אֶחָד
one
‘one’ is one of 8 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
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H259 appears in the Book of Isaiah — 17 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.
Isaiah
- Isaiah 4:1 אֶחָ֗ד adj Cardinal number ms Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing: only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach."
- Isaiah 5:10 אֶחָ֑ת adj Cardinal number fs For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, And a homer of seed shall yield an ephah."
- Isaiah 6:2 לְ/אֶחָ֑ד prep + Adjective Cardinal number ms Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.
- Isaiah 6:6 אֶחָד֙ adj Cardinal number ms Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.
- Isaiah 9:14 אֶחָֽד adj Cardinal number ms Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day.
- Isaiah 10:17 אֶחָֽד adj Cardinal number ms The light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.
- Isaiah 19:18 לְ/אֶחָֽת prep + Adjective Cardinal number fs In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Yahweh of hosts; one shall be called The city of destruction.
- Isaiah 23:15 אֶחָ֑ד adj Cardinal number ms It shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years it shall be to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute.
- Isaiah 27:12 לְ/אַחַ֥ד אֶחָ֖ד prep + Adjective Cardinal number ms adj Cardinal number ms It shall happen in that day, that Yahweh will beat off [his fruit] from the flood of the River to the brook of Egypt; and you shall be gathered one by one, you children of Israel.
- Isaiah 30:17 אֶחָ֗ד אֶחָ֔ד adj Cardinal number ms adj Cardinal number ms One thousand [shall flee] at the threat of one; at the threat of five shall you flee: until you be left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill.
- Isaiah 34:16 אַחַ֤ת adj Cardinal number fs Seek you out of the book of Yahweh, and read: no one of these shall be missing, none shall want her mate; for my mouth, it has commanded, and his Spirit, it has gathered them.
- Isaiah 36:9 אַחַ֛ד adj Cardinal number ms How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
- Isaiah 47:9 אֶחָ֖ד adj Cardinal number ms but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.
- Isaiah 51:2 אֶחָ֣ד adj Cardinal number ms Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many.
- Isaiah 65:25 כְ/אֶחָ֗ד prep + Adjective Cardinal number ms The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says Yahweh.
- Isaiah 66:8 אֶחָ֔ד אֶחָ֑ת adj Cardinal number ms adj Cardinal number fs Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? shall a nation be brought forth at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
- Isaiah 66:17 אחד אַחַת֙ adj Cardinal number ms adj Cardinal number fs Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves [to go] to the gardens, behind one in the midst, eating pig's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together, says Yahweh.
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, אחד (ʼechâd) means “one.” Not a single-sense word: explore its full sense range. Spanning 739 verses in 34 books, it ranks among the most common words of the Hebrew Bible. It first appears in Genesis 1:5. Sharing its root, it stands alongside אחד, חד and אחוד. 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 H259 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 →
- 739
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 739 distinct verses.
- 34 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 34 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #43
- by frequency
- Top 50 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 43 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 739 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 739 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 324 verses · 44%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 295 verses · 40%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 120 verses · 16%
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: One 519×, A 35×, Other 29×
- American Standard Version: One 469×, Other 30×, A 27×
- Berean Standard Bible: One 410×, Each 55×, A 53×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: One 691×, One of 38×, First 29×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H259 across 942 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 127 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 10 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H259 across 943 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 141 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 1 further occurrence.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H259 across 852 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 77 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 114 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H259 across 1,000 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 46 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 16 further occurrences.
