אָח
brother
‘brother’ is one of 6 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
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
- Particle
- A short function word — article, negation, interrogative, the sign of the direct object, and the like.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H251 appears in the Book of Leviticus — 19 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.
Leviticus
- Leviticus 7:10 כְּ/אָחִֽי/ו prep + n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms Every meal offering, mixed with oil or dry, belongs to all the sons of Aaron, one as well as another.
- Leviticus 10:4 אֲחֵי/כֶם֙ n c mp cs + sfx pers 2mp Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, "Draw near, carry your brothers from before the sanctuary out of the camp."
- Leviticus 10:6 וַ/אֲחֵי/כֶם֙ conj + n c mp cs + sfx pers 2mp Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, "Don't let the hair of your heads go loose, neither tear your clothes; that you don't die, and that he not be angry with all the congregation: but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which Yahweh has kindled.
- Leviticus 16:2 אָחִי/ךָ֒ n c ms cs + sfx pers 2ms and Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell Aaron your brother, not to come at all times into the Most Holy Place within the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark; lest he die: for I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.
- Leviticus 18:14 אֲחִֽי n c ms cs "'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother, you shall not approach his wife: she is your aunt.
- Leviticus 18:16 אָחִ֖י/ךָ אָחִ֖י/ךָ n c ms cs + sfx pers 2ms n c ms cs + sfx pers 2ms "'You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife: it is your brother's nakedness.
- Leviticus 19:17 אָחִ֖י/ךָ n c ms cs + sfx pers 2ms "'You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.
- Leviticus 20:21 אָחִ֖י/ו אָחִ֛י/ו n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms "'If a man takes his brother's wife, it is an impurity: he has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.
- Leviticus 21:2 וּ/לְ/אָחִֽי/ו conj + prep + n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms except for his relatives that are near to him: for his mother, for his father, for his son, for his daughter, for his brother,
- Leviticus 21:10 מֵ/אֶחָ֜י/ו prep + n c mp cs + sfx pers 3ms "'He who is the high priest among his brothers, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose, nor tear his clothes;
- Leviticus 25:14 אָחִֽי/ו n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms "'If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
- Leviticus 25:25 אָחִ֔י/ךָ אָחִֽי/ו n c ms cs + sfx pers 2ms n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms "'If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold.
- Leviticus 25:35 אָחִ֔י/ךָ n c ms cs + sfx pers 2ms "'If your brother has become poor, and his hand can't support him among you; then you shall uphold him. As a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you.
- Leviticus 25:36 אָחִ֖י/ךָ n c ms cs + sfx pers 2ms Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you.
- Leviticus 25:39 אָחִ֛י/ךָ n c ms cs + sfx pers 2ms "'If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave.
- Leviticus 25:46 וּ/בְ/אַ֨חֵי/כֶ֤ם בְּ/אָחִ֔י/ו conj + prep + n c mp cs + sfx pers 2mp prep + n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them may you take your slaves forever: but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.
- Leviticus 25:47 אָחִ֖י/ךָ n c ms cs + sfx pers 2ms "'If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger's family;
- Leviticus 25:48 מֵ/אֶחָ֖י/ו prep + n c mp cs + sfx pers 3ms after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him;
- Leviticus 26:37 בְּ/אָחִ֛י/ו prep + n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms They will stumble over one another, as it were before the sword, when no one pursues: and you will have no power to stand before your enemies.
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.
אח — transliterated ʼâch — is a Hebrew noun carrying the sense “brother.” Older and newer Bibles part ways — “brethren” in the King James Version, “brothers” (Berean Standard Bible) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. It appears 572 verses across 33 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its most common vocabulary. More than a quarter of its appearances fall in Genesis. The lexicon spreads it across several senses; see its full sense range. 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 H251 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 →
- 572
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 572 distinct verses.
- 33 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 33 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #77
- by frequency
- Top 100 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 77 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 572 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Genesis 155 verses 27%
- 1 Chronicles 95 verses 17%
- Deuteronomy 43 verses 8%
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 572 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 251 verses · 44%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 184 verses · 32%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 137 verses · 24%
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 5 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†: Brethren 263×, Brother 199×, Brother's 21×
- American Standard Version†: Brethren 230×, Brother 180×, 's brother 19×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Brothers 221×, Brother 183×, Relatives 33×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Brothers 292×, Brother 224×, Brother of 30×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H251 across 629† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 95 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 H251 across 630† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 122 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 H251 across 614† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 63 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 15 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H251 across 650† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 32 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 4 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.
