נְהַר
river
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
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Particle, Definite Article 14 times (93%)
- Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (7%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 15 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H5103 appears — 13 distinct verses across 2 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.
Ezra 12 verses
- Ezra 4:10 נַהֲרָ֖/ה n Proper + ptcl def.art and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Osnappar brought over, and set in the city of Samaria, and in the rest [of the country] beyond the River, and so forth.
- Ezra 4:11 נַהֲרָ֖/ה n Proper + ptcl def.art This is the copy of the letter that they sent to Artaxerxes the king: Your servants the men beyond the River, and so forth.
- Ezra 4:16 נַהֲרָ֔/א n Proper + ptcl def.art We inform the king that, if this city be built, and the walls finished, by this means you shall have no portion beyond the River.
- Ezra 4:17 נַהֲרָ֛/ה n Proper + ptcl def.art [Then] sent the king an answer to Rehum the chancellor, and to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their companions who dwell in Samaria, and in the rest [of the country] beyond the River: Peace, and so forth.
- Ezra 4:20 נַהֲרָ֑/ה n Proper + ptcl def.art There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem, who have ruled over all [the country] beyond the River; and tribute, custom, and toll, was paid to them.
- Ezra 5:3 נַהֲרָ֛/ה n Proper + ptcl def.art At the same time came to them Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, and Shetharbozenai, and their companions, and said thus to them, Who gave you a decree to build this house, and to finish this wall?
- Ezra 5:6 נַהֲרָ֗/ה נַהֲרָ֑/ה n Proper + ptcl def.art n Proper + ptcl def.art The copy of the letter that Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, and Shetharbozenai, and his companions the Apharsachites, who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king;
- Ezra 6:6 נַהֲרָ֜/ה נַהֲרָ֑/ה n Proper + ptcl def.art n Proper + ptcl def.art Now therefore, Tattenai, governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and your companions the Apharsachites, who are beyond the River, be you far from there:
- Ezra 6:8 נַהֲרָ֔/ה n Proper + ptcl def.art Moreover I make a decree what you shall do to these elders of the Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king's goods, even of the tribute beyond the River, expenses be given with all diligence to these men, that they be not hindered.
- Ezra 6:13 נַהֲרָ֛/ה n Proper + ptcl def.art Then Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and their companions, because that Darius the king had sent, did accordingly with all diligence.
- Ezra 7:21 נַהֲרָ֑/ה n Proper + ptcl def.art I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers who are beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done with all diligence,
- Ezra 7:25 נַהֲרָ֔/ה n Proper + ptcl def.art You, Ezra, after the wisdom of your God who is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people who are beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God; and teach you him who doesn't know them.
Daniel 1 verse
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.
נהר — transliterated nᵉhar — is a Hebrew noun carrying the sense “river.” Its uses cluster heavily in Ezra (92% of all occurrences). With 13 verses in 2 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. It first appears in Ezra 4:10. Translators differ — “river” in the King James Version, then “euphrates” (Berean Standard Bible) and “beyond the river” (unfoldingWord Literal Text), as the renderings breakdown shows. See the sense tree, 13-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5103 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 →
- 13
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 13 distinct verses.
- 2 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 2 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,836
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,836 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 13 occurrences in the concordance →
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 13 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 13 verses · 100%
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: River 14×
- American Standard Version: River 14×
- Berean Standard Bible: Euphrates 12×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Beyond the river 10×, Are in beyond the river 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5103 across 15 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H5103 across 15 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 H5103 across 13 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5103 across 15 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.
Senses in BDB
The 1 sense 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.
- river
Word origin
Derived from נהר (nâhar) (H5102) — to shine.
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.
נָהַר
- v. נוּר) to break forth, shine (v. אוֹר I).
- to enlighten. Erub. 13ᵇ; Sabb. 147ᵇ שמַנְהִיר וכ׳, he enlightened the eyes &c., v. נְהוֹרַאי.
