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סוּס

horse

‘horse’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓

H5483 Strong's Hebrew
çûwç Transliteration
/soos/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 141 appearances

Compare with another word →

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.

At its core, סוס (çûwç) means “horse.” Scripture first uses it in Genesis 47:17. It turns up in 130 verses across 27 books, a common footprint. Carrying more than one sense, it rewards its full sense range. It shares a root with סוסה, סס and סוסי. Dig into 130-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
crane
Modern gloss
horse
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H5483 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 →

130
distinct verses
The word appears in 130 distinct verses.
27 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 27 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 47:17
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 47:17.
Zechariah 14:20
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Zechariah 14:20.
#318
by frequency
Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 318 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 130 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 11 · 8%
  • Historical 49 · 38%
  • Wisdom 10 · 8%
  • Prophets 60 · 46%

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 130 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 95 verses · 73%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 24 verses · 18%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 11 verses · 8%

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).

BDB lists this Strong’s number as 3 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.

  • King James Version: Horses 86×, Horse 31×, Every horse 2×
  • American Standard Version: Horses 76×, Horse 29×, All of them riding upon horses 2×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Horses 90×, Horse 25×, Horseback 2×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Horses 74×, Horse 38×, Were 4×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H5483 across 137 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Horses” 86×
  • “Horse” 31×
  • “Every horse” 2×
  • “Had horses” 2×
  • “Horseback” 2×

Plus 14 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.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H5483 across 137 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Horses” 76×
  • “Horse” 29×
  • “All of them riding upon horses” 2×
  • “Every horse” 2×
  • “Horseback” 2×
  • “Them” 2×

Plus 24 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 H5483 across 135 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Horses” 90×
  • “Horse” 25×
  • “Horseback” 2×
  • “Like a horse” 2×
  • “Stallions” 2×
  • “Steeds” 2×

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 4 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H5483 across 143 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Horses” 74×
  • “Horse” 38×
  • “Were” 4×
  • “Horse of” 2×
  • “Horses of” 2×
  • “Like a horse” 2×
  • “Like my horses” 2×
  • “Like your horses” 2×

Plus 17 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.

סוס I [m.] swallow or swift (cypselus, TristrFFP 82 ff.) (𝔗 סוּסְיָא Is 38

סוס II

  • 1. non-Isr.; chariot-horses of Canaanites Ju 5:22 (cf. v 28 4:3, 13; עִקְבֵי ס׳; ס׳ coll., as often), Jos 11:4, 6, 9 (JE); horses as property of Egyptians Gn 47:17; Ex 9:3 (both J), cf. Zc 14:15; merchandise of Tyre Ez 27:14; chariot-horses of Egypt [cf. Hom Il. ix. 384], Ex 14:9, 23 (P), 15:1, 21 (poem), v 19 (P; on all v. Di), Dt 11:4; Is 31:1, 3; Je 46:4, 9; Ez 17:15; of Aram 1 K 20:1 + 11 times K (1 K 20:20 ridden, for flight), Assyr. Is 5:28 + 3 times, Chaldeans Je 4:13 + 6 times; other nations Na 3:2; Je 50:42 + 5 times; as ridden 1 K 20:20 (v. supr.), Je 8:23; Ez 38:4, 15 + 13 times (late). e.g. Judges 5:22
  • 2. in Isr.; chariot-horses of Absalom 2 S 15:1, especially of Sol., and later, 1 K 5:6, 8; 10:25, 28, 29, and ‖ Chr; 18:5 and (as war-equipment) 22:4 2 K 3:7; 9:33; 10:2 Pr 21:31; סוּסֵי אֵשׁ 2 K 2:11 (Elijah), cf. 6:17; consecr. to sun 2 K 23:11 (cf. RSSem. 275; 2nd ed. 293); sign of luxury and apostasy Am 4:10; Ho 1:7; 1:4 Is 2:7 Mi 5:9 Zc 9:10, cf. Dt 17:6, 16, but v. Zc 14:20; in vision Zc 6:2(×2), 3(×2), 6; ridden 2 K 9:18, 19; 18:23 = Is 36:8, Am 2:15 + 4 times Is Je; in vision Zc 1:8(×2); שַׁעַר הַסּ׳ Je 31:40; Ne 3:28, cf. 2 K 11:16 = 2 Ch 23:15; property of returned exiles Ezr 2:66 = Ne 7:68 van d. H. (om. Mass. Baer Ginsb q.v.); description of horse Jb 39:19; in various sim. and fig. Am 6:12; Je 5:8; 8:6; 12:5; Ez 23:20; Is 63:13; Jo 2:4; Pr 27:3 ψ 32:9; 147:10. e.g. 2 Samuel 15:1
  • 3. chariot-horses of י׳ Hb 3:15 (fig. of clouds), cf. Zc 10:3.—Cf. also חֲצַר סוּסִים, and פָּרָשׁ, רֶכֶשׁ. e.g. Habakkuk 3:15

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

I. n.[m.] swallow or swift (cypselus, TristrFFP 82 ff.) (𝔗 סוּסְיָא Is 38:14);—as twittering Is 38:14 (in sim.); 𝔊 χελιδών, 𝔙 pullus hirundinis; so Je 8:7 Kt (Qr סִיס wrongly; perhaps to distinguish from foll., so Gie), 𝔊 id., 𝔙 hirundo.

