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).
Every verse where H3220 appears in the Book of Isaiah — 29 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 5:30 יָ֑ם n c ms They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.
- Isaiah 9:1 הַ/יָּם֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms But there shall be no gloom to her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time has he made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
- Isaiah 10:22 הַ/יָּ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms For though your people, Israel, be as the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant of them shall return: a destruction [is] determined, overflowing with righteousness.
- Isaiah 10:26 הַ/יָּ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh of Hosts will stir up against him a scourge, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and his rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up after the manner of Egypt.
- Isaiah 11:9 לַ/יָּ֥ם prep det + n c ms They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.
- Isaiah 11:11 הַ/יָּֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms It shall happen in that day, that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, who shall remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
- Isaiah 11:14 יָ֔מָּ/ה n c ms + sfx dem They shall fly down on the shoulder of the Philistines on the west; together shall they despoil the children of the east: they shall put forth their hand on Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
- Isaiah 11:15 יָם n c ms cs Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind will he wave his hand over the River, and will strike it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.
- Isaiah 16:8 יָֽם n c ms For the fields of Heshbon languish, [and] the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have broken down the choice branches of it, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness; its shoots were spread abroad, they passed over the sea.
- Isaiah 17:12 יַמִּ֖ים n c mp Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!
- Isaiah 18:2 בַּ/יָּ֜ם prep det + n c ms that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, [saying], Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!
- Isaiah 19:5 מֵֽ/הַ/יָּ֑ם prep + ptcl def.art + n c ms The waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and become dry.
- Isaiah 21:1 יָ֑ם n c ms The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.
- Isaiah 23:2 יָ֖ם n c ms Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.
- Isaiah 23:4 יָ֔ם הַ/יָּ֖ם n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms Be ashamed, Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, I have not travailed, nor brought forth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins.
- Isaiah 23:11 הַ/יָּ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms He has stretched out his hand over the sea, he has shaken the kingdoms: Yahweh has given commandment concerning Canaan, to destroy the strongholds of it.
- Isaiah 24:14 מִ/יָּֽם prep + n c ms These shall lift up their voice, they shall shout; for the majesty of Yahweh they cry aloud from the sea.
- Isaiah 24:15 הַ/יָּ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, even the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the isles of the sea!
- Isaiah 27:1 בַּ/יָּֽם prep det + n c ms In that day Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan the swift serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent; and he will kill the monster that is in the sea.
- Isaiah 42:10 הַ/יָּם֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth; you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants of it.
- Isaiah 43:16 בַּ/יָּ֖ם prep det + n c ms Thus says Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;
- Isaiah 48:18 הַ/יָּֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms Oh that you had listened to my commandments! then had your peace been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:
- Isaiah 49:12 וּ/מִ/יָּ֔ם conj + prep + n c ms Behold, these shall come from far; and, behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
- Isaiah 50:2 יָ֗ם n c ms Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.
- Isaiah 51:10 יָ֔ם יָ֔ם n c ms n c ms Isn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
- Isaiah 51:15 הַ/יָּ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar: Yahweh of Hosts is his name.
- Isaiah 57:20 כַּ/יָּ֣ם prep det + n c ms But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can't rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.
- Isaiah 60:5 יָ֔ם n c ms Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
- Isaiah 63:11 מִ/יָּ֗ם prep + n c ms Then he remembered the days of old, Moses [and] his people, [saying], Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? where is he who put his holy Spirit in the midst of them?
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.