נְהַר I
- , to shine. Targ. O. Gen. XLIV, 3 (Y. נְהִיר). Targ. Job XVIII, 5; a. fr.—Taan. 10ᵃ נְהוּר ענני וכ׳ when the clouds are bright, their waters are little. Pesik. Ekha, p. 123ᵃ יִנְהוֹר דינא וכ׳ let justice shine before thee like this lamp; Yalk. Is. 258 יִנְהַר דיני וכ׳ let my case shine &c.; Sabb. 116ᵇ נְהוֹר נהורך וכ׳ let thy light (wisdom) shine (prob. to be read: ינהור); a. fr.—Part. pass. נְהִיר; f. נְהִירָא; pl. נְהִירִין; נְהִירָן a) bright, clear. Lev. R. s. 19 אולפני מה נ׳ באפי how my learning shines on my face (makes me look well); Yalk. Prov. 964 נרי באפוי (corr. acc.). Y. Sabb. VIII, beg. 11ᵃ (נהירן) אפוי נהירין his looks were bright.—Ber. 58ᵇ נ׳ לי שבילי וכ׳ the paths of the heavens (the courses of the heavenly bodies) are as clear (well-known) to me as the streets &c.; a. fr.—b) knowing clearly, remembering. Y. Taan. I, 64ᵃ bot. נ׳ את כד הוינן וכ׳ dost thou remember when we were standing &c.?; Y. Meg. III, 74ᵇ bot. Y. Keth. V, 30ᵃ top נ׳ דהויתון וכ׳ (insert את) dost thou remember that thou &c.? Y. Orl. II, 62ᶜ top [read:] נ׳ את דאמריתון את וכ׳ dost thou remember that you, thyself and R. J., said &c. Y. Naz. V, end, 54ᵇ נ׳ הוינין וכ׳ we remember that an old man was here &c.; Y. Ber. VIII, 11ᵇ bot. נ׳ אנן; Gen. R. s. 91 נהרין אנן (corr. acc.); Koh. R. to VII, 11. Ḥull. 54ᵃ ולא נְהִירַת ליה וכ׳ dost thou not remember (recognize) that student &c.? Ib. 93ᵃ נְהִירְנָא I remember. B. Bath. 91ᵇ; a. fr.—[R. Hash. 34ᵇ כי נהירנא לך, v. נְחַר].
- , Pa. נַהֵר
- 1. to give light, shine; to illumine, brighten, make shine. Targ. O. Gen. I, 15 (Y. למְנַהֲרָא). Targ. Num. VI, 25; a. fr.—Y. Yoma III, beg. 40ᵇ א׳ מְנַהֲרָא, v. בְּרַק I; Y. R. Hash. II, beg. 57ᵈ. Y. Taan. III, 66ᵈ bot. שמענן … והיא מְנַהֲרָה we hear that when he entered the Temple court, it used to shine; עאל ואַנְהָרַת he entered, and it shone. Cant. R. to V, 11 הוה מנהרא לי וכ׳ it (the Law) brightened my countenance by night. Sot. 6ᵃ וא׳ לן עיינין וכ׳ and he enlightened our eyes (by evidence) from our Mishnah; a. fr.
- 2. to recall to memory, remember. Y. Peah III, 17ᵈ bot. וא׳ ר׳ אימי וכ׳ whereupon R. I. recalled (that he had heard the same tradition), and rescinded his decision. Y. Kidd. I, 61ᵃ bot. א׳ ונפיק וכ׳ it struck him (that he had forgotten to hear his grandson’s lesson), and he left the bath house &c.; a. e.—Part. pass. מְנַהַר; pl. מְנַהֲרִין. Gen. R. s. 33 אתון … מְנַהֲרִין אנא מְנַהַר ליה you do not remember that poor man, I will remember him.
- 1. to be brightened, enlightened. Targ. Y. Gen. III, 7. Targ. Ps. XXXIV, 6.
