יַעַן
because
also: therefore, because that, on account of 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
- Conjunction
- A joining word (e.g. “and,” “but”) linking words or clauses.
Every verse where H3282 appears in the Book of Ezekiel — 37 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.
Ezekiel
- Ezekiel 5:7 יַ֤עַן conj Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you are turbulent more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are round about you;
- Ezekiel 5:9 יַ֖עַן conj I will do in you that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all your abominations.
- Ezekiel 5:11 יַ֚עַן conj Therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish [you]; neither shall my eye spare, and I also will have no pity.
- Ezekiel 12:12 יַ֗עַן conj The prince who is among them shall bear on his shoulder in the dark, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, because he shall not see the land with his eyes.
- Ezekiel 13:8 יַ֚עַן conj Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have spoken falsehood, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 13:10 יַ֣עַן וּ/בְ/יַ֜עַן conj conj + prep + conj Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there is no peace; and when one builds up a wall, behold, they daub it with whitewash:
- Ezekiel 13:22 יַ֣עַן conj Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive:
- Ezekiel 15:8 יַ֚עַן conj I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 16:36 יַ֣עַן conj Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Because your filthiness was poured out, and your nakedness uncovered through your prostitution with your lovers; and because of all the idols of your abominations, and for the blood of your children, that you gave to them;
- Ezekiel 16:43 יַ֗עַן conj Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have raged against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also will bring your way on your head, says the Lord Yahweh: and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations.
- Ezekiel 20:16 יַ֜עַן conj because they rejected my ordinances, and didn't walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.
- Ezekiel 20:24 יַ֜עַן conj because they had not executed my ordinances, but had rejected my statutes, and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.
- Ezekiel 21:4 יַ֛עַן conj Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:
- Ezekiel 21:24 יַ֗עַן יַ֚עַן conj conj Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because you have come to memory, you shall be taken with the hand.
- Ezekiel 22:19 יַ֛עַן conj Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you are all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
- Ezekiel 23:35 יַ֚עַן conj Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore bear you also your lewdness and your prostitution.
- Ezekiel 24:13 יַ֤עַן conj In your filthiness is lewdness: because I have cleansed you and you weren't cleansed, you shall not be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath toward you to rest.
- Ezekiel 25:3 יַעַן֩ conj and tell the children of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Because you said, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity:
- Ezekiel 25:6 יַ֚עַן conj For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have clapped your hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced with all the despite of your soul against the land of Israel;
- Ezekiel 25:8 יַ֗עַן conj Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because Moab and Seir say, Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations;
- Ezekiel 25:12 יַ֣עַן conj Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because Edom has dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended, and revenged himself on them;
- Ezekiel 25:15 יַ֛עַן conj Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with despite of soul to destroy with perpetual enmity;
- Ezekiel 26:2 יַ֠עַן conj Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken: the gate of the peoples; she is turned to me; I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste:
- Ezekiel 28:2 יַ֣עַן conj Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet you are man, and not God, though you did set your heart as the heart of God;-
- Ezekiel 28:6 יַ֛עַן conj therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God,
- Ezekiel 29:6 יַ֧עַן conj All the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am Yahweh, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
- Ezekiel 29:9 יַ֧עַן conj The land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. Because he has said, The river is mine, and I have made it;
- Ezekiel 31:10 יַ֕עַן conj Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;
- Ezekiel 34:8 יַ֣עַן conj As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn't feed my sheep;
- Ezekiel 34:21 יַ֗עַן conj Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad;
- Ezekiel 35:5 יַ֗עַן conj Because you have had a perpetual enmity, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end;
- Ezekiel 35:10 יַ֣עַן conj Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas Yahweh was there:
- Ezekiel 36:2 יַ֣עַן conj Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because the enemy has said against you, Aha! and, The ancient high places are ours in possession;
- Ezekiel 36:3 יַ֣עַן בְּ/יַ֡עַן conj prep + conj therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession to the residue of the nations, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people;
- Ezekiel 36:6 יַ֛עַן conj Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and tell the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my wrath, because you have borne the shame of the nations:
- Ezekiel 36:13 יַ֚עַן conj Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because they say to you, You [land] are a devourer of men, and have been a bereaver of your nation;
- Ezekiel 44:12 יַ֗עַן conj Because they ministered to them before their idols, and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel; therefore have I lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord Yahweh, and they shall bear their iniquity.
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.
יען — transliterated yaʻan — is a Hebrew word carrying the sense “because.” It first appears in Genesis 22:16. With 94 verses in 18 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Ezekiel (39% of all occurrences). It also covers “therefore”, “because that”, and “on account of”, alongside “because” — 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 H3282 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 →
- 94
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 94 distinct verses.
- 18 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 18 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #427
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 427 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 94 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 94 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 84 verses · 89%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 5 verses · 5%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 5 verses · 5%
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 3 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†: Because 7×, Forasmuch 3×, Forasmuch as 2×
- American Standard Version†: Because 7×, Forasmuch 3×, Forasmuch as 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Because 73×, Since 7×, For 6×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Because 71×, Of 4×, Yahweh 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3282 across 17† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 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 H3282 across 17† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 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 H3282 across 92† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 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 7 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H3282 across 93† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 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 6 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.
יען I and conj. v. sub I. ענה.