אח I interj. (onomatop.) ah! alas! Ez 6
אח II
- 1. brother, born of same mother (& father) Gn 4:2, 8, 9, 10, 11; 27:6, 11; 44:20; 49:5; cf. 28:2; 29:10(×2) + Ex 4:14 + often; also of half-brother Gn 20:5, 13, 16 (on parentage cf. v 12) 37:2, 4, 5 +, 2 S 13:4, 7, 8 +. e.g. Genesis 4:2
- 2. indef. = relative; Lot, of Abr. Gn 13:8; 14:14, 16; Jacob, of Laban 29:12, 15 (nephew); hence of kinship in wider sense; member of same tribe Nu 16:10; 18:2, 6 2 S 19:13; of same people Ex 2:11(×2); 4:18 Dt 15:12 Ju 14:3 Is 66:20 Ne 5:1, 5, 8 vid. especially Lv 19:17 cf. v 18 (extended to incl. sojourner גֵּר v 34); of Israel & Judah 2 S 19:42; Isr. & Edom Nu 20:14; cf. of Ishmael Gn 16:12; 25:18; of friend 2 S 1:26 1 K 9:13; 20:32, 33; of allies בְּרִית א׳ Am 1:9. e.g. Genesis 13:8
- 3. fig. of resemblance Jb 30:29 אָח הָיִיתִי לְתַנִּים (‖ רֵעַ לִבְנוֹת יַעֲנָה) i.e. by reason of his crying, cf. Di; Pr 18:9 מִתְרַפֶּה בִּמְלַאכְתּוֹ אָח הוּא לְבַעַל מַשְׁחִית. e.g. Job 30:29
- 4. in phr. one … another אִישׁ אָחִיו Gn 9:5 Jo 2:8 Zc 7:10; אָחִיו … אִישׁ Gn 13:11 + 25 times + Ex 32:27 (where also same phr. c. רֵעֵהוּ & קְרֹבוֹ—v. these words—& also אִישׁ, אֶחָד); for development of idiom cf. Dt 15:2 Is 19:2 Je 34:14 (cf. 15) 17 Ez 38:21 Hg 2:22; usually of men; of faces of golden cherubim Ex 25:20; 37:9; of scales of crocodile Jb 41:9. (אָח fire-pot v. sub ii. אחח.) On pr. names compounded with אָח, v. reff. given under אָב supr. e.g. Genesis 9:5
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
III. interj. (onomatop.) ah! alas! Ez 6:11; 21:20. iii. אָח Ez 18:10 (textual error). Ez 18:10 אָח is a vox nihili (dittogr. from foll. אחד: v. Comm.): in 21:10 also dub. (𝔊 εὖ), read אַךְ Ew Hi Sm Toy, חַדָּה Co Berthol, אַתְּ Oort Krae.
IV. n.m. brother (Ph. אח, Arabic أَخٌ (cstr. أَخُو etc.), Sab. אחֿ (sf. אחֿיהו) CISiv, 1, 17 and 24 al., Ethiopic እኅው Assyrian aḫu cf. DlW, Aramaic אַח, ܐܰܚܳܐ; Palm., Nab. sf. אחוהי, אחיה);—abs. אָח Gn 24:29 + (Ez 18:10 del. Co cf. 𝔊 𝔖 𝔙; Ew Sm אַךְ; Dl Ba Ez x defends as = one cf. Assyrian aḫu) never c. art.; cstr. אֲחִי Gn 10:21 +; sf. אָחִי Gn 4:9 +; אָחִיךָ Gn 4:9 +; אָחִיו Gn 4:2 +; אָחִיהוּ Je 34:9 + 3 times etc.; pl. אַחִים Gn 13:8 +; so read Ho 13:15 v. DeCompl. Var. 23 cf. sub אָחוּ; cstr. אֲחֵי Nu 27:10 +; sf. אַחַי Gn 19:7 +; אֶחָ֑י 1 S 20:29 + (but 1 S 30:23 𝔊 We אַחֲרֵי for אֶחָ֑י את); אַחֶיךָ Gn 37:13 +; אֶחָיו Gn 44:14 + etc.