10 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 10 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. one Gn 1:9; 27:38, 45 Ex 12:49 Jos 23:10 1 S 1:24 2 S 12:3 +, Zc 14:9 Mal 2:10 Jb 31:15 +, so also (emph.) 2 S 17:3 for MT אֲשֶׁר 𝔊 We Dr; one or two לֹא לְיוֹם אֶחָד וְלֹא לִשְׁנַיִם Ezr 10:13; as subst. sq. מִן Gn 2:21 Lv 4:2, 13 Is 34:16 +; הָא׳ Gn 19:9; 42:13, 32 2 K 6:3, 5 +; one and the same Gn 40:5 Jb 31:15; pl. דְּבָרִים אֲחָדִים †Gn 11:1 cf. Ez 37:17 (abs.), but v. Co; = few, a few יָמִים א׳ †Gn 27:44; 29:20 Dn 11:20; כְּאִישׁ אֶחָד as one man, together Ju 20:8 1 S 11:7; also כְּאֶחָד late = Aramaic כַּחֲדָא †Ezr 2:64 (= Ne 7:66) 3:9; 6:20 Ec 11:6; v. especially Is 65:25 (‖ earlier יַחְדָּו 11:6, 7). e.g. Genesis 1:9
- 2. = each, every Ex 36:30 Nu 7:3, 85; 28:21 1 K 4:7 2 K 15:20 +; also repeated, distrib. sense Nu 7:11; 13:2; 17:21 Jos 3:12; 4:2, 4. e.g. Exodus 36:30
- 3. = a certain 1 S 1:1 2 S 18:10 2 K 4:1 Est 3:8 + cf. 2 S 17:9 v. Dr 1 S 1:1; hence e.g. 1 Samuel 1:1
- 4. = indef. art. 1 S 6:7; 24:15; 26:20 (but del. 𝔊 We Dr) 1 K 19:4, 5 +. e.g. 1 Samuel 6:7
- 5. only 1 K 4:19, & (fem.) once 2 K 6:10 ψ 62:12; 89:36 (once for all); אַחַת לְשָׁלוֹשׁ שָׁנִים 2 Ch 9:21, א׳ בַּשָּׁנָה Lv 16:34 cf. Jb 40:5, פַּעַם אֶחָ֑ת Jos 6:3, 11 cf. v 14, בְּאַחַת Nu 10:4 בְּאַחַת is rather ‘in one (of the trumpets)’ Jb 33:14 it = in one way; at once בְּאֶחָ֑ת Pr 28:18 read prob. with 𝔖 Lag Dys Bi בַּשָּׁ֑חַת cf. וְאִנָּֽקְמָה נְקַם־אַחַת Ju 16:28 is rather ‘vengeance for one of my two eyes’ (v. GFM). Je 10:8 בְּאַחַת prob. = in one, altogether. e.g. 1 Kings 4:19
- 6. one … another, the one … the other א׳ … א׳ Ex 17:12; 18:3, 4 Am 4:7 2 S 12:1 Je 24:2 2 Ch 3:17 Ne 4:11 +; … הא׳ א׳ Lv 14:22; 15:15 2 S 14:6 read הָאֶחָד אֶת־אָחִיו 𝔊 We Dr; one after another, one by one, לְאַחַד אֶחָד Is 27:12 cf. Ec 7:27. e.g. Exodus 17:12
- 7. as ordinal, first (mostly P & late) Gn 1:5 (P) 2:11 (J) Ex 39:10 (P) Ez 10:14 Jb 42:14; of first day of month Ex 40:2 (P) Ezr 3:6; 10:16, 17 Ne 8:2 Hg 1:1; first year, שְׁנַת אַחַת 2 Ch 36:22 Ezr 1:1 Dn 1:21; 9:1, 2; 11:1; cf. first (day, יוֹם om.) Gn 8:5, 13 בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ; so Ex 40:17 Lv 23:24 Nu 1:1, 18; 29:1; 33:38 (all P) Dt 1:3 2 Ch 29:17 Ezr 7:9(×2) Ez 26:1; 29:17; 31:1; 32:1; 45:18. e.g. Genesis 1:5
- 8. in combin.,
- a. אַחַד עָשָׂר eleven (cf. עָשָׂר, עַשְׁתֵּי) Gn 32:23; 37:9 (JE) Dt 1:2; so אַחַת־עֶשְׂרֵה Jos 15:51 (P) 2 K 23:36; 24:18 2 Ch 36:5, 11 Je 52:1 (precedes noun, except Jos 15:51); as ordinal, eleventh אַחַת עֶשְׁרֵה שָׁנָה Ez 30:20; 31:1 cf. 1 K 6:38 2 K 9:29; e.g. Genesis 32:23
- b. with other numerals, as cardinal אֶחָד וְאַרְבָּעִים אֶלֶף וַחֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת Nu 1:41 cf. 2:16, 28; 31:34, 39 (all P; א׳ precedes other numeral); but אַרְבָּעִים וְאַחַת שָׁנָה (א׳ following) 1 K 14:21; 15:10 2 K 14:23 2 Ch 12:13 cf. 2 K 22:1 = 2 Ch 34:1; 2 K 24:18 = Je 52:1 = 2 Ch 36:11; Jose 12:24 (D) Is 30:17 Ezr 2:26 = Ne 7:30 cf. v 37; Dn 10:13; as ordinal בְּאַחַת וְשֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה Gn 8:13 (P) Ex 12:18 (P), 1 Ch 24:17; 25:28 2 Ch 16:13 (א׳ preceding); but 1 K 16:23 Hg 2:1 (א׳ following). e.g. Numbers 1:41
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
adj.num. one (Ph. אחד, Sab. id., cf. DHMZMG 1876, 707, Arabic أَحَدٌ, Ethiopic አሐዱ Aramaic חַד,ܚܰܕ; on Assyrian êdu, aḫadu, cf. DlW No. 139)—abs. א׳ Gn 1:5 + cstr. אַחַ֫ד Gn 21:15 +; so even bef. prep. 1 S 9:3 al. v. Dr; f. abs. אַחַ֫ת Gn 2:21 +; אֶחָ֑ת Gn 11:1 +; cstr. אַחַ֫ת Dt 13:13 +; pl. m. אֲחָדִים Gn 11:1 + 4 times; חַד Ez 33:30 del. Co cf. 𝔊;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from אחד (ʼâchad) (H258) — to be sharp.
