לביא
lion
‘lion’ 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
- Both
- Attested as both masculine and feminine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute 11 times (79%)
- Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Absolute 1 time (7%)
- Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (7%)
- Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Construct 1 time (7%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 14 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H3833 appears — 14 distinct verses across 10 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.
Genesis 1 verse
Numbers 2 verses
- Numbers 23:24 כְּ/לָבִ֣יא prep + n c bs Behold, the people rises up as a lioness, As a lion does he lift himself up: He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, Drink the blood of the slain.
- Numbers 24:9 וּ/כְ/לָבִ֖יא conj + prep + n c bs He couched, he lay down as a lion, As a lioness; who shall rouse him up? Blessed be everyone who blesses you, Cursed be everyone who curses you.
Deuteronomy 1 verse
Job 2 verses
Psalms 1 verse
Isaiah 2 verses
- Isaiah 5:29 כַּ/לָּבִ֑יא prep det + n c bs Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, And seize their prey and carry it off, And there will be no one to deliver.
- Isaiah 30:6 לָבִ֧יא n c bs The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit [them].
Ezekiel 1 verse
Hosea 1 verse
Joel 1 verse
Nahum 2 verses
- Nahum 2:11 לָבִ֥יא n c bs Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion's cubs, and no one made them afraid?
- Nahum 2:12 לְ/לִבְאֹתָ֑י/ו prep + n c bp cs + sfx pers 3ms The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with the kill, and his dens with prey.
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.
לביא — transliterated lâbîyʼ — is a Hebrew word carrying the sense “lion.” It first appears in Genesis 49:9. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 14 verses — uncommon. Its lexical range runs to 2 senses. Related forms include לבאות. 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 H3833 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 →
- 14
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 14 distinct verses.
- 10 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 10 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,910
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,910 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 14 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 14 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 7 verses · 50%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 4 verses · 29%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 3 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).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 4 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†: Great lion 3×, Lion 2×, Old lion 2×
- American Standard Version†: Lioness 8×, Lion 3×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Lioness 7×, Like a lioness 3×, Like a lion 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Like a lioness 6×, Lioness 6×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H3833 across 14† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 7 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 H3833 across 15† 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 H3833 across 14† 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H3833 across 14† 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.
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 0 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.
לביא I [m., f.] lion
לביא II lioness (on format. v. LagBN 93)
לביא III [m.] lion, poss. also [f.] lioness (cf. Arabic usage, and Gn 49
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. n.[m., f.] lion;—only pl. and fig. of foes נַפְשִׁי בְּתוֹךְ לְבָאִם ψ 57:5; of Assyrians לִבְאֹתָ֑יו Na 2:13 (‖ גֹּרֹתָיו; sf. ref. to אַרְיֵה).
I. n.f. lioness (on format. v. LagBN 93);—Ez 19:2 (‖ אֲרָיוֹת) fig. of mother of Isr.
I. n.[m.] lion, poss. also [f.] lioness (cf. Arabic usage, and Gn 49:9; Nu 24:9; Jb 4:11, etc.; but this by no means certain);—ל׳ abs. Gn 49:9 + 10 times;—Is 30:6 (‖ לַיִשׁ), Jb 38:39 (‖ כְּפִיר); Gn 49:9 in sim. of victor’s repose (רָבַץ; ‖ אַרְיֵה), cf. Nu 24:9 (c. שָׁכַב; ‖ אֲרִי), Dt 33:20 (שָׁכֵן וְטָרַף); v. also Nu 23:24 (קוּם; ‖ אֲרִי); fig. of Nineveh Na 2:12 (‖ אַרְיֵה), cf. Is 5:29 (שָֽׁאֲגָה in sim.; ‖ כְּפִירִים); fig. of wicked Jb 4:11 (+ אַרְיֵה, שָׁ֑הַל, כְּפִיר, לַיִשׁ v 10, 11); sim. of י׳, devouring (אָכַל) in judgment Ho 13:8; fig. of locusts מְתַלְּעוֹת ל׳ Jo 1:6 (‖ שִׁנֵּי אַרְיֵה).
— 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 men. 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.
לָבִיא
- preced.) [the flame-colored, cmp. אַרְיֵה,] lion. Snh. 95ᵃ the lion has six names ארי כפיר ל׳ וכ׳. Ib. 106ᵃ מי … בין ל׳ ללְבִיאָה who will dare to throw his garment between the lion and the lioness?—Pl. לְבָאִים. Y. Peah I, 16ᵃ (ref. to Ps. LVII, 5) זה … שהיו ל׳ בתורה this refers to Abner and Amasah who were lions in the Law (v. אַרְיֵה); Pesik. Par., p. 31ᵇ; a. e. e.g. Psalms 57:5
לַבְיא
- (?) Labia. Y. Shek. VII, 2 Bab. ed. בפונדקא דל׳ Ms. M. (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l., p. 63, note, ed. דלוי; Y. ed. 50ᶜ bot. אפ׳ דלוי) in the inn of L.
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 12 distinct written forms H3833 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| וּ/כְ/לָבִ֖יא | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | Genesis 49:9 | 2 |
| כְּ/לָבִ֣יא | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | Deuteronomy 33:20 | 2 |
| כְּ/לָבִ֔יא | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | Hosea 13:8 | 1 |
| כַּ/לָּבִ֑יא | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 5:29 | 1 |
| לְ/לִבְאֹתָ֑י/ו | Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Construct | Nahum 2:12 | 1 |
| לְ/לָבִ֣יא | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | Job 38:39 | 1 |
| לְבִיָּ֔א | Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute | Ezekiel 19:2 | 1 |
| לְבָאִם֮ | Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Absolute | Psalms 57:4 | 1 |
| לָ֝בִ֗יא | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | Job 4:11 | 1 |
| לָבִ֖יא | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | Joel 1:6 | 1 |
| לָבִ֥יא | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | Nahum 2:11 | 1 |
| לָבִ֧יא | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 30:6 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3833, 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.
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 14 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 14 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 49:9
- Numbers 23:24
- Deuteronomy 33:20
- Job 4:11
- Psalms 57:4
- Isaiah 5:29
- Ezekiel 19:2
- Hosea 13:8
- Joel 1:6
- Nahum 2:11
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.
