מָעוֹן
dwelling
also: habitation, refuge 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
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Both
- Attested as both masculine and feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H4583 appears in the Book of Jeremiah — 5 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.
Jeremiah
- Jeremiah 9:11 מְע֣וֹן n c bs cs I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.
- Jeremiah 10:22 מְע֥וֹן n c bs cs The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals.
- Jeremiah 25:30 וּ/מִ/מְּע֤וֹן conj + prep + n c bs cs Therefore prophesy you against them all these words, and tell them, Yahweh will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he will mightily roar against his fold; he will give a shout, as those who tread [the grapes], against all the inhabitants of the earth.
- Jeremiah 49:33 לִ/מְע֥וֹן prep + n c bs cs Hazor shall be a dwelling-place of jackals, a desolation forever: no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.
- Jeremiah 51:37 מְעוֹן n c bs cs Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
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.
מעון (mâʻôwn) is a Hebrew noun most often rendered “dwelling.” Where the King James Version says “habitation,” newer translations reach for “dwelling place” (Berean Standard Bible) and “dwelling” (unfoldingWord Literal Text); the renderings breakdown has the detail. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 17 verses — uncommon. Psalms dominates its distribution — 5 of 17 verses. It also covers “habitation” and “refuge”, alongside “dwelling” — see its full sense range. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4583 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 →
- 17
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 17 distinct verses.
- 7 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 7 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,671
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,671 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 17 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 17 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 9 verses · 53%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 7 verses · 41%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 6%
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 2 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†: Habitation 9×, Den 2×, Dwelling place 2×
- American Standard Version†: Habitation 8×, Dwelling-place 4×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Dwelling place 5×, Haunt 4×, Habitation 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Dwelling 5×, Dwelling place of 3×, Habitation of 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4583 across 19† 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4583 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 H4583 across 18† 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4583 across 17† 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.
8 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 8 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.
מעון I [m.] refuge, hence habitation
- 1. lair of jackals Je 9:10; 10:22; 49:33; 51:37 (all of desolated cities); מ׳ אֲרָיוֹת Na 2:12 (‖ מִרְעֶה; fig. of Nineveh). e.g. Jeremiah 9:10
- 2. dwelling of י׳:
- a. in heaven מ׳ קָדְשְׁךָ Dt 26:15 cf. Je 25:30 (‖ מָרוֹם), Zc 2:17 ψ 68:6; 2 Ch 30:27. e.g. Deuteronomy 26:15
- b. in temple מ׳ בֵּיתֶ֑ךָ ψ 26:8, מְעוֹנוֹ 2 Ch 36:15 (only here alone). e.g. Psalms 26:8
- 3. fig. of י׳ as refuge of his people, צוּר מ׳ ψ 71:3, מ׳ alone 90:1; 91:9.—מ׳ 1 S 2:29, 32 is unintelling. (v. Comm.), poss. read מְעוֹיֵן (eyeing [enviously], v. עין denom.) Klo HPS, cf. 𝔊 Bu. מְעוֹנָהּ Zp 3:7 is difficult in context, 𝔊 We Now read מֵעֵינֶיה (cf. Jos 9:23; 2 S 3:29). e.g. Psalms 71:3
מעון II
- 1. loc. in Judah Jos 15:55 (P), 1 S 25:2 (𝔊 Μααν, Μαων), now Maʿîn (BuhlGeogr. 163 and reff.), 8 miles S. of Hebron; hence מִדְבַּר מ׳ 23:24, 25(×2), so read also 25:1 (for MT פארן) 𝔊 Th We Dr Bu Klo Kit Löhr; cf. e.g. Joshua 15:55
- 2. m. in Judah 1 Ch 2:45(×2), 𝔊 Μεων, Μαων. e.g. 1 Chronicles 2:45
- 3. gent. Ju 10:12 named with Sidonians and Amalek as ancient foes of Isr.; poss. intended by writer as = מְעוּנִים q.v. p. 589 supr.; many read מִדְיָן (𝔊Biblical Aramaic 𝔊L Μαδιαμ); v. GFM.—מְעוֹן v. בֵּית בַּעַל מְעוֹן p. 111 supr.; 1 Ch 4:41 v. מְעוּנִים p. 589. e.g. Judges 10:12
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.] refuge, hence habitation;—abs. מ׳ ψ 71:3 +, cstr. מְעוֹן Je 25:30 +, sf. מְעוֹנֶ֑ךָ ψ 91:9, etc.;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from עונה (ʻôwnâh) (H5772) — cohabitation.
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.
