אֱלִיהוּ
Elihu
BDB lists 6 entries for ‘Elihu’ 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
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H453 appears — 11 distinct verses across 3 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.
1 Samuel 1 verse
1 Chronicles 3 verses
- 1 Chronicles 12:20 וֶ/אֱלִיה֖וּא conj + n Proper As he went to Ziklag, there fell to him of Manasseh, Adnah, and Jozabad, and Jediael, and Michael, and Jozabad, and Elihu, and Zillethai, captains of thousands who were of Manasseh.
- 1 Chronicles 26:7 אֱלִיה֖וּ n Proper The sons of Shemaiah: Othni, and Rephael, and Obed, Elzabad, whose brothers were valiant men, Elihu, and Semachiah.
- 1 Chronicles 27:18 אֱלִיה֖וּ n Proper of Judah, Elihu, one of the brothers of David: of Issachar, Omri the son of Michael:
Job 7 verses
- Job 32:2 אֱלִיה֣וּא n Proper Then the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath was kindled because he justified himself rather than God.
- Job 32:4 וֶֽ/אֱלִיה֗וּ conj + n Proper Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were elder than he.
- Job 32:5 אֱלִיה֗וּא n Proper When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was kindled.
- Job 32:6 אֱלִיה֖וּא n Proper Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, "I am young, and you are very old; Therefore I held back, and didn't dare show you my opinion.
- Job 34:1 אֱלִיה֗וּא n Proper Moreover Elihu answered,
- Job 35:1 אֱלִיה֗וּ n Proper Moreover Elihu answered,
- Job 36:1 אֱלִיה֗וּא n Proper Elihu also continued, and said,
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.
“Elihu” is the headline sense of the Hebrew name אליהו (ʼĔlîyhûw). It clusters heavily in Job, which alone accounts for 64% of its uses. With 11 verses in 3 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. Scripture first uses it in 1 Samuel 1:1. The sections below give every occurrence and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H453 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 →
- 11
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 11 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,210
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,210 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 11 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Job 7 verses 64%
- 1 Chronicles 3 verses 27%
- 1 Samuel 1 verse 9%
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 11 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 10 verses · 91%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 1 verse · 9%
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: Elihu 9×
- American Standard Version: Elihu 8×, Moreover elihu 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Elihu 9×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Elihu 10×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H453 across 11 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 H453 across 11 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H453 across 11 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 H453 across 11 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears 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 5 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.
- a. the young friend of Job Jb 32:2, 4, 5, 6; 34:1; 35:1; 36:1. e.g. Job 32:2
- b. an Ephraimite, Samuel’s great-grandfather 1 S 1:1 cf. אֱלִיאָב 1 Ch 6:12, אֱלִיאֵל v 19. e.g. 1 Samuel 1:1
- c. chief of Manasseh 1 Ch 12:20. e.g. 1 Chronicles 12:20
- d. a Korahite 1 Ch 26:7. e.g. 1 Chronicles 26:7
- e. one of the brethren of David 1 Ch 27:18 (cf. אֱלִיאָב 1 S 16:6). e.g. 1 Chronicles 27:18
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
Jb 32:4 + 3 times; אֱלִיהוּא Jb 32:2 + 6 times; n.pr.m. (He is (my) God)
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from אל (ʼêl) (H410) — God.
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.
