מַ֫עַן
for the sake of
‘for the sake of’ is one of 5 main senses 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
- Preposition
- A relational word (e.g. “in,” “to,” “from”) governing a noun.
Every verse where H4616 appears in the Book of Deuteronomy — 44 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.
Deuteronomy
- Deuteronomy 2:30 לְמַ֛עַן prep But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as at this day.
- Deuteronomy 3:26 לְמַ֣עַנְ/כֶ֔ם prep + sfx pers 2mp But Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and didn't listen to me; and Yahweh said to me, Let it suffice you; speak no more to me of this matter.
- Deuteronomy 4:1 לְמַ֣עַן prep Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.
- Deuteronomy 4:40 וּ/לְמַ֨עַן conj + prep You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh your God gives you, forever.
- Deuteronomy 5:14 לְמַ֗עַן prep but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God: [in it] you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your man-servant and your maid-servant may rest as well as you.
- Deuteronomy 5:16 לְמַ֣עַן וּ/לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep conj + prep "Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you; that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
- Deuteronomy 5:29 לְמַ֨עַן prep Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!
- Deuteronomy 5:33 לְמַ֤עַן prep You shall walk in all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.
- Deuteronomy 6:2 לְמַ֨עַן וּ/לְמַ֖עַן prep conj + prep that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.
- Deuteronomy 6:18 לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep You shall do that which is right and good in the sight of Yahweh; that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers,
- Deuteronomy 6:23 לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers.
- Deuteronomy 8:1 לְמַ֨עַן prep All the commandment which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers.
- Deuteronomy 8:2 לְמַ֨עַן prep You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not.
- Deuteronomy 8:3 לְמַ֣עַן prep He humbled you, and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you didn't know, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh does man live.
- Deuteronomy 8:16 לְמַ֣עַן וּ/לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep conj + prep who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn't know; that he might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end:
- Deuteronomy 8:18 לְמַ֨עַן prep But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day.
- Deuteronomy 9:5 וּ/לְמַ֜עַן conj + prep Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
- Deuteronomy 11:8 לְמַ֣עַן prep Therefore shall you keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go over to possess it;
- Deuteronomy 11:9 וּ/לְמַ֨עַן conj + prep and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey.
- Deuteronomy 11:21 לְמַ֨עַן prep that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.
- Deuteronomy 12:25 לְמַ֨עַן prep You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh.
- Deuteronomy 12:28 לְמַעַן֩ prep Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.
- Deuteronomy 13:17 לְמַעַן֩ prep There shall cleave nothing of the devoted thing to your hand; that Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers;
- Deuteronomy 14:23 לְמַ֣עַן prep You shall eat before Yahweh your God, in the place which he shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock; that you may learn to fear Yahweh your God always.
- Deuteronomy 14:29 לְמַ֤עַן prep and the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
- Deuteronomy 16:3 לְמַ֣עַן prep You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
- Deuteronomy 16:20 לְמַ֤עַן prep That which is altogether just shall you follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
- Deuteronomy 17:16 לְמַ֖עַן prep Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, You shall henceforth return no more that way.
- Deuteronomy 17:19 לְמַ֣עַן prep and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;
- Deuteronomy 17:20 לְמַעַן֩ prep that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.
- Deuteronomy 20:18 לְמַ֗עַן prep that they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God.
- Deuteronomy 22:7 לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep you shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take to yourself; that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
- Deuteronomy 23:20 לְמַ֨עַן prep to a foreigner you may lend on interest; but to your brother you shall not lend on interest, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it.
- Deuteronomy 24:19 לְמַ֤עַן prep When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
- Deuteronomy 25:15 לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep A perfect and just weight shall you have; a perfect and just measure shall you have: that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
- Deuteronomy 27:3 לְמַ֡עַן prep and you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you are passed over; that you may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
- Deuteronomy 29:6 לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.
- Deuteronomy 29:9 לְמַ֣עַן prep Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
- Deuteronomy 29:13 לְמַ֣עַן prep that he may establish you this day to himself for a people, and that he may be to you a God, as he spoke to you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
- Deuteronomy 29:19 לְמַ֛עַן prep and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.
- Deuteronomy 30:6 לְמַ֥עַן prep Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.
- Deuteronomy 30:19 לְמַ֥עַן prep I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed;
- Deuteronomy 31:12 לְמַ֨עַן וּ/לְמַ֣עַן prep conj + prep Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and your foreigner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law;
- Deuteronomy 31:19 לְמַ֨עַן prep Now therefore write you this song for you, and teach you it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.
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.
מען — transliterated maʻan — is a Hebrew word carrying the sense “for the sake of.” BDB distinguishes 5 senses for it. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 252 verses — common. Debuting at Genesis 12:13, it then recurs through the corpus. It shares a root with ענה, מענה and ענה. 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 H4616 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 →
- 252
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 252 distinct verses.
