כִּלְיָה
kidney
‘kidney’ is one of 2 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
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute 20 times (65%)
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct 11 times (35%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 31 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H3629 appears — 26 distinct verses across 9 books. 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 2 verses
- Exodus 29:13 הַ/כְּלָיֹ֔ת ptcl def.art + n c fp You shall take all the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar.
- Exodus 29:22 הַ/כְּלָיֹ֗ת ptcl def.art + n c fp Also you shall take some of the ram's fat, the fat tail, the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of consecration),
Leviticus 9 verses
- Leviticus 3:4 הַ/כְּלָיֹ֔ת הַ/כְּלָי֖וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp ptcl def.art + n c fp and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, he shall take away.
- Leviticus 3:10 הַ/כְּלָיֹ֔ת הַ/כְּלָיֹ֖ת ptcl def.art + n c fp ptcl def.art + n c fp and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, he shall take away.
- Leviticus 3:15 הַ/כְּלָיֹ֔ת הַ/כְּלָיֹ֖ת ptcl def.art + n c fp ptcl def.art + n c fp and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, he shall take away.
- Leviticus 4:9 הַ/כְּלָיֹ֔ת הַ/כְּלָי֖וֹת ptcl def.art + n c fp ptcl def.art + n c fp and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, he shall take away,
- Leviticus 7:4 הַ/כְּלָיֹ֔ת הַ/כְּלָיֹ֖ת ptcl def.art + n c fp ptcl def.art + n c fp and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, shall he take away;
- Leviticus 8:16 הַ/כְּלָיֹ֖ת ptcl def.art + n c fp He took all the fat that was on the innards, and the cover of the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat; and Moses burned it on the altar.
- Leviticus 8:25 הַ/כְּלָיֹ֖ת ptcl def.art + n c fp He took the fat, and the fat tail, and all the fat that was on the innards, and the cover of the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and the right thigh;
- Leviticus 9:10 הַ/כְּלָיֹ֜ת ptcl def.art + n c fp but the fat, and the kidneys, and the cover from the liver of the sin offering, he burned upon the altar; as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Leviticus 9:19 וְ/הַ/כְּלָיֹ֔ת conj + ptcl def.art + n c fp and the fat of the ox and of the ram, the fat tail, and that which covers the innards, and the kidneys, and the cover of the liver:
Deuteronomy 1 verse
Job 2 verses
- Job 16:13 כִּ֭לְיוֹתַ/י n c fp cs + sfx pers 1cs His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground.
- Job 19:27 כִלְיֹתַ֣/י n c fp cs + sfx pers 1cs Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. "My heart is consumed within me.
Psalms 5 verses
- Psalms 7:9 וּ/כְלָי֗וֹת conj + n c fp Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, But establish the righteous; Their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God.
- Psalms 16:7 כִלְיוֹתָֽ/י n c fp cs + sfx pers 1cs I will bless Yahweh, who has given me counsel. Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.
- Psalms 26:2 כִלְיוֹתַ֣/י n c fp cs + sfx pers 1cs Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind.
- Psalms 73:21 וְ֝/כִלְיוֹתַ֗/י conj + n c fp cs + sfx pers 1cs For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart.
- Psalms 139:13 כִלְיֹתָ֑/י n c fp cs + sfx pers 1cs For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb.
Proverbs 1 verse
Isaiah 1 verse
Jeremiah 4 verses
- Jeremiah 11:20 כְּלָי֖וֹת n c fp But, Yahweh of Hosts, who judge righteously, who try the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my cause.
- Jeremiah 12:2 מִ/כִּלְיוֹתֵי/הֶֽם prep + n c fp cs + sfx pers 3mp You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.
- Jeremiah 17:10 כְּלָי֑וֹת n c fp I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
- Jeremiah 20:12 כְלָי֖וֹת n c fp But, Yahweh of Hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my cause.
Lamentations 1 verse
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.
כליה — transliterated kilyâh — is a Hebrew noun carrying the sense “kidney.” Where the King James Version keeps “reins,” modern versions use “kidneys” — see the renderings breakdown. Spanning 26 verses in 9 books, it ranks among the moderately common words of the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Leviticus (35% of all occurrences). BDB distinguishes 2 senses for it. 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 H3629 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 →
- 26
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 26 distinct verses.
- 9 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 9 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,120
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,120 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 26 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 26 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 12 verses · 46%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 9 verses · 35%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 5 verses · 19%
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: Kidneys 17×, Reins 12×
- American Standard Version: Kidneys 16×, Heart 5×, Reins 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Kidneys 18×, Heart 3×, Inmost being 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Kidneys 28×, The 9×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3629 across 31 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 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 H3629 across 29 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 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 H3629 across 31 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H3629 across 41 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 2 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- kidneys
- (TWOT) reins
Word origin
[ כִּלְיָה ] n.f. only pl. kidneys
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from כלי (kᵉlîy) (H3627) — vessel.
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.
כִּלְיָה
- , v. כּוֹלְיָא)
- 1. kidney. Y. B. Mets. II, beg. 8ᵇ. Ḥull. 55ᵃ כוליא; a. fr.—Pl. כְּלָיוֹת, constr. כִּלְיוֹת. Ib. III, 2. Ber. 61ᵃ, a. e., v. יָעַץ. Tanḥ. Vayigg. 11, a. e. כִּלְיוֹתָיו, v. כַּד II; a. fr.
- 2. the belly of a stove. B. Bath. II, 11 כליא (Ms. F. a. H. כיליא). Ib. 20ᵇ כ׳ דתנור טפח the protuberance of the belly of the stove is one hand-breadth beyond the rim; Tosef. ib. I, 3 כיליא ed. Zuck. (Var. כִּלְיָיה, כּוּלְיָיה). [R. Ḥănanel: כיליא = κοιλία.]
כְּלָיָה
- , v. כְּלָיָיה
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 20 distinct written forms H3629 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.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 26 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 26 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
- Exodus 29:13
- Leviticus 3:4
- Deuteronomy 32:14
- Job 16:13
- Psalms 7:9
- Proverbs 23:16
- Isaiah 34:6
- Jeremiah 11:20
- Lamentations 3:13
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.