אֵלִיָּהוּ
- (b. h.) pr. n. m. Eliyahu, Elijah, the great prophet in the days of Ahab, freq. represented, in Talmud and Midrashim, as intervening in behalf of the pious and punishing wrong-doers, and expected, in the Messianic days, to clear up doubts and prepare the heavenly kingdom; cmp. Mal. III, 23.—Ber. 58ᵃ, a. fr. אתא א׳ אידמי ליה וכ׳ E. came and appeared to him in the disguise of &c. Gen. R. s. 33, a. fr. אתא א׳ זכור לטוב E., whose memory be blessed, came &c. B. Mets. I, 8 (37ᵃ), a. fr. יהא מונח עד שיבוא א׳ let it be deposited until E. shall come (and decide to whom it belongs, i.e. an indefinite time until the matter be cleared up). Men. 45ᵃ; a. fr.—סֵדֶר אֵלִיָהוּ־ Seder Eliyahu, name of a lost Talmudic treatise, divided into Seder Eliyahu Rabba (Large) and S. E. Zuta (Small). Keth. 106ᵃ (of legendary origin). e.g. Malachi 3:23
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 8 distinct written forms H453 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| אֱלִיה֗וּא | Noun, Proper | Job 32:5 | 3 |
| אֱלִיה֖וּ | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 26:7 | 2 |
| אֱלִיה֖וּא | Noun, Proper | Job 32:6 | 1 |
| אֱלִיה֗וּ | Noun, Proper | Job 35:1 | 1 |
| אֱלִיה֛וּא | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 1:1 | 1 |
| אֱלִיה֣וּא | Noun, Proper | Job 32:2 | 1 |
| וֶ/אֱלִיה֖וּא | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 12:20 | 1 |
| וֶֽ/אֱלִיה֗וּ | Noun, Proper | Job 32:4 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H453, 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.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- אל אלהי ישראל ʼÊl ʼĕlôhêy Yisrâʼêl H415 Elelohe-israel
- אל ביתאל ʼÊl Bêyth-ʼÊl H416 El-beth-el
- אלדד ʼEldâd H419 Eldad
- אלדעה ʼEldâʻâh H420 Eldaah
- אלוה ʼĕlôwahh H433 God
- אלזבד ʼElzâbâd H443 Elzabad
- אלחנן ʼElchânân H445 Elhanan
- אליאב ʼĔlîyʼâb H446 Eliab
- אליאל ʼĔlîyʼêl H447 Eliel
- אליאתה ʼĔlîyʼâthâh H448 Eliathah
- אלידע ʼElyâdâʻ H450 Eliada
- אליה ʼÊlîyâh H452 Elijah
- אליחבא ʼElyachbâʼ H455 Eliahba
- אליחרף ʼĔlîychôreph H456 Elihoreph
- אלימלך ʼĔlîymelek H458 Elimelech
- אליסף ʼElyâçâph H460 Eliasaph
- אליעזר ʼĔlîyʻezer H461 Eliezer
- אליעם ʼĔlîyʻâm H463 Eliam
- אליפז ʼĔlîyphaz H464 Eliphaz
- אליפל ʼĔlîyphâl H465 Eliphal
- אליפלהו ʼĔlîyphᵉlêhûw H466 Elipheleh
- אליפלט ʼĔlîypheleṭ H467 Eliphelet
- אליצור ʼĔlîytsûwr H468 Elizur
- אליצפן ʼĔlîytsâphân H469 Elizaphan
+24 more proper names from this root (not shown).
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 51 — not the complete family. 49 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Elihu). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
Whose God is he. (1.) "The son of Barachel, a Buzite" (Job 32:2), one of Job's friends. When the debate between Job and his friends is brought to a close, Elihu for the first time makes his appearance, and delivers his opinion on the points at issue (Job 32-37).
(2.) The son of Tohu, and grandfather of Elkanah (1 Sam. 1:1). He is called also Eliel (1 Chr. 6:34) and Eliab (6:27).
(3.) One of the captains of thousands of Manasseh who joined David at Ziklag (1 Chr. 12:20).
(4.) One of the family of Obed-edom, who were appointed porters of the temple under David (1 Chr. 26:7).
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(whose God is he (Jehovah)).
+ One of the interlocutors in the book of Job. [Job, Job, Book Of] He is described as the "son of Baerachel the Buzite." + A forefather of Samuel the prophet. (1 Samuel 1:1) + In (1 Chronicles 27:18) Elihu "of the brethren of David" is mentioned as the chief of the tribe of Judah. + One of the captains of the thousands of Manasseh, (1 Chronicles 12:20) who followed David to Ziklag after he had left the Philistine army on the eve of the battle of Gilboa. + A Korhite Levite in the time of David. (1 Chronicles 26:7)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
he is my God himself
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 11 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 11 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
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.
