נָבִיא
prophet
also: spokesman, speaker 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
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H5030 appears in the Book of 2 Chronicles — 25 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.
2 Chronicles
- 2 Chronicles 9:29 הַ/נָּבִ֔יא ptcl def.art + n c ms Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, aren't they written in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?
- 2 Chronicles 12:5 הַ/נָּבִיא֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms Now Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, who were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, Thus says Yahweh, You have forsaken me, therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.
- 2 Chronicles 12:15 הַ/נָּבִ֛יא ptcl def.art + n c ms Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, aren't they written in the histories of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, after the manner of genealogies? There were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.
- 2 Chronicles 13:22 הַ/נָּבִ֥יא ptcl def.art + n c ms The rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings, are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo.
- 2 Chronicles 15:8 הַ/נָּבִיא֒ ptcl def.art + n c ms When Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of Yahweh, that was before the porch of Yahweh.
- 2 Chronicles 18:5 הַ/נְּבִאִים֮ ptcl def.art + n c mp Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred men, and said to them, Shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? They said, Go up; for God will deliver it into the hand of the king.
- 2 Chronicles 18:6 נָבִ֛יא n c ms But Jehoshaphat said, Isn't there here a prophet of Yahweh besides, that we may inquire of him?
- 2 Chronicles 18:9 הַ֨/נְּבִיאִ֔ים ptcl def.art + n c mp Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, and they were sitting in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them.
- 2 Chronicles 18:11 הַ֨/נְּבִאִ֔ים ptcl def.art + n c mp All the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper; for Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king.
- 2 Chronicles 18:12 הַ/נְּבִאִ֛ים ptcl def.art + n c mp The messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, Behold, the words of the prophets [declare] good to the king with one mouth: let your word therefore, Please be like one of theirs, and speak you good.
- 2 Chronicles 18:21 נְבִיאָ֑י/ו n c mp cs + sfx pers 3ms He said, 'I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' He said, 'You shall entice him, and shall prevail also: go forth, and do so.'
- 2 Chronicles 18:22 נְבִיאֶ֣י/ךָ n c mp cs + sfx pers 2ms Now therefore, behold, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets; and Yahweh has spoken evil concerning you.
- 2 Chronicles 20:20 בִ/נְבִיאָ֖י/ו prep + n c mp cs + sfx pers 3ms They rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: believe in Yahweh your God, so shall you be established; believe his prophets, so shall you prosper.
- 2 Chronicles 21:12 הַ/נָּבִ֖יא ptcl def.art + n c ms There came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your father, Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah,
- 2 Chronicles 24:19 נְבִאִ֔ים n c mp Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again to Yahweh; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.
- 2 Chronicles 25:15 נָבִ֔יא n c ms Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which have not delivered their own people out of your hand?
- 2 Chronicles 25:16 הַ/נָּבִ֗יא ptcl def.art + n c ms It happened, as he talked with him, that [the king] said to him, Have we made you of the king's counsel? Stop! Why should you be struck down? Then the prophet stopped, and said, I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this, and have not listened to my counsel.
- 2 Chronicles 26:22 הַ/נָּבִֽיא ptcl def.art + n c ms Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write.
- 2 Chronicles 28:9 נָבִ֥יא n c ms But a prophet of Yahweh was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out to meet the host that came to Samaria, and said to them, Behold, because Yahweh, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has reached up to heaven.
- 2 Chronicles 29:25 הַ/נָּבִ֑יא נְבִיאָֽי/ו ptcl def.art + n c ms n c mp cs + sfx pers 3ms He set the Levites in the house of Yahweh with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was of Yahweh by his prophets.
- 2 Chronicles 32:20 הַ/נָּבִ֖יא ptcl def.art + n c ms Hezekiah the king, and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, prayed because of this, and cried to heaven.
- 2 Chronicles 32:32 הַ/נָּבִ֔יא ptcl def.art + n c ms Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
- 2 Chronicles 35:18 הַ/נָּבִ֑יא ptcl def.art + n c ms There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
- 2 Chronicles 36:12 הַ/נָּבִ֖יא ptcl def.art + n c ms and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God; he didn't humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet [speaking] from the mouth of Yahweh.
- 2 Chronicles 36:16 בִּ/נְבִאָ֑י/ו prep + n c mp cs + sfx pers 3ms but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy.
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.
“prophet” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun נביא (nâbîyʼ). Beyond “prophet” it also covers “spokesman” and “speaker” — see its full sense range. With 288 verses in 27 books, it is a common word in the Hebrew Bible. It concentrates in Jeremiah, which alone accounts for 30% of its uses. First canonically at Genesis 20:7, it enters the text early. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5030 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 →
- 288
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 288 distinct verses.
