יָם
sea
‘sea’ is one of 9 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-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
- 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.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
25 verses where H3220 appears in the Absolute state in the Book of Exodus. 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.
Exodus
- Exodus 10:19 יָם֙ יָ֣מָּ/ה n c ms n c ms cs + sfx dem Yahweh turned an exceeding strong west wind, which took up the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the borders of Egypt.
- Exodus 14:2 הַ/יָּ֑ם הַ/יָּֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms "Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn back and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal Zephon. You shall encamp opposite it by the sea.
- Exodus 14:9 הַ/יָּ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms The Egyptians pursued after them: all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, and his army; and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baal Zephon.
- Exodus 14:16 הַ/יָּ֖ם הַ/יָּ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground.
- Exodus 14:21 הַ/יָּם֒ הַ֠/יָּם הַ/יָּ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
- Exodus 14:22 הַ/יָּ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left.
- Exodus 14:23 הַ/יָּֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the midst of the sea: all of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
- Exodus 14:26 הַ/יָּ֑ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come again on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen."
- Exodus 14:27 הַ/יָּ֗ם הַ/יָּ֜ם הַ/יָּֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it. Yahweh overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
- Exodus 14:28 בַּ/יָּ֑ם prep det + n c ms The waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh's army that went in after them into the sea. There remained not so much as one of them.
- Exodus 14:29 הַ/יָּ֑ם ptcl def.art + n c ms But the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left.
- Exodus 14:30 הַ/יָּֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms Thus Yahweh saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
- Exodus 15:1 בַ/יָּֽם prep det + n c ms Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said, "I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously: The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
- Exodus 15:4 בַ/יָּ֑ם בְ/יַם prep det + n c ms prep + n c ms cs Pharaoh's chariots and his host has he cast into the sea; His chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea.
- Exodus 15:8 יָֽם n c ms With the blast of your nostrils the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.
- Exodus 15:10 יָ֑ם n c ms You blew with your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
- Exodus 15:19 בַּ/יָּ֔ם הַ/יָּ֑ם הַ/יָּֽם prep det + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea.
- Exodus 15:21 בַ/יָּֽם prep det + n c ms Miriam answered them, "Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously: The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea."
- Exodus 20:11 הַ/יָּם֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.
- Exodus 26:22 יָ֑מָּ/ה n c ms + sfx dem For the far part of the tent westward you shall make six boards.
- Exodus 26:27 יָֽמָּ/ה n c ms + sfx dem and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tent, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tent, for the far part westward.
- Exodus 27:12 יָ֔ם n c ms For the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits; their pillars ten, and their sockets ten.
- Exodus 36:27 יָ֑מָּ/ה n c ms + sfx dem For the far part of the tent westward he made six boards.
- Exodus 36:32 יָֽמָּ/ה n c ms + sfx dem and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tent, and five bars for the boards of the tent for the hinder part westward.
- Exodus 38:12 יָ֗ם n c ms For the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver.
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, ים (yâm) means “sea.” Not a single-sense word: explore its full sense range. It appears 339 verses across 35 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its common vocabulary. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 1:10. It clusters with ים under a shared root. Dig into 339-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H3220 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 →
- 339
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 339 distinct verses.