יען II in דַּנָֿה יַעַן 2 S 24
יען III
- 1. as prep., rarely with a subst., †Ez 5:9 יַעַן תּוֹעֲבוֹתֵיכֶם, Hg 1:9 יַעַן מָה, v 9 יַעַן בֵּיתִי; with a ptcp. Ez 36:13 יען אמרים because of men saying to you (but read prob. אָמְרָם, Co Toy Berthol); freq. with inf. c., 1 K 21:20 יַעַן הִתְמַכֶּרְךָ on account of thy having sold thyself, Am 5:11; Is 30:12; 37:29 (= 2 K 19:28) יַעַן הִתְרַגֶּזְךָ אֵלַי, Je 5:14; 7:13; 23:38; 48:7, and often (c. 18 times) in Ezek., as 5:7 (read יַעַן הַמְרֹֽתְכֶם), 13:8, 22; 25:3, 6, 8, 12. e.g. Ezekiel 5:9
- 2. As conj.:
- a. יַעַן אֲשֶׁר (32 times), usually with pf., as Gn 22:16 יען אשׁר עשׂית זאת because that thou hast done this, Dt 1:36 (Jos 14:14), Ju 2:20; 1 S 30:22; 1 K 3:11; 8:18; Je 19:4; 25:8; 29:23 (not Is) +; with impf. (in frequent. sense) Ez 44:12. e.g. Genesis 22:16
- b. יַעַן כִּי, Nu 11:20 יַעַן כִּי מְאַסְתֶּם אֶת־י׳, 1 K 13:21; 21:29; Is 3:16; 7:5; 8:6; 29:13. e.g. Numbers 11:20
- c. יַעַן alone (23 times), with pf. Nu 20:12 יַעַן לֹא הֶאֱמַנְתֶּם בִּי, 1 S 15:23; 1 K 14:13; 20:42; 2 K 22:19; Ho 8:1; Is 61:1; 65:12; 66:4; with impf. (freq.) †Ez 34:21. Once יַעַן אֲשֶׁר of the fut. †Ez 12:12 because he shall not see, etc., (but 𝔊 Co לְמַעַן אשׁר לא יֵרָאֶה לָעַיִן). Usually the vb. follows immediately, but Ezek. sometimes puts the obj.first for emph., 5:11 יַעַן אֶת־מִקְדָּשִׁי טִמֵּאת, 20:16, 24; 36:6, cf. 34:21. e.g. Numbers 20:12
- 3. יַעַן וּבְיַעַן, q. d. because and by the cause (that), sq. perf., Lv 26:43 (H) יען וביען בְּמִשְׁפָּטַי מָאָ֔סוּ, Ez 13:10; יַעַן בְּיַעַן sq. inf., Ez 36:3. (In all, reckoning יען (ו)ביען once each, 93 times, 20 in 1–2 K, 11 in Je, 38 in Ez; only 9 in Gn-2 S.) e.g. Leviticus 26:43
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
I. prep. and conj. v. sub I. ענה.
I. in דַּנָֿה יַעַן 2 S 24:6 v. supr. p. 193.
II. proposes subst., purpose, intention, but always used as prep. or conj., on account of, because (for יַעֲנֶה, of the form יִצְהָר, etc., Sta§ 259 Köii. 403; cf. عَنَى mean, intend):—
— 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 pay attention
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.
יַעַן
- v. עָנָה) corresponding; (conj) because. Sifra B’ḥuck. Par. 2, ch. VIII (ref. to יען וביען, Lev. XXVI, 43) וכי ראש בראש וכ׳ have I indeed paid them item for item (for all their sins)?—Ruth R. to II, 19; Lev. R. s. 34 י׳ ובי׳ הוא י̇ע̇ן̇ הוא ע̇נ̇י̇ ‘because and because’ (Lev. l. c.) yaʿan and ʿani have the same letters (intimating, ‘because they have rejected my statutes concerning the poor’). e.g. Leviticus 26:43
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 16 distinct written forms H3282 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.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| יַ֚עַן | Conjunction | Ezekiel 5:11 | 21 |
| יַ֗עַן | Conjunction | Ezekiel 12:12 | 19 |
| יַ֣עַן | Conjunction | Amos 5:11 | 19 |
| יַ֛עַן | Conjunction | Ezekiel 21:4 | 7 |
| יַ֤עַן | Conjunction | Ezekiel 5:7 | 5 |
| יַ֜עַן | Conjunction | Ezekiel 20:16 | 4 |
| יַ֠עַן | Conjunction | Ezekiel 26:2 | 4 |
| יַ֡עַן | Conjunction | Isaiah 61:1 | 4 |
| יַ֧עַן | Conjunction | Ezekiel 29:6 | 4 |
| יַעַן֩ | Conjunction | Ezekiel 25:3 | 4 |
| יַ֕עַן | Conjunction | Deuteronomy 1:36 | 3 |
| בְּ/יַ֡עַן | Conjunction | Ezekiel 36:3 | 1 |
| וּ/בְ/יַ֔עַן | Conjunction | Leviticus 26:43 | 1 |
| וּ/בְ/יַ֜עַן | Conjunction | Ezekiel 13:10 | 1 |
| יַ֖עַן | Conjunction | Ezekiel 5:9 | 1 |
| יַ֥עַן | Conjunction | Isaiah 30:12 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3282, 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 85 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 94 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 22:16
- Leviticus 26:43
- Numbers 11:20
- Deuteronomy 1:36
- Joshua 14:14
- Judges 2:20
- 1 Samuel 15:23
- 1 Kings 3:11
- 2 Kings 1:16
- 2 Chronicles 1:11
- Proverbs 1:24
- Isaiah 3:16
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.