- 27 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 27 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #158
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 158 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 288 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 288 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 230 verses · 80%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 46 verses · 16%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 12 verses · 4%
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: Prophet 139×, Prophets 108×, All the prophets 7×
- American Standard Version: Prophet 131×, Prophets 99×, All the prophets 6×
- Berean Standard Bible: Prophet 150×, Prophets 135×, Among the prophets 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Prophet 134×, Prophets 114×, Prophets of 13×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5030 across 314 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 40 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 2 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H5030 across 313 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 51 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 H5030 across 310 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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 6 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5030 across 292 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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 3 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.
- 1. genuine prophet of י׳, נביא, anciently called רֹאֶה, 1 S 9:9 (antiquarian note); change prob. occurred in times of Elijah and is first reflected in Ephr. lit. as applied to Abraham Gn 20:7; Moses Dt 34:10, M. and other early proph. Ho 6:5; 12:11(×2), 14(×2) Am 2:11, 12; of proph. in ecstatic state Nu 12:6 (E), 11:24 (JE). So in Judaic lit., of prophet like Moses Dt 18:15, 18 (D), of Aaron (as mouthpiece of M.) Ex 7:1 (P), of Sam. 1 S 3:20, an unknown Ju 6:8; in time of Sam. proph. were organized in bands: †הֶבֶל נביאים 1 S 10:5, 10; †להקת הנ׳ 1 S 19:20; and in time of Elijah were †בְּנֵי הַנְּבִיאִים = members of prophets’ guilds 1 K 20:35 2 K 2:3, 5, 7, 15; 4:1, 38(×2) נָבִיא of genuine proph. (besides phrases), in Judaic prophets, only of Jer., Je 1:5; Ezekiel, Ez 2:5 = 33:33; of ancient prophets Je 28:8, 9(×3) Zc 1:6; 8:9; especially †הנביאים הראשׁנים Zc 1:4; 7:7, 12, cf. †עבדי(ו) הנביאים my (his) servants the prophets 2 K 9:7; 17:13, 23; 21:10; 24:2 (all RD) Ezr 9:11 Dn 9:10 Je 7:25; 25:4; 26:5; 29:19; 35:15; 44:4 Am 3:7 Zc 1:6, cf. Ez 38:17 Dn 9:6; †עבדוֹ הַנּ׳ his servant the prophet 1 K 14:18 2 K 14:25; הַנָּבִיא with n.pr.: Jer, 2 Ch 36:12 Dn 9:2 + 31 times Je (but 𝔊 only 4 times, the rest prob. redactional, see GieJer. xxvii); Elijah 1 K 18:36 (om 𝔊), 2 Ch 21:12 Mal 3:23; Nathan 2 S 7:2 + 10 times S. and K.; 4 times Chr ψ 51:2 (title); Isaiah, 2 K 19:2; 20:1, 14 = Is 37:2; 38:1; 39:1; 2 K 20:11; 2 Ch 26:22; 32:20, 32; Habakkuk Hb 1:1; 3:1 (titles); Haggai, Hg 1:1, 3, 12; 2:1, 10; Zech., Zc 1:1, 7 (titles); elsewhere several others in S., K. and Chr. 15 times; נביא is used elsewhere of genuine proph. only 1 S 9:9 + 34 times S. and K.; 1 Ch 16:22 = ψ 105:15, + 13 times Chr.; ψ 74:9 complains of absence of נ׳; לַחְתֹּם חָזוֹן וְנָבִיא Dn 9:24 v. חתם. e.g. 1 Samuel 9:9
- 2. false prophets: †prophets as official class, beside priests, charact. as false prophets: Is 28:7 Je 2:26; 4:9; 6:13; 8:1, 10; 13:13; 14:18; 18:18; 23:11, 33, 34; 26:7, 8, 11, 16; 32:32 Zc 7:3, app. also 2 K 23:2 Ne 9:32 La 2:20 Je 29:1 Ez 7:26 (in these not characterized); always false (except of ancient and special prophets given above) in Am 7:14 Ho 4:5; 9:7, 8 Mi 3:5, 6, 11 Is 3:2; 9:14; 29:10 Je 2:8, 30; 5:13, 31; 14:13, 14, 15(×2); 23:9 + 16 times; 27:9, 14, 15, 16, 18; 29:8, 15; 37:19 Ez 13:2(×2), 3, 4, 9, 16; 14:4, 7, 9(×2), 10; 22:25, 28 Zp 3:4 La 2:9, 14; 4:13; especially discredited Dt 13:2, 4, 6; 18:20(×2), 22(×2) Zc 13:2, 4, 5; such a prophet Hananiah called הַנָּבִיא Je 28:1, 5, 10, 12, 15, 17 (𝔊 omits in all but v 1, where Ψευδοπροφήτης). Usage of prophets themselves gives such a bad flavour to נביא, that we are not surprised that it is absent from exilic Isaiah, the Wisd. lit., and ψψ (except for special reasons in 3 ψψ given under 1). e.g. Isaiah 28:7
- 3. heathen prophets 1 K 18:20; 19:1; 2 K 3:13(×2); נביאי האשׁרה 1 K 18:19; נביאי הבעל 1 K 18:19, 22, 25, 40 2 K 10:19; 1 K 22:6, 10, 12, 13, 22, 23 = 2 Ch 18:5, 9, 11, 12, 21, 22. e.g. 1 Kings 18:20
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. spokesman, speaker, prophet—נ׳ Gn 20:7 + 155 times; sf. נְבִיאֶ֑ךָ Ex 7:1; pl. נְבִיאִים Nu 11:29 + 82 times; נְבִאִים Je 27:18 + 16 times; sf. נְבִיאַי ψ 105:15; נְבִאָיו 1 K 22:22; נְבִיאָו֯ 2 K 17:13, etc.;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from נבא (nâbâʼ) (H5012) — to prophesy.
