אָמָה
maid
also: maid-servant, female slave, handmaid, concubine fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-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
- 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
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
43 distinct verses where H519 appears in the Construct state, across 14 books. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Genesis 3 verses
- Genesis 20:17 וְ/אַמְהֹתָ֖י/ו conj + n c fp cs + sfx pers 3ms Abraham prayed to God. God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maid-servants, and they bore children.
- Genesis 21:12 אֲמָתֶ֔/ךָ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms God said to Abraham, "Don't let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your handmaid. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For from Isaac will your seed be called.
- Genesis 30:3 אֲמָתִ֥/י n c fs cs + sfx pers 1cs She said, "Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her."
Exodus 7 verses
- Exodus 2:5 אֲמָתָ֖/הּ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3fs Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her handmaid to get it.
- Exodus 20:10 וַ/אֲמָֽתְ/ךָ֙ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
- Exodus 20:17 וַ/אֲמָת/וֹ֙ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."
- Exodus 21:20 אֲמָת/וֹ֙ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms "If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.
- Exodus 21:26 אֲמָת֖/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms "If a man strikes his servant's eye, or his maid's eye, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.
- Exodus 21:27 אֲמָת֖/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms If he strikes out his man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
- Exodus 23:12 אֲמָתְ/ךָ֖ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms "Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your handmaid, and the alien may be refreshed.
Leviticus 2 verses
- Leviticus 25:6 וְ/לַ/אֲמָתֶ֑/ךָ conj + prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you.
- Leviticus 25:44 וַ/אֲמָתְ/ךָ֖ וְ/אָמָֽה conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms conj + n c fs "'As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have; of the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.
Deuteronomy 7 verses
- Deuteronomy 5:14 וַ֠/אֲמָתֶ/ךָ וַ/אֲמָתְ/ךָ֖ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms 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 5:21 וַ/אֲמָת/וֹ֙ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms "Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife; neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."
- Deuteronomy 12:12 וְ/אַמְהֹתֵי/כֶ֑ם conj + n c fp cs + sfx pers 2mp You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.
- Deuteronomy 12:18 וַ/אֲמָתֶ֔/ךָ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms but you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite who is within your gates: and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to.
- Deuteronomy 15:17 לַ/אֲמָתְ/ךָ֖ prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your maid-servant you shall do likewise.
- Deuteronomy 16:11 וַ/אֲמָתֶ/ךָ֒ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite who is within your gates, and the foreigner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are in the midst of you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.
- Deuteronomy 16:14 וַ/אֲמָתֶ֔/ךָ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms and you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite, and the foreigner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates.
Judges 2 verses
- Judges 9:18 אֲמָת/וֹ֙ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms and you are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, seventy persons, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maid-servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother);
- Judges 19:19 וְ/לַֽ/אֲמָתֶ֔/ךָ conj + prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms Yet there is both straw and provender for our donkeys; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for your handmaid, and for the young man who is with your servants: there is no want of anything.
Ruth 1 verse
1 Samuel 7 verses
- 1 Samuel 1:11 אֲמָתֶ֗/ךָ אֲמָתֶ֔/ךָ לַ/אֲמָתְ/ךָ֖ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms She vowed a vow, and said, Yahweh of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget your handmaid, but will give to your handmaid a man-child, then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come on his head.
- 1 Samuel 1:16 אֲמָ֣תְ/ךָ֔ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms Don't count your handmaid for a wicked woman; for out of the abundance of my complaint and my provocation have I spoken hitherto.
- 1 Samuel 25:24 אֲמָֽתְ/ךָ֙ אֲמָתֶֽ/ךָ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms She fell at his feet, and said, On me, my lord, on me be the iniquity; and please let your handmaid speak in your ears. Hear the words of your handmaid.
- 1 Samuel 25:25 אֲמָ֣תְ/ךָ֔ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms Please don't let my lord regard this worthless fellow, even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I your handmaid didn't see the young men of my lord, whom you did send.
- 1 Samuel 25:28 אֲמָתֶ֑/ךָ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms Please forgive the trespass of your handmaid: for Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of Yahweh; and evil shall not be found in you all your days.
- 1 Samuel 25:31 אֲמָתֶֽ/ךָ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms that this shall be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. When Yahweh shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid.
