אָחוֹת
sister
‘sister’ is one of 7 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
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
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
19 verses where H269 appears in the Construct state in the Book of Ezekiel. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Ezekiel
- Ezekiel 1:9 אֲחוֹתָ֖/הּ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fs their wings were joined one to another; they didn't turn when they went; they went everyone straight forward.
- Ezekiel 1:23 אֲחוֹתָ֑/הּ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fs Under the expanse were their wings straight, the one toward the other: everyone had two which covered on this side, and every one had two which covered on that side, their bodies.
- Ezekiel 3:13 אֲחוֹתָ֔/הּ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fs [I heard] the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing.
- Ezekiel 16:45 וַ/אֲח֨וֹת אֲחוֹתֵ֜/ךְ conj + n c fs cs n c fs cs + sfx pers 2fs You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
- Ezekiel 16:46 וַ/אֲחוֹתֵ֨/ךְ וַ/אֲחוֹתֵ֞/ךְ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2fs conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2fs Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.
- Ezekiel 16:48 אֲחוֹתֵ֔/ךְ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2fs As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.
- Ezekiel 16:49 אֲחוֹתֵ֑/ךְ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2fs Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
- Ezekiel 16:51 אחות/ך אֲחוֹתַ֔יִ/ךְ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2fs n c fp cs + sfx pers 2fs Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done.
- Ezekiel 16:52 לַֽ/אֲחוֹתֵ֔/ךְ אַחְיוֹתֵֽ/ךְ prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2fs n c fp cs + sfx pers 2fs You also, bear you your own shame, in that you have given judgment for your sisters; through your sins that you have committed more abominable than they, they are more righteous that you: yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters.
- Ezekiel 16:55 וַ/אֲחוֹתַ֗יִ/ךְ conj + n c fp cs + sfx pers 2fs Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate; and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate; and you and your daughters shall return to your former estate.
- Ezekiel 16:56 אֲחוֹתֵ֔/ךְ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2fs For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride,
- Ezekiel 16:61 אֲחוֹתַ֨יִ/ךְ֙ n c fp cs + sfx pers 2fs Then shall you remember your ways, and be ashamed, when you shall receive your sisters, your elder [sisters] and your younger; and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant.
- Ezekiel 22:11 אֲחֹת֥/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms One has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in you has humbled his sister, his father's daughter.
- Ezekiel 23:4 אֲחוֹתָ֔/הּ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fs The names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.
- Ezekiel 23:11 אֲחוֹתָ֣/הּ אֲחוֹתָֽ/הּ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fs n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fs Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her prostitution which were more than the prostitution of her sister.
- Ezekiel 23:18 אֲחוֹתָֽ/הּ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fs So she uncovered her prostitution, and uncovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister.
- Ezekiel 23:31 אֲחוֹתֵ֖/ךְ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2fs You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore will I give her cup into your hand.
- Ezekiel 23:32 אֲחוֹתֵ/ךְ֙ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2fs Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You shall drink of your sister's cup, which is deep and large; you shall ridiculed and had in derision; it contains much.
- Ezekiel 23:33 אֲחוֹתֵ֥/ךְ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2fs You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria.
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.
The Hebrew noun אחות centers on the idea of “sister.” Its meaning spans more than one sense — see its full sense range. It appears 104 verses across 18 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its common vocabulary. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 4:22. It clusters with אח, אח and אחוה under a shared root. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H269 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 →
- 104
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 104 distinct verses.
- 18 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 18 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #363
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 363 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 104 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 104 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 43 verses · 41%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 40 verses · 38%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 21 verses · 20%
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: Sister 73×, Sisters 10×, Another 5×
- American Standard Version: Sister 65×, Sisters 10×, 's sister 7×
- Berean Standard Bible: Sister 76×, Sisters 9×, Is my sister 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Sister 69×, Sister of 19×, Sisters 10×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H269 across 113 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H269 across 113 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 17 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 H269 across 108 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 11 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 6 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H269 across 121 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 14 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. sister Gn 4:22; 12:13, 19; 20:2, 5, 12 (same father, diff. mother) so Lv 18:11 cf. Ez 22:11; Gn 24:30(×2) +, Ex 2:4, 7; Lv 18:9 (either parent same) so Dt 27:22 Nu 6:7 2 S 13:1, 2, 4 +, Ct 8:8(×2); called upon, in mourning for dead Je 22:18; = near relative Gn 24:59, 60 (or because Laban prominent? so Di); woman of same nationality Nu 25:18 cf. Ho 2:3. e.g. Genesis 4:22
- 2. = beloved Ct 4:9, 10, 12; 5:1, 2 (4 times ‖ כַּלָּה bride; phr. orig. implying that marriage with half-sister—of same father—was allowed? cf. NöZMG 1886, 150, & Gn 20:12). e.g. Song of Solomon 4:9
- 3. symbol. of Judah, Samaria, Sodom & Jerusalem Je 3:7, 8, 10 Ez 16:45, 52,(×2) (del. Co) +, 23:4, 11 +. e.g. Jeremiah 3:7
- 4. fig. of intimate connection אִמִּי וַאֲחֹתִי לָרִמָּה … קָרָאתי Jb 17:14; אֱמֹר לַחָכְמָה אֲחֹתִי אַתְּ Pr 7:4. e.g. Job 17:14
- 5. another, אִשָּׁה אֶל־אֲחֹתָהּ, of curtains of tabern. Ex 26:3(×2), 6, loops v 5, tenons v 17; of wings of living creatures, Ezek.’s vision Ez 1:9, 23; 3:13; not of persons, but vid. רְעוּת. e.g. Exodus 26:3
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. sister (Ph. אחת, Aramaic אֲחָת, ܚܳܬܳܐ, Arabic أُخْتٌ, Assyrian aḫâtu, DlW Ethiopic እኅት Sab. in n.pr. אחֿתאמהו OsZMG 1865, 273)—abs. אָ׳ 2 S 13:1 + (never with art.); cstr. אֲחוֹת Gn 4:22 +; sf. אֲחֹתִי (אֲחוֹתִי) Gn 12:13 +, etc.; pl. sf. אַחְוֹתַי (Qr אַחְיוֹתַי) Jos 2:13; אֲחוֹתַיִךְ Ez 16:51 (Qr; Kt אחותך) + 2 times (Co all אחיו׳); אַחֲיוֹתֵךְ Ez 16:52 (Co ־תיך); אֲחוֹתֵךְ Ez 16:52 (must be pl., but del. Co); אַחְיֹתָיו Jb 42:11; אֲחוֹתֵיכֶם Ho 2:3; אַחְיֹתֵיהֶם 1 Ch 2:16 Jb 1:4—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from אח (ʼâch) (H251) — brother.
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.
אָחוֹת
- , v. אָח I) sister. Yeb. I, 1; a. fr.—Ḥull. 114ᵃ (of animals).—Pl. אַחֲיוֹת. Yeb. III, 1; a. e.
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 83 distinct written forms H269 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; 23 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H269, 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
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 104 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 104 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 4:22
- Exodus 2:4
- Leviticus 18:9
- Numbers 6:7
- Deuteronomy 27:22
- Joshua 2:13
- Judges 15:2
- 2 Samuel 13:1
- 1 Kings 11:19
- 2 Kings 11:2
- 1 Chronicles 1:39
- 2 Chronicles 22:11
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.