- 29 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 29 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #182
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 182 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 252 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Deuteronomy 44 verses 17%
- Ezekiel 35 verses 14%
- Psalms 32 verses 13%
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 252 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 127 verses · 50%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 73 verses · 29%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 52 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).
- King James Version: For 2×
- American Standard Version: For 2×, That 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: That 120×, Sake 30×, To 18×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: That 121×, Sake of 28×, Order to 20×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4616 across 9 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H4616 across 9 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 H4616 across 254 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 21 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 17 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4616 across 267 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 11 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 5 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.
- purpose, intent
- for the sake of
- in view of, on account of
- for the purpose of, to the intent that, in order to conjunction
- to the end that
Word origin
[ מַ֫עַן ] subst. purpose, intent, only with לְ, in לְמַ֫עַן 271 prep. and conj. for the sake of, on account of, to the intent or in order that
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from ענה (ʻânâh) (H6030) — to answer.
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.
מען
- , Lev. R. s. 32 מתמענת, v. מָעַט.
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 38 distinct written forms H4616 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| לְמַ֣עַן | Preposition | Amos 5:14 | 60 |
| לְמַ֥עַן | Preposition | Amos 2:7 | 27 |
| לְמַ֖עַן | Preposition | Amos 1:13 | 25 |
| לְמַ֨עַן֙ | Preposition | Deuteronomy 6:18 | 25 |
| לְמַ֨עַן | Preposition | Amos 9:12 | 21 |
| לְמַ֤עַן | Preposition | Deuteronomy 5:33 | 16 |
| לְמַ֗עַן | Preposition | Deuteronomy 5:14 | 14 |
| לְמַעַן֩ | Preposition | Deuteronomy 12:28 | 12 |
| לְמַ֛עַן | Preposition | Deuteronomy 2:30 | 9 |
| לְ֝מַ֗עַן | Preposition | Proverbs 19:20 | 8 |
| לְמַ֧עַן | Preposition | Exodus 16:4 | 6 |
| לְ֭מַעַן | Preposition | Psalms 51:4 | 5 |
| וּ/לְמַ֖עַן | Preposition | Deuteronomy 6:2 | 4 |
| לְ֠מַעַן | Preposition | Ezekiel 14:11 | 4 |
| וּ/לְמַ֥עַן | Preposition | 1 Kings 11:13 | 3 |
| וּ/לְמַ֨עַן֙ | Preposition | Deuteronomy 5:16 | 3 |
| לְמַ֡עַן | Preposition | Deuteronomy 27:3 | 3 |
| לְמַֽעֲנִ֔/י | Preposition | 2 Kings 19:34 | 3 |
| לְמַֽעַן | Preposition | Nehemiah 6:13 | 3 |
| וּ/לְמַ֨עַן | Preposition | Deuteronomy 4:40 | 2 |
| לְמַ֜עַן | Preposition | Ezekiel 12:19 | 2 |
| הַ֭/לְמַעַנְ/ךָ | Preposition | Job 18:4 | 1 |
| וּ/לְמַ֛עַן | Preposition | Exodus 9:16 | 1 |
| וּ/לְמַ֜עַן | Preposition | Deuteronomy 9:5 | 1 |
| וּ/לְמַ֡עַן | Preposition | Exodus 10:2 | 1 |
| וּ/לְמַ֣עַן | Preposition | Deuteronomy 31:12 | 1 |
| וּ/לְמַ֤עַן | Preposition | Jeremiah 44:8 | 1 |
| לְמַ֕עַן | Preposition | Micah 6:5 | 1 |
| לְמַ֣עַנְ/כֶ֔ם | Preposition | Deuteronomy 3:26 | 1 |
| לְמַֽעֲנְ/ךָ֣ | Preposition | Daniel 9:19 | 1 |
| לְמַעֲנִ֑/י | Preposition | Isaiah 43:25 | 1 |
| לְמַעֲנִ֛/י | Preposition | Isaiah 48:11 | 1 |
| לְמַעֲנִ֧/י | Preposition | Isaiah 48:11 | 1 |
| לְמַעַן | Preposition | Ezekiel 21:10 | 1 |
| לְמַעַן֮ | Preposition | Leviticus 23:43 | 1 |
| לְמַעַנְ/כֶ֛ם | Preposition | Ezekiel 36:22 | 1 |
| לְמַעַנְ/כֶ֞ם | Preposition | Isaiah 43:14 | 1 |
| לְמַעַנְ/כֶ֣ם | Preposition | Ezekiel 36:32 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H4616, 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.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. 3 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 232 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 252 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 12:13
- Exodus 1:11
- Leviticus 17:5
- Numbers 15:40
- Deuteronomy 2:30
- Joshua 1:7
- Judges 2:22
- 1 Samuel 15:15
- 2 Samuel 13:5
- 1 Kings 2:3
- 2 Kings 8:19
- 1 Chronicles 28:8
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.