- 1 Samuel 25:41 אֲמָֽתְ/ךָ֙ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms She arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.
2 Samuel 4 verses
- 2 Samuel 6:20 אַמְה֣וֹת n c fp cs Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!
- 2 Samuel 14:15 אֲמָתֽ/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms Now therefore seeing that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and your handmaid said, I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.
- 2 Samuel 14:16 אֲמָת֖/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms For the king will hear, to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.
- 2 Samuel 20:17 אֲמָתֶ֔/ךָ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms He came near to her; and the woman said, Are you Joab? He answered, I am. Then she said to him, Hear the words of your handmaid. He answered, I do hear.
1 Kings 3 verses
- 1 Kings 1:13 לַ/אֲמָֽתְ/ךָ֙ prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms Go and get you in to king David, and tell him, Didn't you, my lord, king, swear to your handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne? why then does Adonijah reign?
- 1 Kings 1:17 לַֽ/אֲמָתֶ֔/ךָ prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms She said to him, My lord, you swore by Yahweh your God to your handmaid, [saying], Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.
- 1 Kings 3:20 וַ/אֲמָֽתְ/ךָ֙ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
Ezra 1 verse
Nehemiah 1 verse
Job 2 verses
- Job 19:15 וְ֭/אַמְהֹתַ/י conj + n c fp cs + sfx pers 1cs Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.
- Job 31:13 וַ/אֲמָתִ֑/י conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 1cs "If I have despised the cause of my man-servant Or of my maid-servant, When they contended with me;
Psalms 2 verses
- Psalms 86:16 אֲמָתֶֽ/ךָ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms Turn to me, and have mercy on me! Give your strength to your servant. Save the son of your handmaid.
- Psalms 116:16 אֲמָתֶ֑/ךָ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms Yahweh, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your handmaid. You have freed me from my chains.
Nahum 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.
אמה — transliterated ʼâmâh — is a Hebrew noun carrying the sense “maid.” Translators differ — “handmaid” in the King James Version, then “female servant” (unfoldingWord Literal Text), as the renderings breakdown shows. With 49 verses in 14 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. It first appears in Genesis 20:17. It also covers “maid-servant”, “female slave”, and “handmaid”, alongside “maid” — see its full sense range. See the sense tree, 49-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H519 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 →
- 49
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 49 distinct verses.
- 14 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 14 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #678
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 678 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 49 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Exodus 9 verses 18%
- Deuteronomy 7 verses 14%
- 1 Samuel 7 verses 14%
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 49 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 24 verses · 49%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 18 verses · 37%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 7 verses · 14%
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: Handmaid 17×, Maidservant 9×, Bondwoman 4×
- American Standard Version: Handmaid 16×, Maid-servant 9×, Maid-servants 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Maidservant 20×, Maidservants 13×, Servant 8×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Female servant 25×, Female servants 6×, Maidservant 6×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H519 across 55 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 13 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 H519 across 55 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H519 across 53 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 3 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H519 across 57 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.
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 2 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. lit. maidservant (= שִׁפְחָה q.v., wh. however sometimes more servile; rarely P in Hex) Gn 30:3; 31:33 (‖ שִׁפְחָה 29:24, 29 P 30:4 f. J etc.) Ex 2:5 (all E); 2 S 6:20, 22 Jb 19:15 Na 2:8 (sf. refers to mistress, except Jb 19:15 cf. 2 S 6:20, 22); in legisl. (‖ עֶבֶד) Ex 20:10, 17; 21:20, 26, 27, 32 (all E) Lv 25:6, 44(×2) (H) Dt 5:14(×2), 18; 12:12, 18; 15:17 (cf. v. 12) 16:11, 14; cf. also Jb 31:13 Ezr 2:65 Ne 7:67; applied to concubine (sf. of master) Gn 20:17; 21:12 Ex 23:12 (all E) Ju 9:18; 19:19; also Gn 21:10(×2), 13 (16:1 f. P שִׁפְחָה q.v.) Ex 21:7 (all E), vid. on this StaGesch. i. p. 380. e.g. Genesis 30:3
- 2. fig. in address, אֲמָֽתְךָ etc., referring to speaker, in token of humility; Ru 3:9(×2) (‖ שׁפחה 2:13) 1 S 1:16 (‖ id. v 18) 25:24(×2), 25, 28, 31, 41 (‖ id. v 27) 2 S 14:15, 16 (‖ id. v 6, 7, 12, 15, 17, 19); 20:17; 1 K 1:13, 17; 3:20; in addressing God (never שׁפחה) 1 S 1:11(×3), cf. בֶּן־א׳ ψ 86:16; 116:16. e.g. Ruth 3:9
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.f. maid, handmaid (Ph. אמת, Arabic أَمَةٌ, Sab. אמת in n.pr. Sab.Denkm.20, Aramaic ܐܰܡܬܳܐ Assyrian amtu ZimBP 67)—א׳ abs. Gn 21:10 +; sf. אֲמָתִי Gn 30:3 +, etc.; pl. abs. אֲמָהֹת Gn 31:33 2 S 6:22; cstr. אַמְהוֹת 2 S 6:20; אַמְהֹתַי Jb 19:15 etc.—maid, handmaid.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: apparently a primitive word
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.