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.
אֶחָד
- , אַחַת f. (b. h.; v. next w., one. [Freq. represented by א׳.] Kidd. 50ᵇ, a. fr. בבת אחת simultaneously, v. בַּת III. Peah III, 3 המחליק מאחת יד וכ׳ (Ms. M. בא׳) he who takes out onions with a unity of hand, i.e. all of them for one purpose. Ber. 61ᵇ, a. fr. על אחת כמה וכמה (abbr. עאכ"ו) how much against one, i.e. how much the more.—אחד … אחד both … as well as. Tem. I, 1 א׳ האנשים וכ׳ both, men as well as women. Y. Keth. V, 29ᵈ top אחת זו ואחתֹ זו the one as well as the other; a. fr.—כְּאֶחָד, כְּאַחַת at the same time. Tosef. Neg. I, 11; sq. Sot. 8ᵃ; a. fr.—Yoma I, 7 והפג אחת and cool thyself for once, for a change, v. חֲדַת.—Pl. אֲחָדִים
- 1. singular, unique. Yalk. Gen. 62 (ref. to דברים אחדים Gen. XI, 1) they spoke words על שני א׳ against two only ones (ref. to אחד Ezek. XXXIII, 24 a. Deut. VI, 4) [corr. acc. Gen. R. s. 38]. e.g. Genesis 11:1
- 2. (cmp. אֲחַד) closed up, mysterious. Gen. R. l. c. (Yalk. l. c. אֲחוּדִים v. next w.).
אָחַד
- (sec. r. of חוּד, v. חוּד I) to join, close. Part. pass. אָחוּד, pl. אֲחוּדִים
- 1. closed up, mysterious. Yalk. Gen. 62, v. foreg.
- 2. joined, united. Gen. R. s. 38 (ref. to Gen. XI, 1, v. foreg.) דברים א׳ common goods, communism. e.g. Genesis 11:1
אֲחַד
- , Pa. אָחֵיד, אַחֵד ch. (v. foreg.)
- 1. (corresp. to h. סגר a. תפש; cmp. h. אחז) to close (the door), to lock up; to seize, capture. Targ. Is. XXII, 22 אָחֵיד. Ib. יֵיחוֹד, יִיחוֹד (fut.).—Targ. Deut. XXI, 19 יְאַ׳ = יַחֲדוּן (Pa.; Var. יֶחֱדוּן = יֶאֶח׳ Pe.). Targ. Am. III, 5; a. fr.—Snh. 26ᵃ bot., a. e. אחדיה לדשא locked the door. Pes. 111ᵇ ליה רוחא אחדא a spirit (demon, disease) seizes him.—Part. pass. אֲחִיד a) locked up. Targ. Josh. VI, 1; a. e.—b) (v. אָחוּז, s. v. אָחַז) holding. Targ. Am. II, 15; a. fr.—Part. pass. Pa. מְאַחַד locked up, hidden. Targ. Job. XXVI, 9.
- 2. to devote, v. אֲחִיד.
- to seize. Targ. Ps. LXXIII, 23.
- 1. to be seized. Targ. Ez. XIX, 4; a. fr.
- 2. to be locked up, joined. Targ. Is. XXIV, 10 את אחידו … (read אתאחידו). Ib. LIX, 10 Rashi (ed. אתא חד corr. acc.). Targ. Job XLI, 9 (8); a. e.—אִתְּחִיד. Ḥull. 52ᵇ א׳ דשא the door was locked.
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 165 distinct written forms H259 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; 105 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H259, 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
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 → 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 716 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 739 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 1:5
- Exodus 1:15
- Leviticus 4:2
- Numbers 1:1
- Deuteronomy 1:2
- Joshua 3:12
- Judges 4:16
- Ruth 1:4
- 1 Samuel 1:1
- 2 Samuel 1:15
- 1 Kings 2:16
- 2 Kings 2:16
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.
