סוֹד
council
also: counsel, assembly 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
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
6 distinct verses where H5475 appears in the Absolute state, across 2 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.
Psalms 2 verses
Proverbs 4 verses
- Proverbs 11:13 סּ֑וֹד n c ms One who brings gossip betrays a confidence, But one who is of a trustworthy spirit is one who keeps a secret.
- Proverbs 15:22 ס֑וֹד n c ms Where there is no counsel, plans fail; But in a multitude of counselors they are established.
- Proverbs 20:19 סּ֭וֹד n c ms He who goes about as a tale-bearer reveals secrets; Therefore don't keep company with him who opens wide his lips.
- Proverbs 25:9 וְ/ס֖וֹד conj + n c ms Debate your case with your neighbor, And don't betray the confidence of another;
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.
“council” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun סוד (çôwd). Older and newer Bibles part ways — “secret” in the King James Version, “council” (Berean Standard Bible) and “counsel” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. It turns up in 21 verses across 7 books, an uncommon footprint. It concentrates in Psalms, which alone accounts for 29% of its uses. Beyond “council” it also covers “counsel” and “assembly” — see its full sense range. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5475 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 →
- 21
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 21 distinct verses.
- 7 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 7 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,462
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,462 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 21 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 21 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 14 verses · 67%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 6 verses · 29%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 5%
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: Secret 6×, Assembly 4×, Counsel 4×
- American Standard Version: Council 4×, Friendship 3×, Assembly 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Council 7×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Counsel 5×, Council of 2×, Counsel of 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5475 across 21 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H5475 across 21 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 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 H5475 across 20 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. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5475 across 21 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
7 senses and sub-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 7 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. council, in familiar conversation;—
- a. divan or circle of familiar friends, ס׳ בַּחוּרִים Je 6:11, ס׳ משׂחקים 15:17; מְתֵי סוֹדִי Jb 19:19 men of my intimate circle; (י׳) עמד בסוד Je 23:18, 22 in the intimate circle of י׳; בסוד אלוה Jb 15:8; in bad sense, ס׳ מְרֵעִים ψ 64:3. e.g. Jeremiah 6:11
- b. assembly, company, ס׳ יְשָׁרִים ψ 111:1 (‖ עֵדָה); סוֹד עמי Ez 13:9; ס׳ קדשׁים ψ 89:8 (of angels); in bad sense, בסוד בא Gn 49:6 (‖ קהל). e.g. Psalms 111:1
- 2. counsel, taken by those in familiar conversation:
- a. counsel itself, מחשׁבות באין סוד Pr 15:22 thoughts without counsel; of intimate friendship, ψ 55:15 נַמְתִּיק סוֹד; in bad sense, of crafty plotting 83:4 יַעֲרִימוּ סוֹד. e.g. Proverbs 15:22
- b. secret counsel, which may be revealed (גלה), Am 3:7 Pr 11:13; 20:19; 25:9. e.g. Amos 3:7
- c. familiar converse with God, intimacy, ס׳ י׳ ליראיו ψ 25:14 intimacy with י׳ have those who fear him (‖ ברית), את־ישׁרים סודוֹ Pr 3:32 with the upright is his intimacy; here also Jb 29:4 (si vera l.) Di De al.; Siegf Du cf. Buhl Lex בְּסֹךְ when Eloah sheltered my tent. e.g. Psalms 25:14
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.] council, counsel;—ס׳ abs. Pr 11:13 +; cstr. Je 6:11 +; sf. סוֹדִי Je 23:22 Jb 19:19; סוֹדוֹ Am 3:7 Pr 3:32; סֹדָם Gn 49:6;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from יסד (yâçad) (H3245) — to found.
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.
סוֹד
- 1. foundation. Snh. 92ᵇ סוֹדוֹ (Tanḥ. Noah 10 יסודו), v. מָקַק.—Trnsf. principle. R. Hash. 20ᵇ ס׳ העיבור the Principle of Intercalation (title of a book). Ex. R. s. 15 ס׳ הלבנה the principle of the lunar calendar.
- 2. intimate union, circle, council. Y. R. Hash. II, 58ᵇ (ref. to Ez. XIII, 9) זהו ס׳ העיבור that means the council (of the Sanhedrin) for intercalation; Keth. 112ᵃ; Y. Snh. I, 18ᶜ bot. זה עיבור (corr. acc.). e.g. Ezekiel 13:9
- 3. deliberation, counsel. Erub. 65ᵃ (ref. to the numerical value of י̇י̇ן̇ and ס̇ו̇ד̇) נכנס יין יצא ס׳ where the wine enters, counsel leaves; Snh. 38ᵃ; Num. R. s. 10; s. 11. Ib. יצא יין נכנס ס׳ when the wine has left (where there is abstinence), deliberation enters. Ib. (ref. to Prov. III, 32) … הוא נוזר זוכה לס׳ החכמה he is abstinent …, therefore he is granted the counsel of divine wisdom. Ib. אנשי סוֹדוֹ the men of his (God’s) counsel, i.e. his friends. Pes. 113ᵃ (play on ס̇ו̇דנ̇א̇) ס̇ו̇ד̇ נ̇א̇ה וכ׳ (beer-brewing is) a profitable device and a charity (requiring a very small capital); a. e. e.g. Proverbs 3:32
- 4. secret. Ib. 49ᵇ אין מגלין להן ס׳ we must not entrust a secret to them. Ḥag. 14ᵃ הקב"ה מגלה להם ס׳ וכ׳ the Lord shall reveal a secret (solve mysteries) to them in the hereafter. Yeb. 63ᵇ (fr. Ben Sira) גַּלֵּה ס׳ וכ׳ reveal a secret to one out of thousand; a. e.
סוּד
- [cmp. זוּד, to boil, fr. which סִיד lime; denom. סוּד or סִיד (b. h. שִׂיד),] to plaster, whitewash. Sot. VII, 5 סָדוּהוּ בסיד they whitewashed it (the altar) with lime. Ib. 35ᵇ. Tosef. Sot. XV, 9 שלא יָסוּד אדם וכ׳ that a person must not plaster his rooms &c. Tosef. B. Bath. II, 17; B. Bath. 60ᵇ סָד אדם וכ׳ a man may plaster all his rooms &c.; a. e.—Esp. to paint the skin with a depilatory (of lime or orpiment). Sabb. VIII, 4 כדי לָסוּד וכ׳ as much as may be required for painting a little girl; ib. 80ᵇ כדי לסוד אצבע וכ׳ to paint the little finger &c.; Tosef. ib. VIII (IX), 20; a. e.
- to cover with plaster. Tosef. Sot. VIII, 7 וסִיְּידוּהוּ, v. כִּיר. Ab. Zar. III, 7; a. fr.—Part. pass. מְסוּיָּיד; f. מְסוּיֶּידֶת. Tosef. B. Bath. l. c.; B. Bath. l. c.; a. e.—[Incorr. סייר in some ed.]
סוּד ²
- Targ. Am. II, 1. Targ. O. Deut. XXVII, 2 תְּסוּד (some ed. תְּסִיד).
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 19 distinct written forms H5475 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5475, 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
- יסד yᵉçud H3246 foundation
- יסוד yᵉçôwd H3247 foundation
- מוסד mûwçâd H4143 foundation
- מוסד môwçâd H4144 foundation
- מיסדה mᵉyuççâdâh H4328 foundation
- מסד maççad H4527 foundation
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 10 — not the complete family. 2 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 20 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 21 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.