- 35 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 35 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #127
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 127 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 339 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 339 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 195 verses · 58%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 72 verses · 21%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 72 verses · 21%
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: Sea 248×, West 36×, Seas 21×
- American Standard Version: Sea 218×, West 34×, Westward 24×
- Berean Standard Bible: Sea 244×, West 50×, Seas 19×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Sea 215×, Sea of 42×, West 38×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3220 across 396 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 31 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 H3220 across 393 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 50 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 H3220 across 378 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 26 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 17 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H3220 across 398 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 22 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
13 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 13 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. Mediterranean S. Nu 13:29 (E), 34:5 (P), Dt 1:7 Jos 5:1 1 K 5:23(×2) Jon 1:4(×2) + often; the Mediterr. is called also הַיָּם הַגָּדוֹל Nu 34:6, 7 Jos 15:12, 47 Ez 47:10, 15, 19, 20; 48:28 +, cf. הַיּ׳ גּ׳ וּרְחַב יָדַיִם ψ 104:25; הַיָּם הַגּ׳ מְבוֹא הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁ Jos 1:4; 23:4 (v. its Assyrian name tiamtu rabîtu šâ šulmi šamši etc., SchrNamen der Meere. 171ff.); הַיּ׳ הַגּ׳ אֶל־מוּל הַלְּבָנוֹן Jos 9:1; הַיּ׳ הָאַחֲרוֹן the hinder sea Dt 11:24; 34:2 Zc 14:8 Jo 2:20 (in the last two opp. הַיּ׳ הַקַּדְמֹנִי, v. infr.); of Mediterr. in particular part יָם פְּלִשְׁתִּים Ex 23:31 (JE); יָם יָפוֹ 2 Ch 2:15 = יָם יָפוֹא Ezr 3:7; of Mediterr. in pl. Dn 11:45 [cf. 8 d] Hi Ke Meinh Bev Dr (world-encircling seas Behrm). e.g. Numbers 13:29
- 2. יַם־סוּף ‘Red Sea’ (v. סוּף Ex 13:18 (cf. 10:19), 15:4; Nu 14:25; Dt 1:40; Jos 2:10 Ju 11:16 + often; also הַיָּם Ex 14:2(×2), 9 (?) Is 51:10(×2); 63:11 +; prob. also יָם־מִצְרַיִם 11:15; ‘Red Sea’ named or referred to c. 66 times; יַם־סוּף clearly of Ælanitic Gulf 1 K 9:26 (cf. 2 Ch 8:17). e.g. Exodus 13:18
- 3. Dead Sea, יָם מֶלַח sea of salt Gn 14:3 Nu 34:3, 12 Dt 3:17 Jos 3:16; 12:3; 15:2, 5; 18:19; יָם הָעֲרָבָה Dt 3:17; 4:49 Jos 3:16; 12:3 2 K 14:25; הַיּ׳ הַקַּדְמֹנִי Ez 47:18 Zc 14:8 Jo 2:20 (v. supr.) simply יָם Is 16:8 Je 48:32;—in יָם יַעְזֵר Je 48:32 יָם is text. error, del. c. Gf Gr Che Gie e.g. Genesis 14:3
- 4. Sea of Galilee יָם כִּנֶּרֶת Nu 34:11 Jos 13:27; יָם כִּנְּרוֹת 12:3; simply יָם Dt 33:23. e.g. Numbers 34:11
- 5. more gen. sea, opp. earth and (or) sky Gn 1:26, 28; 9:2 (P), Ex 20:11 (E), Hg 2:6 + often Jb ψ Is 2 etc.; Am 6:12 read בַּבָּקָר יָם for בקרים (v. בָּקָר); sea as under earth ψ 24:2 (cf. Gn 1:10; 6:11 Ex 20:5 = Dt 5:3); fig. of flood of invaders, עָלָה עַל־בָּבֶל הַיָּם Je 51:42. e.g. Genesis 1:26
- 6. of a mighty river, the Nile Na 3:8(×2) Is 19:5 (‖ נָהָר); cf. הַתַּנִּין אֲשֶׁר בַּיָּם 27:1 and כַּתַּנִּים בַּיַּמִּים Ez 32:2 (sim. of Pharaoh); of Euphrates Is 21:1 Je 51:36 (according to Che Gf al.; Is 21:1 perhaps better of Persian Gulf, v. Di). e.g. Nahum 3:8