מָעוֹן I
- 1. [selection; cmp. בִּירָה,] residence, esp. the Temple; המ׳ by the Temple! Tosef. Keth. III, 2. Tosef. Ker. IV, 4. Num. R. s. 12 שמת מְעוֹנְךָ בעליונים thou hast placed thy residence with the uppermost(angels). Koh. R. to XII, 7 מעוני טהור my residence (in heaven) is pure; a. e.
- 2. Maʿon, name of one of the heavens. Ḥag. 12ᵇ
- 3. [that which is looked for,] sustenance, support (v. I Sam. II, 29; 32). Gen. R. s. 68, a. e. הקב"ה מְעוֹנוֹ של עולמו the Lord is the support of his world; cmp. מָקוֹם.—[Ex. R. s. 24 מעון בתוך גרגרתו, some ed., read: מַעֲיָן.] e.g. 1 Samuel 2:29
מָעוֹן II
- 1. (b. h.) Maon, in Judaea. Mekh. Yithro, Baḥod. s. l. מ׳ יהודה.
- 2. מ׳, also בֵּית מ׳ Maon, Beth Maon, near Tiberias. Sabb. 139ᵃ bot. בי כנישתא דמ׳ the synagogue of M.; (Gen. R. s. 80, beg. בכנישתהון דמעונא, read דמְעוֹנָאֵי; Y. Snh. II, end, 20ᵈ בכ׳ בטיבריא). Y. Erub. V, 22ᵇ bot. בית מ׳; Y. Sot. I, 17ᵃ bot. בית מעיין (corr. acc.); Num. R. s. 9 (ed. Wil. p. 58).—[Tosef. Shebi. VII, 13 מעון אנא Var., ed. Zuck. שמעון; oth. ed. מען.]
עָוֹן
- 1. perversion, wrong. Deut. R. s. 3 לא חטא ולא ע׳ no sin or wrong. Sabb. 30ᵃ אותו ע׳ that sin (of David’s, against Uriah and Bathsheba); Snh. 107ᵃ מחול לי על אותו ע׳ כולו pardon me for that sin entirely. Sabb. 88ᵇ עֲוֹן גדי, v. כָּרַם. Snh. 44ᵇ אם יש בי ע׳ זה if I am guilty of that crime (for which I am to be put to death); a. fr.—ע׳ גליון, v. אָוֶן.—Pl. עֲוֹנוֹת, עֲווֹנוֹת. Ib. תהא … עֲווֹנוֹתַיי may my death be an atonement for all my wrong-doings. Ber. 5ᵇ מוחלין לו כל עֲוֹנוֹתָיו is forgiven all his sins. Yoma III, 8. Ib. 39ᵇ עְווֹנוֹתֵיהֶן של ישראל the sins of Israel; a. v. fr.
- 2. (sub. עוֹנֶשׁ) penalty. Yeb. 47ᵃ מודיעין אותו עֲוֹן לקט וכ׳ we acquaint him (the proselyte) with the consequences of a neglect of the laws concerning the share of the poor &c., v. עוֹנֶשׁ.—בַּעֲ׳ as a punishment for, in consequence of. Sabb. 32ᵇ בע׳ נדרים (sub. ביטול) as a punishment for the neglect of vows; בע׳ מזוזה for neglecting the law concerning the door-post inscription; בע׳ ביטול תורה for neglecting the study of the Law; בע׳ גילוי עריות for unchastity; a. fr.
עוּן
- to be round, curved; denom. עַיִן.
- (denom. of עַיִן)
- 1. to look in, read. Tanḥ. Ki Thissa 34 אסור … לעַיֵּין בתורה וכ׳ the interpreter must not look into the Torah (Hebrew text) and translate; (Pesik. R. s. 5 ליתן עיניו).
- 2. to look carefully; to search, investigate (cmp. דּוּק a. דִּקְדֵּק). B. Bath. 115ᵃ (ref. ובן אין לו, Num. XXVII, 8) עַיֵּין עליו (Ar. אַיֵּין) investigate his case (whether he has really no male issue); Yeb. 22ᵇ. Kidd. 4ᵃ (ref. to Lev. XXII, 13 וזרע אין לה) עיין לה; Yeb. 70ᵃ עיין עלה (Chald.). e.g. Numbers 27:8
- 3. to speculate, contemplate. Ber. 55ᵃ המאריך בתפלתו ומְעַיֵּין בה he who stays long in prayer and speculates on it (expecting its fulfillment as a reward for his lengthy prayer); Yalk. Prov. 950; Ber. 32ᵇ; a. e.
