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.
Page 2 of 2 — showing verses 201–252 of 252 distinct verses where H4616 appears, across 29 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.
Jeremiah 23 verses
- Jeremiah 50:34 לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep Their Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of Hosts is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
- Jeremiah 51:39 לְמַ֣עַן prep When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says Yahweh.
Ezekiel 35 verses
- Ezekiel 4:17 לְמַ֥עַן prep that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
- Ezekiel 6:6 לְמַעַן֩ prep In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your sun-images may be hewn down, and your works may be abolished.
- Ezekiel 11:20 לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
- Ezekiel 12:16 לְמַ֨עַן prep But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the nations where they come; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 12:19 לְמַ֜עַן prep and tell the people of the land, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread with fearfulness, and drink their water in dismay, that her land may be desolate, [and despoiled] of all that is therein, because of the violence of all those who dwell therein.
- Ezekiel 14:5 לְמַ֛עַן prep that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
- Ezekiel 14:11 לְ֠מַעַן prep that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 16:54 לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep that you may bear your own shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done, in that you are a comfort to them.
- Ezekiel 16:63 לְמַ֤עַן prep that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 19:9 לְמַ֗עַן prep They put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into strongholds, that his voice should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel.
- Ezekiel 20:9 לְמַ֣עַן prep But I worked for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among which they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.
- Ezekiel 20:14 לְמַ֣עַן prep But I worked for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.
- Ezekiel 20:22 לְמַ֣עַן prep Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them forth.
- Ezekiel 20:26 לְמַ֣עַן לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep prep and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through [the fire] all that opens the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 20:44 לְמַ֣עַן prep You shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have dealt with you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, you house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 21:10 לְמַ֨עַן לְמַעַן prep prep it is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it is furbished that it may be as lightning: shall we then make mirth? the rod of my son, it condemns every tree.
- Ezekiel 21:15 לְמַ֣עַן prep I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied: ah! it is made as lightning, it is pointed for slaughter.
- Ezekiel 21:28 לְמַ֥עַן prep You, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and say you, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;
- Ezekiel 22:6 לְמַ֖עַן prep Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.
- Ezekiel 22:9 לְמַ֣עַן prep Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood; and in you they have eaten on the mountains: in the midst of you they have committed lewdness.
- Ezekiel 22:12 לְמַ֣עַן prep In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 22:27 לְמַ֖עַן prep Her princes in the midst of it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, [and] to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.
- Ezekiel 23:21 לְמַ֖עַן prep Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the handling of your bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth.
- Ezekiel 24:11 לְמַ֨עַן prep Then set it empty on the coals of it, that it may be hot, and the brass of it may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the rust of it may be consumed.
- Ezekiel 25:10 לְמַ֛עַן prep to the children of the east, [to go] against the children of Ammon; and I will give them for a possession, that the children of Ammon may not be remembered among the nations.
- Ezekiel 26:20 לְמַ֖עַן prep then will I bring you down with those who descend into the pit, to the people of old time, and will make you to dwell in the lower parts of the earth, in the places that are desolate of old, with those who go down to the pit, that you be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living:
- Ezekiel 31:14 לְמַ֡עַן prep to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up on their height, [even] all who drink water: for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.
- Ezekiel 36:5 לְמַ֥עַן prep therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, that have appointed my land to themselves for a possession with the joy of all their heart, with despite of soul, to cast it out for a prey.
- Ezekiel 36:22 לְמַעַנְ/כֶ֛ם prep + sfx pers 2mp Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I don't do [this] for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, where you went.
- Ezekiel 36:30 לְמַ֗עַן prep I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that you may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations.
- Ezekiel 36:32 לְמַעַנְ/כֶ֣ם prep + sfx pers 2mp Nor for your sake do I [this], says the Lord Yahweh, be it known to you: be ashamed and confounded for your ways, house of Israel.
- Ezekiel 38:16 לְמַעַן֩ prep and you shall come up against my people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land: it shall happen in the latter days, that I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when I shall be sanctified in you, Gog, before their eyes.
- Ezekiel 39:12 לְמַ֖עַן prep Seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
- Ezekiel 40:4 לְמַ֥עַן prep The man said to me, Son of man, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart on all that I shall show you; for, to the intent that I may show them to you, are you brought here: declare all that you see to the house of Israel.
- Ezekiel 46:18 לְמַ֨עַן֙ prep Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance, to thrust them out of their possession; he shall give inheritance to his sons out of his own possession, that my people not be scattered every man from his possession.
Daniel 2 verses
- Daniel 9:17 לְמַ֖עַן prep Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
- Daniel 9:19 לְמַֽעֲנְ/ךָ֣ prep + sfx pers 2ms Lord, hear; Lord, forgive; Lord, listen and do; don't defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.
Hosea 1 verse
Joel 1 verse
Amos 4 verses
- Amos 1:13 לְמַ֖עַן prep Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; Because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, That they may enlarge their border.
- Amos 2:7 לְמַ֥עַן prep They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, And deny justice to the oppressed; And a man and his father use the same maiden, to profane my holy name;
- Amos 5:14 לְמַ֣עַן prep Seek good, and not evil, That you may live; And so Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be with you, As you say.
- Amos 9:12 לְמַ֨עַן prep that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name," says Yahweh who does this.
Obadiah 1 verse
Micah 2 verses
- Micah 6:5 לְמַ֕עַן prep My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal, That you may know the righteous acts of Yahweh."
- Micah 6:16 לְמַעַן֩ prep For the statutes of Omri are kept, And all the works of the house of Ahab. You walk in their counsels, That I may make you a ruin, And her inhabitants a hissing; And you will bear the reproach of my people."
Habakkuk 2 verses
Zechariah 2 verses
- Zechariah 12:7 לְמַ֨עַן prep Yahweh also will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah.
- Zechariah 13:4 לְמַ֥עַן prep It will happen in that day, that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision, when he prophesies; neither will they wear a hairy mantle to deceive:
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.