- 7. the great basin in temple-court, called the sea: וַיַּעַשׂ אֶת־הַיָּם מוּצָק 1 K 7:23 = 2 Ch 4:2; יָם הַנְּחשֶׁת 2 K 25:13 1 Ch 18:8 Je 52:17; הַיָּם alone 1 K 7:24, 25 + 10 times K Ch + Je 52:20. e.g. 1 Kings 7:23
- 8. combinations are:
- a. 10 שְׂפַת הַיָּם Jos 11:4 1 K 5:9, and in sim. Gn 22:17 Ju 7:12 1 S 13:5; חוֹף הַיּ׳ Jos 9:1 Ez 25:16; חוֹף יַמִּים Gn 49:13 Ju 5:17; cf. חֶבֶל הַיָּם Zp 2:5 region by the sea; so v 6 but dub., v i. חֶבֶל 3 e.g. Joshua 11:4
- b. sand of the sea (shore) חוֹל הַיָּם (in sim.) Gn 32:13; 41:49 Ho 2:1 Is 10:22 + often (v. חוֹל); חוֹל גְּבוּל לַיָּם Je 5:22. e.g. Genesis 32:13
- c. לְשׁוֹן הַיָּם tongue (arm or gulf) of sea Jos 15:5; 18:19 Is 11:15. e.g. Joshua 15:5
- d. מִיָּם עַד־יָם Am 8:12 Zc 9:10 ψ 72:8, cf. Mi 7:12 Zc 14:8(×2) Jo 2:20(×2) Dn 11:45. e.g. Amos 8:12
- 9. = 3 (orig. 3, from position of Mediterr. with ref. to Palestine, and this sense still often perceptible): with other three points of compass Gn 13:14; 28:14 (J), Nu 2:18; 35:5 (P), Dt 3:27 1 K 7:25 1 Ch 9:24 2 Ch 4:4 Ez 42:19 + 6 times, Ez, Zc 14:4 Dn 8:4 ψ 107:3 (מִמִּזְרָח וּמִמַּעֲרָב מִצָּפוֹן וּמִיָּם; but read perhaps וּמִיָּמִן from the south, Hu Pe Bi Che); opp. east Jos 11:2; 16:6 + 16 times Ez 48; west alone Gn 12:8 (J); רוּחַ יָם Ex 10:19 (J) west wind; מִיָּם לְ westward Jos 8:9, 12, 13 +; יָ֫מָּה westward, often of tabernacle Ex 26:22, 27 Nu 3:23 + (all P), and of land Jos 5:1; 15:8, 10 etc., + often Ez; דֶּרֶךְ הַיָּם = westward Ez 41:12; גְּבוּל יָם western border Nu 34:6(×2) Jos 15:12; פְּאַת־יָם west side Ex 27:12; 38:12 Nu 35:5 Jos 18:14; פְּאַת דרך הים Ez 41:12 (v. further פאה). e.g. Genesis 13:14
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.m. Ex 14:27 sea (Ph. ים; Arabic يَمٌّ; Palm. בימא on the sea, VogNo. 79; on Assyrian iâmu,, sea, v. DlHWB307 M-ACD 52 HptBAS i.171 n.)—abs. יָם 1 S 13:5 +; יָ֫מָּה Gn 28:14 +; cstr. יָם Gn 14:3 + 23 times, also יָ֫מָּה סוּף Ex 10:19, but always יַם־סוּף Ex 13:18 + 22 times; sf. יַמָּהּ Je 51:36; pl. יַמִּים Ju 5:17 + 29 times;—sea: especially
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: from an unused root meaning to roar
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.
יָם
- (b. h.) sea, lake, reservoir. Ber. 54ᵇ יורדי הים seafarers (on landing). B. Bath. 74ᵇ יַמָּהּ של טבריא the Lake of Tiberias; ים הגדול the Mediterranean Ocean. Gitt. 8ᵃ ים אוקיינוס; (Tosef. Ter. II, 14; a. e. only אוק׳).—Bekh. 13ᵇ, a. fr. ים המלח the Dead Sea; a. fr.—Pl. יַמִּים, B. Bath. l. c.; a. fr.—Esp. a) the cosmetic paint bottle. Cant. R. to I, 3, v. זַכְרוּת.—b) יַם נפה the receiver of flour at sifting or in the mill. Kel. XV, 3; (Tosef. Kel. B. Mets. V, 5 only נפה). Zab. IV, 2 (only הים).—c) the receptacle in the wine or oil press, tank. B. Bath. IV, 5.—d) the water reservoir in the Solomonic Temple. Zeb. 62ᵇ; Yoma 58ᵇ; a. e.—Fem. form: יַמָּה. Y. Shek. V, 48ᵈ לְיַמָּתִי (I offer a sacrifice) for my yammah, סברין מימר שופעת כים they thought she meant that she had a hemorrhage (flowing like a sea), אמר לון בימה סכנת said he to us, she was in danger on sea; Men. 64ᵇ, v. זִיבָה).
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 118 distinct written forms H3220 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; 58 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3220, 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
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 314 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 339 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 1:10
- Exodus 10:19
- Leviticus 11:9
- Numbers 2:18
- Deuteronomy 1:7
- Joshua 1:4
- Judges 5:17
- 1 Samuel 13:5
- 2 Samuel 17:11
- 1 Kings 5:9
- 2 Kings 14:25
- 1 Chronicles 9:24
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.