V. n.f. fire-pot, brasier (Arabic وَلَدًا, in Thes, is an error fire-pot is loan-word from Egyptian ʿḫ according to WMMOLZ 3, 51) always c. art. Je 36:22 הַא׳ לְפָנָיו מְבֹעָ֑רֶת the brasier before him was burning; v 23 הָאֵשׁ אֲשֶׁר אֶל־הָא׳; v 23 הָאֵשׁ אֲשֶׁר עַל־הָא׳ (i. אָח, brother v. sub אחה; iii. אָח interj., p. 25).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive word
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.
אָח I
- brother, kinsman; fellow, equal, fellow-believer &c. Meg. 11ᵃ (play on ăhashverosh, Ahasverus) אָׄחִׄיו ש̇ל ר̇אש̇ וכ׳ a brother (in cruelty) to the chief tyrant (Nebucadn.); a. fr.—Pl. אַחִים, אַחִין. Gen. R. s. 89, beg. (play on āḥu, Gen. XLI, 2) in years of plenty הבריות נעשו א׳ וכ׳ people are brotherly to each other. Gen. R. s. 99 אחים דפחתא וכ׳ brothers to the degraded woman (Dinah), … but not to Joseph; a. fr.—Cant. R. to VIII, 1 שני אחים brother and sister e.g. Genesis 41:2
אַח
- Targ. fr.—Pl. אָחִין. Targ. Gen. XIII, 8; a. e.—אַחֵי Yeb. 65ᵇ.—Y. Yoma VI, 43ᵈ אֲחֵינָן our brothers
אָח II
- interj. interj.
- 1. (b. h.) exclamation of sorrow, Oh! Meg. 11ᵃ (play on ăhashverosh; v. אָח I) א׳ לראשו woe upon his head. Snh. 102ᵇ (play on Ahab אח־אב) א׳ לשמי׳ a subject of grief to the Lord, and father (friend) of idolatry.—2 (= Syr.) exclamation of joy, Ah! Targ. Is. XLIV, 16 (h. הֶאָח).
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 263 distinct written forms H251 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 203 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H251, 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.
- אחאב ʼAchʼâb H256 Ahab
- אחבן ʼAchbân H257 Ahban
- אחוח ʼĂchôwach H265 Ahoah
- אחומי ʼĂchûwmay H267 Ahumai
- אחי ʼĂchîy H277 Ahi
- אחיאם ʼĂchîyʼâm H279 Ahiam
- אחיה ʼĂchîyâh H281 Ahijah
- אחיהוד ʼĂchîyhûwd H282 Ahihud
- אחיו ʼAchyôw H283 Ahio
- אחיחד ʼĂchîychud H284 Ahihud
- אחיטוב ʼĂchîyṭûwb H285 Ahitub
- אחילוד ʼĂchîylûwd H286 Ahilud
- אחימות ʼĂchîymôwth H287 Ahimoth
- אחימלך ʼĂchîymelek H288 Ahimelech
- אחימן ʼĂchîyman H289 Ahiman
- אחימעץ ʼĂchîymaʻats H290 Ahimaaz
- אחין ʼAchyân H291 Ahian
- אחינדב ʼĂchîynâdâb H292 Ahinadab
- אחינעם ʼĂchîynôʻam H293 Ahinoam
- אחיסמך ʼĂchîyçâmâk H294 Ahisamach
- אחיעזר ʼĂchîyʻezer H295 Ahiezer
- אחיקם ʼĂchîyqâm H296 Ahikam
- אחירם ʼĂchîyrâm H297 Ahiram
- אחירע ʼĂchîyraʻ H299 Ahira
+3 more proper names from this root (not shown).
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 31 — not the complete family. 27 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 535 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 572 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 4:2
- Exodus 1:6
- Leviticus 7:10
- Numbers 6:7
- Deuteronomy 1:16
- Joshua 1:14
- Judges 1:3
- Ruth 4:3
- 1 Samuel 14:3
- 2 Samuel 1:26
- 1 Kings 1:9
- 2 Kings 7:6
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.
