111:10 1
חָכְמָה֮ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Job 11:6 1
חָכְמָתְ/ךָ֖ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 28:17 1
חָכְמָתְ/ךָ֛ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 28:5 1
חָכְמָתִ֖/י Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ecclesiastes 2:9 1
חָכְמָתֵ֥/ךְ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Isaiah 47:10 1
חָכְמָתֶ֑/ךָ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 2 Chronicles 9:6 1
חָכְמָתֶ֔/ךָ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 28:7 1
חָכְמָתָֽ/ם Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Jeremiah 49:7 1
חָכְמָתֽ/וֹ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 Kings 4:34 1
כְּ/חָכְמַת֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 2 Samuel 14:20 1

The 60 most common forms are shown; 9 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2451, 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

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 7 — 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 134 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 141 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

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Old Testament
Old Testament edition

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