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.
נָבִיא
- preced. wds.) prophet. B. Bath. 12ᵃ אטו חכם לאו נ׳ וכ׳ was a scholar never a prophet? Ib. חכם עדיף מנ׳ a scholar is superior to a prophet. Meg. 15ᵃ; a. v. fr.—Pl. נְבִיאִים, נְבִיאִין. Sot. IX, 12 נ׳ הראשונים the early prophets (of the first Temple). Lev. R. s. 1, beg., v. בַּיִת. Pes. 66ᵃ אם אין נ׳ הן בני נ׳ הן if they (the Israelites) are no prophets, yet they are sons of prophets (they will find what is right intuitively); Y. Sabb. XIX, 17ᵃ top. Lev. R. l. c.; Gen. R. s. 74 נְבִיאֵי ישראל Israelitish prophets; נ׳ אומות העולם heathen prophets; a. v. fr.—נָבִיא (sub. ספר) נְבִיאִים (sub. ספרי) N’biim, Prophets, the second division of the Scriptures. Tosef. Meg. IV (III), 18 אין מפטירין בנביא וכ׳ we read in the Prophets for the Haftarah no more than three verses at a time (to be interpreted). Meg. 21ᵇ ובנביא אחד וכ׳ and when reading from the Prophets (for the Haftarah), one reads and two may interpret. Ib. 27ᵃ מניחין … על גבי נביאים וכתובים you may put … parts of the Pentateuch on the Prophets or the Hagiographa, but not the Prophets &c. B. Bath. 14ᵇ סדרן של נ׳ the order of the books of Prophets; a. fr.—Fem. נְבִיאָה. Pes. 9ᵇ וכי חולדה נ׳ וכ׳ is the weasel (ḥuldah) a prophetess to know &c.? Deut. R. s. 6; a. fr.—Pl. נְבִיאוֹת. Meg. 14ᵃ; a. e.
נְבִיָּא
- ; constr. נְבִי, נְבֵי. Targ. Jud. VI, 8. Targ. Gen. XX, 7 (O. Ms. II נַבְיָא). Targ. Deut. XVIII, 20; a. v. fr.—Gitt. 57ᵇ נ׳ הוה בן וכ׳ there was a prophet among us who rebuked us &c.; Lam. R. to II, 2 נ׳ כהנא וכ׳ a prophet priest was ours &c.; a. e.—Pl. נְבִיאִין, נְבִיאַיָּא; נְבִיאָן, נְבִיָּין (נִבְיָין); נְבִיאֵי. Targ. I Kings XVIII, 4. Targ. Num. XI, 29; a. fr.—Kidd. 49ᵃ נְבִיאֵי the Books of the Prophets, v. preced.—Fem. נְבִיאֲתָא, נְבִיאָתָא. Targ. Ex. XV, 20. Targ. Jud. IV, 4; a. fr.
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 131 distinct written forms H5030 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 71 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5030, 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
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 6 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 270 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 288 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 20:7
- Exodus 7:1
- Numbers 11:29
- Deuteronomy 13:1
- Judges 6:8
- 1 Samuel 3:20
- 2 Samuel 7:2
- 1 Kings 1:8
- 2 Kings 2:3
- 1 Chronicles 16:22
- 2 Chronicles 9:29
- Ezra 9:11
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.