II. n.m. Ex 15:1 horse (NH סוּס, סוּסָה, Aramaic סוּסְיָא, ܣܽܘܣܝܳܐ, Mand. סוסיא, Sin. id., Lzb 328; Assyrian sisû (sîsû?) DlHWB 506; Tel Am. su-u[su] WklTA. 191, 24; prob. foreign word cf. NöM 147 Erman Ägypten 649; Eng. tr. 490);—ס׳ abs. 1 K 20:20 +; cstr. Ex 15:19 +; pl. סוּסִים Gn 47:17 +, סֻסִים 2 S 15:1; cstr. סוּסֵי 2 K 2:11; sf. סוּסַי 1 K 22:4; 2 K 3:7, סוּסֶיךָ Mi 5:9 + 4 times, סוּסָיו Is 5:28 +, סוּסֵיכֶם Am 4:10, סוּסֵיהֶם Jos 11:6 +;—horse:

I. Je 8:7 Qr v. I. סוּס.

— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.

Origin: from an unused root meaning to skip (properly, for joy)

Part of speech: Noun Masculine TWOT: 1476 , 1477


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.

סוּס

  • to be bright, glad, v. שׂוּשׂ.

סוּס ²

  • v. Nöld. Mand. Gr. p. 147) horse. Pes. 113ᵇ. Succ. 26ᵇ שינת הס׳ the (short) sleep of the horse, v. נִשְׁמָא. Cant. R. to VIII, 9 אם ראית ס׳ פרסי וכ׳ when thou seest the Persian horse (Parthian cavalry) tied &c. Snh. II, 5 על סוּסוֹ on the king’s horse; a. fr.—[Gen. R. s. 95, end הס׳ לקבלי (read: לקבלך) the horse is before thee (has been surrendered), v. בּוּצְלָא.]—Pl. סוּסִים, סוּסִין. Snh. II, 4. Ib. 21ᵇ ס׳ הבטלנין, v. בַּטְלָן; a. fr.—Cant. R. to I, 9 ס׳ נקבות mares.—Fem. סוּסָה. Ib. Pirké d’R. El. ch. XLII; סוּסְיָא.—Pl. סוּסְיוֹת. Ex. R. s. 23, end ס׳ נקבות, v. supra.

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 84 distinct written forms H5483 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
סוּסִ֖ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Ezekiel 17:15 10
ס֣וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 39:20 5
סוּסִ֥ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 2 Kings 6:14 5
וְ/ס֣וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 20:1 4
סוּסִ֔ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Amos 6:12 4
סוּסִ֣ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Ezekiel 38:4 4
כְּ/ס֥וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Jeremiah 8:6 3
סוּס֙ Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Hosea 14:3 3
הַ/סּ֔וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Amos 2:15 3
הַ/סּוּסִ֑ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 2 Chronicles 25:28 3
הַ/סּוּסִ֖ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 2 Chronicles 23:15 3
הַ/סּוּסִ֗ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 2 Kings 23:11 3
ס֖וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 20:20 3
ס֥וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 15:1 3
סוּסִ֑ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Ecclesiastes 10:7 3
סוּסִים֙ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Ezekiel 38:15 3
הַ/סּוּס֙ Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Esther 6:9 2
הַ/סּוּסִ֛ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 1 Kings 10:28 2
הַ/סּוּסִים֙ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Jeremiah 31:40 2
וְ/ס֖וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 10:29 2
כְּ/סוּסֶֽי/ךָ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct 1 Kings 22:4 2
כְּ/סוּסַ֥/י Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct 1 Kings 22:4 2
ס֑וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 17:16 2
ס֔וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 49:17 2
סוּסִֽים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Ezekiel 23:6 2
סוּסֵי/הֶ֣ם Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Joshua 11:6 2
סוּסָ֗י/ו Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Habakkuk 1:8 2
ב/סוס/ו Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct 2 Kings 5:9 1
בַ/סּוּסִ֑ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Psalms 20:7 1
בְּ/ס֛וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 26:7 1
בְּ/סוּסִ֖ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Hosea 1:7 1
בְּ/סוּסָ֣י/ו Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct 2 Kings 5:9 1
בַּ/סּוּסִ֗ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Genesis 47:17 1
בַּ/סּוּסִ֜ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Esther 8:10 1
בַּ/סּוּסִ֡ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Isaiah 66:20 1
בַּ/סּוּסִ֤ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Exodus 9:3 1
הַ/סּ֖וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 20:21 1
הַ/סּ֗וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Zechariah 14:15 1
הַ/סּ֜וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 2 Kings 9:18 1
הַ/סּ֣וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 147:10 1
הַ/סּ֤וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 2 Kings 7:10 1
הַ/סּוּסִ֣ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Zechariah 6:6 1
הַ/סּוּסִים֮ Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 2 Kings 7:13 1
הַ֭/סּוּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 33:17 1
ו/סוס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Jeremiah 8:7 1
וְ/הַ/סּ֗וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Esther 6:9 1
וְ/הַ/סּוּסִ֔ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 2 Kings 10:2 1
וְ/ס֗וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Esther 6:8 1
וְ/ס֣וּסֵי Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct 2 Kings 2:11 1
וְ/ס֥וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Joshua 11:4 1
וְ/סִיס֙ Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Jeremiah 8:7 1
וְ/סֻסִ֑ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 2 Samuel 15:1 1
וְ/סוּס֙ Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Zechariah 9:10 1
וְ/סוּסֵי/הֶ֥ם Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Isaiah 31:3 1
וָ/ס֖וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 43:17 1
וָ/סֽוּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 76:6 1
וּ/בַ/סּוּסִ֔ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Jeremiah 22:4 1
וּ/בַ/סּוּסִ֗ים Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Jeremiah 17:25 1
כְּ/ס֤וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct Isaiah 38:14 1
כַּ/סּ֣וּס Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 20:25 1

The 60 most common forms are shown; 24 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5483, 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.

Derived from this word

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 → 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 123 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 130 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.

Reading settings

Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

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