- 4. [to measure with the eye] to balance exactly, opp. הכריע (v. כָּרַע). B. Bath. 89ᵃ אין מְעַיְּינִין … במקום שמעיינין where it is customary to give overweight, you dare not sell by exact weight, and vice versa; a. e.—Part. pass. מְעוּיָּין a) (adv.) weighed exactly, even-balanced. Num. R. s. 16, end (ref. to עין בעין, Num. XIV, 14) הרי מאזנים מע׳ אתה וכ׳ behold the scales are evenly balanced, thou sayest …, and I say &c.; Deut. R. s. 5 הרי מדת הדין בכף מאזנים מע׳ judgment lies on evenly balanced scales. Tanḥ. Ki Thissa 34; Pesik. R. s. 5, beg. המאזניים מע׳ the claims on both sides are equal. Y. Snh. X, beg. 27ᶜ היה מע׳ if it (his sins and his merits) be even; Y. Peah I, 16ᵇ bot.; Y. Kidd. I, end, 61ᵈ מחציין (corr. acc.); Yalk. Ps. 784 כף מאזניים מע׳ [היה]; a. e.—b) having eyes (rings) or colors. Y. Kil. I, 27ᵃ, v. לְעוּנִים. e.g. Numbers 14:14
- (b. h.) [to contemplate; to augur;] to produce apparitions, to conjure. Snh. 65ᵇ, a. e. (interpret. מעונן, Deut. XVIII, 10) המעביר … על העין, v. זְכוּרוּ. Ib. (oth. interpret.) האוהז את העינים, v. אָחַז. Ib. (oth. interpret.; cmp. Pi.) המחשב עתים ושעות וכ׳ who calculates what times and hours are auspicious &c.; [Comment. on המחשב עתים explain עונן as denomin. of עוֹנָה I]; Tosef. Sabb. VII (VIII), 14 נותני עתים וכ׳. e.g. Deuteronomy 18:10
עוּן ²
- Pa. עֵיֵּין, עַיֵּן same,
- 1. to watch, guard. Targ. Y. II, Deut. XXXII, 10 עַיְּינֵי (Paeli).—B. Kam. 32ᵇ איבעי ליה עַיּוּנֵי (עַיּוּנֵיה) he ought to have been on his guard; Macc. 8ᵃ לעַיּיוּנֵיה.
- 2. to look out for, select. Targ. Job VIII, 17 יְעַיֵּין ed. Lag. (oth. ed. יְעוֹיִן).
- 3. to look into, meditate, study, speculate. M. Kat. 14ᵇ לעיוני בדיניה to study his case (not to decide it). Ib. אתו מצפרא ומְעַיְּינֵי בדיניה וכ׳ they meet in the morning and consider his case …, and then they come again at sunset &c. Ber. 25ᵃ עַיֵּין אי וכ׳ examine and see whether &c. Ib. 58ᵃ עד דמעייני ביה בדינא while they were arguing about him in court. Snh. 18ᵇ ומְעַיְּינִינָא וכ׳ and we argue on his case. Meg. 30ᵇ מְעַיְּינִינָן במילי דמתא we look into the affairs (the moral condition) of the town. Gitt. 60ᵃ; Tem. 14ᵇ מְעַיְּינֵי בספרא וכ׳ used to study the book of &c. R. Hash. 16ᵃ בחינה עיוני בעלמא היא ‘to probe’ (בחן) means merely to investigate (without decreeing). Ber. 55ᵃ דמְעַיּין בה when he thinks of his prayer (expecting its fulfilment), v. preced; a. fr.—[Pol. עוֹנֵן, v. עֲנַן.]
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 14 distinct written forms H4583 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| מְע֣וֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct | Jeremiah 9:11 | 3 |
| לִ/מְע֥וֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct | 2 Chronicles 30:27 | 2 |
| בִּ/מְע֥וֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct | Psalms 68:5 | 1 |
| וּ/מִ/מְּע֤וֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct | Jeremiah 25:30 | 1 |
| מְע֥וֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct | Jeremiah 10:22 | 1 |
| מְעוֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct | Jeremiah 51:37 | 1 |
| מְעוֹנֶֽ/ךָ | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct | Psalms 91:9 | 1 |
| מְעוֹנֽ/וֹ | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct | 2 Chronicles 36:15 | 1 |
| מִ/מְּע֥וֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct | Zechariah 2:13 | 1 |
| מִ/מְּע֨וֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct | Deuteronomy 26:15 | 1 |
| מָע֑וֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | 1 Samuel 2:29 | 1 |
| מָע֔וֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | 1 Samuel 2:32 | 1 |
| מָע֡וֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 71:3 | 1 |
| מָע֣וֹן | Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute | Psalms 90:1 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4583, 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
Derived from this word
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 17 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
- Deuteronomy 26:15
- 1 Samuel 2:29
- 2 Chronicles 30:27
- Psalms 26:8
- Jeremiah 9:11
- Nahum 2:11
- Zechariah 2:13
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.