- 2. to come forth. Cant. R. to IV, 1 טורא דאִתְנַהַרְתּוּן וכ׳, v. גָּלַשׁ.
נָהָר
- v. נָהַר) river, stream, canal. Ex. R. s. 15 נְהַר אש, נ׳ של אש a river of fire (v. דִּינוּר). Gen. R. s. 16 עד מקום שהנ׳ מהלך וכ׳ as far as the river (Euphrates) goes, goes the border of the land of Israel. Shebi. VI, 1 מכזיב ועד הנ׳ from Kezib to the river (N’har Mitsrayim); a. fr.—Pl. נְהָרִים, נְהָרוֹת. Gen. R. l. c. (ref. to Gen. II, 10) והיה לארבעה נ׳ אין וכ׳ it does not say, ‘and it divided into four rivers’ but ‘into four heads’. Ib. אוותנטין של נ׳, v. אֶוְותַּנְטִי. Bekh. 55ᵃ כל הנ׳ למטה וכ׳ all other rivers are lower than the three (mentioned Gen. II, 11, sq.), and these three are lower than the Euphrates; a. fr.—נְהַר in pr. n. of rivers, e. g. נ׳ פקוד, v. respective determinants. e.g. Genesis 2:10
נְהַר II
- Targ. Jon. II, 4. Targ. Gen. II, 10; a. fr.—Gen. R. s. 16 אעברת נ׳ בְּנֵה build (me a house) on the (western) banks of the river. Gitt. 60ᵇ קא מתקיל לנַהֲרִין he spoils our portion of the canal. Ib. נ׳ כפשטיה ליזיל let the canal run its natural course (and those above have no right to dam it before those below have used it for irrigation). Ḥull. 18ᵇ (prov.) נ׳ נ׳ ופשטיה every river has its own course, i.e. each place has its own usages; ib. 57ᵃ; a. fr.—Pl. נַהֲרִין, נַהֲרַיָּא. Targ. Gen. l. c. Targ. Ex. VIII, 1.—Y. Sabb. VII, 9ᵃ top, a. e., v. בְּדִי I; a. fr.—Fem. forms: נַהַרְוָן, נַהַרְוָתָא, נַהַרְוָו׳. Targ. Is. XLIII, 19. Targ. Ps. XXIV, 2; a. e.—Taan. 25ᵃ תליסרי נ׳ וכ׳ thirteen rivers of balsam oil; a. e.—נְהַר in pr. n. of canals or places, e. g. נ׳ אבא N’har Abba, Sabb. 140ᵇ; v. respective determinants (v. Berl. Beitr. Geogr. p. 47).
פַּפָּא II
- N’har Pappa, name of a canal and of a place in Babylonia. B. Mets. 86ᵃ Yoma 77ᵇ (Ms. O. פקוד; Ar. a. Ms. Alf. פרת, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 8).—Denom. f. pl. (נְהַר) פַּפְיָתָא belonging to N. P. Erub. 82ᵇ תרתי ריפתא נ׳ פ׳ (Ms. M. פַּפְיָאתָא; ed. Sonc. ריפתאה פפיתאה, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note) two loaves of the size baked in N. P.
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 H5103 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| נַהֲרָ֑/ה | Particle, Definite Article | Ezra 4:20 | 4 |
| נַהֲרָ֛/ה | Particle, Definite Article | Ezra 4:17 | 3 |
| נַהֲרָ֔/ה | Particle, Definite Article | Ezra 6:8 | 2 |
| נַהֲרָ֖/ה | Particle, Definite Article | Ezra 4:10 | 2 |
| נְהַ֣ר | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Daniel 7:10 | 1 |
| נַהֲרָ֔/א | Particle, Definite Article | Ezra 4:16 | 1 |
| נַהֲרָ֗/ה | Particle, Definite Article | Ezra 5:6 | 1 |
| נַהֲרָ֜/ה | Particle, Definite Article | Ezra 6:6 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5103, 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
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 13 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 13 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.