אַמָּה
- , v. אֵם)
- 1. fore-arm, arm. Sot. 12ᵇ; Ex. R. s. 1 אמתה חד אמר ידה the word אמתה (Ex. II, 5)—one says it means אַמָּתָהּ, her arm, the other says it means אֲמָתָהּ, her maid-servant (v. אָמָה).—Lam. R. introd. (R. Josh. 2) א׳ דבצלי׳ an arm (direction-post) &c.; v. בְּצַל; Koh. R. to XII, 7 אם.—אַמַּת (בית) השחי the arm up to the axilla, arm-pit, name of an opening in a Temple door; v. however, infra. 4).—2) cubit, a measure equal to the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle-finger. Keth. 5ᵇ; Men. 11ᵃ זו א׳ this one (the middle-finger) is used for defining the cubit measure. Kel. XVII, 10 אַמַּת הבנין וכ׳ the standard cubit of the Temple proportions was six, that of the vessels five hand-breadths. Sabb. 31ᵃ א׳ הבנין the builder’s cubit (instrument).—א׳ על א׳ square-cubit. Yoma 31ᵃ; a. e.—Zeb. 62ᵇ (גרומה) א׳ גדומה; Y. Yoma IV, 41ᶜ bot. גמודה a reduced cubit; v. גָּדַם; also called א׳ בת ששה עצבות a cubit of six hand-breadths pressed together (sorrowing), opp. to א׳ (בת ששה) שוחקות a cubit of six wide-spread (laughing) hand-breadths. Erub. 3ᵇ. Y. Shek. VI, end, 50ᵇ.—Gen. R. s. 31 (א׳) תביקין Theban (Egypt.) cubit(?). B. Bath. 99ᵇ אמה בית השלחין land for digging a dyke of one cubit’s width; א׳ בית הקילון (Var. קלון, סילון) land for a creek or pond for watering cattle and washing clothes, of one cubit’s width. e.g. Exodus 2:5
- 3. (= אצבע) membrum virile. Sabb. 108ᵇ. Nidd. 13ᵃ sq. B. Kam. 19ᵇ
- 4. prop. river-arm, hence canal, dyke, sewer. Peah II, 2 אַמַּת המים.—Yoma V, 6 אלו ואלו מתערבין בא׳ the blood of both was mixed in the sewer; Tam. III, 6; B. Mets. 33ᵃ; Y. Hor. III, 48ᵇ top אמת (בית) השחי a sewer in the Temple called the duct of the arm-pit (from its shape; v. Grætz Monatsschr. 1880, p. 289; [emendation שית unnecessary]; v. supra.—Pl. אַמֹּות cubits. Kel. XVII, 10; a. fr.
אָמָה
- v. אֵם; cmp. preced.) hand-maid. Sot. 12ᵇ, v. preced.; a. e.—Pl. אֲמָהוֹת. Y. Snh. II, 20ᵇ bot.; v. אֵם; a. e.
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 H519 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.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 46 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 49 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 20:17
- Exodus 2:5
- Leviticus 25:6
- Deuteronomy 5:14
- Judges 9:18
- Ruth 3:9
- 1 Samuel 1:11
- 2 Samuel 6:20
- 1 Kings 1:13
- Ezra 2:65
- Job 19:15
- Nahum 2:7
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.
